Leftist Groups, Including La Raza, to Monitor Police Under Reform Bill Modeled after Obama Plan

The police reform bill introduced by Democrats in Congress empowers leftist groups such as the open borders National Council of La Raza (NCLR) to monitor cops nationwide and creates development and training programs based on an Obama initiative to hire minority police officers by disregarding the criminal records of candidates from “underrepresented communities” and lowering standards on written exams. Known as the Task Force on 21st Century Policing, the Obama plan is repeatedly cited in the new bill’s 134-page text and promotional material and clearly serves as a key model.

The recently crafted Justice in Policing Act of 2020 gives “community-based” and “grassroots” organizations the authority to supervise police misconduct. Besides the NCLR, the bill lists the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Urban League among groups that will receive compensation from the government via “public safety innovation grants” to keep police in check. All are renowned leftist groups with a documented history of advancing a liberal agenda. The legislation will transform policing, according to California Congresswoman Karen Bass, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. “For over 100 years, Black communities in America have sadly been marching against police abuse and calling for the police to protect and serve them as they do others,” Bass said in a press release announcing the legislation this week. “Never again should the world be subjected to witnessing what we saw on the streets in Minnesota with George Floyd.” California Senator Kamala Harris, the state’s former attorney general, claims that “America’s sidewalks are stained with Black blood” and calls the measure “historic legislation that will get our country on a path forward.”

The transformation in policing will include recruitment, hiring, retention and promotion of diverse law enforcement officers so that police departments are representative of the communities they serve, language that mirrors the Obama policy. To accomplish this, authorities will likely use an Obama administration directive issued to help carry out the recommendations of his Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The mandate, “Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement,” was issued jointly by the former president’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) following a string of officer-involved shootings involving African Americans. It outlines a push to hire minority police officers by asking the nation’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies to forgive drug use, disregard the criminal records of candidates from “underrepresented communities” and lower standards on written and physical exams. Key to the mission is the racial diversification of local law enforcement agencies so that they “better reflect the diversity of the communities they serve,” according to the directive.

The freshly inked bill creates law enforcement development, training and hiring programs “based on President Obama’s Task force on 21st Century policing,” according to highlights included in the press release promoting it. A special grant program will help hire officers who live in the communities they serve by developing strategies and timelines to recruit, hire, promote, retain and train a “diverse and inclusive law enforcement workforce.” Besides discounting criminal records and drug abuse, if the plan is carried out according to Obama’s, law enforcement agencies will lower standards on written tests for police recruits because they have “been shown to have an adverse impact on racial minority candidates.” The former president’s task force determined that certain written tests used as part of entry-level hiring in state and local law enforcement agencies are likely to create an unlawful disparate impact and are not necessary for selecting the most qualified candidates. “Reliance on these tests can create an unnecessary barrier to the hiring of qualified racial minority applicants,” say the Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement recommendations issued to fulfill the 21^st Century Policing initiative. The Justice in Policing Act also adopts the Obama term “guardians of the community” to better describe what police work should be.

Under the new law monitoring of the nation’s police will be conducted by a National Task Force on Law Enforcement Oversight made up of labor groups and the previously named leftist community-based organizations. They will coordinate the process of the detection and referral of complaints regarding incidents of alleged law enforcement misconduct. A National Police Misconduct Registry will also include complaints for which the law enforcement officer was exonerated or that were determined to be unfounded or not sustained. The federal database will also feature a breakdown of officer incidents by race, ethnicity, age and gender of the officer.