美国国家公共电台 NPR Justice Department To Review All Civil Rights Agreements On Police Conduct

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is calling for a big change at the Justice Department. He wants federal authorities to approach local police in a different way. Rather than investigate cases of local wrongdoing, Sessions wants to emphasize partnerships¹ with police, so he ordered the Justice Department to review its agreements to overhaul² police forces. NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson is covering this story. Hi, Carrie.

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE³: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: How big a change is this?

JOHNSON: Really big. Remember over the last eight years on this program, we've talked so many times about the Obama Justice Department findings about police in places like Ferguson, Mo., New Orleans, Newark. DOJ back then uncovered patterns of wrongdoing like excessive force, racial discrimination, poor training.

The new Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to stop doing a lot of that digging. He thinks it hurts police morale⁴ and public safety. But the attorney general's policy extends far beyond any new investigation⁵, Steve. He's ordered a broad review of agreements DOJ has already struck to overhaul police.

INSKEEP: Like one in Baltimore, I guess.

JOHNSON: Yeah. Just last night, the Justice Department asked a judge to delay a hearing to consider the agreement the Obama team already struck to overhaul police in Baltimore. That hearing had been scheduled for Thursday. The Justice Department wants three more months to think about it, and its court filings cited this new memo⁶ by Attorney General Sessions and progress the city has already made in building trust with people who live there.

Problem is, Steve, Baltimore's mayor, a Democrat⁷, and the police commissioner⁸ both say they don't want any delay. They want to keep moving forward with these changes. And, Steve, it's not clear yet, but this shift by the Trump⁹ Justice Department could also extend to Chicago where the Obama team wrote a scathing¹⁰ report, but no consent agree has been negotiated.

INSKEEP: Carrie, I'm just thinking about checks and balances - federal and state authority and how it's supposed to fit together. You kind of rely on the Justice Department to come in when there's some kind of huge abuse at a local level. Is the Justice Department going to stop doing that at all?

JOHNSON: Well, the attorney general - the new attorney general says he still wants to step in when needed to help local police and to investigate, perhaps, excessive force in serious incidents of wrongdoing, cases where maybe a bad apple or two on a force may have committed a crime. But that's a big shift from what the Obama Justice Department had been doing.

The Obama folks including Vanita Gupta who led the civil rights unit there told me a major retreat is underway. They say they uncovered patterns - systemic patterns across police forces, not just one or two bad apples in places like Chicago and Baltimore and all over the country. Their view is to protect public safety, you need to expose these problems and fix them.

INSKEEP: You use the word systemic. That's got to be a big part of the debate here where the people agree there are big, systematic¹¹ problems or whether it's just a few individuals that need to be looked at from time to time.

JOHNSON: And when you're talking about enforcing federal law, Democrats¹² and advocates for police reform will tell you there is a federal law on the books passed by Congress after the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles that allows the Justice Department to come in and investigate unconstitutional policing in local departments.

INSKEEP: OK, Carrie. Thanks very much as always.

JOHNSON: You're welcome.

INSKEEP: That's NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson.

1 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

2 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

7 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

8 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

9 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

10 scathing   

adj.（言词、文章）严厉的，尖刻的；不留情的adv.严厉地，尖刻地v.伤害，损害（尤指使之枯萎）( scathe的现在分词)

参考例句：

• a scathing attack on the new management 针对新的管理层的猛烈抨击
• Her speech was a scathing indictment of the government's record on crime. 她的演讲强烈指责了政府在犯罪问题上的表现。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 systematic   

adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的

参考例句：

• The way he works isn't very systematic.他的工作不是很有条理。
• The teacher made a systematic work of teaching.这个教师进行系统的教学工作。

12 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》