Lynch says US must hold police accountable
In this Jan. 12
As a younger lawyer, Loretta Lynch prosecuted New York police officers who sodomized a Haitian immigrant in a precinct bathroom.
As attorney general, she’s broadened her focus to go after entire police departments for unconstitutional practices.
Lynch — in an Associated Press interview — strongly defends the Justice Department’s aggressive intervention in local law enforcement during the Obama administration, including the decision to repeatedly seek court-enforceable improvement plans with troubled police agencies.
One such consent decree came Thursday in Baltimore. A day later, her department issued a scathing report on Chicago’s department.
She says: “That is a role the federal government has to play. Frankly, it is our role to defend the constitutional rights of our citizens in this great country.”
That approach seems likely to change under Donald Trump.
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