Allison Bazzle
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
A group of Maryland political activists clashed with former law enforcement officials Tuesday evening during a panel discussion at Towson University that examined police accountability.
Some panelists called for stricter laws that hold police responsible for their actions when arresting citizens, while others called for more education and training for officers.
Towson professor Elyshia Aseltine, who served as the moderator for the evening, said the panel discussion was designed to provide context for contemporary police-community relations, describe the existing mechanisms for police accountability, and to imagine what police accountability might look like in the future.
Photo by Allison Bazzle
Kisha Brown, the director of the Baltimore City Office of Civil Rights and Wage Enforcement, said current systems to hold police accountable do not always work. For example, she said the civilian review board she oversees in Baltimore often does not see complaints, many of which never make it past the front desk.
“I always give credit to people who make complaints, because I think it is extremely courageous for someone to walk into the lions den to complain about the lion,” Brown said.
Panelists also argued over the frequent use of police firearms.
Grayling Williams, the former director of internal affairs for the Baltimore Police Department, said he does not understand why so many officers use their weapons so frequently.
“The use of force and this default to go to that gun, I’ve never seen that in my life,” Williams said. “I grew up in New York City and I don’t ever remember a New York City cop with his gun out when I was a kid. But today for some reason this default to draw that gun and pop off a round, I just don’t get it.”
Marion Gray-Hopkins, a representative of Prince George’s People’s Coalition for Police Accountability, fired back, saying police go for their guns so quickly because they know that current law protects them.
“The reason you see more of it is because they are protected,” Gray-Hopkins said. “There are laws out there that protect the officers that are paid to serve and protect us. That’s why I think they are very quick to draw their gun to go to excessive force, because they are protected.”
But Williams disagreed. He said no officer ever wants to shoot anyone.
“The worst thing I could ever do in my career would be to shoot somebody,” Williams said. “That’s a hard pill to live with for the rest of your life, that you killed somebody.”
David Rocha, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said police are not being held accountable, adding that the relationship between prosecutors and police is corrupt.
This drew a rebuttal from former Baltimore Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld, who said police officers work hard to serve the public.
“Mr. Rocha no more knows about being a police or prosecutor than he knows about being on Mars,” Bealefeld said. “The fact of the matter is police officers join the profession because they want to serve. Police want the prosecutors to get the bad guys from their ranks.”
In response to a question from the audience about the unconscious psychological bias some police officers may have against African Americans, Bernstein said this issue could not be addressed in the criminal arena. He said that the justice system is not set up to address that “deep seeded psychological bias” that people know to exist.
Another topic mentioned during the night was the upcoming release of a new application called Mobile Justice. The application, created by the American Civil Liberties Union, gives citizens an easy way to record and report interactions with law enforcement directly from their smartphone.
Gray-Hopkins said that the application will help citizens to become a witness and report behavior that is “unbecoming of a police officer.”
Other panelists included the founder of the Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore, Lauren Abramson, and former federal prosecutor Steve Levin.
An estimated 120 people attended the panel discussion. Aseltine said she hopes the panel is the first step for more conversations like this in the future.