Mistrust between communities and police officers has been all too common in many recent news headlines. The tragic murders of Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice are only a few of the stories that understandably damaged this trust. And after Gray’s murder, more stories came out showing that Baltimore police officers have been accused of severely injuring arrested individuals many times; consequently, the Justice Department had begun its own investigation of the Baltimore police and its questionable practices.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has made it a priority to repair the police-community conflict, which she referred to as “one of the most challenging issues of our time.”
Lynch plans to handle this issue differently from former Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr., who handled the aftermath of Ferguson. During his trip there, Holder did not meet with anyone on the Ferguson police force; rather, he met with college students and told them that he too had been profiled by police as a young man, saying, “I understand that mistrust.”
