Murder rates are soaring this year in many U.S. cities partly because police are holding back from aggressive tactics, fearful of being taped on smartphones and accused of brutality, FBI Director James Comey said on Friday.
Just to be clear (and to anticipate the coming re-casting of this post), no one is saying the police shouldn't be scrutinized or criticized. No one is saying that the cops are perfect. They aren't, just as no institution is, and their errors can have much more serious consequences than other kinds of governmental errors. But when the police pull back -- something Comey is uniquely well-positioned to see -- we are are all going to be in danger, and minority groups are going to get hit first and worst with the new outbreak of crime."Something deeply disturbing is happening in places across America. Far more people are being killed in many American cities, many of them people of color, and it's not the cops doing the killing," Comey told a group of students at the University of Chicago Law School.
He said the spike in murders across the country, in cities from Sacramento, California to Chicago to Washington, D.C., comes after homicides fell to historic lows in 2014.
"Part of the explanation is a chill wind that has blown through law enforcement over the last year and that wind is surely changing behavior," Comey said. "In today's YouTube world, are officers reluctant to get out of their cars and do the work that controls violent crime?"
"Something deeply disturbing is happening in places across America. Far more people are being killed in many American cities, many of them people of color, and it's not the cops doing the killing," Comey told a group of students at the University of Chicago Law School.
He said the spike in murders across the country, in cities from Sacramento, California to Chicago to Washington, D.C., comes after homicides fell to historic lows in 2014.
"Part of the explanation is a chill wind that has blown through law enforcement over the last year and that wind is surely changing behavior," Comey said. "In today's YouTube world, are officers reluctant to get out of their cars and do the work that controls violent crime?"
Officers have told him they feel besieged and are taunted by people holding smartphones, Comey said.
He said there are other possible reasons for the jump in crime, but the one that seems to fit best is a change in police behavior.
Comey said part of the change is positive after a national uproar over police killings of unarmed black men. The nation must talk about how and why police use lethal force, he said.
But he also said killers must be confronted by a strong police presence involving officers who go out at night and deal with men with guns standing on street corners.
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