In a new memo issued Wednesday, Haaland said she would create a task force seeking to improve law enforcement programs through the NPS, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Specifically, the task force will focus on strengthening trust in law enforcement programs, making sure appropriate policies and oversight are implemented and making sure resources are available for officer mental health, wellness and safety.
...The group will be led by the department’s Office of Law Enforcement and Security as well as a representative from each bureau and experts from the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights and the Office of Human Capital.
...Haaland’s memo references a controversial incident in which U.S. Park Police and other law enforcement officers cleared Black Lives Matter protesters from the Lafayette Square area in front of the White House last year.
The watchdog report found last month that in last year’s incident officers didn’t fully warn the crowd to disperse and said that fractured radio communications led officers to use chemical irritants that had not been authorized.
Another publication provides additional background:
...The task force will use what Haaland calls an “equity lens” and “evidence-based decision making,” to look for ways to improve the agency’s law enforcement program and build trust with minority communities.
The protests in Lafayette Park were sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and were part of nationwide rioting and looting, but the D.C. protest was aimed largely at President Donald Trump during an election year, and police used flash bangs, tear gas, and shields to safely clear the Black Lives Matter protesters from the area.
Black Lives Matter sued the Trump Administration, but last month a federal judge ruled Black Lives Matter can’t claim damages over the removal of their protesters from Lafayette Square.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich dismissed claims that Trump, former Attorney General Bill Barr, and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper had coordinated a conspiracy directed at black protesters.
“Merely alleging that the defendant officials communicated, without alleging any details of those communications that suggest an unlawful agreement, cannot justify inferring the requisite agreement” Friedrich wrote.
Now, the Interior Department will take its own shot at the Trump Administration over the clearing of the Lafayette Park riot, which Trump opponents say was done so that Trump could walk to a nearby church for a media appearance.
Haaland is exactly right in creating the task force. She is very wrong, though, in limiting its scope to this one event. She also errs in making strictly inhouse appointments to the task force.
The entire Interior law enforcement program needs an intense review and much reform. Remember Dan Love and Burning Man? Remember BLM Special Agent Larry C. Wooten's memo in the Bundy case? Remember the vast withholding of evidence? All worthy of consideration by the task force.
Keeping the review Interior employees only means the recommendations will be 1) better training 2) additional personnel, and 3) increased budgets.
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