WASHINGTON ― The Justice Department formally released a damning report on Wednesday detailing the routine abuse inflicted on Baltimore residents by the city’s police department.
Baltimore police regularly performed unconstitutional stops, frisks and arrests ― which disproportionately targeted black residents ― and held an “us-versus-them” mentality, the report says. The Justice Department also found that officers retaliated against citizens, took a lax approach to sexual assault cases, employed excessive force too freely and used slurs against LGBT people.
Here are some of the most damning findings in the report.
A woman with a broken headlight was publicly strip-searched.
STRIP SEARCH OVER A BROKEN HEADLIGHT (p. 33)

Officers “publicly strip-searched a woman following a routine traffic stop for a missing headlight.” They even searched the woman’s anal cavity. They found nothing.
View entire document with DocumentCloud
A black officer with a reputation for speaking out over misconduct was harassed by a supervisor, who placed signs warning him to “stay in your lane” and “mind your own business” on his desk.
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Brad Heath
✔@bradheath
Baltimore Lt. put up signs around the desk of a black sgt. who had reported misconduct to "mind your own business."
An officer decided not to report a colleague for planting drugs because he feared retaliation.
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Brad Heath
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Another Baltimore officer said he saw cops "plant drugs on a suspect" but didn't report it, fearing retaliation.
An officer harassed a mother and her son outside their home, ultimately arresting the juvenile for “loitering.”
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Ryan J. Reilly
✔@ryanjreilly
"Ultimately, the son, a juvenile with no prior criminal record, was arrested for loitering outside his own home.”
The Justice Department found that officers had been accused more than 60 times of using the word “n****r,” but the Baltimore Police Department didn’t classify the language as a racial slur.
USE OF THE WORD “N****R” WAS NOT CLASSIFIED AS A RACIAL SLUR (p. 67)

More than 100 complaints about alleged use of racial slurs and epithets were not properly classified.
View entire document with DocumentCloud
An officer used a Taser on a man who was yelling and swearing. In his report, the officer said the man’s “weapon” was his “mouth.”
DOJ REPORT
The Baltimore Police Department’s “us-versus-them” mentality led officers to treat the city like a war zone. “You’ve got to be the baddest motherfucker out there,” one officer said, explaining his approach to policing.
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Ryan J. Reilly
✔@ryanjreilly
DOJ: many Baltimore officers believe they are "enforcing the will of the 'silent majority.’” http://huff.to/2b1AUeW
An officer cursed out a resident who asked why he had been pulled over.
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Ryan J. Reilly
✔@ryanjreilly
"She was told to 'shut the fuck up bitch and sit the fuck down' because they were 'the fucking law.'"
In emails between a prosecutor and a police officer, the prosecutor called a woman who said she’d been sexually assaulted a “conniving little whore,” and the officer replied “Lmao! I feel the same.”
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j u l i a
✔@juliacraven
DOJ report says @BaltimorePolice were too lax — & sometimes just plain sexist — in sexual assault cases
Baltimore officers themselves described stopping people without evidence of wrongdoing and detaining them.
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Justin Fenton
✔@justin_fenton
"Officers' own reports describe facially unconstitutional conduct":
Officers tried to discredit victims of sexual assault and put the blame on them.
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Follow
Brad Heath
✔@bradheath
Baltimore PD's sexual assault investigations often started by asking women "Why are you messing up that guy's life?"
During a DOJ ride-along, a sergeant told an officer to “make something up” to justify a bogus stop.
“THEN MAKE SOMETHING UP.” (p. 30)

With DOJ officials on a ride-along, a Baltimore Police Department sergeant ordered a patrol officer to invent a reason to question a group of African-American males and order them to disperse.
View entire document with DocumentCloud
A single officer received 125 complaints in just a few years.
A SINGLE OFFICER LOGGED 125 COMPLAINTS SINCE 2010 (p. 152)

Many of the complaints “alleged remarkably similar facts.”
View entire document with DocumentCloud
A commander instructed a sergeant to tell her officers to “lock up all the black hoodies” in her district.
“LOCK UP ALL THE BLACK HOODIES.” (p. 67)

View entire document with DocumentCloud
A form for trespass arrests already had “black male” filled out.
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Brad Heath
✔@bradheath
Baltimore PD had a template for trespass arrests: Officers just add name, date.
"BLACK MALE" was already filled in.
A white officer allegedly threatened a black teen days after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who killed black teenager Trayvon Martin, by saying he should “Put a hoodie on and come to my neighborhood.”
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Ryan J. Reilly
✔@ryanjreilly
"Put a hoodie on and come to my neighborhood, you will see."http://huff.to/2b1AUeW
More:
Justice Department Civil Rights DOJ Baltimore Baltimore Police
Baltimore police regularly performed unconstitutional stops, frisks and arrests ― which disproportionately targeted black residents ― and held an “us-versus-them” mentality, the report says. The Justice Department also found that officers retaliated against citizens, took a lax approach to sexual assault cases, employed excessive force too freely and used slurs against LGBT people.
Here are some of the most damning findings in the report.
A woman with a broken headlight was publicly strip-searched.
STRIP SEARCH OVER A BROKEN HEADLIGHT (p. 33)

Officers “publicly strip-searched a woman following a routine traffic stop for a missing headlight.” They even searched the woman’s anal cavity. They found nothing.
View entire document with DocumentCloud
A black officer with a reputation for speaking out over misconduct was harassed by a supervisor, who placed signs warning him to “stay in your lane” and “mind your own business” on his desk.
View image on Twitter

Follow

✔@bradheath
Baltimore Lt. put up signs around the desk of a black sgt. who had reported misconduct to "mind your own business."
An officer decided not to report a colleague for planting drugs because he feared retaliation.
View image on Twitter

Follow

✔@bradheath
Another Baltimore officer said he saw cops "plant drugs on a suspect" but didn't report it, fearing retaliation.
An officer harassed a mother and her son outside their home, ultimately arresting the juvenile for “loitering.”
View image on Twitter

Follow

✔@ryanjreilly
"Ultimately, the son, a juvenile with no prior criminal record, was arrested for loitering outside his own home.”
The Justice Department found that officers had been accused more than 60 times of using the word “n****r,” but the Baltimore Police Department didn’t classify the language as a racial slur.
USE OF THE WORD “N****R” WAS NOT CLASSIFIED AS A RACIAL SLUR (p. 67)

More than 100 complaints about alleged use of racial slurs and epithets were not properly classified.
View entire document with DocumentCloud
An officer used a Taser on a man who was yelling and swearing. In his report, the officer said the man’s “weapon” was his “mouth.”

DOJ REPORT
The Baltimore Police Department’s “us-versus-them” mentality led officers to treat the city like a war zone. “You’ve got to be the baddest motherfucker out there,” one officer said, explaining his approach to policing.
View image on Twitter

Follow

✔@ryanjreilly
DOJ: many Baltimore officers believe they are "enforcing the will of the 'silent majority.’” http://huff.to/2b1AUeW
An officer cursed out a resident who asked why he had been pulled over.
View image on Twitter

Follow

✔@ryanjreilly
"She was told to 'shut the fuck up bitch and sit the fuck down' because they were 'the fucking law.'"
In emails between a prosecutor and a police officer, the prosecutor called a woman who said she’d been sexually assaulted a “conniving little whore,” and the officer replied “Lmao! I feel the same.”
View image on Twitter

Follow


✔@juliacraven
DOJ report says @BaltimorePolice were too lax — & sometimes just plain sexist — in sexual assault cases
Baltimore officers themselves described stopping people without evidence of wrongdoing and detaining them.
View image on Twitter

Follow

✔@justin_fenton
"Officers' own reports describe facially unconstitutional conduct":
Officers tried to discredit victims of sexual assault and put the blame on them.
View image on Twitter

Follow

✔@bradheath
Baltimore PD's sexual assault investigations often started by asking women "Why are you messing up that guy's life?"
During a DOJ ride-along, a sergeant told an officer to “make something up” to justify a bogus stop.
“THEN MAKE SOMETHING UP.” (p. 30)

With DOJ officials on a ride-along, a Baltimore Police Department sergeant ordered a patrol officer to invent a reason to question a group of African-American males and order them to disperse.
View entire document with DocumentCloud
A single officer received 125 complaints in just a few years.
A SINGLE OFFICER LOGGED 125 COMPLAINTS SINCE 2010 (p. 152)

Many of the complaints “alleged remarkably similar facts.”
View entire document with DocumentCloud
A commander instructed a sergeant to tell her officers to “lock up all the black hoodies” in her district.
“LOCK UP ALL THE BLACK HOODIES.” (p. 67)

View entire document with DocumentCloud
A form for trespass arrests already had “black male” filled out.
View image on Twitter

Follow

✔@bradheath
Baltimore PD had a template for trespass arrests: Officers just add name, date.
"BLACK MALE" was already filled in.
A white officer allegedly threatened a black teen days after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who killed black teenager Trayvon Martin, by saying he should “Put a hoodie on and come to my neighborhood.”
View image on Twitter

Follow

✔@ryanjreilly
"Put a hoodie on and come to my neighborhood, you will see."http://huff.to/2b1AUeW
More:
Justice Department Civil Rights DOJ Baltimore Baltimore Police