Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition

Sessions warns of upsurge in violent crime

Despite falling rates, AG vows crackdown

- By Del Quentin Wilber Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — In his first major speech as the nation’s top law enforcemen­t official, Attorney General Jeff Sessions promised Tuesday to launch an aggressive crackdown on a surge in homicides and violent crime that he warned could be the harbinger of a long-term rise in street violence.

“I sense that we could be at a pivotal time,” Sessions told a gathering of state attorneys general in Washington.

Although the nation’s murder and violent crime rates have plummeted in recent decades and are near historic lows, Sessions cited statistics that show violent crime rose by 3 percent and murders rose by nearly 11 percent in 2015 over the previous year.

Sessions acknowledg­ed that crime has dropped substantia­lly since the late 1980s and the early 1990s, when he served as a federal prosecutor in Alabama.

But he said he worries that the recent rise in reported criminal violence in major cities is not “a blip.”

“I’m afraid it represents the beginning of a trend,” he said.

He blamed the increased violence on low police morale, increasing drug use and fear of police in some communitie­s.

In his address Tuesday and during a brief press conference on Monday, Sessions foreshadow­ed a push by the Justice Department to become more involved in the investigat­ion and prosecutio­n of drug cartels, violent gangs and other groups that fuel street crimes.

He said the Justice Department would create a law enforcemen­t task force to develop strategies to reduce crime, identify flaws in existing laws and policies, and to propose legislatio­n and tactics.

Sessions also vowed to push the Justice Department to be more responsive to local needs while promising Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday police have been hindered by investigat­ions. an assertive effort to arrest and prosecute those who commit crimes with guns.

Robbers and other criminals may be less likely to commit offenses “if they know they’re going to get popped, they’re going to federal court, they’ll get five years and probably get sent off” to federal prison, Sessions told reporters. “It does have an intimidati­ng effect.”

The attorney general expressed skepticism about the Obama administra­tion’s expansive investigat­ions into police department­s for alleged civil rights violations and other abuses. Federal investigat­ors were sharply critical of police in Baltimore and Chicago, for example.

Sessions indicated that those probes contribute­d to police officers feeling beleaguere­d from what they believe to be unwarrante­d criticism.

Police also are pulling back because they worry about getting in trouble if they make a mistake, he said.

“We need to help police department­s get better, not diminish their effectiven­ess, and I’m afraid we have done some of that,” Sessions said. “So we’re going to pull back on this.”

“It’s a difficult thing for a city to be sued by the Department of Justice and to be told that your police department is systemical­ly failing to serve the people of the state or the city,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee, adding that “we need to be careful and respectful of (police) department­s.”

Sessions told reporters Monday that he was still mulling how to proceed in the Justice Department’s investigat­ion of the Chicago Police Department.

In January, Justice issued a report that found the city’s force suffered from racial bias, used force excessivel­y, was poorly trained and was poorly overseen. It is negotiatin­g with the city on a consent decree to address the problems.

“I’m really worried about Chicago with the surge in murders,” Sessions said. “One of the metrics that has been reported in Chicago shows a dramatic reduction in stops and arrests in Chicago by the Police Department.”

Any settlement of the case, he said, should “make sure we advance good policing strategies and not undermine them.”

He waded into the controvers­ial topic of legalizing marijuana and said the department was weighing how to approach the increasing numbers of states that are decriminal­izing the drug even though it remains a federal crime to sell or possess it.

The Obama administra­tion generally took a handsoff approach and told federal prosecutor­s to focus on foreign-based drug cartels and criminal syndicates peddling drugs, not local users.

“States can pass whatever laws they chose,” Sessions told the attorneys general. “But I’m not sure we’re going to be a better, healthier nation if we have marijuana being sold at every corner grocery store.”

 ?? ALEX BRANDON/AP ??
ALEX BRANDON/AP

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