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“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

NAACP gives Fairfax officials middling grades on criminal-justice issues


·         by BRIAN TROMPETER, Staff Writer
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A first-ever report by the Fairfax County branch of the NAACP gave most county  supervisors and two top public-safety officials mostly mediocre to poor marks in their handling of criminal-justice issues.
“It was an idea when I took over in January as a way to hold county leadership accountable and help members with their advocacy,” said Kofi Annan, the group’s president.
The NAACP’s “2016-2017 Criminal Justice County Report Card” graded all Board of Supervisors members, plus the county’s police chief and sheriff. None received an overall grade of “A.” Three got “B” grades, three “C-plus” marks, three “C” grades, one a “D-plus” and two a “D.” The report did not hew to partisan lines, as Supervisors Patrick Herrity (R-Springfield) and Kathy Smith (D-Sully) received the lowest marks.
Criminal-justice reform has been a hot topic in Fairfax County, following some fatal police shootings and sheriff’s deputies involvement in the deaths  of an inmate at the county’s Adult Detention Center and a mentally ill man in Merrifield.
The report evaluated the policy positions county officials adopted over the last year, their on-the-record statements, votes during public meetings (if any) and interviews with each.
While county supervisors have hired an independent police auditor and set up a Civilian Review Panel to examine police use-of-force cases, the NAACP’s report, released Sept. 18, found there need to be more reforms and quicker.
Fairfax County must hire more minority police officers and sheriff’s deputies, equip officers with body-worn cameras and investigate the disproportionate number of use-of-force cases involving African-Americans, the report determined. African-Americans are only 8 percent of the county’s population, but were involved in 47 percent of police use-of-force cases, according to the report.
Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. seems genuinely to desire increased minority recruitment, but the department is not addressing a “trust deficit” that may be keeping those number low, Annan said.
The police force is 15-percent minority, the same as in 2013, and Latinos especially are underrepresented, the report stated.
“It’s the elephant in the room,” he said. “A lot of African-Americans don’t like or trust the police. If they don’t talk about that as a barrier to recruitment, they’ll continue to have these problems.”
Law-enforcement personnel should examine their biases, overt or latent, and endeavor not to let them affect their interactions with minorities, Annan said.
“It’s just a fact of life: We all do see race, subconsciously or not, and treat each other differently,” he said. “If you don’t knowledge stereotypes, you may end up with a force that has a negative effect on a community, even if it’s not intentional.”
Many studies show that people tend to see African-American youths as being older than they are, and give them aggressive descriptions, he added.
“It’s not unique to police,” Annan said. “It’s a product of the history of our country and their portrayal in the community.”
The Fairfax County NAACP plans to issue criminal-justice reports annually, as well as ones pertaining to affordable housing and education, Annan said.
While county officials have taken steps toward alleviating some of the ongoing issues, “we want to continue having them move in the right direction,” he said.

The Sun Gazette will list the NAACP’s grades of local officials, plus any received responses, in a separate article.