Listen Live
Praise Baltimore Listen Live
Praise Featured Video
CLOSE

A pattern of police apathy has surfaced in North Carolina that is similar to others that previously prompted federal intervention. Durham police waited more than a week to alert the community that a suspected pedophile was using an ice cream truck to lure children, WNCN reported. Consequently, the accused man allegedly assaulted at least one more victim before he was arrested.

READ MORE: Judge Approves Baltimore Police Department Overhaul

“I can honestly say I felt numb, then that numbness turned to anger than the anger turned to sadness, and not sadness for me, but my baby,” the mother of one of the victims told the CBS News affiliate.

Two different parents reported incidents to the police — one on October 25 and the other on November 1. However, the police didn’t notify the community until November 3. The suspect ultimately turned himself in to police two hours later.

In another instance, Durham police waited several days before alerting the community about a suspected kidnapper.

READ MORE: Local Officials At Odds With Police Unions Over DOJ Rollback Of Police Reforms

A similar episode unfolded in Baltimore, where the Department of Justice under the Obama administration probed the city’s police department. That investigation found a pattern of the police failing to do their job, including officers willfully neglecting their duties to follow through on sex assault cases when the victims were vulnerable women who were poor, Black, homeless or any combination of the three.

 

The DOJ turned over its probes of police departments to the Trump administration, which has been busy reversing progress achieved under President Barack Obama. Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed the DOJ to review agreements between police departments and the Obama administration to ensure they align with Trump’s hands-off police policy in March.

SEE ALSO:

How Probation Violation Became Another Way To Keep Black Men In Prison

New Sexual Harassment Allegation Puts Spotlight On Powerful Black Men In Hollywood

 

How Police Apathy In Black Communities Enables Preventable Crimes  was originally published on newsone.com