Senior black lawmaker blasts Sessions for reviewing police reform

A senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday for injecting uncertainty as to whether police reform agreements would stay in place under the Trump administration.

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) implored Sessions in a House floor speech to keep the Department of Justice agreements as a response to racially charged police shootings of young black men.

“I’m here today because I’m just beside myself. I’m angry. I’m just so fed up,” Rush said. “This attorney general has retreated so very, very far from the high ideals of American justice.”

{mosads}The Washington Post reported Monday night that Sessions has ordered the Justice Department to review reform agreements with police forces under scrutiny to ensure they don’t contradict the Trump administration’s goals of promoting officer safety and morale. 

The Justice Department has opened 25 investigations into law enforcement agencies and enforced 14 police reform agreements since 2009, according to the Post. 

Sessions’s move sparked concern from civil rights advocates that pending agreements could be imperiled, including one with the police department of Chicago, which Rush partly represents. 

“It’s proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that police agencies, not all police officers, not all agencies, not all departments, but there are too many police departments, too many law enforcement officials, too many police officers who have [killed] innocent young men of color in this nation,” Rush said.