Cleveland Politicians Get the Blame After Agreeing To Consent Decree – Law Officer

CLEVELAND, Ohio —The city of Cleveland is ground zero on how the DOJ destroys communities. As the city approaches their 9th year under a federal consent decree, the citizens have now realized what a complete disaster the decree has had on the safety and finances of the city. The city has spent over 60 million dollars, which has far surpassed the 30 million estimated at the time of implementation.

Considering the failed history of consent decrees, it should never take this long for citizens to realize the doom coming their way when a city VOLUNTEERS to have the DOJ run public safety. Cleveland citizens are finally done with it. Like all other cities under a consent decree, the department has lost a significant amount of officers since the DOJ pulled up camp. One-third of the officers have left in the last three years and while most major cities saw a decline in homicides this year (after massive spikes), Cleveland murders continue to rise.

While city officials have seen the doom for some time (they deserve the blame since they VOLUNTEERED), they are telling the fed up citizens that they want out of the decree by 2025.

That will never happen. Once again, look at the history of consent decrees.

And the Consent Decree Monitor, who served in the Clinton Administration and still lives in the Washington D.C. area, will make sure that his million dollar plus salary and his team of lawyers making a minimum of $250 per hour will stay in power in Cleveland…violence be damned.

None of this is surprising.

The Albuquerque Monitor makes 1.5 million dollars a year and while he agreed to live in Albuquerque, local media has been playing “where’s Waldo” and have been unable to find him. Meanwhile, violent crime in Albuquerque has increased by double-digits since the DOJ oversight began with KOAT noting that same trend in other consent decree cities.

Cleveland Is Over

While the city of Cleveland may think they will exit their consent decree, they won’t and the latest shenanigans from the DOJ should prove that to them. This week, the DOJ said that the new union contract, which gave officers a pay raise, has violated the consent decree.

The contract is a desperate attempt by Cleveland politicians to quit bleeding officers. They are down over 400 since 2018 and had just a dozen in a recent academy. The raise combined with 12 hour shifts is a feeble attempt but Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb also agreed that officers would not to be disciplined under certain circumstances that involve low level offenses such as cursing.

The DOJ quickly dragged the city into federal court over the signed contract with a major complaint being that the DOJ was not notified of the contract negotiations. 

The Monitor said that “there’s no excuse for the city not informing the monitoring team and the Justice Department” of the contract but we have a different take and so should all Phoenix citizens.

The federal government has no business being involved with a local contract negotiation between city government and law enforcement in a state that has binding arbitration. That would be called a violation of the 10th Amendment…but is it?

Blame Cleveland Politicians 

While the politicians in Cleveland are running for cover and telling their citizens that the high crime, low staffing and overall destruction of their city is the DOJ’s fault, let’s be very clear about this. Those same politicians AGREED and VOLUNTEERED to permit the federal government, hence the Department of Justice, to monitor, supervise, and dictate public safety for their citizens and those doing it, do not even live in Cleveland while they make millions from the taxpayers.

If politicians agree to give up constitutional rights to the citizens, then we fully expect the DOJ to win…every time.

Jeff Follmer, the president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, is rightfully concerned sayingthat contract negotiations are “done.” He criticized the Justice Department and monitoring team, calling them “childish” and “…nitpicking to try and justify their existence.”

Follmer could not be more accurate.

He knows what we know here in Phoenix.

If you permit the wolf to enter the henhouse, they are never leaving until every chicken is dead.