“Over the past several years, the Black Lives Matter movement has given rise to new criticisms of police in America — particularly of the racial disparities in police use of force and practices like stop and frisk in New York City.
“This movement has a strong ally within the Obama administration: the Department of Justice. Under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department took on more civil rights investigations of local police departments than Obama’s two predecessors — including President Bill Clinton, who signed the law in the 1990s allowing these types of investigations by the Justice Department. By the latest count, the Obama Justice Department has investigated nearly two dozen police departments, from Baltimore to Ferguson, Missouri — uncovering a wide range of abusive, even racist, police practices.”