The Nation's Pulse: Bill Lann Lee's Big Victory
Catanzaro, Michael
by Michael Catanzaro Bill Lann Lee's Big Victory tice for more than two years, a subject about Why do Republicans fear a man they wanted to reject? O nce nominated as assistant attorney...
...MICHAEL CATANZA.RO is a reporter for syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak...
...But there are other costs, owing to the intensive federal oversight the decree imposed...
...For one, Lee's ongoing sea,ice as civil rights chief violates the law...
...Committee rules require that Republicans garner at least one Democratic vote to release a nominee to the full Senate-and Democrats weren't budging...
...He complained that the Senate is not holding the executive branch accountable, which, he said, wreaks havoc on the separation of powers...
...The decree also mandates that the city train officers in "cultural diversity...
...Individual officers, however, were never interviewed...
...In the ensuing stalemate, the Justice Department last October filed suit against the city of Columbus...
...In I998, for example, Lee tried to force Torrance, California, to adopt racial preferences in its police and fire departments...
...The Senate left town for the year, and Lee's nomination died...
...This is a power grab pure and simple," said FOP President William Caprette, "and that's why we're going to court...
...Anytime an officer stops a minority or female suspect, the officer is "red-flagged" in this database...
...Lee sparked vehement criticism from Republicans...
...An "independent monitor" enjoys "full access to all ...staff and records (including databases, files, and quarterly statistical summaries)," and authorityto review "discipline and remedial training...
...Lee's office also is looking at the New York City Police Department, where the shooting ofAmadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond and torture of Abner Louima raised legitimate concerns...
...Throughout his October 1997 Senate Judicia U Committee confirmation hearing, Lee made plain he supported every4hing that was anathema to the GOP, particularly on contentious matters of law and race...
...He's testified twice before the House subcommittee on the Constitution in 1998, and only once in 1999...
...In 1996, ten complaints about the department were brought to the Justice Depar~nent...
...Each alleged that police officers had overstepped their bounds...
...One official said he feared he would be discip]ined for even providing background on the case...
...By playing the race card, a president can nominate and then appoint at will any objectionable candidate without Senate opposition...
...South Bend, Indiana...
...and Springfield, Massachusetts...
...So far Lee's consent decree has cost Pittsburgh upwards of$ 5 million...
...Succumbing to perceived threats of racial demagoguery is a dangerous precedent...
...Lee's belief in racial preferences puts him outside the scope of the law, outside America's tradition as a nation committed to equal justice under law, and outside the mainstream beliefs of most Americans," said Judiciary Committee member John Ashcroft...
...Implementation cost taxpayers $660 million...
...He criticized the Supreme Court's holding in Adarandwhich established the strict scrutiny test for all race-based classifications...
...That one suspect was another black female...
...Riverside, California...
...According to the Vacancies Act of 1868, officials appointed under the act are subject to a lzo-day limitation on their tenure...
...Hatch said such a vote was unnecessary because "the Senate has already considered his nomination for this position...
...But being constrained by committee rules and Democratic obscuctionism doesn't relieve Republicans of their responsibilities...
...Ward Connerly, one of the leading advocates of Proposition 209, has said that "Lee's acting status makes a travesty of the confirmation process...
...When he followed up by presenting the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents the Columbus police force, with a consent decree, the FOP refused to sign...
...The decree finally requires creation of a $495,992 "early warning system" to identify potentially troubled police officers...
...The Justice Department would not respond to inquiries about Columbus, stab ing only that the case was still pending...
...O nce nominated as assistant attorney general t-or civil rights, Bill Lann Lee never left the Republicans guessing...
...In our fourth meeting, we had a conference call in which DOJ said it had just three cases, and minor ones at that, pointing to a pattern and practice...
...For these reasons, Mr...
...We have a black female officer who stopped only one suspect during a six-month, decree-ordered evaluation period," Bose> ti said...
...Fearing a protracted fight, Mayor Richard Riordan signed Lee's decree...
...T he CM1 Rights division is currently battling Columbus, Ohio s police department--except this time Columbus is fighting back...
...Undeterred, Lee filed a similar suit, which is still pending, against the city of Garland, Texas...
...The Civil Rights Division then formally charged the department with abusing civil rights...
...When Democrat Robert Byd questioned the legali b, of such a move, Clinton installed Lee in an "acting" capacib, on December 15 , 1997...
...According to a Judiciary Committee aide, Republicans fear that questioning Lee's status, or his policies, would be seen as a racial attack against an Asian-American...
...The National FOP reports the division is also investiga> in> Scottsdale, Arizona...
...Further, he said, Republicans simply didn't have the votes to get Lee's nomination out of committee...
...When enough such stops accrue, the officer faces disciplinary action...
...In ~992 Lee forced the Los Angeles Police Department into a consent decree, requiring that it establish "goals and timetables" until minority officers reached "parity...
...East Pointe, Michigan...
...He stated flatly he knew of no preference or quota that was unconstitutional...
...In February, the court gave the FOP permission to be a party to the suit...
...Crime in NewYork is at its lowest in years...
...The data," it concluded, "do not support the notion of systemic, racially motivated police misconduct...
...The American Spectator "Ju~e 2000 63...
...But that's essentially what they did...
...These interventions pale compared to Lee's recent actions...
...The Senate Judiciary Committee, for instance, has shown little interest in what Lee did to the Pittsburgh Police Department...
...The decree similarly mandates training in "cultural diversity, which shall include training on police interactions with persons from different racial, ethnic, and religious groups, persons of the opposite sex, persons having a different sexual orientation, and persons with disabilities...
...in Pittsburgh, the consent decree requires creation of an "independent monitor," to be granted "full and unrestricted access to all city staff, facilities, documents (including databases) as the Monitor deems necessary to carry out the duties assigned to the Monitor by this decree...
...Since then Clinton has renominated Lee three times, most recently in March 1999 . Each time, Republicans refrained from calling an up-or-down floor vote...
...Vhen committee Republicans prepared to kill Lee's nomination, Democrats used a parliamentan, procedure to block the vote...
...and Prince Georges County, Maryland...
...Without any investigating of his own, Lee accepted the evidence at face value...
...Nonetheless, the Civil Rights Division drafted a seven-page complaint claiming "excessive force, improper search and seizures, false arrests, and failure to manage and discipline officers...
...We said, 'Tell us what you have on us,'" said Jim Phillips, an attorney representing the FOP...
...Under the pretext of 62 ]u,ne 20 o o " The American Spectator civil rights enforcement, Lee is trying to intimidate cities into accepting federal monitoring of their police...
...The confirmation process then becomes, as George Will put it, an "optional courtesy" by the president...
...Only Robert Byrd has taken issue with Lee's appointment...
...If we try to deal with Lee on the issues, the Democrats and the media will go after us and play the race card," the aide said...
...In 1998 , the Civil Rights Division acted on a joint ACLU-NAACP federal lawsuit filed the previous year, in which 60 individuals accused the Pittsburgh police of abuse in 60 separate incidents...
...All ten complainants were black...
...Over the next two years the Civil Rights division examined 34 ~ complaints from lawyers, court eases, and police division records, dating back to 199z...
...Los Angeles...
...At the hearing, Lee boasted of his tenure at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (1989q997), and how he fought for preferences, quotas, racial gerrymandering, and forced busing...
...On July 21, 2998, Lee asserted in a letter to city officials that police officers had engaged in a "pattern and practice" of civil rights violations and subjected "individuals to excessive force, false arrests and charges, and improper searches and seizures...
...Charleston, West Virginia...
...With a federal lawsuit hanging over its head, {he city in April 2998 entered into a consent decree...
...How would an independent monitor help cops fight crime...
...The Civil Rights division is currently investigating Buffalo...
...A federal judge in Los Angeles threw out the case, and ordered the Civil Rights division to pay $1.8 million in attorney's fees...
...Charges included "manhandling" of suspects, use of foul language and racial slurs, and, in one case, a person being called "stupid...
...Lee has been at Juswhich Republicans remain silent...
...On the other hand, in a colloqu} with committee Chairman Orrin Hatch he called California's Proposition ao 9 unconstitutional...
...They refused to show us evidence relating to the other cases...
...Lee deserves to know and needs to know where he stands," Hatch said, adding, "I hope the Democrats aren't going to filibuster their own nominee...
...Lee is unqualified for the position...
...Training must instruct officers in how to "relate to persons from different racial, ethnic, and religious groups, and persons of the opposite sex...
...He denounced this voterapproved initiative to ban state-imposed racial preferences as % distortion of the decision-making process of the state...
...Investigators interviewed lieutenants, captains, and senior police officials...
...How would Lee answer such questions...
...I n their fright, congressional Republicans have aIl but ignored Lee...
...Orange County-, Florida...
...Angered by Republican opposition, Clinton decided to circumvent the Senate's advise and consent role by making Lee a recess appointment...
...Lee's modus operandi continued tactics he used at the NAACP, when localities were forced to choose between accepting a consent decree or fighting the federal government in court...
...In 1996 Lee threatened to sue Los Angeles, claiming its transportation authority's decision to increase bus fares and eliminate monthly passes had an adverse impact on minorities...
...New Orleans...
...What Rosenbaum didn't mention is that the controller's audit exonerated the department from any "pattern and practice" of abuse...
...They never interviewed a single police officer about the allegations brought against them," said Chuck Bosetti, a Pittsburgh police officer...
...With Bill Clinton's backing, Lee assumed his post and has gone on to do everything he said he would...
...But how effective would federal intervention be in stamping out civil rights abuses perpetrated by New York cops...
...If nothing else, these cases highlight what can happen in the absence of congressional oversight...
...The department did say that Pittsburgh and Columbus are just the beginning...
...Maybe Orrin Hatch should ask him...
...Hatch urged them to reconsider...
...But since his confirlnation hearing he's never again appeared before the Senate-- not for lack of anything to talk about...
...In the decree, Department of Justice attorney Steven Rosenbaum argued the evidence included not only the summary of allegations from the 2997 suit, but a 1996 Pittsburgh City Controller's performance audit of the police bureau...
...Now the officer is red-flagged in the database, indicating that loo percent of the officer's arrests were minority females...
...It didn't raze him that Republicans were in control and read}" to reject him...
Vol. 33 • June 2000 • No. 5
