Cops Blame ACLU, Supreme Court for Violent Crime
At a rally of between 2,000 and 3,000 police officers in Washington, D.C. on this day, John H. Harrington, a 30-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, blamed the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Supreme Court for high rates of violent crime in the country.
The attack was a response to the fact that the ACLU had been a leader in challenging police misconduct. The ACLU filed influential amicus briefs in both Mapp v. Ohio (1961), establishing the exclusionary rule, and Miranda v. Arizona (1966) establishing a right to remain silent when arrested by the police. The ACLU was also a strong supporter of civilian review of the police.
The ACLU, however, also defended police officers when their First Amendment or due process rights were violated. See for example, the New York Civil Liberties Union criticisms of the methods used to investigate police corruption in New York City in the famous “Serpico” scandal on October 22, 1971. The ACLU later published a handbook on the rights of police officers: The Rights of Police Officers (1981).
Learn more about the ACLU and police practices: https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/police-practices
Read the best book on racial profiling: David A. Harris, Profiles in Injustice: Why Racial Profiling Cannot Work (2002)
Learn more about the control of police misconduct: Samuel Walker and Carol A. Archbold, The New World of Police Accountability, 3rd ed. (2020)
Read the great book on the stop and frisk controversy: Michael White and Henry Fradella, Stop and Frisk: The Use and Abuse of a Controversial Policing Tactic (2016)