What we see happening in Baltimore is a microcosm of what’s happening in urban areas across the country, and the underlying causes are the same causes that led to the civil and voting rights movements as well as the 1968 riots.
A lack of access to quality education, lack of opportunity, and lack of hope and justice are a volatile mixture that can explode with provocation — and that’s what has happened in Baltimore.
The President’s task force on policing called for several reforms to our criminal justice system, including comprehensive collection of data on use of deadly force by officers as I proposed with my Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act, which would help us understand the scope of these problems and better address them.
So far the Republican Congress has not done enough to address these challenges, but I hope this week’s events will convince them it’s time to act.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) may be reached online at https://cohen. house.gov/contact-me. Constituents who are unable to contact him via the contact page are invited to call him at (202) 225-3265.
