Ex Felons For Hire

IN AUGUST A criminal clan set up roadblocks in Gothenburg to catch members of a rival gang. The police intervened and made several arrests, but failed to charge anyone. The gang war in Gothenburg eventually ended not because the cops stopped it, but because the gangsters negotiated a truce. Swedes are shocked to see such instances of the forces of law and order losing control of the country’s streets.

Sweden remains exceptionally safe—its murder rate is only a fifth of America’s. But a surge of spectacular gang crimes has captured public attention. This summer two Swedish teenagers were tortured and raped in a cemetery in a so-called humiliation crime. In the first half of this year 20 people, mostly young men, were killed in 163 shootings. A study in 2018 found that a man aged 15 to 29 in Sweden is ten times more likely to get shot than in Germany.

The problem is concentrated in highly segregated immigrant neighbourhoods. In Husby, a suburb of Stockholm, more than 80% of the population are migrants or the children of migrants, most of them from Iraq, Somalia, Syria and Turkey. The scene of ugly riots seven years ago, Husby is officially classified as one of 22 “extremely vulnerable areas” prone to crime and violence. Unemployment in such neighbourhoods is high. Thanks to restrictive labour rules, it is hard for unskilled newcomers to find jobs. Many teenage boys skip school; gangs offer a sense of purpose and belonging.

Around half the street-gang members are foreign-born; 85% have an immigrant background. The gangs are loosely organised, without a strict hierarchy. Their frequent use of extreme violence is a sign of immaturity, says Amir Rostami of Stockholm University. More mature gangs in Germany are less violent, he explains, because it is “bad for business”.

Many native Swedes are calling for tougher policing. So are many immigrants, who suffer most from crime. Sweden has only two cops per 1,000 inhabitants, compared with three in Germany. The government recently decided to hire 6,000 more police and 4,000 in supporting jobs by 2024. Erik Nord, chief of the Gothenburg police, wants 10,000 more officers (and the 4,000 support staff), and more camera surveillance too. The police were only recently allowed to tap criminals’ phones.

Operation Hoarfrost, launched after the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old in November last year, brought in police from across Sweden to crack down on crime in Malmo, a southern city. In recent years the culprit has been arrested in only 20% of gangland murders. The city hopes that more officers and better policing methods will improve this dismal record.

Sweden is also trying to learn from nearby Denmark and Germany. “We want to follow the Danish model,” says Johan Forssell, an MP for the centre-right Moderate party, pointing out that gang members from Stockholm who committed a murder in Denmark were sentenced to 20 years in prison, whereas in Sweden they would have got four years in a social institution because they were under 18.

Police from Sweden went to Essen and Berlin, German cities with high levels of clan criminality, to study local policing. In particular, the Swedes are considering Germany’s tougher gun laws and its methods for confiscating criminal funds. It will take time to reverse the trend, says Mr Rostami, but Sweden is belatedly confronting it. ■

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Segregated cities”

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On November 20, 2020, the Montgomery County, Maryland Council approved amendments to its 2014 “ban-the-box” legislation.  The original legislation (Bill 36-14) prohibited employers with 15 or more full-time employees in Montgomery County from conducting a criminal background check of a job applicant, or otherwise inquiring about the criminal or arrest history of an applicant, prior to the completion of a first interview.  Bill 35-20 expands the scope of the previous legislation by prohibiting background checks until after a conditional job offer has been extended, and redefining “employer” to include any employer with one or more full-time employees in Montgomery County.

The key changes to Montgomery County’s ban-the-box law are as follows:

• Timing of criminal record inquiry: Permitted only after a conditional offer of employment is extended to the applicant.
• Prohibited inquiries:  Employers may not inquire into whether:
  • The applicant has been arrested for a matter that did not result in a conviction;
  • The applicant has a first conviction for trespass, disturbing the peace, or misdemeanor assault in the second degree; or
  • The applicant has a misdemeanor conviction, if at least three years have passed since the date of conviction and the date that any period of incarceration for the misdemeanor ended.
• Definition of “employer”:  The amendments redefine employer as “any person, individual, proprietorship, partnership, joint venture, corporation, limited liability company, trust, association, or other entity operating and doing business in the County that employs 1 or more persons full-time in the County. Employer includes the County government, but does not include the United States, any State, or any other local government.”

Other Maryland Jurisdictions

Notably, Bill 35-20 is more restrictive than Maryland’s statewide ban-the-box law, which took effect on February 29, 2020.  The statewide legislation currently applies to employers with 15 or more full-time employees and permits an employer to inquire about criminal history during the first interview.  Montgomery County is one of three jurisdictions in Maryland where the ban-the-box law is more restrictive than the state law, the other two being Prince George’s County and Baltimore City. 

Prince George’s County’s ban-the-box regulation applies to employers with 25 full-time employees and prohibits inquiries into arrest or conviction records until after the first interview.  In addition, covered employers in Prince George’s County must provide pre-adverse action and final adverse action notices to prospective employees when the employer intends to withdraw a conditional offer of employment based on the prospective employee’s criminal history.

Baltimore City’s ban-the-box ordinance prohibits employers from inquiring into a prospective employee’s criminal history until after the employer makes a conditional offer of employment.  The ordinance applies to private employers with at least 10 full-time-equivalent employees in the City of Baltimore.

The new legislation goes into effect on February 19, 2021.  In advance of the effective date, Montgomery County employers should remove questions about criminal history from their job applications if they have not done so already, and revise their hiring procedures to delay any inquiry about criminal history until after a conditional job offer has been extended.

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BATON ROUGE – Days before the Thanksgiving Day holiday, tragedy has upended the lives of multiple Baton Rouge families amid a weekend of violence.

Since Friday, at least four shootings have taken the lives of five individuals in the capital city, and on Monday morning, representatives with the Baton Rouge Police Department (BRPD) addressed the public regarding the recent shootings.

Police Chief Murphy Paul and other officials spoke to the public from BRPD Headquarters at 10 a.m.

The meeting is available to view in the Facebook video below.

On Friday alone, four deadly shootings were reported by local authorities when:

– 54-year-old Brian Dawson was found shot to death in the 1000 block of Aster Street around 9 p.m. 

– A 19-year-old died during a home invasion and shooting that happened around 7 p.m. in the 3700 block of Eleanor Street.

– Two people were shot and killed on S. Sherwood Forest Boulevard around 12:30 p.m. during a robbery. Both the intended target and the robber died. An unknown person shot the robber and fled the area, according to police.  

-A man was found dead at the Vel Rose Motel located on Airline Highway Friday morning, near North Foster Drive. 

On Sunday afternoon, a man was reportedly shot and injured during an incident that occurred outside of a home within the 12000 block of White Chapel Road, near Siegen Lane.

According to East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner William ‘Beau’ Clark, a total of 120 homicides have occurred in East Baton Rouge Parish in 2020, and 110 of those were due to gun violence. 

In October, authorities expressed frustration over the rising number of shootings and deadly domestic incidents and pleaded with the public to help prevent such crimes before they unfold by contacting police in regards to any friends, family members, or acquaintances who appeared to be on the verge of committing a violent act. 

Now, a little over a month later, officials are once again addressing citizens with the very same concerns, and urging anyone with information about the recent shootings to contact Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867. 

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Last week, the Montgomery County Council unanimously enacted Bill 35-20, Human Rights and Civil Liberties – Fair Criminal Record Screening Standards – Amendments, which aims to help prevent workplace discrimination by prohibiting background checks prior to the extension of a conditional offer of employment and preventing inquiries into certain types of arrests and convictions. Councilmember Will Jawando is the lead sponsor of this legislation.

“Here in Montgomery County, we uphold the ideal that people should not be punished continuously for errors in judgment that happened in the past,” said Councilmember Will Jawando. “If a person has paid their debt to society, or if they have been arrested and found not guilty or not charged at all, we believe they should have access to the same economic opportunities as anyone else. This legislation will strengthen our commitment to those principles and help ensure that residents do not face the undue burden of discrimination when seeking employment.”

Bill 35-20 would:

• alter definitions regarding fair criminal record screening standards;

• prohibit certain inquiries regarding criminal records;

• prohibit consideration of certain arrests and convictions in employment decisions; and

• generally amend the law regarding criminal record screenings.

In 2014, the Council enacted the “Ban the Box” law, which prohibited employers of 15 or more full-time employees (FTEs) in the County from conducting a criminal background check of a job applicant, or otherwise inquiring about the criminal or arrest history of an applicant, prior to the completion of a first interview.

Bill 35-20 expands the scope of the law by prohibiting background checks until after a conditional job offer has been extended. The bill also prevents inquiries about certain crimes altogether. In addition, it redefines “employer” to include any employer in the County, except certain types of employers such as those that provide services to minors or vulnerable adults.

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BATON ROUGE – Days before the Thanksgiving Day holiday, tragedy has upended the lives of multiple Baton Rouge families amid a weekend of violence.

Since Friday, at least four shootings have taken the lives of five individuals in the capital city, and on Monday morning, representatives with the Baton Rouge Police Department (BRPD) addressed the public regarding the recent shootings.

Police Chief Murphy Paul and other officials spoke to the public from BRPD Headquarters at 10 a.m.

The meeting is available to view in the Facebook video below.

On Friday alone, four deadly shootings were reported by local authorities when:

– 54-year-old Brian Dawson was found shot to death in the 1000 block of Aster Street around 9 p.m. 

– A 19-year-old died during a home invasion and shooting that happened around 7 p.m. in the 3700 block of Eleanor Street.

– Two people were shot and killed on S. Sherwood Forest Boulevard around 12:30 p.m. during a robbery. Both the intended target and the robber died. An unknown suspect shot the robber, according to police.  

-A man was found dead at the Vel Rose Motel located on Airline Highway Friday morning, near North Foster Drive. 

On Sunday afternoon, a man was reportedly shot and injured during an incident that occurred outside of a home within the 12000 block of White Chapel Road, near Siegen Lane.

According to East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner William ‘Beau’ Clark, a total of 120 homicides have occurred in East Baton Rouge Parish in 2020, and 110 of those were due to gun violence. 

In October, authorities expressed frustration over the rising number of shootings and deadly domestic incidents and pleaded with the public to help prevent such crimes before they unfold by contacting police in regards to any friends, family members, or acquaintances who appeared to be on the verge of committing a violent act. 

Now, a little over a month later, officials are once again addressing citizens with the very same concerns, and urging anyone with information about the recent shootings to contact Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867. 

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There was new reaction Thursday to a Texas Department of Public Safety plan and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson’s critique of rising violent crime.

Governor Greg Abbott Wednesday ordered Texas DPS to provide new support in the way of helicopters, planes and investigators to aid Dallas Police.

A Dallas Police statement said the DPS resources would be used differently than in the summer of 2019 when state troopers reported for duty at police substations.

At that time, the troopers mainly performed traffic enforcement. They received strong criticism from residents who said it amounted to harassment.

“We need the law enforcement to act in a manner that is providing safety and protection to the community and not act in a manner that will harm us,” community leader Tabitha Wheeler-Reagan said.

She spoke at a July 2019 community meeting with Police Chief U. Renee Hall and state officials, where City Councilman Adam Bazaldua was also a critic of the DPS response.

“I would say that the approach this year with DPS mutual aid is a much better one than it was last year. And it is more aligned with the community’s public safety needs. I believe utilizing the additional resources for the back end and investigative purposes allows the Dallas Police Department to focus on what needs to be done on the street,” Bazaldua said.

With more than 220 homicides reported in Dallas so far this year compared with about 180 at the same time last year, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson Wednesday said a promised ‘full-court press’ from Chief Hall should include all crimes.

“People need to know that if something happens, the police will be there and respond,” Johnson said. “The criminal element in this city has gotten the message somehow that we’re not going to respond or respond quickly to certain crimes that are committed in our community and that has to end. And I believe, or I’m told, that’s what full-court press means.”

A recent gambling bust by the Dallas Police Vice Unit received praise at a meeting of the Northwest Dallas Business Association Thursday where Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot was a featured guest.

In the past, Creuzot has said he was backing of prosecution of some lesser drug and property crimes as a part of his criminal justice reform plan.

“And when customers are afraid to come to our area because of those things, we certainly want to see them solved,” Association President Eric Lindberg said.

Thursday, Creuzot showed evidence of how property and drug prosecution has continued in his administration.

“Make no mistake, his office is going to prosecute criminals, especially the violent ones,” Lindberg said.

Mayor Johnson said Wednesday that he wants to see police reform activists who demonstrated this year take up the crusade against violent crime.

Bazaldua said activists already oppose violence.

“Activists have always been out to stop violent crime,” Bazaldua said. “It’s always been a matter of people’s opinions of how we get there.”

Tabitha Wheeler-Reagan is already started working on one reform measure, the use of violence interrupters instead of police, to help keep people away from crime.

“Our feet are on the ground every single day, we’re combating violence, reducing crimes and connecting the community with resources,” she said.

Past efforts to be tough on drugs and small crimes have only caused harm in disadvantaged communities, according to Wheeler-Reagan.

“It will not solve the crime. It will continue to go on, as it has in the past. When they were hard on crime in the ’90s and ’80s there’s people now who cannot get jobs because they were prosecuted at a higher rate in these communities than in other communities,” she said.

Violence interrupters were one of several recommendations from a task force appointed by Major Johnson. Wednesday the Mayor also called for better public reporting of progress on new efforts to attack violence.

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Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn

On November 10, 2020, the Montgomery County Council in Maryland unanimously enacted Bill 35-20, Human Rights and Civil Liberties – Fair Criminal Record Screening Standards – Amendments to expand the scope of a “Ban the Box” law the County passed in 2014, according to a press release from the Montgomery County Council.

Bill 35-20 aims to help prevent workplace discrimination and promote fair screening standards by prohibiting background checks and preventing inquiries into certain types of arrests and convictions prior to the extension of a conditional offer of employment. In Montgomery County, the Ban the Box bill would:

• Alter definitions regarding fair criminal record screening standards;
• Prohibit certain inquiries regarding criminal records;
• Prohibit consideration of certain arrests and convictions in employment decisions; and
• Generally amend the law regarding criminal record screenings.

In 2014, the Council enacted a Ban the Box law which prohibited employers of 15 or more full-time employees (FTEs) in the County from conducting a criminal background check of a job applicant, or otherwise inquiring about the criminal or arrest history of an applicant, prior to the completion of a first interview.

Bill 35-20 expands the scope of the Ban the Box law by prohibiting background checks until after a conditional job offer has been extended, prevents inquiries about certain crimes altogether, and redefines “employer” to include any County employer except employers that provide services to minors or vulnerable adults.

“If a person has paid their debt to society, or if they have been arrested and found not guilty or not charged at all, we believe they should have access to the same economic opportunities as anyone else,” Councilmember Will Jawando, the lead sponsor of the bill, stated in the press release. His remarks about the vote can be viewed here.

“Ban the Box” refers to the box on job applications that applicants are asked to check if they have a criminal record. As of September 2020, 36 states and more than 150 cities and counties have adopted Ban the Box laws to reduce employment barriers for ex-offenders and have them judged on their knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Ban the Box laws and second chance programs that give ex-offenders with a prior criminal record a chance to find work are spreading rapidly in the U.S., according to the “ESR Top Ten Background Check Trends” for 2020 that was compiled by leading global background check provider Employment Screening Resources® (ESR).

Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) offers a white paper on “Ten Critical Steps for Ex-Offenders to Get Back into the Workforce,” an “ESR Ban the Box Resource Guide for States, Counties & Cities,” and a Ban the Box Resource Page with an interactive map with Ban the Box laws. To learn more about ESR, visit www.esrcheck.com.

NOTE: Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) does not
provide or offer legal services or legal advice of any kind or nature. Any
information on this website is for educational purposes only.

© 2020 Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) – Making
copies of or using any part of the ESR News Blog or ESR website for any purpose
other than your own personal use is prohibited unless written authorization is
first obtained from ESR.

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POINT: John Cooke

Colorado is under the grip of two concurrent epidemics; COVID-19, and crime. Both are taking their toll in terms of irrevocable financial loss and lives severely disrupted or even cut short; but only one – the crime epidemic – is largely self-inflicted.

The numbers — taken from any reliable source, including the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Denver Police Department using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) – reveal a grim, if clear, picture: Violent crime is up in Denver, with aggravated assault leading the way with a per-capita increase over last year of around 23%. Property crime throughout the city is up sharply as well, by nearly 12%; burglary is up by 36%, vandalism by 25%, and vehicle thefts by more than 15%. Tragically, murder is up as well. In the first half of the year, January-July, Denver suffered 47 murders – 14 more than reported over the same time frame a year earlier. In the first eight days of July, eight people were murdered in Denver. Another 10 survived being shot or stabbed.

It’s not just Denver either. Aurora’s per-capita murder rate has actually surpassed Denver’s this year, fueled in part by a deadly August, which over one weekend alone, August 14-17, saw five murders in four separate incidents. Even in Colorado Springs, which is generally considered much safer than the Denver metro area, the murder rate is significantly higher this year than in previous years.

This cannot all be blamed on 2020 – the crime rate, both violent and property, has generally been rising in the state since at least 2018; but the spike in both violent and property crimes this year is real and cannot be denied. And some crimes, such as burglary and criminal mischief (vandalism and the like) had actually seen a steady decline over the previous decade, reductions which have been nearly entirely erased with the spike this year.

So there is no question that crime is increasing in Colorado. The only questions we need to be asking are a) why is this happening? And b) what should we as a society do about it?

A multitude of factors go into why some people, at an individual level, choose to commit crime, to violate someone else’s person or property. On the larger scale, as we have seen time and again when other surges in crime have occurred, it is a function of a public policy that is weak on crime.

In Colorado, local and state policies have gravitated towards leniency, decriminalization of crimes, and aversion to punishment, while in many cases making the job of those who are tasked with enforcing the law almost impossible. The most egregious and dangerous example of this mindset happened this year, ostensibly a result of the COVID pandemic, where convicted criminals were let out of jails and prisons early, thanks to an executive order signed by Governor Polis in March relaxing rules for early release. Hundreds of inmates have been turned back out onto the streets before serving their debt to society. These are people who have already committed crimes and therefore have shown a propensity to break the law – what did anyone really expect would happen when we arbitrarily released hundreds of them?

Crime will continue to increase, and Coloradans lives and property be violated, as long as we continue to cling to unrealistic ideology-driven theories of criminal justice that sound good in a Berkeley classroom, but have tragic consequences in real life. You can get away with saying that crime is not a growing problem in our state is by simply reclassifying offenses and failing to charge and prosecute offenders. But you can’t define away the impact on the victims.

COUNTERPOINT: Pete Lee

Our community is engaged in an important discussion about public safety and police accountability. Prompted by tragic police killings, disproportionately of Black men (De’Von Bailey, Elijah McClain), public debate sometimes degenerates into partisan finger-pointing. Around elections, rhetoric escalates and becomes more based on fear than fact, more on polemics than reasoned policy. We must undertake our police accountability debate respectfully and civilly, relying on facts and evidence. The current climate where data and science are disregarded, where repeating falsehoods creates credibility, where internet claims are cited as truth, needs to change.

For example, a recent Gazette Guest Opinion described a front range “crime wave”, stating, “Crime is up all across the front range, both property crimes and violent crimes.” The opinion blames the alleged crime wave on contempt for law and police by Democratic legislative leaders who view police as “evil”. The opinion then states that Colorado passed SB20-217, “Law Enforcement Integrity”, removing liability protection from police for “simply doing their jobs”. These claims are as erroneous as they are inflammatory.

Disputing this “crime wave” narrative, Colorado’s Division of Criminal Justice states that both nationally and in Colorado, all crime has generally decreased over the last two decades. Moreover, the report “20 Safest Cities in Colorado” located fourteen of the 20 along the front range. There is no front range crime wave. Furthermore, as we debated and passed SB20-217, police were important allies. Their revisions were heard, valued and incorporated. As a result, the bill had significant bipartisan support, passing 84-14 overall (Senate-32-1, House 52-13). Contrary to the Guest Opinion claims, Democrats respect and honor law enforcement and condemn violence. Assertions to the contrary are fallacious.

Debates over crime and public safety are not new. When there’s fear of crime and violence, politicians advocate “law and order” and getting “tough on crime.” They call for more police and harsher sentences. This observation of H.L. Mencken is instructive: “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, clear and wrong.” Criminal justice policy is nuanced and complex; it is not amenable to simplistic sound bite fixes.

Proof of Mencken’s proposition is established by Colorado’s experience with the 1985 Mielke bill and the 1994 federal Violent Crime Act. In response to rising crime, Colorado passed Mielke, doubling sentences. Relying on the Crime Act, we built more prisons. These two bills triggered mass incarceration and huge costs. Colorado’s prison population grew from 3,500 people in 1985 to 30,000 today. Our prison budget grew from $60 million to $1 billion. But with 50% recidivism, is incarceration the answer? Tough on crime is not smart on crime.

Colorado Springs’ Police Accountability Commission’s discussion about public safety should include assessing police responsibilities and budget. Proposals to “defund the police” are not reasonable policy options. They are simplistic and provocative. But re-allocation of resources and re-defining and clarifying responsibilities are policies worth considering, as, over the years, policing has experienced mission creep. Police respond to violent crimes, but that is only 5% of their work. Police now perform tasks they may not have been fully trained for. Should they be the first responders for mental health crises and assigned to schools? Or, should that be the province of EMTs and social workers? It is legitimate to ask if hiring more police increases safety and reduces violence. A Brennan Center study found that having more police does not necessarily lower crime rates.

I look forward to police accountability commissions undertaking their missions with respectful civil dialogue, free of partisan rhetoric and false narratives; and recommending policies grounded in best evidence practices designed to heal relationships, promote racial justice and bring our communities together.

John Cooke is State Senator for Senate District 13, Senate Assistant Minority Leader, and Retired Weld County Sheriff. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar in Quantico, Virginia, with more than 30 years’ experience in law enforcement. Senator Pete Lee is the chair of the Colorado Senate Judiciary committee and has sponsored over 50 bills addressing the criminal legal system including restorative justice, mental health diversion, probation parole, and reentry issues. He previously served four terms in the Colorado House representing District 18.

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