How the Voting Rights Act Could Be a Path to Police Reform

The U.S. Justice Department picked the week of the second anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, who was killed on August 9, 2014, by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, to release the findings of its investigation into the Baltimore Police Department. That investigation was triggered by the death of another African American, Freddie Gray, who died on April 19, 2015, after succumbing to nearly decapitating injuries sustained while in the custody of Baltimore police.

Both killings led to massive urban unrest, led by people frustrated with police violence and a lack of accountability for police misconduct. No police officer has been found criminally responsible for the deaths of either of those two young black men in Ferguson or Baltimore, which has further reinforced the idea that police accountability is practically nonexistent.