Justice
The Baltimore Police Union's Problem With Anthony Batts Was That He Followed Best Practices
The Fraternal Order of Police’s scathing report, issued hours before the commissioner was fired, suggests that Batts was following guidelines from the White House’s 21st Century Policing Task Force.
Wednesday, just hours before Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #3, released its “After Action Review” report of what went wrong during riots in April. It reads long on blaming the mayor and Batts, who the FOP accuses of poorly coordinating police response when demonstrations turned violent on April 26.
Batts apologized in May for failing to provide better crowd-control training to the force. But his orchestration of police engagement during the disorderly events appear to be in alignment with practices endorsed by President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.