After 6 months of stonewalling, gung-ho Lynch takes command

NEW U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL Loretta Lynch wasted no time in getting down to serious results-oriented business. Sadly, the same cannot be said about the Senate, which senselessly wasted six months in attempts to stonewall her nomination.

Lynch indeed is off to an auspicious and historic start as the nation’s first female African-American top legal officer. Within days of her April 27 swearing-in to office after a long-delayed 56-43 confirmation vote in the Senate, Lynch high-tailed it to Baltimore, the current epicenter of this nation’s jolting legal uproar over justice and fairness by police agencies toward African-Americans.

To her credit, Lynch met with the mayor, community officials, faith-based leaders and police for several days last week in the aftermath of rioting and looting over the death of Freddie Gray, a young African-American male who died while in police custody last month. Six Baltimore police officers have been arrested and charged for their roles in Gray’s death.

At the end of her investigation, Lynch last Friday announced that her Justice Department would begin a full-scale investigation into the police department with an aim toward improved interactions between cops and the community.

“Despite the progress being made, it was clear that recent events, including the tragic in-custody death of Mr. Freddie Gray have given rise to a serious erosion of public trust,” Lynch said.

The federal investigation will determine whether the Baltimore Police Department has engaged in a “pattern or practice” of excessive force. If it finds systemic problems, Lynch will then seek an agreement with the police department for reforms. A similar agreement in 2012 with Warren police in the Mahoning Valley resulted in significant positive reforms and an easing of racial tensions.

SHAME ON SENATE

Contrast the speed and efficiency of Lynch with the sluggishness and inefficiency of members of the senior chamber of Congress. Senators of both major political stripes bear responsibility for the unseemly stall. Democrats, who held a clear majority in the Senate in 2014, could have expedited her nomination in the two full months between President Barack Obama’s nomination of Lynch and adjournment of the second session of the 113th Congress. Republicans could have silenced the angry rhetoric, avoided the political gamesmanship and halted the illogical anti-Obama metaphors to confirm Lynch four months ago in the early days of the first session of the 114th Congress that they now control.

Some Democrats foolishly pulled out the race card, arguing that Loretta Lynch was the modern-day Rosa Parks. Many Republicans held her nomination hostage to Obama’s executive order protecting 5 million undocumented immigrants from prosecution. Of course, level-headed senators recognized the absurdity of such comparisons. The vote to confirm Lynch was not a referendum on the administration’s immigration policy. It was a vote for an attorney general nominee whose stellar record speaks for itself.

LYNCH’S RECORD OF RESULTS

One need only examine her accomplishments since becoming U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York in 2010. Lynch’s office prosecuted Republican congressman Michael Grimm; prosecuted Democratic politicians Pedro Espada Jr. and William Boyland, Jr.; investigated Citigroup over mortgage securities sold by the bank, resulting in a $7 billion settlement for the U.S.; and was involved in the $1.2 billion settlement with HSBC over violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.

Clearly, Lynch has the right stuff at the right time to serve as America’s top legal officer. We’re pleased that the Senate finally came to its senses and confirmed her by a larger-than-expected majority. We’re particularly pleased that Ohio’s sometimes-renegade Republican U.S. senator, Rob Portman, broke ranks again with his misguided GOP leadership and voted for Lynch’s confirmation.

“ I believe her long career as a federal prosecutor would bring a different, and less politicized, perspective to the job,” Portman said in announcing his support for Lynch.

We’re also pleased that Lynch has included Steven Dettelbach, U.S. attorney for Northern Ohio, in her inner circle as a member of the new attorney general’s advisory committee. Dettelbach, as many readily recognize, has been actively involved in federally-assisted operations to rid the meanest streets of the Mahoning Valley of guns, drugs and crime. He also played a leading role in successfully prosecuting Ben Lupo who ordered illegal discharges of oilfield waste down a storm drain and into a Mahoning River tributary in Youngstown two years ago.

From battling guns and drugs on the streets to strengthening police-community relations to enforcing the sacred environmental laws of this nation, we’re pleased to have the experience and gung-ho activism of Lynch with Dettelbach at her side.

Toward tackling those longstanding and pernicious challenges, they and others in the U.S. Department of Justice have no time to waste.