The office of a historic justice department created during the 1960 civil rights agitation has been marked by the Trump administration to close by the Trump administration, which increases the possibility of loss of work generations to prevent unrest in major cities of the country.
A memorandum by an internal justice department reviewed by CBS News stated that Trump appointments are considering the closure of community relations service, which was made as part of the 1964 civil rights Act. The mission of the office is to be the “peacemaker of the US”, “has been worked with racial and ethnic and ethnic stresses, conflicts, and civic disorders and resolving racial stability and civic disorders.”
Community relationship service does not investigate or prosecute crimes and has no law enforcement authority, and according to the Department of Justice, its services are confidential and free for communities that accept or request them. In 2021, the agency said of its mission that it demanded Martin Luther King Jr. “to help feel the inspiring dream of a lively, all-a-fingering nation in justice, peace and harmony.”
The office has a history of interfering during the period of national disturbance. It was credited with helping stopping another riot in 1993, as racial stress emerged again after the second trial of the police. Defeated rodney king in California.
It worked in 1997 to reduce the growing racial stress after shooting a Chinese-American person in Rohenrt Park, California, after the shooting of a black man in 2022 after the shooting of a black man by a black man in Akron, Ohio, and after deploying Derek Chowvin twice during the test of Derek Chowvin, he worked after shooting of Derek Chowin. George Floid In 2020 in Minnesota.
The former leaders of the community relation service are concerned that the closure of the office may increase disputes between police departments or city leaders and minority communities.
“We will find and stop a brush fire before the forest fire,” said Ron Vakabayashi, former regional director of the community relations service. Vakabashishi told CBS News that he feared that the nation would be at greater risk of unrest, boycott and cases without the community’s community relationship of the agency deployed across the country.
The low-profile approach to the community relationship service means that it is also known among the leaders of the federal government, although it is an important property for the Department of Justice, some according to some who have led the office. Community relations service employees have quietly intervened to remove unrest, cases or boycott with the Church leaders, community leaders, relatives of victims of violence and administrators of the city.
President John F. Kennedy, while imagining the office in the early 1960s, said that the federal government should have experts who can “identify stress before reaching the phase of crisis” and “work quietly to reduce tension and improve tension in any community to improve relations in any community or tear with conflict.”
The passage of the hatred crime law in view of the killings of Matthew Shepard and James Bird Junior in the late 1990s meant that the jurisdiction of the office was “expanded to the protected sections of gender, sex, religion, people,” said Vakabayashi.
He said that experienced employees of community relations service would develop relationships in major cities for years, in which puja, police departments and activists will be better equipped to earn credibility with leaders of police departments and activists and to mediate disputes in a better way.
According to VakabayC, at one point, the office employed 600 professional employees, including mediates and community outreach experts at regional offices in Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle, Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Boston.
The memorandum of the Department of Justice reviewed by CBS News indicates that some of the current community relations service employees will be re -assigned across the country in the offices of federal prosecutors. Former employees say the type of reorganization may cripping the ability of the federal government to prevent racial conflict in American cities as community workers may be less keen on working with so -called pacifers who can be aligned with the offices of the prosecutors.
Burt Brandenberg, who had previously worked in community relations service, and other former justice department officials questioned the plans to close the office: “During the era of racial stress – doesn’t it understand that they produce people in communities … so they don’t lead a boycott, litigation or disturbance?”
Brandenberg told CBS News, “Prevention of violence works best when communities are seen as honest brokers, they can open as part of working through conflicts, which is different from the significant work of the prosecution, which makes the wrongdoers accountable.”
The Department of Justice did not respond to the request of the comment.
In a speech in July 2024, former Director of Community Relations Service, Justin Lock appreciated the achievements of the office. Lock said that the office was “at the crossroads of some of the most important moments in our country’s visit to justice.”
“In 2020, when Americans marched in solidarity with the people of Brearswick, Georgia, Georgia; Louisville, Kentki, and Minianapolis, Minnesota, Ahmud Arbury, Breona Taylor and Breona Taylor and George Floid, engaged with communities as an obstacle, CRS, CRS, CRS,”
In a statement by CBS News, an Illinois Democrat rape king Krishnamurthy praised the office work in reducing tension between minority communities and the government and expressed concern about the reports that it would be cut. “At a time when hatred crime and community tension are increasing, it would be a serious mistake to reduce support for this necessary office,” he said. “I urge the DOJ to confirm their commitment to build the trust and bring more security to all our communities.”
