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News Maryland News

A Legislative Session Like No Other: Md. General Assembly Session Opens Today

January 13, 2021 by Maryland Matters

The 442nd session of the Maryland General Assembly opens today under conditions that were completely unimaginable a year ago.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a broad and deep public health crisis and has devastated the state economy. In many ways, that’s the essence of what the 2021 legislative session will be about.

Beyond the policy challenges, the pandemic has completely changed how lawmakers will do their jobs over the next 90 days. They’ll hold virtual hearings, meet in floor sessions surrounded by plastic shields, and, in the case of the House of Delegates, convene in two separate places simultaneously. The State House will be sealed shut. Lobbyists and advocates barely will be visible. The nightly party scene will be nil.

On top of that, the session begins with American democracy under attack — amid fears that the Maryland State House and 49 other state capitals could be targeted by the same extremists who stormed the U.S. Capitol a week ago.

State officials have promised to beef up security in and around the State House, and Governor Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) offered assurances that the people’s business can be conducted safely.

Gov. Larry Hogan

“Trust me, we’re not going to leave ourselves unprotected,” he said Tuesday.

The COVID-19 virus and its economic aftermath pose the biggest challenges to lawmakers as they go about  business and set policy agendas for the next three months. Hogan and Democratic legislative leaders say they will devote their time to helping the neediest — those who have lost jobs, face evictions, and have, in myriad ways, been ravaged by the pandemic. But small businesses need help as well, and local governments are also struggling to meet the demands of their constituents.

Maryland policymakers also have unfinished business from last year, when the legislative session was cut short three weeks by the pandemic. It was the first time the legislature went home early since the Civil War.

Even as they agree on overarching priorities for the session, Hogan and the Democrats do not see eye-to-eye on solutions. Hogan and legislative Republicans will be reluctant to raise taxes or spend liberally. Democrats, buoyed by knowledge that President-elect Joe Biden and an all-Democratic Congress are about to take over in Washington, D.C., seem more anxious to be generous with the state exchequer at a time of great need in so many communities.

Even so, Democrats will be under intense pressure from their left flank to spend even more — and to enact more progressive policies in a variety of areas.

The day before the legislative session is often a time for partisan politicking, and even under the unique circumstances, Tuesday was no exception.

Maryland Democrats held their annual pre-session luncheon virtually, and Hogan gave a pre-session news conference to announce his latest effort to bring nonpartisan redistricting to the state — leavened with a fresh dose of criticism for State House Democrats.

“Sadly, but not surprisingly, legislators have refused to act,” he said.

The Democratic agenda 

At the Maryland Democratic Party’s annual virtual luncheon, legislative leaders laid out some of their ambitious plans for the unusual 2021 session, including cracking down on slow unemployment payments and reforming law enforcement policy.

Senate Pres. Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) offer support for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform bill during a hearing in February. Photo by Danielle E. Gaines, Maryland Matters

House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) said robust state COVID-19 relief, coupled with a slew of long-term reforms, will be among the legislature’s top efforts during the upcoming session.

Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) highlighted the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color.

“The gaps that we all knew existed have simply been exacerbated,” Ferguson said. “They have gone from gaps to canyons.”

Their remarks came a day after Hogan outlined his plans for a state stimulus package through a mix of targeted tax cuts and tapping a portion of the state’s rainy day fund. Jones didn’t address Hogan’s proposed stimulus, but pledged to look at “targeted relief” during the upcoming session.

“We will look at targeted state relief to families and small businesses with utility payments,” Jones said. “And we’ll look to help some of our hardest hit industries,” such as restaurants.

She called the state’s BEACON unemployment benefits system, which was rolled out during the pandemic, “outrageously broken” due to the long wait times some Marylanders have experienced — and pledged to add statutory requirements to the system.

“While this has been an unprecedented strain on the system, we can do better,” Jones said. “Every Marylander who is eligible and needs help, should get help — and quickly.”

Many of Jones’ top agenda items for the upcoming session could impact the state long after the pandemic is over. She predicted the House will override Hogan’s veto on the sweeping Kirwan education reforms.

That veto could come later in the session, lawmakers told Maryland Matters. While Republican lawmakers have pushed back on passage of those multibillion-dollar reforms amid the pandemic, the Department of Legislative Services said the state has enough money to fund the Kirwan efforts through 2026.

Jones also intends to enact the House Workgroup to Address Police Reform and Accountability’s recommendations during the session, including banning no-knock warrants and police chokeholds.

Jones said the House will repeal Maryland’s Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights. And Jones plans to outline her agenda for racial and economic justice in the coming days.

“Corporate boards should look like their customers,” Jones said. “Black homes should be appraised for the same amount as their white neighbors. Great ideas and businesses should get credit because they’re great ideas, not because they’re the ideas of the connected class.”

Some of the House’s earliest planned legislation is aimed at preventing another six-figure payout by the Maryland Environmental Service, like the one former director Roy McGrath received when he left the agency last year to become Hogan’s chief of staff.

Jones said the bill will address what she called the “outrageous abuse of power and misuse of state money at that agency.”

“No one is above the law,” she added.

Jones also said the House will make mail-in voting a permanent option for Marylanders. How that will be done is not immediately clear, since absentee ballots were available under certain circumstances before the pandemic. Voting by mail skyrocketed during Maryland’s statewide elections in 2020, with an unprecedented number of voters opting to cast ballots by mail instead of at a traditional polling place.

Other election reform efforts are also expected during the legislative session: Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery) told members of the State Board of Elections during a Tuesday afternoon meeting that she intends to introduce what she calls a “kitchen sink” bill to look at several election-related reforms.

Beyond his $1 billion COVID relief package, Hogan has yet to lay out any priorities for the General Assembly session.

Day-to-day security 

Lawmakers will face a series of new security procedures around the capitol complex ― related to the pandemic, as well as heightened political tension and possible violence.

To gain entry to the State House campus each day, lawmakers and staff will answer a health questionnaire through an app on their cell phones.

Security changes include increased police officers and security, increased identification procedures to get inside buildings and limiting proximity to all buildings, said Nick Cavey, spokesman for the Department of General Services.

“These actions are being taken as a precaution for the safety of all persons doing business on state property and will ensure the protection of state employees, our buildings and grounds, and visitors to our Annapolis complex buildings,” Cavey said.

In the event of an attack, local police agencies, the Maryland State Police and the National Guard are available for reinforcement.

Hogan announced Tuesday that the Maryland National Guard deployment in D.C. would be doubled, but  said there’s still adequate personnel to reinforce the State House, if necessary.

“I’m comfortable, though we’re not sure what we may see, that we’ll be better prepared than they were on Capitol Hill last Wednesday,” he said.

Asked about an FBI bulletin warning of widespread armed protests at state capitols, Hogan said officials have received hundreds of death threats, but no specific plans to attack the State House have been uncovered. “We do not have any credible, detailed threats here. Look, a lot of this is real. And a lot of it is fake. There’s disinformation all over the internet,” Hogan said.

By Josh Kurtz, Bennett Leckrone, and Danielle E. Gaines

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: ballots, Education, general assembly, law enforcement, legislation, Maryland, pandemic, security, session

Ocean City Mayhem Prompts Call for Law Enforcement Protections Under Hate Crimes Law

September 29, 2020 by Maryland Matters

Videos recorded by onlookers standing along Ocean City’s Coastal Highway over the weekend show a dystopian scene: smoke from burning tires and fireworks fill the air while tangles of police officers and civilians wrestle in the middle of the highway as onlookers throw trash and chant.

“In all honesty, a photo doesn’t do it justice,” said Del. Wayne Hartman (R-Lower Shore). “You really can’t describe what was going on in Ocean City unless you were there seeing it firsthand.”

It was the aftermath of an unofficial, unsanctioned “pop-up” event called H2Oi — and the sounds of engines and squealing tires can be heard even in the recesses of neighborhoods, blocks away from the main drag of Coastal Highway.

Hartman rode alongside Ocean City police officers Friday and with Worcester County Sherrif’s deputies Saturday, hoping to see the effect of the emergency legislation he co-sponsored this year with Sen. Mary Beth Carrozza (R-Lower Shore).

The new law allows law enforcement officers in Worcester County to make misdemeanor arrests during motor vehicle weekend events — sanctioned or unsanctioned — making “exhibition driving,” like the tire-spinning burnouts, drag racing and engine revving subject to fines or even jail time if committed in special event zones.

Hartman told Maryland Matters in a phone interview that the law deterred some poor behavior — especially earlier in the week. But it wasn’t as effective as he would have hoped.

“Unfortunately, most of the night was spent with crowd control,” Hartman explained.

He described hordes of people “moving in mobs … probably approaching 1,000, if not more,” hurling cups, cans, bottles — anything within reach — at law enforcement officers.

“Landscaping rocks were used and being thrown at us,” said Hartman. “Roman candles were being directed and shot at the officers — fireworks going off all around them.”

He said back-up was requested from law enforcement agencies in surrounding municipalities and counties.

“It was a scene that you would never, never expect,” Hartman said.

Last Tuesday, the town of Ocean City was declared a “special events zone.” Under Carrozza and Hartman’s law, this applies to sanctioned or unsanctioned events that anticipate 1,000 or more participants, and allows law enforcement officers to lower speed limits, hand out citations, issue fines and arrest drivers.

Additionally, the town issued a local ordinance to allow these vehicles to be towed and impounded.

In a statement Monday, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) thanked 16 “allied state and local law enforcement agencies” that assisted the Ocean City Police Department over the weekend. Hogan said that, overall, police issued over 3,500 citations, completed around 2,500 traffic stops and that more than 350 cars were towed and impounded.

“This is not a car show and the majority of these visitors are not car enthusiasts. They are here to disrupt, destroy and disrespect our community and our law enforcement officers,” Ocean City Police Chief Ross Buzzuro said in a statement released Sunday. “Our policing philosophy is to be friendly, fair and firm. Unfortunately, the disorderly behavior and unruly crowds left no choice but to shift our philosophy and take additional steps to protect our officers and our community.”

In a news release sent Monday afternoon, Carozza said that she would continue to work with law enforcement and lawmakers to craft legislation aimed at people who come to Maryland’s beach town to wreak havoc.

“I believe we need to allow our professional law enforcement leaders to assess the weekend, conduct their after action review, and hear their specific recommendations for the future with the input and support of the public,” Carozza said in a statement.

The official H2O International event, once traditionally held in Ocean City, moved to Atlantic City, N.J., in 2018. But swarms of people in loud, modified cars have continued coming to the beach town every September.

“These people aren’t here as car enthusiasts,” Hartman said, adding that he never thought the event was “good.” He even sought to mitigate its harmful effects as a member of the Ocean City Town Council.

Now, Hartman says there’s less “motor vehicle lawlessness” — which he credits in part to the 2020 emergency legislation — but he’s seen first-hand another growing problem: a lack of respect for police officers. And he’s not interested in sitting idly by while it continues.

Hartman told Maryland Matters that he plans to introduce a bill during the 2021 legislative session that would qualify police as a protected class under the state’s hate crimes law.

“What these officers experienced was definitely violence against a certain group or class of people,” he said. “And, you know, I think we need to start doing something to protect them. In this case, we’ll be stiffening the penalties and adding additional charges for that type of behavior to law enforcement.”

He clarified that his forthcoming legislation would protect all first responders across the state, year-round, including fire and emergency medical services personnel.

Maryland’s current hate crime statute protects individuals from crimes rooted in discrimination against their race, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, disability and displacement.

No profession is protected under the state’s hate crime law.

Hartman said that the aggressive, sometimes violent, behavior towards the police at this event isn’t new, but he attributes it, in part, to the political climate.

In the wake of 2020’s nationally reported incidents of police brutality, protests have popped up denouncing law enforcement, which have come with calls for defunding, and, in some cases, abolishing police departments.

Hartman’s legislation, if introduced, would likely be at odds with a series of bills introduced last week by members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, including one seeking to limit special protections officers receive under the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, among other proposed changes.

Carozza said in a statement that she supports Hartman’s legislation.

“I will continue to do all I can to support law enforcement and make public safety my top priority, especially at a time when the Maryland General Assembly has been holding anti-police hearings in Annapolis and considering legislation that would weaken law enforcement,” she said.

But for Hartman, it addresses years of blatant disregard he’s seen for law enforcement — especially at this local, unsanctioned event.

“This particular group of people have proven year after year that there’s a large contingency of them that just have no respect for law enforcement; have no respect or regard for law and order; and, you know, they come down here and start trouble,” he said, pointing specifically to a 2014 incident reported by Delmarva Now where two men were booked for assaulting a police horse.

“This behavior isn’t new,” Hartman told Maryland Matters Monday. “It’s just intensified and I think we need to meet it with additional assets.”

By Hannah Gaskill

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: arrests, crowd control, impound, law enforcement, motor vehicle weekend events, ocean city, pop-up event

Lawmakers Ask: Is Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights Necessary?

August 28, 2020 by Maryland Matters

Members of the House Workgroup to Address Police Reform and Accountability in Maryland pushed back Thursday as Maryland law enforcement representatives steadfastly defended the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.

“I hope that your group hasn’t completely misread the movement that’s going on across America,” said Workgroup Chairwoman Vanessa E. Atterbeary (D-Howard). “I hope you haven’t misread the tea leaves but change is a-comin’. I can’t sit here and say how change is coming because I don’t know that, but change is a-comin’.”

Lawmakers on the workgroup questioned police chiefs, sheriffs, state troopers, advocates and attorneys during a briefing Thursday about maintaining the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, which gives police due process safeguards in investigatory and disciplinary scenarios.

Maryland laid out the blueprint for the controversial statute in the 1970s and remains just one of 16 states to still have the law in effect.

In light of the summer’s civil unrest following the high-profile police deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., advocates have decried the statute, demanding its repeal.

Calls for its removal have been compounded by the case of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man who was shot in the back seven times by police in Kenosha, Wis., last week.

Wisconsin also still maintains its Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.

Del. Darryl Barnes (D-Prince George’s), the Legislative Black Caucus chairman, told a panel representing the Maryland Chiefs and Sheriffs Association that it’s “hard time” Maryland “lead by example” and put measures in place to fix police-community relations.

“As the chairman of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, I am frightened for my members as they come to me and tell me how afraid they are of the police,” he said.

Karen Kruger, an attorney for the Maryland Chiefs and Sheriffs Association, said she believes the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights should have been named the “Law Enforcement Accountability Act,” because it was established, in part, to grant power to management to investigate instances of alleged misconduct. She also expressed concern that its repeal could create obstacles in disciplining officers charged with misconduct.

Charles County Sheriff Troy Berry (D) said he’s concerned about what disciplinary procedure for police officers would look like should the law be repealed.

“If we take away the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights where it stands, I don’t know what we’re moving towards,” he said.

Berry referenced Jacob Blake, noting that his shooting investigation has been taken out of the hands of local law enforcement.

“As a sheriff, I’m held accountable for what criminally happens in our community and I think … it would be very difficult for me to sit idly by and let the outside organization do the investigation,” he said.

Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg (D-Baltimore City) asked the panel of chiefs what would happen to a Maryland police officer under the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights if they were implicated in a situation similar to Floyd’s or Blake’s.

Kruger said a criminal investigation would open “immediately,” and that an internal investigation into the incident could occur simultaneously.

Atterbeary asked the group of managing officers if they would support civilians participating in misconduct investigations or serving on charging committees, having subpoena power and making trial boards more transparent by recording them and opening them to the public.

“I think we are looking to see what is it that you support so that the community feels like they are involved — so that the community feels like they understand what’s going on, and this isn’t a hidden process,” she said.

A bill passed in 2016 mandated that, under the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, hearing board procedures be open to the public and police forces may permit up to two civilians to sit on the boards.

Kruger explained that chiefs have the authority to nominate citizens to these bodies, but that local municipalities must pass legislation approving the chief’s authority to appoint someone.

At the workgroup’s first meeting in June, Berry told lawmakers that no civilians have sat on a review board or undergone training.

Atterbeary questioned how civilians are recruited.

“If people don’t know it’s open to the public, then it really it’s kind of a meaningless, you know, ‘Wave the banner, we’re doing a great thing here,’” she said.

Kruger said she provided training to a group of civilians that expressed interest in sitting on the Baltimore City Police Department’s hearing review board a few weeks ago.

On each panel, the conversation ultimately came down to what would happen if the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights were repealed.

Attorney Michael Davey told lawmakers that, should the law be stricken, police would still be subject to due process under the constitution, but that the General Assembly would have little-to-no control over the state’s 148 law enforcement agencies’ varying departmental practices.

“If the LEOBR was repealed, there would be due process rights for law enforcement officers consistent with the civil service policies of each jurisdiction, so everyone would have their own policy based on the civil service policies that their jurisdiction has,” he said. “It would not be a straight state policy, it would be whatever the whatever is in place at that jurisdiction.”

Del. Wanika Fisher (D-Prince George’s) asked panelists why Maryland should remain in the minority of states that still has a Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights. She noted that, since 2005, only six officers have been charged in police killings.

According to the Mapping Police Violence database, 138 people were killed by police officers from 2013 to 2019.

“We appreciate officers who want to do their jobs, but you’re not the jury, judge and executioner,” Fisher asserted. “We pay a whole lot of other people to do that. That is not your job. I just got to be 100 with you. It’s just not.”

Kruger said the law may be called a “bill of rights,” but its purpose is to set up procedure.

“With respect to the impact of the LEOBR on police encounters that end in tragedy, I’m not sure we could really establish a nexus between those two things.”

Fisher responded that law enforcement’s ability to self-regulate is not working.

“I think it’s time to really question yourself,” she said. “Can you self regulate when only six officers in the state of Maryland have been held accountable since 2005? And I don’t really think you can, especially when your agency is dealing with life or death.”

By Hannah Gaskill

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: bill of rights, civilians, law enforcement, Maryland, police, police reform, trial boards

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