With more than 1,000 protests planned nationwide for Jan. 10 and Jan. 11 amid heightened tensions over two recent shootings by federal immigration enforcement agents, this might seem like a good opportunity for the Justice Department to deploy its "peacemaking" unit that for decades de-escalated confrontations at demonstrations and helped prevent deadly police responses.
But it can't, because the Trump administration shut down 57-person Community Relations Service unit last October.
The department had previously touted CRS since its 1964 founding for successfully coordinating communication between law enforcement, activists, clergy, city officials and neighborhood leaders in some of the biggest flashpoints in modern history including Selma, Alabama in 1965 after the “Bloody Sunday” police attack on civil rights marchers and the protests and riots that followed the 2020 police murder of George Floyd.
“It's very frustrating, because I know that CRS could add immediate value to peacemaking efforts in Minneapolis and in other places throughout the country,” said Julius Nam, the former senior Justice Department official who ran the unit until he was given a Reduction in Force (layoff) notice last Sept. 29.
