AG Kamala Harris Charges Excessive Force by Police: ‘Too Many Have Felt the Sting of Injustice.’

Kamala Harris, laying the the groundwork for a future Governor or Senatorial run, announced during her swearing in as California’s Attorney General that she will investigate the use of excessive force by law enforcement agents.

California’s first African American Attorney General said that as “law enforcement leaders, we must confront this crisis of confidence… We must acknowledge that too many have felt the sting of injustice.”

The Los Angeles Times suggests that the recent killings of two black men, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, by white police officers in Missouri and  New York prompted Harris to take action. However, she didn’t specify to which injustices she was referring. In both the Brown and Garner cases, grand juries determined that police officers acted within the law.

Harris’s comment that “the public and law enforcement need each other to keep our communities safe” garnered approval from San Francisco Police Chief Gregory Suhr. “I don’t think there is a law enforcement person in the country that doesn’t think that it’s necessary to have this conversation, no matter how hard it is,” uttered Suhr.

Harris pledged that she would fight against human trafficking, which she said was “a form of slavery that profits from the cruel exploitation of our most vulnerable women and children.”

Moreover, the Attorney General touted her success in procuring huge settlements from banks during the housing foreclosure crisis. The Attorney General  boasted of “going toe-to-toe against an army of the highest-paid hired guns the Wall Street banks could put on retainer.”

The Times called Harris, who is commencing her second and final term as the state’s top law enforcement official, one of the Democrats’ brightest stars and expects her to pursue higher office.