What needs to change in Baltimore?
After a week that saw both peaceful protests and riots over the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, many say both investment and better police training are needed to address the longstanding tensions between police and citizens of the city.
Cornell William Brooks, the president of the NAACP, said that there needs to be economic investment in cities like Baltimore.
"Being poor and under-resourced makes the community more vulnerable to profiling. And that's a conversation that we have to have and that Congress and the White House have to take action on," he said in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday.
In particular, Brooks called on Congress to pass the federal End Racial Profiling Act, which dates back to former President George W. Bush's administration. It would define and ban racial profiling by law enforcement agencies, collect more data on the issue and help pay for retraining police officers.
"It needs to move. And we're calling on the president, in a bipartisan coalition in Congress to move on it. We need to end this practice. Because it's harming and hurting, brutalizing communities," he said.
Catherine Pugh, the Maryland State Senate majority leader, is advocating for laws that would require ongoing psychological testing for police officers who have been on the job for a certain number of years. In a separate interview on "Face the Nation," she cited a social worker who remarked to her that years on the job can lead to desensitization.
"If you don't have that cultural diversity training, if you don't understand the psychology of the community then I think there ought to be this rotation of police officers over a period of time as it relates to them serving our communities," she said. "They get paid through our tax dollars. They get paid to protect and serve and not to protect and cause these kinds of situations we see in Baltimore today and have seen around the country."
Pugh had praise for Marilyn Mosby, the State's Attorney who announced criminal charges Friday against all six officers involved in the arrest of Gray, who suffered a spinal injury and died while in police custody.
"I think she set the bar for the nation in terms of how these cases ought to be looked at," Pugh said. "The pulse in the community is joyous in the sense that they feel that they've got some sense of justice, at least justice moving forward, because...what we've seen around the country is many of these cases never even come to trial and now we at least see justice moving forward."
"We're asking people in Baltimore to let the process go forward," she said.
Cornell also requested that the process be allowed to play out, but his appeal was aimed at the Fraternal Order of Police which has said that the six officers did nothing wrong.
"I'll note here that the family of Freddie Gray, who lost their son, lost a brother, they have asked for justice. They have not rushed to judgment. So I would encourage the Fraternal Order of Police to do the same. This is a moment where we're seeking the truth. We're seeking accountability. And so to rush to judgment is not warranted," he said.