[What Could Go Wrong When Uncontrollable "Public Servants" are Authorized to Use Force Offensively?] Citizens Angry Over 10 Recent Shootings by Phoenix Cops, 1 shooting every 6 days in Liberal City
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From [HERE] The recent wave of shootings involving Phoenix police officers sparked public outrage shortly before the Phoenix City Council convened on Wednesday.
Several community advocacy groups, including Black Lives Matter and Poder in Action, gathered to decry the shootings and call for change.
Monica Varrientos, an organizer with Poder in Action, called for Phoenix Police Chief Matt Giordano to implement reforms that will reduce police violence.
“In the two months since Chief Giordano started, there have been 10 shootings by Phoenix police,” Varrientos said.
“That is one shooting every six days. Six of these shootings have resulted in the death of our neighbors, our family members, our friends. This is the highest rate of shooting since 2018, the year the department shot 44 people.”
Phoenix Police Department’s newest chief took office after DOJ dropped report
Giordano took office in August, a few months after the Trump administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped its civil rights investigation into the Phoenix Police Department.
Under former President Joe Biden’s administration, the DOJ released a scathing report that found patterns of egregious civil rights violations in June 2024.
The DOJ found that the department regularly used unjustified excessive force, unlawfully detained people experiencing homelessness, targeted people of color, violated rights of protesters and discriminated against people with behavioral health disabilities, according to then-Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke.
In May, President Donald Trump’s DOJ said its Civil Rights Division retracted findings and closed probes of six police departments, including Phoenix’s, that were launched under the Biden administration.
