City police have completed their investigation of
the May 30 incident in which an officer slammed a woman to the ground
and angry bystanders were pepper-sprayed. Some blacks have accused the
officers, who are white, of using excessive force and racial profiling.
Police said at the time they were simply trying to protect themselves
and the public. [more]
The Douglas County grand jury investigating the
death of Jose Zermeño-Garcia returned no indictments against the Omaha
police officers who shot and killed the Mexican national May 30. After
deliberating for a few hours Thursday, the grand jury of nine men and
seven women exonerated Officers Nathan Anderson and Christopher
McElligott of any criminal wrongdoing. The grand jury, which meets in
secret, declined to issue a report or make any recommendations. Both
officers have returned to duty. [more]
In an unusual self-critique, a prominent member of the Los Angeles
Police Commission said the panel has done a poor job of dealing with
the beating by police officers of a car-theft suspect and must take a
more active role in the investigation to avoid being marginalized. Rick
Caruso said the Police Commission has not been vigorous enough in
overseeing the investigations into the June 23 incident and asserting
itself as the city's civilian overseer and chief policymaker of the Los
Angeles Police Department. [more]
Seven Dallas police officers were placed on restricted duty Thursday as the investigation continues into the death of Pedro Fernandez.
Police officers responding to a domestic violence call June 28 were
involved in a struggle with Fernandez as they tried to arrest him. A
police report said that it took six to seven officers to subdue
Fernandez, who weighed 320 pounds, and that Mace was used. Fernandez died on the way to a hospital. [more]
Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton's apology July 3 for making
remarks criticized as offensive to blacks did little to quell outrage
directed at the Police Department at a town hall meeting held Saturday
by an ad hoc citizens commission in Leimert Park. The discussion began
with a video clip of a June 30 City Council meeting in which Councilman
Bernard C. Parks asked Bratton to respond to claims that the chief had
used words such as "tribal," "thugs" and "terrorists" to describe
minorities. A spokeswoman for Bratton later said the chief was using
the words only to describe gang members. [more]
Slaying spurs reforms For local Vietnamese, July 13, 2003, is more than
the date when Bich Cau Thi Tran died. It symbolizes the day they
emerged as a power to be reckoned with at San Jose City Hall. That
evening, a San Jose police officer fatally shot the 25-year-old mother
of two as she waved a vegetable peeler that was mistaken for a cleaver.
The tragedy united Vietnamese as never before, leading the community to
exert a newfound political influence. A year later, San Jose's
Vietnamese are more vocal about police conduct, and a pan-minority
coalition has been created to seek reforms. [more]
Protesters have been gathering in front of police
headquarters at Seventh and Jefferson streets since the December 2002
shooting of James Taylor -- a black man who was killed by a white
officer. Coleman said that since that time, other cases have also
caused concern. Yesterday participants prayed for those involved in
recent cases, including Marshall Galloway, 25, who was restrained in a
headlock by an officer and sprayed with pepper spray even after he was
handcuffed. Forty-five minutes of that incident were caught on police
video. [more]
Metro police to investigate videotaped clash at traffic stop [more]
At forums in response
to the recent videotaped beating of a car-theft suspect, people of
color tell stories of harassment. At five public forums held Thursday
on the Los Angeles Police Department's relations with the communities
it patrols, the department was roundly criticized as insensitive and
intimidating to people of color. [more]
Sources say tapes
fail to show police finding the item they say was in the suspect's
pocket. Investigators scrutinizing television news footage of last
month's police beating of Stanley Miller have found no evidence so far
on the videotapes to back up police officers' claims that they
recovered a pair of wire cutters in his pants pocket, Los Angeles
Police Department sources said Thursday. Officer
John Hatfield, who is seen on the videos hitting Miller 11 times with a
flashlight, told investigators he took the action after another officer
yelled that he felt a gun in Miller's pocket. No gun was found, but the
officers said they recovered wire cutters from Miller's right front
pants pocket. [more]
The
shooting death of an unarmed Hispanic man by a law officer has prompted
a civil rights group to call for state and national investigations.
Witnesses said 30-year-old Francisco Antonio Garza was handcuffed and
beginning to comply with Precinct 1 Deputy Constable Brian Kirsch when
he was fatally wounded on June 27, according to family members and
officials. [more]
The Los Angeles police investigation into the beating of
car-theft suspect Stanley Miller is going beyond the 11 flashlight
blows administered by Officer John J. Hatfield to include a second
officer who is seen on TV news footage kneeing the suspect while the
man is down. That blow, delivered by Officer Peter Bueno, occurred 54
seconds after police pushed Miller to the ground about 6 a.m. June 23
at the end of a chase through South Los Angeles and into Compton. [more] Pictured above: Stanley Miller shortly after he was accosted by the LAPD.
GOOD COP BAD COP A computer system for tracking the behavior of LAPD officers has been in the works for over 11 years and isn't running yet. [more]
Agency's inconspicuous response to June beating
leads some to question its role, responsibilities. The panel, whose
five members are appointed by the mayor to review almost every aspect
of the department, has not met since Officer John Hatfield was shown
hitting Stanley Miller 11 times with a flashlight on June 23. [more] Pictured above: Stanley Miller, an unarmed Black man beaten down by the LAPD last week.
A city panel is preparing to present a detailed
report on the 2001 fake drugs scandal within the Dallas Police
Department to the City Council on Aug. 4 after months of delay.The
presentation will conclude an eight-month investigation into why Dallas narcotics officers falsely arrested more than two dozen people, mostly Hispanic immigrants. [more]
'Those cops up here are killers.' Some say little has changed in the wake of Jessie
Davis' death. Davis, a 35-year-old mentally ill black man, died when he
was struck four times by shots fired by white police officers
responding to a call about a man gone berserk. Twenty years after the
most racially divisive killing in the city's history, the collective
memory of Davis' death and reforms it spurred appear as forsaken as the
dilapidated building where he lived and died. [more]
Omaha police haven't just targeted black
employees of the Omaha Public Power District for their DNA. In their
quest to catch a serial rapist, investigators have reached into the
mouths and swabbed the cheeks of several black men across north Omaha.
Their accounts have police looking for a black man age 25 to 40,
5-foot-3 to 5-foot-9, 175 to 250 pounds. "This is a witch hunt, and
it's ridiculous," said Damion Davis, 30, a painter who lives near 57th
and Pratt Streets. "You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Either I could do it and feel violated. Or I could refuse and have
doubts running around my house." [more]
Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy J. Longo
vowed in April to have saliva swabs and other DNA evidence periodically
destroyed when testing shows that a sample does not match the serial
rapist's profile. The chief's promise came as he faced vociferous
criticism for requesting DNA samples from scores of black men in the
hunt for a black rapist who has preyed on women for more than seven
years. [more]
A second recently videotaped arrest shows officers beating a suspect
with a flashlight, but they don't appear to violate department
procedures, police officials said. Gibson,
37, was one of four people arrested during a rowdy party in the
courtyard of an apartment complex. It took seven officers to
subdue Gibson. A shaky video taken by a neighbor shows Gibson on the
ground and one officer hitting his legs at least three times with a
flashlight. Some witnesses claimed that officers slammed Gibson's head
against concrete. [more]
South Carolina is about to embark on an ambitious effort to collect DNA
from tens of thousands more criminals, an effort law enforcement
officials say will dramatically improve their chances of solving
crimes. A new law that took effect July 1 requires all people convicted
of felonies, the most serious crimes, to provide blood samples for a
DNA database maintained by the State Law Enforcement Division. That
includes all those already in the system, whether in prison or on
probation or parole, and new offenders. [more]
A judge today denied several hotly debated defense motions to dismiss
charges against three former Oakland police officers accused of
criminal misconduct. Defense lawyers for the former officers, who are
charged with conspiring to beat and frame suspected drug dealers in
West Oakland in 2000, alleged that prosecutors and Oakland police
officials have intimidated witnesses by disciplining several officers
who testified on behalf of the defendants in their first trial. [more]
Tensions peaked when the Austin American-Statesman ran a series
of articles earlier this year that reported that between 1998 and 2003,
police were twice as likely to use force against blacks as against
whites. They were 25 percent more likely to use force against Hispanics
than against whites. During that period, police used deadly force
against 11 people. All but one were minorities. [more]
