In a development that should surprise precisely nobody, the Department of Justice’s 21-month investigation into the use of excessive force by Cleveland police has yielded depressingly awful abuses by cops of suspects and bystander citizens, and the department will be getting a new federal babysitter to watch over them.
The so-called “pattern or practice” report from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was released Thursday afternoon as DOJ and the city announced plans to develop a court-enforceable agreement that would impose an independent monitor on the Cleveland Division of Police.
“Accountability and legitimacy are essential for communities to trust their police departments, and for there to be genuine collaboration between police and the citizens they serve,” said Attorney General Eric Holder in a press conference on Thursday.
Just a few of the examples in the report:
According to the DOJ report, Cleveland police officers “carelessly fire their weapons, placing themselves, subjects, and bystanders at unwarranted risk of serious injury or death.” For example, the agency pointed to an incident in 2011 where officers “fired 24 rounds in a residential neighborhoods,” with six rounds striking houses and 14 hitting parked cars. In another case, “An officer’s decision to draw his gun while trying to apprehend an unarmed hit-and-run suspect resulted in him accidentally shooting the man in the neck.”
The Justice Department also claimed to have identified “several cases” where “officers shot or shot at people who did not pose an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury to officers or others.” For example, in 2013, the report noted that police shot at a victim who had been kidnapped by armed assailants after he fled the house in his boxers. The sergeant believed that the victim had a weapon because he raised his hand.
In another case detailed by the Justice Department, a 6’4″, 300-pound officer punched a 5’8″” 13-year-old boy who was handcuffed inside a police car and kicking the door, “three to four times” until he was “‘stunned/dazed’ and had a bloody nose.”
The agency noted that, “supervisors’ analyses of use of force incidents is superficial at best and, at its worst, appears to be designed to justify their subordinates’ unreasonable use of force.” For example, in the case of the teenage boy, the agency said that, the officer’s supervisor “failed to even consider that the punches might have been retaliatory [perhaps because the officer was angry] and unnecessary to secure the boy.”
And this is all on top of last week’s shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by an officer who we later found out was judged unfit for his previous position as a cop.
As they say, it’s a start. But there’s hundreds of thousands of cops out there in America, and way too many of them think people who look like me are their enemies, not the people they are supposed to serve and to protect.
kindness
But were the Cleveland cops shooting at black people?
gvg
What kind of independent monitor? How do these things work?
Zandar
@gvg: Supposedly the plan is “an enforceable court order” so the monitor will have some sort of power to actually do something as far as the CPD goes.
scav
Sooo, have we reached the playing the “Federal Overreach! Federal Overreach! Jack-booted Control Must Be Second-Amendement Resisted! State’s and Local’s Rights!” stage of the game?
SatanicPanic
That article about Tamil Rice’s killer paints a really unsympathetic portrait. Everyone should take a moment to read it.
Mike J
Who will write the first article about the poor cop who shot the kid having to shoulder all the blame for Ferguson and the choking cop?
Cacti
This assessment applies generally to most police departments across the country.
Napoleon
Zandar, you should have mentioned that in the last few days a group of white and one Hispanic CPD officers have sued the city for reverse discrimination on the theory they get punished more if they beat up or kill someone then blacks do on the force. What assholes.
Another Holocene Human
Cleveland is a shithole and the racism on display is just disgusting, all you have to do is look at built environment alone. White rust belters are truly like pigs in shit. They can’t help themselves and apparently they’re pleased with the results.
Xboxershorts
The GW Bush administration GUTTED the DOJ Civil Rights Division….man that tool was a complete ass. We’re going to feel the repercussions of that fucktards reckless administration’s blind ideologically driven faith based policies for decades.
And by faith based, I don’t mean Christian, I mean a willingness to completely ignore decades of empirical evidence.
RaflW
@Mike J:
The New Republic.
Another Holocene Human
Okay, to be fair I haven’t been back to Cleveland in 15 years.
A LOT of US cities had those burned out sections and ghettos. And the change away from that was full of bullshit, population displacement, and greed.
But I think it’s this powerful psychological thing as well as a practical thing (food desert … no hospital … businesses with iron bars … unsafe moldy dwellings). And it was stark.
Did anybody document this. Or will it be down the memory hole like all the others things that we (white america) have done?
Heliopause
This is kind of what I was thinking earlier today. It’s great that the DOJ pursues this when they have the resources and political will, but at the rate it’s going they’ll finish up this important work some time in the 22nd century. What’s really needed, rather than overworked and understaffed bureaucrats doing this at a snail’s pace, is an aggressive, federal legal standard for the police. And no, I don’t need a lecture on how impossible this is with the current congress.
celticdragonchick
Here is some fun with our fine, upstanding heros at Policeone.com:
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Posted by adje on Thursday, December 04, 2014 07:28 PM Pacific Report Abuse
The nation is now suffering from a media-induced hysterical delusion that white cops are hunting and murdering innocent black men. The constant challenge I hear even from friends is “How can you defend it? It’s on video!” My reply is that it’s because it’s on video, I can defend it. Everyone in the media, including FOX, are repeatedly lying about the facts of the case, the autopsy report, the Grand Jury process, even the nature of criminal law (like the need to show elements of the crime, probable cause, etc.). This includes all of the talking head lawyers, who actually know the law. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that this is deliberate incitement to racial violence. Stupid doesn’t come close to excusing what I’ve been seeing on the news since last night. Hell, Greta Van Susternan and her retired DC Detective shut down a young woman prosecutor who was trying to rationally explain things like probable cause and elements of the crime. Just shouted her down and went to commercial. Again, hard to escape that this is intentional.
Posted by randy646 on Thursday, December 04, 2014 06:52 PM Pacific Report Abuse
Guys beware! A wanta be journalist named Bonnie Kristian from a media online place called Speed Read which is nothing but a joke of journalism. She is crusing our post and screen shooting them for her twisted view slimy article.
Posted by SAPDMAS on Thursday, December 04, 2014 06:03 PM Pacific Report Abuse
Bad uniformed cops that abuse people don’t last long anymore. They get fired pretty quick. Now are there crooked cops. Sure, I am sure that there are crooked cops that take bribes and deal dope . But we are talking about criminals hiding behind a badge.
A racist and abusive uniformed cop will not last a year in this day and age. We are video recorded, GPS tracked and not to mention recorded by everyone . These so called activists should stick to a cause that is more rampant like young black men shooting other young black men.
Posted by zama on Thursday, December 04, 2014 04:29 PM Pacific Report Abuse
I have noticed lately (even in this article) the tendency to use the phrase ‘unarmed’ while NOT including the ‘resisting’ phrase. I am of a belief there is an organized process in the media these days to instigate and promote a distrust and overall negative outlook toward law enforcement. I’m not saying there are no bad cops, but when the ‘appearance’ that is widespread throughout the country, it makes me wonder.
Posted by VON1 on Thursday, December 04, 2014 04:12 PM Pacific Report Abuse
So I have plenty of yard work to do today but I’ll throw my dime in the post pot.
Give them everything they want nothing will change.
I want to make something very clear here. The word “They” “You People”, “those people” I want to be very clear I’m not referring to just the blacks protesting. Look at the crowd there are a very large amount of white, Hispanic and even the Muslims with all their head gear protesting as well.
College liberals, professors, and organized protesters that are jumping on any cause. So when you look at the Protest and the people marching and shouting they are a different breed then the ones causing the violent acts. So lets be careful when we post to realize violence and mistrust for the system comes in all flavors.
Posted by jonboi6 on Thursday, December 04, 2014 03:55 PM Pacific Report Abuse
The main cause of Garner’s death was him resisting arrest.
Posted by lingjo on Thursday, December 04, 2014 03:46 PM Pacific Report Abuse
Ok, what do my brothers and sisters behind the badge think of this? It looks like Ofcr. Pantaleo was attempting to use a “Shoulder Pin” (PPCT) hold to gain compliance. Note that he has entered the hold by slipping under Garner’s arm / shoulder just as in the PPCT action. To an untrained eye, the PPCT Shoulder Pin would probably look just like a choke hold. Thoughts? I would especially like to hear from some PPCT / SSGT / H2H combatives instructors.
J.O.
LEO – Central Alabama, 13 years
Another Holocene Human
America … land of the free … don’t take a wrong turn and end up in the ghetto … Drive, Ted!
This really happened. It’s not a joke.
I just get stunned over and over about what people younger than myself just don’t fucking know.
You know who had ghettos? The 19th century Pope when he had land claims over Rome and 1/3 of the Italian peninsula. And it was an outrage. Napoleon’s armies had opened the ghettos wherever they went. When the Italian state was finally formed and the Pope kicked into a tiny principality on the other side of the river, Romans built an enormous synagogue as an apology to the Jewish community. Because forcing people into ghettos is outrageous and wrong. And they were forced. But you won’t learn about that in American history class. They’ll barely teach you about housing discrimination after it was illegal. They won’t tell you about when it was Federal policy. They won’t tell you it was behind the “spontaneous” “race riots” of the 20s, that those were pogroms. That Wilson’s policies caused that shit.
I can’t believe I was actually taught to and did admire Woodrow Wilson, race baiter in chief.
1990s. Problems in Haiti. US sent troops (but turned the boat people away, sent them home to be murdered). No mention of where that started. US invasion. US fucking up Haiti’s shit for 70 years.
Down the memory hole. Burned out Cleveland. Down the memory hole. Burned out DC. Down the memory hole. Razed Boston? Oh, we’ll remember the busing riots. But forget urban renewal. WASP ethnic cleansing and rich guy pocket-stuffing: down the memory hole. Some drunken stupid yobs who dropped out of HS and work in a razor factory making us look bad? Okay, you can bring that shit up. So that we can teach our children that racism is screaming bad words on the street in your one, racist neighborhood. Racism isn’t structural. Racism isn’t endemic. Racism didn’t create this perfect bubble world you were raised in. Racism is a confrontation, not millions of people suffering every single day from injustice that is invisible to the privileged.
Another Holocene Human
@Xboxershorts: It was all part of the plan … Roberts on SCOTUS (and Alito, &c). Make sure even if a case is brought it’s unenforceable. Continue the good work. Disenfranchise the masses. Permanent Republican Majority, though the world may burn.
Betty Cracker
Here’s what the convicted felon who used to be the NYPD commish said about the Garner case:
What a fucking tool.
Another Holocene Human
@Napoleon: Why not? This is how they took apart affirmative action, the only program to ever put more money into African American households.
They want their privilege back.
singfoom
@Betty Cracker: Don’t forget, you can “resist arrest” when a cop attacks you for nothing and you have no idea that they are even a cop:
http://www.vice.com/read/city-of-silence-117?utm_source=vicefbus
Tenar Darell
@celticdragonchick: Seriously? That’s so messed up. I’m as middle aged, suburban and whitebread as they come, and even I can see how terrible they sound. How can they not understand that they are all making it worse? That every bad shooting and death makes their jobs harder, and that by defending or condoning their “bad apples” they’re making themselves rotten too? /argh of frustration
Mnemosyne
This is coming for St. Louis County, including Ferguson. Expect an announcement in the next few months since the federal investigation has been going on since Michael Brown was killed.
dp
Come now. That 5′ 8″ 13-year-old probably looked demonic.
goblue72
@Xboxershorts: Just watch – I can bet dollars to donuts we will see the various “fraternal order of police” unions making significant contributions to the RNC in 2016 in hopes of electing a GOP President who will direct the DOJ to abandon all of these investigations into civil rights abuses by police departments.
Count on it.
bemused
I’m re-reading Molly Ivins’ books and wish I could read her comments on the grand juries, Ferguson and all the rest now. She really cut to the chase. She said, “I believe all Southern liberals come from the same starting point—race. Once you figure out they (right-wing) are lying to you about race, you start to question everything.”
Barbara
@SatanicPanic: Yes, reading about the cop who killed Tamir Rice does get you wondering about the Cleveland PD’s hiring practices.
But I’d also like to hear something about his partner, who was the one who drove the car right up next to Tamir, instead of stopping further away so the situation could be assessed from a distance first.
I can’t help but assume that since the cop who fired his gun was a rookie, that the cop who was driving the car was a little more experienced — well, maybe I shouldn’t assume that a department that would hire someone so unfit would think of pairing up newbies with veterans. At any rate, I think the driver-cop also has some culpability but I haven’t read anything about him.
Another Holocene Human
@bemused: They lie all day long about race up North, too. Maybe even more so. In that they pretend everything is fine and the problems are somewhere else and they pretend to have no stake or motive when they do stuff that benefits whites and hurts people of color whereas in the South, they lie about Black people but don’t really do much to cover what they’re up to, hell, they brag about it.
Paul in KY
@Another Holocene Human: 15 years ago, Cleveland was doing better. The Flats were going well, people had money to spend, etc. City is poorer now.