Spokane7
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January 16, 2012 in Nation/World
Feds stepping up police-abuse cases
SEATTLE – If the Seattle Police Department feels singled out by the U.S. Department of Justice and its findings of an unconstitutional pattern of excessive force by officers, it shouldn’t.
It was one of three law-enforcement agencies in the span of a few days last month that were accused by the federal agency of violating the rights of the people they’re supposed to protect and serve.
When Assistant Attorney Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, disclosed the findings Dec. 16 in Seattle, the event was sandwiched between other news conferences to announce that the Justice Department found that law-enforcement officers in Maricopa County, Ariz., and East Haven, Conn., had discriminated against Latinos.
Such “pattern and practice” investigations – so-called because they seek to identify unconstitutional patterns and practices by police – are on a steep upswing, according to a review of Justice Department statistics.
Experts on race, the law and police accountability say the rise in such cases reflects, in part, a disturbing increase in cases of police abuse across the country that can’t be entirely explained away by an aggressive civil-rights-minded attorney general or a change in the political winds.
“There is no question that there is a problem,” said Sam Walker, emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and the author of more than a dozen books on police accountability, civil rights and police oversight.
“What is happening is that they are addressing it,” Walker said, something he says was done only sporadically during the George W. Bush administration, which considered police misconduct a local issue.
In Spokane, the Police Department is waiting to hear whether the Justice Department will open an investigation of its use-of-force policies and practices. Former Mayor Mary Verner requested the review after the conclusion of the Otto Zehm trial, in which Officer Karl Thompson Jr. was convicted on charges of excessive force and lying to investigators.
The Civil Rights Division, Walker said, has doubled its number of attorneys since President Barack Obama took office, has moved to complete the few continuing investigations, and is opening new ones with regularity.
Last year, the division’s Special Litigation Section, which oversees pattern-and-practice investigations, released findings of investigations into seven law-enforcement agencies, including Seattle. There were none released in 2010 and two in 2009.
When he was in Seattle last month, Perez said the division had 20 ongoing pattern-and-practice investigations nationwide.
Critics say the Justice Department investigations, particularly those that focus on alleged police abuses, are politically driven and don’t necessarily reflect a growing problem among law-enforcement agencies.
“These reports aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on,” said Hans von Spakovsky, a former civil rights attorney at the Justice Department and now a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Institute for Legal and Judicial Studies in Washington.
Seattle has said it will implement the Justice Department recommendations, but von Spakovsky says cities under investigation often do so for political expediency.
The law enabling the investigations passed in 1994.
Since then, the Justice Department has conducted about 60 full investigations that looked into a fraction of the nearly 16,000 police departments and sheriff’s offices nationwide. The Department of Justice points out that investigations remain rare, and generally are conducted only in cases where a preliminary review turns up strong evidence of violations, and local efforts to address them have failed.
Many of the early investigations focused on big departments with big problems – New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York City and Cincinnati, among others.
However, the most recent investigations appear aimed at smaller and midsize departments where profiling and use-of-force issues were thought to be minimal, such as Seattle and neighboring Portland, where the Justice Department announced an investigation late last year.
Gloria Browne-Marshall, an associate professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and the author of the book “Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present,” says American cities are experiencing blowback from decades of pouring money and resources into law-enforcement agencies to fight the wars on drugs and terrorism, while police oversight lagged.
Going back just 15 years, she noted that President Bill Clinton spent billions of dollars on local law enforcement to fight urban crime and the crack-cocaine epidemic. The flow of money continued through the post-Sept. 11 Bush administration, which granted unprecedented powers to police and shifted the focus of the FBI and other federal agencies from public safety to national security.
Walker and Browne-Marshall say there is strong and growing evidence of widespread biased policing in the U.S., but that accurate data need to be gathered.
The game-changer, Browne-Marshall says, has been the cellphone camera.
For decades, allegations of police abuses have often been unprovable: a “he-said, he-said,” with a police officer on one side and the word of the victim and maybe a few witnesses – often members of the same community – on the other.
Then came the irrefutable viral videos, and those allegations weren’t weightless anymore. In Seattle, many cases of alleged police misconduct examined by the Justice Department had been caught at least in part on video, including the fatal shooting of First Nations woodcarver John T. Williams.
“There is political power in putting cellphone video up on YouTube,” Browne-Marshall said. “There’s actual visual evidence. It can’t be ignored by anybody.”
Salmonella linked to chicken handling 
Ed Byrnes on January 16 at 1:13 a.m.
It’s about time these investigations became something more than a hollow threat. Policing problems are not the exclusive domain of big cities; There are small departments with big problems and one doesn’t have to look too far in locating one.
Ed Byrnes
greenlibertarian on January 16 at 1:38 a.m.
1984’s coming a tad bit late. Who are you behind the (tiny) (mini) (lapel) (could be invisible) digital camera. Hermosa largess/largo. Will I follow, no, hell no.
Truthhurts on January 16 at 7:17 a.m.
The “war on drugs” has had all of the perverse effects of the first prohibition (alcohol) of enriching thugs, corrupting police and politicians, and, finally, developing police who view all citizens as potential insurgents, as if we all are Vietnam villagers about to toss a grenade.
We need to legalize drugs and then try to reduce the harm and demand for the product — as we have done with tobacco and alcohol. We need to realize that 1 million police are the equivalent of a “standing army” who will remain a threat to civil liberties unless they are carefully watched and fired for assisting in cover-ups. Finally, we need to restore warrant requirements so that we truly can be safe in our persons and property from unreasonable searches and seizures.
mikeln on January 16 at 7:35 a.m.
We are now all suspects in the eyes of le. We have become a paranoid nation. Even though the war on drugs has not done one single thing it promised we keep letting elected fools pour money down the drain on thier failed policies. Drugs were never the problem we were told they were, in fact the war made them the problem they are today. Good money to be made in the private prison industry created by this war. Let’s hope some eyes open up and stop this insanity.
8ball on January 16 at 7:40 a.m.
Homeland Security funded by taxpayer dollars has come to every community big and small throughout America. Their mission: to coordinate and militarize the local police in the fight against terrorism.
The problem is that increasingly, police are indoctrinated to see us, the citizenry, as terrorists. And, they are provided with all kinds of training, sophisticated weaponry, and crowd control technology, which they often began to use as mission creep spirals out of control.
Check out Homeland Securitys new outpost at Broadview Dairy. They installed bomb barrier posts out front and an over-the-top parking lot with brick, wrought iron, and electronic access that would be the pride and envy of anyone with unlimited funds.
The continual erosion of civil rights and fearmongering about terrorism fuels the division between local police and citizens. This article said the Feds step in to monitor local police, but, in my opinion, the Federal government and their policies are the problem.
D Statler on January 16 at 8:21 a.m.
It is nice to see checks and balances starting to work in the system.I would like to see more federal oversight of Spokane’s prosecutors office as well. It is almost to the point where the Federal Government should take control over all local levels of law enforcement and legal systems. We have alot of our kids coming home from Iraq that are trained in police work. Letting the army stay home and work seems like a win win situation. As it stands, taxpayers are paying for protection over and over. Consolidating to a national police force under Home Land Security leadership makes great sense. Lets take Ozzies idea to the appropriate new level. :^)
Nugget on January 16 at 8:35 a.m.
***We need to legalize drugs and then try to reduce the harm and demand for the product — as we have done with tobacco and alcohol****
One of the most ridiculous comments I’ve read in a while. As with tobacco & alcohol? Wow……what planet do you come from?
mikeln on January 16 at 8:57 a.m.
Homeland security has a new building going up in colville, population under 5000. It will be completed with its own jail. Wonder why all these people for smaller government are rallied behind this. If you have the feeling you are being watched it’s because you are.
misjustice on January 16 at 9:32 a.m.
“There is political power in putting cellphone video up on YouTube,” Browne-Marshall said. “There’s actual visual evidence. It can’t be ignored by anybody.”
Yup; case in point, the video of the beat down on Otto Zehm. Without the video there NEVER would have been a continuing investigation, let alone a trial of Karl the Klubber.
Citizens aren’t the only ones under surveillance; it’s fair game to video cops and their interactions with citizens.
(Video) Power to the People!
RedCedar on January 16 at 10:16 a.m.
Making videos of the cops in action is illegal in some places. I suspect a lot of cops would like it to be illegal everywhere and there will be pressure to pass such laws. On the other hand, in some smaller jurisdictions, the cops themselves have bought lapel cameras to record their interactions with the public in case there’s any dispute about what happened.
johnclarke on January 16 at 10:25 a.m.
RedCedar on January 16 at 10:16 a.m.
Making videos of the cops in action is illegal in some places
Where ?
lewis8457 on January 16 at 10:29 a.m.
with out the Zehm video Thompson would have been believed because the idea cops are more truthful would have played through.
now with video the real truth can be seen, and the police are no different then anyone else and their word will not be taken as golden.
misjustice on January 16 at 10:35 a.m.
For more info on how to legally photograph/video police interactions read this:
http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/know-your-rights-photographers
Shelala on January 16 at 11:07 a.m.
@Msjustice
The video taping of police activities is not a new idea. There are several organizations in many cities “like Berkley, Oakland, Portland and more. called “copwatch” http://www.copwatch.net/forums/http://www.copwatch.net/forums/http://www.copwatch.net/forums/ groups. It is a controversial idea and I don’t know if it has been effective.
Truthhurts on January 16 at 11:14 a.m.
Nugget: Please make an argument to which I can respond.
Alcohol prohibition was an absolutely catastrophe of violence and corruption (allowing thugs to organize and purchase state-of-the-art Thompson machine guns).
Having police shoot-outs with “tobacco runners” would not be an improvement over the legalization scheme we combine with education to reduce demand.
Please explain the problem of allowing people liberty as long as they don’t harm others.
Coffee on January 16 at 11:27 a.m.
johnclarke:
“Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which all parties must consent for a recording to be legal unless, as with TV news crews, it is obvious to all that recording is underway. Since the police do not consent, the camera-wielder can be arrested.”
http://gizmodo.com/5553765/are-cameras-the-new-guns
empyrius on January 16 at 11:32 a.m.
Actually Nugget if we ended the war on drugs many of our mutual problems would be immediately solved:
* “Our” domestic policing agencies could massively power down.
* Our resources, both man and machine, could be reassigned to truly productive tasks.
* Most importantly we would never again raise another generation of American youth seeing alcohol and cigarettes, our “good” drugs apparently, kill thousands of our fellow citizens every year while watching our government hunt down marijuana consumers (this introduces a major psychotic dissonance in every child subject to American education and mass communication technologies and even though this mental breakdown usually lies subconsciously dormant it does spring forth from time to time in both “healthy” and “unhealthy” individuals). . .
“They” like to say that marijuana may make psycho at risk children psycho, not that alcohol would not make a psycho at risk child psycho of course . . .
That is some serious psycho dissonance right off the bat: indoctrination brought to you by Browne, Glover, and Shadle schools and your TV and computer!
So what did putting all the crackheads in prison do? Nothing except put a lot of black dudes in prison!
Any plant or flower that grows from this earth can be consumed by any free moral agent on this planet (adulthood required though!). If any government or coalition of other men deny other people the ability to consume a plant that our Creator Himself says all men have a right to consume, then that government is then against God.
The poppy and coca plants simply possess too much value to big time money, both plants being the base for a multitude of our “legal” drugs, and we see what has happened, and is happening, to the places on this planet that naturally cultivate these resources; so the reasons for coke and heroin being illegal are indeed many and it is not as simple as “drugs are bad for you”!.
Which makes it abundantly clear why the federal government still categorizes the marijuana plant as a schedule I drug (meaning marijuana is evil incarnate)!
Har har har har
Sativex
The American government is quite knowingly evil and so are its drug company buddies and every lawyer involved.
Got more here . . .
Lots more.
Peace
Shelala on January 16 at 11:33 a.m.
BTW, In Washington, it is legal to video tape, but it is illegal to voice record, I am pretty sure.
johnclarke on January 16 at 11:44 a.m.
Coffee on January 16 at 11:27 a.m.
johnclarke:
“Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which all parties must consent for a recording to be legal unless, as with TV news crews, it is obvious to all that recording is underway. Since the police do not consent, the camera-wielder can be arrested.”
http://gizmodo.com/5553765/are-cameras-the-new-guns
Thanks, so happens I read that earlier. The Simon Glik vs.The City of Boston decision - First Circuit Court of Appeals reads “The filming of government officials engaged in their duties in a public place, including police officers performing their responsibilities, fits comfortably within these principles of protected First Amendment activity.”
We can thank the ACLU for suing on behalf of Mr. Glik.
This is a clear over reach by the police state. Those laws are not intended to put people in jail for filming police officers, so I don’t think it’s “illegal”. Film away people.
misjustice on January 16 at 11:52 a.m.
From the ACLU link that I posted above:
Your rights as a photographer:
“When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything that is in plain view. That includes pictures of federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police. Such photography is a form of public oversight over the government and is important in a free society.”
continues…
“Police officers may not generally confiscate or demand to view your photographs or video without a warrant. If you are arrested, the contents of your phone may be scrutinized by the police, although their constitutional power to do so remains unsettled. In addition, it is possible that courts may approve the seizure of a camera in some circumstances if police have a reasonable, good-faith belief that it contains evidence of a crime by someone other than the police themselves (it is unsettled whether they still need a warrant to view them).
Police may not delete your photographs or video under any circumstances.”
continues…
http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/know-your-rights-photographers
stitch on January 16 at 11:52 a.m.
The thought of being video taped quite frankly makes us all better people..Ask yourself, if I had a video on me, would I have just done that??
Ron_the_Cop on January 16 at 3:06 p.m.
Shelala,
I just replied to your post in the other thread. I also included a couple of items for Condon’s punch list if he is very serious in correcting the issues with SPD:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jan/13/condon-team-big-on-ideas-and-jargon/?comments#c397042
Orphan on January 16 at 6:12 p.m.
Coffee No one including the cops have any expectation of privacy in a public place, Please see Flora V State of Wa or Johnson v Squim.
Think about it every soccer mom with a video camera would be commiting a crime if audio or video taping was unlawful. I carry a recorder most everywhere I go.
misjustice on January 16 at 6:22 p.m.
Orphan, my conservative friend, again we agree!
As long as you are in a public place and don’t impede the work of the coppers you have every “right” to photograph or video public acts in public places.
Happy New Year to you, my friend!
; )
misjustice on January 16 at 6:38 p.m.
Instead of beating innocent citizens, and defending their poster boy KTK, perhaps the SPD should be focusing their efforts on criminals?
“..Spokane Police are reporting a recent surge in vehicle thefts that borders outside of their average range for this time of year. The typical average for the week of January 8th through 14th comes out to about 37 vehicle thefts, but this year, their strategic analysis has counted 48 incidents of vehicle thefts.”
http://downtownspokane.kxly.com/news/crime/71185-spokane-vehicle-thefts-increase-above-average
I dunno, maybe it’s just me?
But ever since the SPD announced that they no longer will investigate “property crimes” it seems as if the rate of property crimes has increased.
*sigh*