Police Accountability Desparately Needed
Posted: 07.09.2008
All regular “ordinary” Americans (labeled “civilians” to those above the law) are held accountable, to ever stricter and often zero tolerance standards. It’s time to hold law enforcement accountable to the same, zero tolerance standard – zero tolerance for Constitutional violations and human rights abuses.
The fact that the Fraternal Order of Police and its close-knit “brotherhood” are so strongly and vigorously opposing independent review can only mean that they are neither honest nor law abiding, and are knowingly and intentionally violating the Constitution and peoples’ human and civil rights – stuff that they know would get them in trouble if it ever got out to the general public. They are a secretive brotherhood, covering up for their fellow brothers – or they wouldn’t be so afraid of a little light being shed on what they do.
Unfortunately, the trend started by the United States’ two-term, runaway unitary Executive Branch, has trickled down to all levels of law enforcement, that are abusing people with more vigor and impunity then ever. They have been emboldened by the incorrectly named Patriot Act, the loosely thrown about “terrorist” designation, and automatic, rubber-stamp support all the way up the chain of command.
This is not the America that our Founding Fathers envisioned, and not the near-totalitarian America that we should have to put up with today. It’s time to change the status quo, and rein in all levels of the executive, including local law enforcement.
A prime example demonstrating the dire need for police accountability is the City of Chicago. With its Olympic bid, this concern is even more pressing. History has shown that police act with even greater impunity at and during Olympics, such as Mexico City, Los Angeles and Atlanta, where human and civil rights abuses were rampant and freely dispensed by local law enforcement. All Chicagoans and Americans should be concerned, particularly about the fraternal order of Chicago police.
Despite well-documented evidence of ongoing and pernicious human rights abuses, deviant police officers are neither identified by internal review procedures, nor disciplined. Such conduct cannot be justified or tolerated. The Chicago Police Department (“CPD”) has to move into the 21st century – from zero accountability to zero tolerance for human rights abuses. The only viable solution is an empowered, independent civilian review board. Accountability is the hallmark of an organization’s integrity, and without accountability there can be no meaningful change at the CPD.
The CPD has been evaluated by various organizations, and each has reached the same conclusion: the CPD’s internal review and discipline systems do not protect residents of Chicago from abusive police officers. Rather, the CPD has a policy of failing to supervise or discipline its police officers. This problem is compounded by a lack of transparency, the “blue wall of silence” when police officers refuse to testify against fellow officers and refuse to cooperate with investigations of colleagues, and zero accountability.
The CPD’s own data is difficult to believe when compared to other large cities, as revealed in the federal civil rights lawsuit, Diane Bond vs. Utreras. http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?I... During the years 2002-2004, 10,149 abuse complaints were filed, but only 124 were sustained. And in total, only 19 complaints resulted in meaningful discipline – a rate of less than 2 per 1,000 complaints. To put this in perspective, the US DOJ reported that the national sustained rate for excessive force complaints in large cities in 2002 was 8%.
In a study of data from May 2001 to May 2006, most police officers had fewer than four complaints each. However, there was a glaring problem with 662 police officers (the “repeater beaters”), that each had over 10 complaints and during this time generated 10,733 complaints. Of these 10,733 complaints against the repeater beaters, only 22 resulted in meaningful discipline, and 75% of the repeater beaters have never been subject to any discipline whatsoever.
Oddly, 86% of the repeater beaters were not identified by the CPD’s supposed “early warning system” as needing intervention. There were even officers on the force with over 50 complaints each in this five year period, yet they were never disciplined or identified by the CPD’s “early warning system.” In addition, between 2001-2005 the City of Chicago paid out over $100 millions to settle 864 lawsuits. For some odd reason, the City of Chicago is hiding and protecting these 662 repeater beaters, and preventing anyone from finding out their names. http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php...
Amnesty International’s 2005 “Stonewalled” report also confirmed that due to the lack of trust in police oversight, combined with fear of retaliation, many people simply do not make complaints about police abuse and misconduct. LGBT individuals, youth and homeless people are frequently abused, yet are among those least likely to file complaints – meaning that the data from the CPD represents only a small percentage of actual abuse by the CPD, since most is not even reported. http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?...
Long-observed patterns of abuse continue unabated, and the lack of accountability within police structures has lead to widespread distrust of the justice system, particularly in minority and LGBT communities. The infamous torture by Commander Jon Burge and his officers between 1973-1991 is now well-known. However, there have been numerous other scandals during the last fifteen years, including Miedzianowski, Auburn-Gresham, Englewood, Special Operations Section (featured on CBS’ 60-Minutes on 6/1/2008), and the Skullcap Crew that terrorized Diane Utreras, as well as the recent videotaped bar beatings by off-duty Chicago police. After each scandal, Mayor Daley and various Superintendents have responded the same way – with a public statement denouncing the “bad cops” and promising vigorous investigations. However, when public attention waned, the status quo was restored, without any meaningful reform being instituted.
As Joseph Stine, former Executive Officer of Police Training Bureau for the City of Philadelphia, said “if the Chicago Police Department investigated street crime the way that it investigate police abuse, it would never solve a case.” The CPD’s procedure for investigating abuse complaints violates every canon of professional investigation, and confirms that self-policing does not work. Impunity is allowed to prevail at the CPD, as the CPD, the Cook County State’s Attorney, and the US Attorney’s office have failed to implement a system of legal accountability despite decades of well-documented and ongoing human rights violations.
Act now, speak up and voice your support for independent civilian review panels – for large cities like Chicago, and for each state to oversee all municipal law enforcement departments.
It’s a win-win situation that only the guilty and repeater beaters would oppose. Honest police officers would have nothing to fear, nothing to be guilty about, and no reason to oppose an oversight and accountability panel.
It is time for Americans to stand up and demand independent civilian review boards for all law enforcement, particularly and most importantly in light of the expanded and unconstitutional powers granted by the Bush-Cheney administration. The boards would ideally be comprised of citizens from civil rights organizations, such as the ACLU, Amnesty International, National Lawyers Guild, American Friends Service Committee, Center for Constitutional Rights, et al. They would have power and authority to issue enforceable decisions, to make sure the police stop abusing their position of authority.
It’s time to stand up and demand zero tolerance for human and civil rights abuses by law enforcement. Enough is enough.
Additional resources
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/mandel/police/websites.html#account
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