Shielded From Justice: Police Brutality And Accountability In The United States

National Catholic Reporter, Nov 6, 1998 by Neve Gordon

SHIELDED FROM JUSTICE: POLICE BRUTALITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE UNITED STATES

By Allyson Collins

Human Rights Watch, 440 pages, $20

"Who's there?" is the opening line of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Surprisingly though, it is not the guard but the man approaching the castle's gate who poses the question. This reversal of roles seems to intimate that something is seriously awry in Elsinore, that the kingdom has been corrupted by evil forces.

Likewise, Shielded from Justice cautions us about the reversal of roles in our society, suggesting that the protectors of rights have turned into violators. In New Orleans, for example, "public awareness of police corruption and abuse reached a new high in the mid-1990s, as dozens of officers were tried for felonies including murder, armed robbery and drug trafficking.... One officer was convicted of hiring a professional killer to murder a woman for bringing a brutality complaint against him, and another was convicted for killing a brother and sister who worked at a family-run restaurant where the officer had been a security guard ..." The New Orleans police force, one might add, is only one of many departments currently under investigation by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

Although this impressive study provides several examples of the excessive use of force by officers, claiming that "police brutality is one of the most serious, enduring, and divisive violations in the United States," the author's principal objective is not focused on documenting horrific incidents. Rather, Shielded from Justice concentrates on uncovering the conditions that allow these barbarous occurrences to persist, averring that "the problem is nationwide, and its nature is institutionalized."

Collins' rigorous investigation revolves around a straightforward question: How is it that police brutality continues to be rampant despite the fact that it has been exposed by the media and that many police departments have been harshly criticized by independent commissions? The answer, though complex, is forthright: There is a general lack of accountability. The analysis of this deficit is the author's most important contribution.

Shielded from Justice represents two years of research in fourteen major cities around the country, and it is divided into four parts. The first, "Summary and Recommendations," is followed by an overview that analyzes the major causes for the lack of accountability in cases of police brutality. These two parts are based on the findings of the third section, the bulk of the book, which includes fourteen chapters, each one dedicated to a different city: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Providence, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

The last section includes eight appendices that may be used for reference.

The author argues that police abuse exists primarily because it is tolerated; furthermore this tolerance is supported by the very, institutional apparatus that is supposed to combat such offenses. By exposing institutional barriers to investigation, to redress and to the prosecution of police offenses, the book at times transcends its own objectives and manages to uncover some of the more general problems facing our society.

We read that a small group of abusive officers, usually comprising no more than 2 or 3 percent of any given police force, generate most of the complaints of excessive use of force. The problem is that these officers are not ejected from the system and consequently continue their criminal activity. Although the book does not say as much, it is evident from the findings that the violators are not only the officers who actually engage in unjustified shootings or unnecessary rough physical treatment, but include all those who, by remaining silent, ensure the impunity of the lawbreakers.

Lack of effective leadership and the failure of the judiciary system are, according to the book, among the major shortcomings common to all the cities. Following the 1991 Christopher Commission report published in the aftermath of the Rodney King beating, the author concludes that the problem of excessive use of force is "fundamentally a problem of supervision, management and leadership." Police supervisors have never been evaluated according to how they deal with subordinate officers who commit human rights violations. Very few departments around the country, it any, have developed "early warning systems to identify and manage `problem officers,'" and police unions are often all too hasty to protect offenders instead of removing the rotten apples from the basket. Above all, hardly any police chiefs have actually implemented a "zero tolerance for abuse" policy.

The failure of professional leadership is aggravated by the inadequacy of political leadership. In 1994, Congress called on the Justice Department to produce a nationwide report on police brutality. Almost four years have passed, the report is still unfinished and the representatives are waiting ... patiently. Data reveals that, "despite rhetoric to the contrary, the Clinton administration has neither dedicated significantly greater resources nor had much more success than previous administrations in prosecuting law enforcement officers for civil rights violations."