Symposium

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 17, 1999 | by Bobby Rush, | James J. Fotis

Q: Should Washington step in to curb police brutality in the states?

Yes: U.S. government involvement is necessary to keep local police accountable.

In the last year, the issues of police use of excessive force and racial profiling have caught the eye of the media and the attention of the American public, and for good reason. Consider the following:

* In Chicago, from 1997 to 1998, residents saw a 50 percent increase in the number of police shootings of civilians. This is alarming in view of the fact that during the nineties there were 115 deadly shootings by on-duty officers and 159 by off-duty officers in Chicago.

* Washington metropolitan police shot and killed 85 people during the last decade -- more people per resident in the 1990s than any other large U.S. city police force, the Washington Post reported recently.

* In New Jersey, the state police allegedly are using racial profiling to decide whom they will pull to the side of the New Jersey Turnpike in the course of a highway drag-interdiction program. The same problem has been reported in Illinois, where independent experts retained by the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, concluded that the Illinois state police engaged in a practice of stopping Latino motorists based on racial or ethnic appearance.

* Recently, a home videotape was released to the ABC affiliate in Jonesboro, Ark., that showed excessive force being used by two Officers of the Jonesboro police department. They hit a handcuffed suspect, knocking him to the ground, and then picked him up by his neck.

* In February in New York City, citizens were appalled to hear that African immigrant Amadou Diallo, who had committed no crime, was the target of 41 bullets from four New York City police officers after he disobeyed police orders to "freeze." Last year, New Yorkers were up in arms after reading that Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, allegedly was sodomized with a plunger by a white officer while in a Brooklyn police-station lockup.

These high-profile incidents point to a problem surfacing in cities large and small. Although most of the nation's police departments have an internal-affairs investigative arm that serves to "police" law-enforcement officers' actions, it is obvious that there are flaws in this system, and more needs to be done.

The experts that examine police excessive-force patterns and practices point to several problems. First, the internal-affairs investigative arm of local police departments has a low rate of sustaining charges brought against police officers. This likely is a result of the political climate in a local community, or because the investigators have relationships with the officers or are a part of that law-enforcement culture. Whatever the reason, the effect is an erosion of citizens' confidence in their police department, pitting citizens against officers. Victims may not even file a complaint because they have no faith in the system.

Second, our national leadership during the last decade appropriately has made a public push to reduce crime on our streets. However, this effort has delivered a message of approval to the imprudent and undisciplined officer. "In the name of aggressive policing, unbalanced and/or untrained police feel they can get away with anything they want to," says Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network.

Our nation's police departments have seen a large influx of rookie officers during the last few years. Americans were happy when President Clinton said he would put 100,000 new officers on the streets. However, the nation since has seen an increase in reckless and indiscriminate gunfire by police. "As a country, we have invested in an unprecedented expansion of our nation's police departments, but no related investment has been made in holding these new officers accountable. What we're seeing is a predictable result of this expansion," says John Crew, director of the Police Practices Project in the ACLU.

The fact is that some law-enforcement officers simply are in the wrong line of work. They may enter the force harboring racist attitudes or having poor interpersonal skills, which undoubtedly will lead to unnecessary conflict as they carry out their duties. The problem of the wrong person being in the wrong job is not unique to the law-enforcement profession. However, when it occurs in that profession, very serious, far-reaching problems ensue.

To add insult to injury, no federal government agency collects national statistics related to the excessive use of force by law-enforcement officers and their departments. Such data is essential to enable the authorities to take effective action.

As the police-brutality issue continues to seize the national spotlight, Americans must be reassured that police are civil servants they can depend on. If individuals cannot depend on their city or state authorities to amend the unfair practices of police, the federal government must intervene. We will not see change without intervention.

In 1994, Congress took the first step to that end. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 authorizes the Department of Justice to "obtain appropriate equitable and declaratory relief to eliminate the pattern or practice" of depriving individuals of the rights, privileges or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or the laws of the United States.