A 59-page
report released by the United States Department of Justice on Thursday reveals
widespread, excessive use of force by police officers in Cleveland. Cleveland
is the city where cops recently killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice while he was
carrying a toy gun on a playground, and just before that, Tanesha Anderson died
in police hands when cops were supposed to be transporting her for mental
health treatment.
In one incident from the Justice Department’s
new report, a 300-pound officer sat on a 13 year-old boy who weighed half as
much and punched the boy in the face repeatedly while the boy was handcuffed in
the back of a police car. In another incident, police used their stun gun on a
juvenile suspect, despite the fact that the boy was being held on the ground by
two officers. In a third incident, an officer fired upon a man who fled after
repeatedly asking the officer to produce his badge in order to prove that he
was, in fact, a cop. The cop did not do so.
The
overarching conclusion of the report is that Cleveland police “too often use
unnecessary and unreasonable force in violation of the Constitution,” and that
“[s]upervisors tolerate this behavior and, in some cases, endorse it.” The
report points to a “pattern or practice of using unreasonable force in
violation of the Fourth Amendment,” including the “unnecessary and excessive
use of deadly force,” similar use of non-deadly force, and “[e]xcessive force against
persons who are mentally ill or in crisis.”
Some of the incidents laid out in the report
reflect such questionable judgment that they would almost be comic if they did
not end so tragically. In one incident, a police sergeant fired upon a hostage who
fled a house where he was being held against his will by armed assailants.
Although the man fled the building wearing nothing but his boxer shorts, the
sergeant fired upon the man because he believed that the man had a weapon when
he pointed arm towards the sergeant. According to the report, “[n]o other
officers at the scene reported seeing [the man] point anything at the
sergeant.”
Another section of the report, which details a
high-speed chase involving dozens of officers, is worth quoting at length:
On November 29, 2012, over 100 Cleveland police
officers engaged in a high speed chase, in violation of CDP policies, and
fatally shot two unarmed civilians. . . . The incident began when Timothy
Russell and his passenger Malissa Williams drove past the Justice Center in
downtown Cleveland, at which point officers and witnesses outside the Justice
Center heard what they believed to be a shot fired from the car. It now appears
that what they actually heard was the car backfiring. A massive chase ensued, involving
at least 62 police vehicles, some of which were unmarked, and more than 100
patrol officers, supervisors, and dispatchers—about 37 percent of the CDP
personnel on duty in the City. The pursuit lasted about 25 minutes, at times
reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. During the chase, some of the
confusing and contradictory radio traffic incorrectly indicated that the
occupants of the car may be armed and may be firing from the car. Other radio
traffic did not support that conclusion. No supervisor asserted control over
the chase, and some even participated. CDP now admits that the manner in which
the chase occurred was not in accordance with established CDP policies. The
chase finally ended outside the City’s borders, in an East Cleveland school
parking lot, with CDP vehicles located in front of and behind Mr. Russell’s
car. In circumstances that are still being disputed in court, thirteen CDP
officers ultimately fired 137 shots at the car, killing both its occupants. Mr.
Russell and Ms. Williams each suffered more than 20 gunshot wounds. The
officers, who were firing on the car from all sides, reported believing that
they were being fired at by the suspects. It now appears that those shots were
being fired by fellow officers.
Just last week, nine officers involved in this
incident filed a lawsuit claiming they were punished more harshly for their
participation because they were not African American. Their punishment? Three
days of administrative leave, followed by restricted duty for about 45 days,
during which they say they were asked to do “menial and unpleasant tasks” and
denied overtime pay.
The Justice Department’s report, however, found
that these incidents of excessive force may have flourished because the police
department’s mechanisms for investigating and disciplining officers who engaged
in excessive force were entirely inadequate. Some officers who are “charged
with conducting unbiased reviews of officers’ use of deadly force admitted to
[the Justice Department] that they conduct their investigations with the goal
of casting the accused officer in the most positive light possible.” Indeed,
the report found that “[d]iscipline is so rare that no more than 51 officers
out of a sworn force of 1,500 were disciplined in any fashion in connection
with a use of force incident over a three-and-a half-year period.” When DOJ dug
deeper into that 51 incidents, they found that “in most of those 51 cases the
actual discipline imposed was for procedural violations such as failing to file
a report, charges were dismissed or deemed unfounded, or the disciplinary
process was suspended due to pending civil claims.”
A press release accompanying the report
announces that “the Justice Department and the city of Cleveland have signed a
statement of principles committing them to develop a court enforceable consent
decree that will include a requirement for an independent monitor who will
oversee and ensure necessary reforms.” A consent decree is an agreement
negotiated between DOJ and the city that can be overseen and potentially
enforced by a federal court once it is finalized.
