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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (2714)	4/26/2001 12:53:30 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 93284

Patterns of Police Violence From The New York Times " The Bush administration must keep up the pressure in Cincinnati, and wherever else police behavior is problematic. This is an opportunity for Attorney General John Ashcroft to begin addressing the concerns of those who have questioned his willingness to muster federal power energetically on behalf of citizens' civil rights " April 18, 2001 For the residents of Cincinnati, the death of 19- year-old Timothy Thomas on April 7 was a tragedy that says a lot about the community's deep racial divide and complicated history. But the case also ought to cause millions of Americans elsewhere and the Bush administration to study closely the use of deadly force against minorities. Ten years ago, grainy images of Rodney King being clubbed by Los Angeles police officers horrified the nation. More recently, police shootings and the possibility of racial profiling in street and traffic arrests have raised heightened concern about a systemic disparity in the treatment of whites and minorities by police in other states and cities. The question arises at a time of falling crime statistics and of widespread political approval for the "broken window" theory, that clamping down on the most mundane infractions vastly improves public safety. But along with this change in law enforcement patterns have come repeated instances that suggest that police action or brutality aimed disproportionately at minorities has become a national problem. The fact that black parents fear for the safety of their sons and that many black adults dread routine encounters with police has been amply documented. Hispanics report similar concerns. The 1998 shooting of black motorists stopped by state troopers in New Jersey has led to compelling evidence that racial profiling has existed on that state's highways for years, though it was denied by state officials. Long after the Rodney King case we learned that a member of a cell of rogue, corrupt police officers in Los Angeles shot an unarmed suspect and then lied about it in court. In response to these scandals, the federal government has intervened to curb abusive behavior by the New Jersey State Police and the Los Angeles Police Department, pursuant to a 1994 law that allows the Justice Department to sue local police departments to seek remedies where there is a "pattern and practice" of misconduct. Before 1994 the government's main recourse in protecting citizens from their own police officers' wrongdoing was the less desirable one of charging individual officers with criminal behavior. In New York, the threat of federal involvement in the aftermath of the Amadou Diallo and Abner Louima cases helped press the Police Department to alter its "stop and frisk" policies, though strains between the police and community have yet to heal. Mary Jo White, the United States attorney in Manhattan, is reportedly still considering bringing a lawsuit against the city to seek further reforms. None of this adds up to conclusive proof of a national pattern. But the repeated incidents do provide strong grounds for continued federal vigilance. Nationwide, blacks and Hispanics are twice as likely as whites to be subjected to violent behavior when stopped by police officers, according to Justice Department statistics. Following the shooting of Mr. Thomas, the Justice Department launched an inquiry into the "practices, procedures and training" of the Cincinnati police that seems justified by the statistics. Mr. Thomas, who was trying to avoid arrest for misdemeanor traffic citations and was unarmed when shot, was the 15th man killed by the police in Cincinnati since 1995 — all of them black. Whether the specific shooting was justified or not is under investigation, but the long-term pattern is disturbing. Federal oversight of local law enforcement is never popular, but the Bush administration must continue to prod police forces to adopt reforms aimed at protecting citizens' civil rights. Last month the American Civil Liberties Union sued the city of Cincinnati, alleging a 30-year pattern of racial profiling by the police. The Police Department is accused of lacking adequate guidelines on the use of force, of being unwilling to discipline its own, and of failing to honor past commitments to hire and promote more black officers. This list of allegations will sound familiar to police critics elsewhere, who are increasingly reaching the conclusion that poor management at police departments, as much as any overt racism, is often the culprit underlying police misconduct. "Patterns and practices" inquiries can produce results. Pittsburgh became the first major city to subject its department to such oversight in 1997 to settle litigation, and great strides have been taken in making its police more professional and accountable. The Pittsburgh case became the model for consent decrees entered into in 1999 and 2000 respectively by the New Jersey State Police and the Los Angeles Police Department. Even where the federal government does not take local police departments to court, as in New York, at least to date, the threat of doing so encourages reform. The Bush administration must keep up the pressure in Cincinnati, and wherever else police behavior is problematic. This is an opportunity for Attorney General John Ashcroft to begin addressing the concerns of those who have questioned his willingness to muster federal power energetically on behalf of citizens' civil rights. nytimes.com