Author: coalpoliceacc

call to action

Please attend this important meeting. The location is the PUEBLO office: 3528 Foothill Blvd (near 35th Ave).

We will be organizing for the Public Safety Committee and City Council meetings on March 24 and 31st, respectively.  The report on our proposal is here:    View Report Consolidation of Complaints at CPRB

The Justice Department announced the findings of its two civil rights investigations related to Ferguson, Missouri, today. The Justice Department found that the Ferguson Police Department (FPD) engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the First, Fourth, and 14th Amendments of the Constitution. The Justice Department also announced that the evidence examined in its independent, federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Michael Brown does not support federal civil rights charges against Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson.
“As detailed in our report, this investigation found a community that was deeply polarized, and where deep distrust and hostility often characterized interactions between police and area residents,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “Our investigation showed that Ferguson police officers routinely violate the Fourth Amendment in stopping people without reasonable suspicion, arresting them without probable cause, and using unreasonable force against them. Now that our investigation has reached its conclusion, it is time for Ferguson’s leaders to take immediate, wholesale and structural corrective action. The report we have issued and the steps we have taken are only the beginning of a necessarily resource-intensive and inclusive process to promote reconciliation, to reduce and eliminate bias, and to bridge gaps and build understanding.”
“While the findings in Ferguson are very serious and the list of needed changes is long, the record of the Civil Rights Division’s work with police departments across the country shows that if the Ferguson Police Department truly commits to community policing, it can restore the trust it has lost,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division. “We look forward to working with City Officials and the many communities that make up Ferguson to develop and institute reforms that will focus the Ferguson Police Department on public safety and constitutional policing instead of revenue. Real community policing is possible and ensures that all people are equal before the law, and that law enforcement is seen as a part of, rather than distant from, the communities they serve.”
Attorney General Holder first announced the comprehensive pattern or practice investigation into the Ferguson Police Department after visiting that community in August 2014, and hearing directly from residents about police practices and the lack of trust between FPD and those they are sworn to protect. The investigation focused on the FPD’s use of force, including deadly force; stops, searches and arrests; discriminatory policing; and treatment of detainees inside Ferguson’s city jail by Ferguson police officers.
In the course of its pattern or practice investigation, the Civil Rights Division reviewed more than 35,000 pages of police records; interviewed and met with city, police and court officials, including the FPD’s chief and numerous other officers; conducted hundreds of in-person and telephone interviews, as well as participated in meetings with community members and groups; observed Ferguson Municipal Court sessions, and; analyzed FPD’s data on stops, searches and arrests. It found that the combination of Ferguson’s focus on generating revenue over public safety, along with racial bias, has a profound effect on the FPD’s police and court practices, resulting in conduct that routinely violates the Constitution and federal law. The department also found that these patterns created a lack of trust between the FPD and significant portions of Ferguson’s residents, especially African Americans.
. . .
The federal criminal investigation into the fatal shooting of Michael Brown sought to determine whether the evidence from the events that led to Brown’s death was sufficient to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Wilson’s actions violated federal civil rights laws that make it a federal crime for someone acting with law enforcement authority to willfully violate a person’s civil rights. As part of the investigation, federal authorities reviewed physical, ballistic, forensic, and crime scene evidence; medical reports and autopsy reports, including an independent autopsy performed by the U.S. Department of Defense Armed Forces Medical Examiner Service; Wilson’s personnel records; audio and video recordings; internet postings, and; the transcripts from the proceedings before the St. Louis County grand jury. Federal investigators interviewed purported eyewitnesses and other individuals claiming to have relevant information. Federal prosecutors and agents re-interviewed dozens of witnesses to evaluate their accounts and obtain more detailed information. FBI agents independently canvassed more than 300 residences to locate and interview additional witnesses.
The standard of proof is the same for all criminal cases: that the defendant committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. However, unlike state laws, federal criminal civil rights statutes do not have the equivalent of manslaughter or a statute that makes negligence a crime. Federal statutes require the government to prove that Officer Wilson used unreasonable force when he shot Michael Brown and that he did so willfully, that is, he shot Brown knowing it was wrong and against the law to do so. After a careful and deliberative review of all of the evidence, the department has determined that the evidence does not establish that Darren Wilson violated the applicable federal criminal civil rights statute. The family of Michael Brown was notified earlier today of the department’s findings.
Due to the high interest in this case, the department took the rare step of publicly releasing the closing memo in the case. The report details, in over 80 pages, the evidence, including evidence from witnesses, the autopsies and physical evidence from the analysis of the DNA, blood, shooting scene and ballistics. The report also explains the law as developed by the federal courts and applies that law to the evidence.

Full story: DOJ Announces Findings in Two Civil Rights Investigations

The Justice Department has nearly completed a highly critical report accusing the police in Ferguson, Mo., of making discriminatory traffic stops of African-Americans that created years of racial animosity leading up to an officer’s shooting of a black teenager last summer, law enforcement officials said

DOJ Report Faults Police in Ferguson

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/us/politics/obama-calls-for-changes-in-policing-after-task-force-report.html?_r=0tp://

                                                               

On February 6th, Kelvin Bridges parked a white station wagon which belongs to his girl friends’ parents at 9th Avenue, a couple of blocks from where he lives. On February 11th, he decided to check on the car and discovered it had a ticket on it for a street-sweeping violation. He was driving a gold Honda, and as he approached the white station wagon, he was immediately approached by a plain-clothed OPD officer who was already parked on the street. He assumed that the officer was there because someone had complained about the station wagon being there too long.

The officer immediately peppered him with questions like, “Do you live around here? Do you have a key to this car? Someone called on the car. Why is it registered in Pacifica?“ Kelvin responded that his girl friends’ parents lived in Pacifica until recently. He promised to move the car later,  provided his name and license number to the officer, and left.

He came back the next day, Feb. 12th to find that the car was gone. When he inquired, he discovered that the car had been towed and was at the A & B Impound lot.

On Friday morning, around 9:15 AM, Kelvin left his apartment with his 1 ½ year old daughter, and just after he placed her in the car seat in his car, about a block from his home, 2 or 3 OPD squad cars rolled up on him – the officers had obviously been tracking and waiting for him at this location. They told him to put his hands behind his back and took his daughter out of the car. They told him that Child Protective Services would take care of his baby if he did not give them a number to a relative immediately. He asked what the arrest was about, and was told that the detective had a picture of him. That allowed them to get an arrest warrant, but they said they were not at liberty to say what the offense was that he was being arrested for. Kelvin asked if he was being taken to jail and they told him that he was going to be taken to the investigation unit.

He was handcuffed to the table for a few hours, and was interrogated for about 8 hours by two Caucasian detectives in two or three intervals, and was given only a couple of Dixie cups of water. Kelvin still assumed that the issue related somehow to the white station wagon; then, he was allowed to read the charges. That was the first time he realized that his arrest was related to a robbery that had occurred in which two black men were identified and were thought to have fled in a black car.

The investigators told him that he had been identified by a witness so it wasn’t a question of if he was involved – only a question of why he did it. They pointed out that he wasn’t the typical profile of suspects – he was going to school, had a career plan and was well spoken. so they wondered why he did this crime.

Once he found out the details of the robbery, he informed the officers that he was not even in Oakland at that time. He had been picked up and driven to a rap concert in Walnut Creek. He gave the officers many details about the event, that he had left a tee shirt there that he had purchased, the contact info for his friend who had driven him there, etc.

The officers left and then came back to say that they had learned that he had been at that venue but not on the night of the robbery , but rather a week before. Kelvin realized that either they had not really checked out the information or they were lying to him. They insisted that he was not in Walnut Creek at the time of the robbery but was, in fact, at the scene of the robbery. So, Kelvin insisted that they check with his friend and even gave the officers his phone so they could check his text messages. The officers insisted that judges don’t issue arrest warrants without evidence and, again, it wasn’t a question of ‘if he did it – only why he did it.’

At this point, Kelvin was truly upset because he knew that he would be cleared if the officers had really checked out the information he had provided and didn’t know why they continued to insist that he was in Oakland at the crime scene. The officers pointed out that an eyewitness had identified him as one of two black men who got out of the white station wagon, robbed the victim, and left in a black sedan.

After eight  hours, Kelvin was booked into North County jail and then transferred to Santa Rita. He was there for less than a day, after working with a bondsman to post bail at $50,000. At this point, the supervisor of the two detectives returned from his vacation and, once he examined the case,  recommended to the District Attorney that the charges be dropped.

Nonetheless, Kelvin is still responsible for paying $4200 to the bail bondsman and $800 for the towing and impound of both cars: the gold Honda and the white station wagon. He doesn’t understand why the two investigators did not clear him if they really did check out the information he provided and believes he was treated unjustly and that he was subjected to unnecessary trauma, not to mention expense.

Kelvin will be filing a complaint at the Citizens’ Police Review Board.

If you have a complaint, call the CPRB: (510) 238 3159. Police officers must be held accountable!

Invitation to the community to provide input into the Strategic Planning of the Citizens’ Police Review Board of Oakland. See the flyer for details: CPRB Event Flyer 03022015

Authorities said Sunday night that Los Angeles police fatally shot a man on skid row during a struggle over an officer’s weapons.

Police officials offered a detailed account of what they say prompted the Sunday morning shooting, which was captured on video by a bystander.

Cmdr. Andrew Smith said officers assigned to the LAPD’s Central Division and Safer Cities Initiative — a task force focused on skid row — responded to the location about noon Sunday after receiving a 911 call reporting a possible robbery.

Read the story and watch the video here: LAPD fatally shoot homeless man

The Wickersham Commission and President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended that higher education is a means to better professional policing. Research studies show police officers who have earned a college degree demonstrate better overall job performance and have greater advancement opportunities than their colleagues without a college degree. Read more:How Education Impacts Police Performance