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After two long years, the Cleveland Police Department has a consent decree. Not a moment too soon.
The U.S. Department of Justice consent decree, issued this week, comes
on the heels of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John O’Donnell
ruling that Michael Brelo, a white 31-year-old Cleveland police
officer, acted within his constitutional rights in the November 2012
deaths of Timothy Russell, 43, and Malissa Williams, 30, two unarmed
black occupants in a vehicle.
According to Judge O’Donnell, “Brelo’s entire use of deadly force was a
Constitutionally reasonable response to an objectively reasonably
perceived threat of great bodily harm from the occupants of the Malibu,
Russell and Williams.”
Interestingly, the Justice Department’s report said that “Cleveland
police too often used excessive force…” Judge O’Donnell went on to
state that, ” he would not “sacrifice” Brelo to an angry public if the
evidence did not merit a conviction.
Well, I’m not a judge, but something about 65 police cars involved in a
pursuit caravan which also included 104 officers and 137 bullets fired
seems just a little bit much to me.
Although 13 officers fired at the car being pursued, only Officer Brelo
faced criminal charges. Brelo’s attorneys successfully argued that
other officers also fired their guns at the end of the chase and that
prosecutors could not prove in which order the fatal shots were fired.
Russell and Williams were each shot more than 20 times.
Timothy McGinty, Cuyahoga County prosecutor, told reporters during a
post-verdict news conference that the case had been “challenging.”
Perhaps if McGinty had charged every officer who fired their weapon
rather than just Brelo, some of those challenges may have been removed.
It just seems a little too convenient, to me, that Brelo’s defense
opted to have a judge hear the case rather than a jury. A judge
certainly understands the law and its “challenges”. My guess is that
the defense also understood those “challenges” and took advantage of
them. If the prosecutor had charged every officer who fired a round the
“causation” issue would have been a non-factor. We know who caused the
deaths of Russell and Williams—EVERYONE who fired.
Why then was Brelo the only officer charged when it is obvious to me
that the 13 officers involved in the shooting acted, in my opinion,
unreasonably?
Certainly the Cleveland PD must have an administrative policy that
prohibits an officer from joining into a 65-vehicle car chase.
Certainly Cleveland PD must have an administrative policy that requires
an officer to justify each and every round fired. And where were the
field sergeants who allowed 65 police cars to engage in a vehicle
pursuit. Surely a supervisor somewhere on that department should have
opined that maybe they pursuit involved about 63 cars too many. Maybe
the consent decree can clear that up for the Chief.
McGinty went on to state that the case had already caused a “culture
change” on the Cleveland police department “in terms of less secrecy
and more accountability.”
You know, the kind of “culture” where shooting a 12-year-old child
playing in the park is justified. The “culture” that speaks to
professionally trained police officers allegedly being frightened by an
unusually large pre-teen (Tamir). The “culture” that makes it possible
for a police officer to see a male, black, child and opine that he is a
20-year-old man, as as Tamir was described by Cleveland Officer Timothy
Loehmann. The same “culture” that makes it possible for a police
officer to fail to render immediate aid after having shot someone
(Tamir). The same “culture” that makes it possible for those same
officers to “wrestle to the ground and handcuff” the 14-year-old sister
of Tamir Rice as she runs to the aid of her little brother.
Yeah, that “culture”. We sure do need a change. How about that, Chief Williams?
Well, if being suspended without pay for one to 30 days is
accountability—I guess. Thirty days without pay—that’s about 15
suspension days per murder.
During the same press conference, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin
Williams reported that as a result of the Brelo incident, 72 officers
had been suspended, one supervisor fired, two supervisors demoted, and
three officers were cleared of misconduct. This “culture change” after
the Williams/Russell massacre thatMcGinty spoke of seemingly did little
to dissuade Timothy Loehmann and his partner Frank Garmback from
shooting and killing 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
Nearly six months after the murder of Tamir Rice, Officer Loehmann has
yet to be interviewed regarding the incident. I guess the “culture
change” has resulted in “less secrecy”—not. Chief Williams, why hasn’t
Loehmann been interviewed, sir?
Would a “culture change” have precluded the Cleveland Police from
hiring Officer Loehmann in the first place? Remember, Timothy Loehmann
had been previously described—by a deputy chief on the Independence
Police Department—as someone who “could not follow simple directions,
could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun
performance was dismal” prior to Loehmann’s resignation from the
Independence PD.
Apparently, Loehmann was exactly the type of officer Cleveland wanted
on their department. Loehmann’s hiring was only exascerbated by
partnering him with Garmback, who had used excessive force on a black
female, which led to the City of Cleveland paying Tamela Eaton $100,000.
Hopefully, the DOJ consent decree will finally create that “culture
change”. The consent decree will require that “officers must try to
de-escalate situations before using a weapon…” Does that mean no more
standing on the hood of a once-fleeing vehicle and pumping 15 bullets
through the windshield? Does that include maybe parking some distance
away when responding to a “man with a gun” call and assessing the
situation as you cautiously approach to determine if the man is really
a “man” or a 12-year-old child?
I hope somewhere in that consent decree there is the mandate for all of
those “scared” police officers to articulate each and every scary
moment—one by one—that causes them to use force.
I hope somewhere in that consent decree is a requirement that any
police officer who, through psychological re-evaluation, is determined
to have a predisposition of being in “fear of black men” will receive
counselling and removal from the field, if proven incurable.
I hope somewhere in that consent decree if a police officer makes a
conscious decision to use excessive force resulting in death or serious
bodily injury that the individual officer is held personally liable.
Now that’s accountability!
And as we applaud a measure of validation of the claims of disparate
treatment and excessive and unnecessary force in Cleveland, let us not
forget about Ezell Ford, John Crawford Jr., Eric Harris, Walter Scott,
and the countless black women who have been killed by police.
#BlackLivesMatter
This commentary was originally published by The LA Progressive
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