officers - The Black Vault

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U.S. to Review (
Complaints·
Of Brutality ··
By RONALD j. OSTROW
TIMES STAFF WRITER
WASHINGTON-Triggered by the videotaped
police beating of a Los Angeles motorist, Atty. Gen.
Dick Thornburgh Thursday ordered an unprecedented
nationwide review of police brutality co~plaints
filed with federal authorities over the last SIX
years to determine whether they show a pattern of
police misconduct.
Law enforcement officers "must be among the
"first to assure the observance of the civil,rig~ts and
.civil liberties of all citizens," Thornburgh srud after
·· meeting with two senior members. of th~ Con~es-
"sional Black Caucus who urged htm to mvesttgate
: ·what they alleged is "systemic police abuse in Los
: Angeles." ·
:. John R. Dunne, assistant attorney general for civil
;::;rights, said that his division will conduct the rev_iew
· "in-house"-studying about 15,000 complamts
!::_-brought to U.S. attorneys .. the FBI and. the ~ustice
"Department-without trymg to examme ftles of
'police departments around the country. . · ·
: Dunne said in an interview that a prev10us court
•ruling has established that "we had no authority to
conduct a fishing expedition or convene a grand .
'jury" to investigate a general allegation of systemic
!violations of civil rights. .
· He said however, that the FBI is continuing with
its investigation of the March 3 beating of R?dne_Y.G.
King despite a policy that such federal mqumes
norm'ally are suspended once it is clear that local
authorities are proceeding vigorously in the case.
' "This is not a standard case," Dunne said,
'referring to "what I saw in the full [.video] tape of
·the beating." Another source close to the investigation
said that the full-scale FBI involvement V!as ·
'justified by the case's notoriety and the tape's value
· ·as evidence. · ..
~- The caucus members are understood to have
"pushed primarily for a Justice Department investiglltion
of what they see as systemic police brutality
in the Los Angeles area. But Thornburgh's announcement
focused on a nationwide review because,
as one source explained, he "did not want to
. target Los Angeles."
! Thornburgh also directed the Justice Depart­
; ·iment's research arm to determine if any correlation
; £exists between the incidence of police brutality and
: . the presence or absence of police department
. training programs and internal procedures to deter
-;such brutality. .
; Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), a .senior rnem~er of
~the Congressional Black Caucus, expressed satisfaction
with the attorney ~~neral's ~nouncement.
(I.e page, name of
ne aper, city and state.)
Date:
Edition:
Title:
LOS ANGELES TIMES
FRI., MAR 15, 1991
FRONT SECTION, PAGE 3
U.S. TO REVIEW COMPLAINTS
OF BRUTALITY
CharacterCIVIL RIGHTS
or
Cla.ssffication:
80-33 B
Submitting Office:
LOS ANGELES
Indexing:
SEARCHED
SERIAUZEO
INDEXEO. ___._,
fiLED·----1
MAR 2 2 1991
FBI LOS ANGELES 1
,. . . . .. ~·- "' . .
· and the federal response. Conyers
Conyers and Rep. Edolphus Towns · · is expected to meet with · GAO
D-N.Y.), caucus chairman, met officials today 19 discuss the scope
Thursday with Tho~ burgh, of the inquiry.
Dunne and other Justice Depart- Dunne said that the department,
1
lnent officials. .
U.S. attorneys and the FBI have
"We are on our way to relieving been receiving about 2,500 police
~he crisis of confidence [in the · brutality allegations annually and
!>o_lice) that now exists," Conyers that only about 2% of them turn
~aid. "I see this as a way to expunge . out to have sufficient evidence to
'B. national problem· from .our law · be presented to a grand jury.
l'mforcement system. It·isn't often And only about two-thirds of
lwe get a case that leaves so little to that small percentage result in
~uestion, so fe~ defenses t,o be grand juries returning indictments,
aised." · . . · Dunne noted. Convictions "even
In addition to the Justice Depart- then" are hard to come by, he said,
ment review, Conyers said that he A'because men and women sitting in
is as}!:ing Congress' investigating . that [jury] box don't want to bearm,
the General Accounting Of- ·lieve" that police officers would
fice, to -examine police brutality· co~t the alleged acts.
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