officers - The Black Vault
officers - The Black Vault
officers - The Black Vault
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But, acknowledging the lack of~<br />
statistical evidence, he argues thati<br />
police departments "lost momen- 1<br />
tum" in the late 1980s on curbing_<br />
the use of excessive force. "Some-<br />
. thing happened out t}lere," he said.<br />
"I can't prove that, but I believe,<br />
it."<br />
0<br />
. I<br />
Federico Pereira was killed Feb. ·<br />
5. A grand jury indicted five New<br />
York City police <strong>officers</strong> March 2()<br />
on charges of murder, manslaughter<br />
and assault in the choking and;<br />
beating death of the 21-year-oldi<br />
car theft suspect. ·<br />
One of the five <strong>officers</strong> _indicted~<br />
'Police <strong>officers</strong> are<br />
.running scared' because<br />
'more and more people<br />
. . resist arrest. <strong>The</strong>se men :<br />
'· and women have to be<br />
· careful. It's a sign Qf the<br />
times.'<br />
COL. W.O. TEEM<br />
North Carolina Highway Patrol<br />
allegediy c.limbed onto the back of'<br />
the prone and handcuffed Pereira.<br />
·and placed two hands around hi_s<br />
peck, pulling his head ba~k u~tll<br />
his spine was bowed. Pereira died ·<br />
at a hospital.soon after. .<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>officers</strong>, all of whom havepleaded<br />
not guilty, maintain that<br />
Pereira became violent when the· ·<br />
<strong>officers</strong> tried to arrest him and that:<br />
he repeatedly banged his head on<br />
the pavement while they attempt-,<br />
ed to restrain him.<br />
But to Latino activists in New:<br />
York, the Pereira case was another·<br />
demonstration of rising police vio-.<br />
lence in their community. From:<br />
1986 to 1989, an average of seven,<br />
Latinos a year were killed. by·<br />
· police gunfire in the city, but in;<br />
1990, 23 were killed.<br />
In all, 41 people died in New'<br />
York in 1990 in police gunfire, the<br />
·highest number since 1975 and an<br />
increase of 37% over the 30 fatal<br />
shootings of civilians by police in.<br />
1989.<br />
olice officials contend that thei<br />
Prise in the number of · fatal;<br />
shootings reflects a harsh reality-.<br />
the streets are getting meaner as.<br />
the drug trade grows ·more violent.<br />
and guns become increasingly:<br />
prevalent. Thirty-three of the 41;<br />
civilians killed in New York, for.<br />
example, were armed, according to•<br />
.official statistics. :<br />
But critics of the department:<br />
note that almost 75% of New;<br />
York's police force i~ white-in a:<br />
city where whites make up -less;<br />
than 50% of the population-and;<br />
more than 40% of the <strong>officers</strong> livei<br />
outside the city. Many of those who!<br />
live in the suburbs, Latino activists·<br />
contend, bring with them prejudic-·<br />
es and phobias.<br />
; '<br />
Part of the problem nationwide~<br />
'said Walker, the University of:<br />
Nebraska professor, may be rae-!<br />
ism. But he and others also think:<br />
the war on drugs is to blame. "It..<br />
sent a message to police <strong>officers</strong>,<br />
that you can go out there and kick<br />
some butt, do whatever you need<br />
to do."<br />
. Murphy agreed. "<strong>The</strong>re is no<br />
doubt. that this war-on-drugs rhetoric<br />
is part of the problem~raiding·<br />
all these crack houses, more guns<br />
.on the street, cops getting automatics,"<br />
he said. "It h,as cops so .<br />
psyched up they think they are in:<br />
combat." ·<br />
Said Seattle attorney Timothy K.<br />
Ford: "What is the war on drugs?<br />
It's a. war on people,· and with a<br />
war, there's going to be collateral·<br />
damage."<br />
0<br />
Last week, two West . Palm<br />
Beach police <strong>officers</strong> were indicted<br />
on charges of second degree mur-.<br />
der and aggravated battery in the<br />
. '·death of a man who was savagely<br />
' beaten to death last November as<br />
. :,he was walking home from a<br />
·McDonald's restaurant.<br />
. Undercover offic~rs .Stephen·.<br />
. . Rollins and Glen Thurlow were<br />
driving down the street in a gold<br />
·Cadillac, :police say, when they<br />
stopp'ed Robert R. Jew~tt, a '34-<br />
ye~r-old plasterer. ·<strong>The</strong>re are no·<br />
witnesses to exactly what hap-:<br />
pened next. But within minutes,<br />
Jewett was dead from a beating·in<br />
which his Adam's apple was<br />
, crushed, nine ribs were broken and<br />
he was hit between the legs with<br />
:nightsticks witli such fury as to<br />
causE~. what one veteran ·medical<br />
examiner called "the most severe<br />
testicular damage I'd ever seen." .<br />
.. ,. 'Both <strong>officers</strong>,' who were sus<br />
': · pended with_out pay on Friday,<br />
have been named in previous brutality<br />
c9mplaints. . ·<br />
in South Florida, and particular-·<br />
.. ly iri Miami, the issue of police·<br />
·brutality has long haunted relations<br />
between police and the black<br />
community. ·<br />
I<br />
n what became a landmark<br />
event in Miami history, black<br />
insurance man Arthur McDuffie<br />
was riding a friend's motorcycle on .<br />
the morning of Dec. 17, 1979, when,<br />
•. according -t:o police he flashed<br />
them an obscene ges~ure and sped'<br />
away. After a short chase, McDuffie<br />
pulled over and up to 12 <strong>officers</strong><br />
wielding heavy flashlights began<br />
•· to pummel him. He died four days<br />
later of a fractured skull.<br />
. { Almost five months late~, when:<br />
· .four of the <strong>officers</strong> on trial for<br />
· taking part in the beating, and then:<br />
. . covering it up, were acquitted by"<br />
I an all-white jury, Miami -erupted.<br />
In three days of vicious rioting, 18<br />
1<br />
•. 'persons wer~ killed, hundreds<br />
: . were. injured and blocks of Liberty<br />
; City were ~acked and torched.<br />
r :Quring the 1980s, two other riots<br />
· convulsed Miami, both touched off<br />
'by ·shootings of black men ·by.<br />
Latipo police <strong>officers</strong>.<br />
! · Law enforcement officials aci<br />
kno~ledge that many <strong>officers</strong> are<br />
, edgy and that tempers get short.<br />
. But they argue that cops have a<br />
right to be that way.<br />
· Col. W. D. Teem, commander of<br />
the North Carolina Highway Pa-<br />
trol, ·said, "police.<strong>officers</strong> .are run-'<br />
, ning· scared" because "more and<br />
. mor~ people resist arrest. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
men·and women have to be careful.<br />
It's a sign of the times." ·<br />
"What gets lost is we have to<br />
:' dealiwith a lot of society's rejects<br />
· anci inisfi~,'' sald Ronnie Clackum,·<br />
~ chief of the Clayton County Police<br />
~ Department in Georgia. "People<br />
;. call the .. police wheQ there's. no one<br />
: ·else to call." . ·<br />
~ Clackum, who said he doesn't<br />
"· tolerate excessive force in his de- ·<br />
· partment, .added that high-speed.<br />
1 chases put <strong>officers</strong> on edge. ~'<strong>The</strong> .<br />
~ adrenalin gets. to flowing, and by'<br />
1<br />
the time someone sideswipes your<br />
· car, <strong>officers</strong> get so caught up in the<br />
-events and emotion that they over<br />
'· reac't," he said: · · · ·<br />
1<br />
I<br />
. Bot Brian Spears, an Atlanta_<br />
.lawyer, speaks of the "spiraling<br />
effect" of police brutality, arguing<br />
·that, in communities where the.<br />
: police have a reputation for using:<br />
.··excessive force, suspects may flee<br />
~\or resist arrest precisely because_<br />
~ they fear what will happen to them<br />
1· in police custody. ·"It [police bru-_.<br />
! taiity) breeds disrespec.t' and mis<br />
! trust and makes it likely that<br />
· :people who are taken into custody·<br />
r will act out of fear and run. Or<br />
f,'fight.". .<br />
r~ ·.o<br />
..= ~<br />
. A New York state investigative<br />
·. panel recently caUed for the ap<br />
·pointment of a special prosecutor<br />
to look into the fatal police shoot-<br />
·.• jng of a black man on· Long Island<br />
h.iJrl984. .