officers - The Black Vault

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