officers - The Black Vault

The state Commission of Investigation
charged that local prosecutors
had skewed evidence to favor
the police account of the death of'
Ricky .McCargo, 27, who was shot
in a parking lot by a Nassau Counti
?etective. A ~assau County grand
Jury heard evidence in the case in
~98.4 ~md refused. to hand up an
mdictment against the detective.
Severa~ witnesses said McCargo
was on his knees, begging for his
life, when he was shot.
In a large number of excessive
force cases, there are no outside
. witnesses. Determining the facts- ·
both for the public and for juries-
. often is difficult, according to lawye~~
and civil rights organizations:
that deal with brutality issues.
Even when other officers are
present, corroboration often is
. difficult ~o get, say lawyers, because
officers stick to the "code of
silence" that bonds them. As Ralph
Goldberg, an Atlanta lawyer explained:
"You don't rat on 'your
partner."
. In ~ost cities allegations of pollee
misconduct are investigated by
other police officers, so there is.
widespread public suspicion that
brutality or other misdeeds are
covered up. . .
"In approximately 8,000 com-·
.plaints investigated [in New York·
City) in 1987 and 1988, there was·
not. a single instance of an officer:
coming forward with incriminating:
information about another officer "
said Norman Siegel, executive director
of the New York Civil­
Liberties Union. ·
John R. Dun1_1e •. assistant U.S.
•
at~orne_y .general for civil rights,: ment, Jeng was temporarily sus-.
s~Id cnmmal civil rights prosecu- pended. . . ··
t10ns for police misconduct are
"among the most difficult under
.0
f~d~ral law. Almost always, the
VIctims of police abuse have themselves
committed some kind of law
.violation which has brought them
t? the attention of the police in t\}e
first place. Thus, tneir credibility is
not !J.lways easy to establish."
·But some lawyers contend that
fre