officers - The Black Vault

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Sometimes in the process people
don't want to cooperate, but the
police a~e still expected to arrest
. them," he s·aid.
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In some places across the country,
lawyers and civil rights organ­
"izations say the number of police
brutality complaints h1:1ve gone up
sihce the Rodney King case first
wa·s p~blicized. .
"People are coming out of the
woodwork," said Joe Cook, execu-.
tive director of the Dallas ACLU,
whose office receives some 200
citizen complaints a· year against
the police. "Before, they thought it
wouldn't do any good. Now they
have hope someone will listep to
them." ·
"Our' calls have increased since
the L.A. videotape," said Ellen
Spears, interim director of the .
ACLU of Georgia. "People feel that
maybe something can be done."
"You're going to see a lot of ·
groups and individuals running
around with camcordel;S," said''
Clackum, the Clayton County po-·:
lice chief in Georgia. . "~' r
He may be right. In 'May, well-·
known Miami attorney Ellis Rubin ·
settled for $15,000 a police brutali-
. ty case for a client whose mistreat-'
ment had been videotaped. Then:
he issued a call for blacks and other ·
minorities to band together as
"video vigilantes." :~
"I think people in neighborhoods·:
. where this brutality goes on should :
· get together, buy a camera and ·
then be there with it when police ·
do a round-up or raid a. crack ·
house," he said. "Lthink that could "
put an end to this." . "
Contributing to this report were" ..
Anna VIrtue and Mike Clary "In Miami, ~
Doug Conner In Seattle, Uanne Hart ,
and J. Michael Kennedy In Houston, •
. Laura Laughlin In Phoenix, Lee May_:·
and Edith Stanley In Atlanta, Ronald J •. u
Ostrow In Washington; Ann Rovln ln' 1
Denver, Tracy Shryer In Chicago and '
David Treadwell In New York.
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