137 SHOTS FIRED AND PUNISHMENT FOR CLEVELAND POLICE A CAKE WALK

Back in 2012, an unauthorized car chase ended in the shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, who were both unarmed. Nearly 60 police vehicles were involved in the chase, as was one-third of Cleveland’s police force. When the pursuit ended, 13 officers shot a total of 137 rounds at Russell and Williams. But before Saturday morning’s not-guilty verdict in the case against Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo, Brelo was the sole person charged with voluntary manslaughter because he stood on the hood of the victims’ car and shot 15 rounds — many of which were fired after the other officers stopped shooting. In the end, Judge John O’Donnell ruled that Brelo was justified in using lethal force because he feared for his life, and said he could not conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Brelo’s shots killed Russell and Williams.

Even as he faced criminal charges, Brelo remained on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the investigation, and Cleveland hasn’t been able to permanently fire a single officer involved in the incident. Indeed, the ruling and events that transpired after the fatal encounter highlight just how difficult it is to discipline officers who use lethal force.

Out of 100 officers who had a hand in the car chase, 85 officers were disciplined. However, not one of the officers was permanently fired for his or her role in the pursuit or subsequent shootout, despite their tactical blunders and disregard for department rules and instructions. In 2013, 12 supervisors were penalized for various infractions, such as breaking emergency driving protocol, but many disciplinary actions were reversed. For instance, one fired sergeant was rehired after an arbitrator concluded the supervisor was wrongfully terminated. The same arbitrator decided that two demoted supervisors could also return to their previous positions. Both determinations were backed by a county judge.

On the flip side, a contingent of nine “non-African American” officers who shot at Russell and Williams filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging they were unfairly sanctioned due to their race and media bias. According to the lawsuit, the City of Cleveland subjects non-African American officers to stricter disciplinary measures. The plaintiffs point to “assignments to boring and menial tasks in the gym with no of chance overtime, secondary employment, pay for court appearances, no chance to apply for promotions or transfers to specialized units, and being prohibited from engaging in active police work as they had grown accustomed and contracted for,” after the 2012 shooting. Should they win, the officers would receive monetary compensation for damages incurred.

While it may seem unprecedented that all 13 officers who fired at Russell and Williams were allowed to continue their policing duties, that privilege is par for the course. Across the country, officers are terminated - then reinstated with back pay, thanks to police unions and the arbitration process — a problem that persists in Cleveland, according to the DOJ. Through the arbitration process, independent mediators, or arbitrators, meet to review excessive force cases to determine whether or not officers are guilty or deserving of disciplinary action. In many cases, they reverse charges and disciplinary measures.

During its investigation of the CPD, the DOJ found that very few officers are disciplined for use of force, despite rampant police brutality. In fact, most punishments were doled out for smaller procedural violations, like not completing an official report. Last February, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, decried the arbitration process, claiming the system makes ridding the CPD of troublesome officers extremely difficult. For instance, Officer Shani Hannah stabbed her boyfriend multiple times, after which she was charged with felonious assault, sentenced to 6 months of jail time, and fired. After a police union rallied for her reinstatement, however, an arbitrator decided Hannah could return to her job.

The tendency for arbitrators to overturn police attempts to impose discipline is so strong that even Washington, D.C.’s Chief of Police Cathy Lanier has lamented that she can’t fire cops. “The arbitrator also limits what I can and can’t do with them…Some of the decisions they say I have to put them back in their old assignment. So, as the Chief of Police I’m not really the one making the decisions here,” she said.

Nevertheless, in response to the DOJ’s findings, the city of Cleveland agreed to implement systematic changes to police procedures. Under the consent decree, the CPD will alter its hiring and recruitment policies, reorient its crisis intervention strategy, and push for “bias-free policing.” Every officer will be equipped with a body camera by year’s end. And the department’s progress will also be closely monitored by a federal court. But the extent to which those changes can and will impact police accountability remains to be seen, especially with the pending investigation into 12-year-old Tamir Rice’s death.

Let's be real readers. For all the flag-waving talk about preserving freedoms and keeping government small and less obtrusive, a great number of Americans, mostly "Don't Tread On Me" tea nuts, prefer an authoritarian surveillance state with mass imprisonment and lengthy, mandatory sentencing as long as the authoritarianism is selective enough to only put the hammer down on people of color and the poor of any color. It's as simple as that.

[h/t thinkprogress]

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Roger West

137 SHOTS FIRED AND BRELO WALKS A FREE MAN

A judge found Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo not guilty Saturday morning for the fatal shooting of two unarmed black victims fleeing police in their car. Brelo was part of an unauthorized 59-car police chase in which 137 shots were fired, leaving Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams dead. Protests were immediate in the wake of Judge John O’Donnell’s public announcement.

Investigators found that 13 officers had fired shots in what started as a routine police drug patrol. But Brelo, who fired 49 of those shots, was the only one charged because prosecutors said he stood on the hood of his car and opened fire even after other officers had stopped shooting. He faced charges of voluntary manslaughter.

In his ruling Saturday morning, O’Donnell reasoned that he couldn’t find beyond a reasonable doubt that the deaths of Russell and Williams were caused by Brelo’s gunshots, since some of the 12 other officers who fired gunshots could have contributed to their deaths. He also said the actions of all of the officers were justified by their reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm at the time, even though the officers later learned that neither Russell nor Williams had a gun in their car as they fled from officers.

“Brelo did not fire too quickly or at a person that was clearly unarmed or clearly unable to run him over,” O’Donnell said. “He did not fire at someone walking or running away.”

But in the hours following his announcement, the outrage over O’Donnell’s legal distinctions was swift. U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge called the ruling a “stunning setback.” “Today we have been told — yet again — that our lives have no value,” she said in a statement.

“We are witnessing failure of legal technicalities in accounting 4 black death,” Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson tweeted

The 2012 incident occurred several years before national attention turned to police brutality after the death of Michael Brown. Since Brown’s death, at least two deaths involving the police in Cleveland have sparked particular outrage — that of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, and Tanisha Anderson, a mentally ill woman who police said “went limp” in their hands, while family members say they saw her thrown to the ground.

Speaking for almost an hour, O’Donnell attempted to urge nuance in the face of acknowledged community outrage over police brutality.

“Every week I pass a mound of stuffed animals left for a 12-year-old that many people believe was murdered by the police,” O’Donnell said. He said “this animosity is fed” not just by “clickers” but by “honest people treated as criminals” and “unnecessarily brutal treatment of suspects.” He nonetheless rejected notions that his ruling should have bearing on this larger debate

“If the evidence did not show beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly caused their deaths … then I will not sacrifice him to a public frustrated,” O’Donnell said.

The chaotic 2012 car chase was considered a department-wide malfunction and prompted an investigation by the Department of Justice into the city police department’s use of excessive force and the “the adequacy of CPD’s training, supervision, and accountability mechanisms.” In spite of a police policy that no more than 2 vehicles be involved in a chase, more than 59 vehicles joined the pursuit “without the sector supervisor’s knowledge or permission,” according to a state investigation of the incident. The chase began after a car pulled over for a turn signal violation drove away, and was later identified by several other officers driving at a high speed. Due to faltering communication, and the misimpression that the individuals were armed and fired a shot, the incident escalated until one-third of the police department had joined the chase.

Brelo was the only officer who faced criminal charges. But Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said he was encountering resistance from potential police witnesses known as the “blue wall of silence.” He said 16 police officers declined to meet with him prior to the trial to review their testimony. In court filings, he compared their refusal to cooperate to actions of an “organized crime syndicate” and asked the court to consider them hostile witnesses.

O’Donnell acknowledged that Brelo violated his training and put other officers at risk when he stood on the hood of a car without any cover and continued firing. But he nonetheless maintained the action was justified.

“I reject the claim that 12 seconds after the shooting began it was patently clear from the perspective of a reasonable officer in Brelo’s position that the threat had been stopped,” he said.

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Roger West