Cleveland Police Abuse Power, DOJ Cites

Cleveland police have a pattern of abusing power, according to a review from the Department of Justice on Thursday. The federal investigation found officers frequently use unreasonable force, and it’s sometimes encouraged by supervisors.

The city has been a site of protests after a fatal police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice nearly two weeks ago. The boy was in possession of an Airsoft replica of a semi-automatic weapon. Authorities said the replica pistol didn’t have the orange safety cap to indicate that it was fake.

Officer Timothy Loehmann, who shot him, reportedly has a record of poor emotional poise and firearm skills. He was deemed unfit for police service two years ago by a small Ohio force where he worked for six months.

The Cleveland police department hired Loehmann in March of this year. The department didn’t comment on whether it had seen the memo from the City of Indpendence releasing Loehmann from duty.

Protests erupted in Cleveland after surveillance footage revealed that when Loehmann arrived on scene, he left a still-moving car and shot Rice in seconds. The officer has been taken off duty and the shooting is under internal review.

The DOJ review of Cleveland police power looked into 600 incidents in which police used some method of force between 2010 and 2013. The review said the law enforcement is “sometimes chaotic and dangerous…and frequently deprives individuals of their constitutional rights.”

Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder gave the results of this civil rights investigation that was launched last year. Though it began long ago, the timing of Holder’s announcement coincides with Rice’s death.

The patterns of police abuse cited by the DOJ include shootings, blows to the head with weapons, “unnecessary, excessive or retaliatory use of less lethal force” (Tasers, chemical spray, and fists), and excessive force against the mentally ill. The review concluded that officers in Cleveland do not receive adequate training and supervision.

One of the cases that led to the investigation was a police shooting of an unarmed man and woman in November 2012. After a high-speed chase, 13 officers fired 137 shots at the man and woman. One officer and six supervisors were indicted.

Cleveland has agreed to work toward a settlement with the Justice Department known as a consent decree. The consent decree will tighten and govern policies on using force and the police department will have oversight from an independent monitor.

After protests from grand jury decisions to not indict white officers who shot unarmed black men in Ferguson and Staten Island, President Barack Obama held a meeting on Monday to improve local policing in communities.

Obama created a task force to investigate how to improve policing. He also proposed providing money for officers to wear body cameras and looking into local officers using military-style weapons.

The president said, “When it comes, unfortunately, as we’ve seen in recent days, to our criminal justice system, too many Americans feel deep unfairness when it comes to the gap between our professed ideals and how laws are applied on a day-to-day basis.”

After the Department of Justice’s review of Cleveland police power abuse, do you think other cities should receive the same scrutiny?

[Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk]

Cleveland Police Abuse Power, DOJ Cites