April 19, 2024, 11:44:20 am
Welcome,
Guest
. Please
login
or
register
.
1 Hour
1 Day
Forever
Login with username, password and session length
News
: ARE Search For Atlantis 2007 Results
http://mysterious-america.net/bermudatriangle0.html
Home
Help
Arcade
Gallery
Links
Staff List
Calendar
Login
Register
Police Brutality Under Wide Review by Justice Dept.
Atlantis Online
>
Forum
>
Modern Historical Mysteries
>
Modern History
>
Civil Rights
>
Police Brutality Under Wide Review by Justice Dept.
>
Message #208356
Pages: [
1
]
Go Down
« previous
next »
Print
Author
Topic: Police Brutality Under Wide Review by Justice Dept. (Read 118 times)
0 Members and 58 Guests are viewing this topic.
Aphrodite
Administrator
Superhero Member
Posts: 4607
Re: Police Brutality Under Wide Review by Justice Dept.
«
on:
March 03, 2010, 07:21:49 am »
Police Brutality Under Wide Review by Justice Dept.
15,000 CASES OVER 6 YEARS Thornburgh and Civil Rights Chief Respond to Beating of Los Angeles Suspect
By Neil A. Lewis
Special to The New York Times
OTHER HEADLINES
F.C.C. Takes Steps to Combat Abuses on '900' Numbers: Response to Complaints: Rules Are Offered to Prevent Fraud and Deceit Linked to Telephone Services
Kuwaiti Emir, Tired and Tearful, Returns to His Devastated Land
Crucial Gene is Discovered in Detecting Colon Cancer
Honecker Taken to Soviet Union; Germany Demanding His Return
Ex-P.O.W.'s Offer Accounts of Terror and Torture in Iraq
In Coal Country, a Home-Grown Clinic
Washington, March 14 - Responding to public outrage over the videotape of Los Angeles police officers beating an apparently helpless man, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh said today that the Justice Department would review every police brutality complaint to the Federal Government over the last six years.
Department officials said the aim was to determine whether there were patterns of misconduct in local police forces, not to initiate new Federal prosecutions. Mr. Thornburgh said the National Institute of Justice, the department's research arm, would also study any correlation between the frequency of police brutality reports and the procedures and training programs of police departments.
Trying to Strike a Balance
John R. Dunne, head of Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department, said the review came in response to complaints from several members of Congress, including those in the Black Caucus, who say some police departments are especially lax in maintaining discipline among their officers. Mr. Dunne said the department would review about 15,000 cases, looking for "any geographic or systematic patterns to the violence."
The Justice Department move was a finely calculated attempt to deal with the anger of lawmakers, civil rights groups and others over the Los Angeles case while not offending police officers and their advocates.
At a hearing in Los Angeles today, elected officials, civil rights workers and private citizens called for the resignation of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. They accused him of tolerating and even encouraging brutality by police officers against black and Hispanic men. He did not respond to his critics there, but met later with reporters and repeated his contention that the beating was not part of a pattern.
Chief Gates said his department had nothing to fear from the Justice Department inquiry. "This department can withstand any investigation, and we welcome any investigation," he said. "We're very proud of what we've done."
The cases under Justice Department scrutiny involve reports of police misconduct made to the Federal Bureau of investigation and United States attorneys over the last six years and do not include those cases handled solely by local police departments.
Mr. Dunne said the Justice Department had always handled its police brutality cases on an individual basis, without analyzing where they were filed. This will be the first time the department has tried to group such cases geographically to see whether there are any patterns. It is not clear what the department will do if it finds heavy concentrations in particular police forces, beyond suggestions that have already been made: that they could recommend changes in training procedures.
Volatility, Violence and Guns
Hubert Williams, president of the Police Foundation, a Washington research group established to improve police practices, said he thought the use of excessive force was a growing problem. "I believe that there are more incidents of police use of force because of the volatility of the big cities, the violence and the big guns the police are up against," he said.
The Justice Department is preparing to bring civil rights charges in 14 police brutality cases, including one against an agent of the Immigration and Naturalization Service accused of intimidating grocery store owners in Manhattan.
Mr. Dunne said the department was still investigating the Los Angeles incident. "We have several F.B.I. agents in the field on this case gathering evidence," he said, adding that it could later be presented to a grand jury.
In a Federal civil rights prosecution, there is no requirement that the victim be a minority member. A police officer or other official acting "under color of law" can be accused of depriving someone of such civil rights as the right to be free from seizure or assault.
Mr. Thornburgh ordered the study after a breakfast meeting today with Mr. Dunne and two members of the Black Caucus, Representatives John Conyers Jr. Of Michigan and Edolphus Towns of Brooklyn. They said they wanted the Federal Government to take a more active role in the police brutality issue after the national broadcast of a videotape of several white police officers in Los Angeles beating Rodney G. King, a black man lying on the ground.
Mr. Thornburgh said, "Those engaged in law enforcement must be among the first to assure the observance of the civil rights and civil liberties of all citizens."
Mr. Conyers said the videotape demonstrated a "culture of violence" in the Los Angeles police force and shocked the country in a way that has rarely happened before. He said the incident should be used as a way to eliminate "a national problem from the law enforcement system."
A Congressional Study, Too
Mr. Conyers said that the General Accounting Office, the Congressional investigative agency, would also begin a study of police brutality, and that a House Judiciary subcommittee under Representative Don Edwards of California would begin hearings next week. Mr. Conyers said the subcommittee might seek testimony from Chief Gates at a later session to be held in Los Angeles.
Justice Department officials said that besides the 14 pending Federal civil rights prosecutions involving police officers or departments, 22 more cases were before Federal grand juries.
Mr. Thornburgh said that over the past three years the Civil Rights Division had brought, criminal charges against 98 law-enforcement officials. Sixty of those cases have been prosecuted, he said, and 45 have resulted in convictions.
Officials said there were about 2,000 active cases involving allegations of police brutality under investigation at any one time in the Civil Rights Division. An F.B.I. official said many cases were not reported to Federal officials because victims were often unaware that their mistreatment could result in a Federal prosecution.
The cases are difficult to prosecute, officials say, because evidence is hard to obtain, and victims who may be criminal suspects or prison inmates may not be credible witnesses.
"These are awfully difficult cases to prove," Mr. Dunne said in an interview. "Because of our experience in bringing these types of cases, it's difficult to convince a jury that a police officer used excessive force."
In New York, Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said police abuse was a serious problem and added that in the past six years only one officer had been convicted of brutality charges.
In the August 1988 riot at Tompkins Square Park, he said, it was hard to get indictments of police officers even with videotaped evidence. He noted that although more than 400 police officers were present and there were 121 complaints, there were only six indictments and no convictions.
Los Angeles acknowledged recently that it paid more than $6.3 million in 1989 in jury awards and settlements in response to complaints of police brutality. Mr. Conyers said the 1990 figure was more than $8 million.
Just today, a Los Angeles resident accepted a $50,000 settlement after police officers searching an apartment in a neighboring house threw a vacuum cleaner through his window. The City Attorney also increased the offer of a settlement to the owner of the apartments where the search took place, from $275,000 to $600,000, the owner's lawyer said; that settlement has not been accepted. The tenants had already settled from $3 million.
In Chicago, where there were about 2,500 complaints against the Police Department last year, one police official said the system was working already and suggested that a Federal review was not necessary. "I don't know what it is the Attorney General has in mind, but we're doing a pretty excellent job here ourselves," said the official, Gayle Shines, chief's administrator of the department's Office of Professional Standards.
Back to the top of this page.
Back to today's page.
Go to another day.
Front Page Image Provided by UMI
Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Children's Privacy Notice
Report Spam
Logged
"He who controls others maybe powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.” - Lao Tsu
Pages: [
1
]
Go Up
Print
« previous
next »
Jump to:
Please select a destination:
-----------------------------
Atlantis Online - Messages
-----------------------------
=> Messages
=> Administrative Messages
=> Commemorating Dates in History
=> Alerts & Warnings
=> Upcoming Events, Releases & Ads
=> Television: Shows & Events
-----------------------------
the Coffee Shop
-----------------------------
=> the Coffee Shop
=> Atlantis: Polls & News
=> Poltical Alerts
=> Causes & Activism
-----------------------------
Videos, Documentaries & Online Movies
-----------------------------
=> Ancient History & Lost Civilizations
=> Ghosts, UFOs & the Esoteric
=> Music, Entertainment & the Arts
=> Conspiracies & Suppressed Knowledge
=> Documentary & Videos
-----------------------------
Ages of the Earth
-----------------------------
=> The Early Earth, Geology & Fossils
=> Dinosaurs
=> Catastrophes & Mass Extinctions
=> Ice Age
=> Humanity's Origins & Civilization's First Steps
-----------------------------
Mythology & Heroic Sagas of Culture & Myth
-----------------------------
=> Mythology
=> Greek Mythology
=> Arthurian Myth
=> Quest for King Arthur
-----------------------------
Atlantis
-----------------------------
=> Atlantis & the Atlantic Ocean
=> Atlantis: Theories & Speculation
=> Plato's Atlantis
=> the Scientific Atlantis
=> Geology & Atlantis
=> Atlantis & the New Age
=> Atlantis in the Media
-----------------------------
Satellite Discoveries & Alternate Archaeology
-----------------------------
=> Alternate Archaeology
=> Satellite Discoveries & Aerial Archaeology
=> the Bock Saga
-----------------------------
Maps, Explorers & Adventurers
-----------------------------
=> the Oceans
=> Islands
=> the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba & the West Indies
=> Explorers & Adventurers
=> Maps, Cartographers & Cartography
-----------------------------
Egypt & the Pyramids
-----------------------------
=> Gods of Egypt
=> Egypt & the Pyramids
=> the Giza Complex
=> the Dynasties of Egypt
=> Egypt: Latest Discoveries
-----------------------------
the Guanches, Basques, Berbers & Sea People
-----------------------------
=> Guanches, Basques & Berbers
=> Pirates, Phantom Islands & Stories of the Sea
=> the Sea People
-----------------------------
the Ancient World
-----------------------------
=> Neolithic Europe
=> Stonehenge & the Druids
=> the Library of Alexandria, Ancient Historians & Philosophers
=> Ancient Warfare
=> the Spartans
-----------------------------
the Dawn of Civilization
-----------------------------
=> Africa, the Cradle of Life
=> China & the Asian Empires
=> Eastern Mysticism, India, & the Ancient Far East
=> Zoroastrianism, Arabia & the Near East
=> the Sumerians
=> Ancient Asia Minor
=> Hawaii, Australia, Alaska & the Pacific Rim
-----------------------------
Ancient Mediterranean Cultures
-----------------------------
=> Minoan Crete
=> Phoenicians & Carthage
=> Mediterranean Islands
=> Israelities & the Kabbalah
=> Etruscans
=> Ancient Greece
=> Rome: Empire & Republic
-----------------------------
Ancient European Cultures
-----------------------------
=> The Picts & Celts
=> Ireland: History & Myths
=> Balkan History
=> Italy & Magna Graecia
=> the Vikings & Scandinavia
=> Germanic History
-----------------------------
Timelines of Ancient Europe
-----------------------------
=> History of Britain
=> Scotland: in History & Lore
=> Continental Europe: Past & Present
=> the Dark Ages
=> the Medieval World
=> The Renaissance
-----------------------------
the Ancient Americas
-----------------------------
=> the Ancient Americas
=> Peru: Mysteries & Prehistory
=> Mesoamerican & South American Cultures
===> Aztec
===> Incan
===> Olmec
===> Toltec & Teotihuacan
=> Mayan
=> Native American
=> Canada: Past & Present
-----------------------------
The Crusades, Templars & the Holy Grail
-----------------------------
=> the Crusades
=> the Knights Templar
=> The Holy Grail & Christian artifacts
=> The Sacred Feminine, the Cathars & Gnosticism
=> the Da Vinci Code
-----------------------------
Ancient Mysteries
-----------------------------
=> Philosophy
=> Ancient Mysteries
=> Lemuria, Mu & other sunken civilizations
=> Easter Island
=> Oak Island
-----------------------------
Archaeology & Anthropology
-----------------------------
=> Museums & Universities
=> Archaeology
=> Ancient Languages
=> Archaeological News
=> Underwater Archaeology
-----------------------------
Ancient Knowledge, Mysticism & Sacred Beliefs
-----------------------------
=> Ley Lines, Ancient Astronomy & Archeoastronomy
=> Prophecy, 2012, End Times & the End of the World
=> Sacred Symbols
=> The Ancient Arts: Astrology, Alchemy, the Tarot, Arcane Recondite Practices & the I Ching
-----------------------------
Search for the Sacred
-----------------------------
=> Angels & Angelology
=> Goddess Worship
=> Search for the Sacred
=> World Religions
=> the Urantia Book
=> Wicca, Witchcraft, Paganism & Ritual Magic
-----------------------------
Health & Healing
-----------------------------
=> Health, Healing & Medical News
=> Human Biology
=> Love & Relationships
=> Women's Studies
-----------------------------
Science & Technology
-----------------------------
=> Science, Physics & Technology
=> History of Science
=> Evolution vs. Intelligent Design
=> Human Genetics
-----------------------------
Earth Changes
-----------------------------
=> Earth Changes
=> Global Warming
=> Botany & Plant Life
===> Plants of the Americas that Changed the World
=> Antarctica & the Arctic
-----------------------------
Space
-----------------------------
=> NASA
=> Mars, the Red Planet
=> Life on Other Worlds
=> the Universe
=> Images from Space
-----------------------------
UFOs, Aliens & Future Science
-----------------------------
=> UFO's
=> Aliens & Alien Abduction
=> UFO Evidence & in the Media
=> Alternate History & Multiverses
=> Future Science
=> Time Travel
-----------------------------
the Occult
-----------------------------
=> Ghosts & Apparitions
=> Communicating with the Dead
=> Paranormal Events, Reincarnation & Near Death Experiences
=> the Enchanted World
=> the Supernatural
=> the Occult
-----------------------------
the Unexplained
-----------------------------
=> Cryptozoology
=> Bigfoot Sightings
=> the Unexplained
=> the Hollow Earth, Crop Circles, Strange Structures & Devices
=> Vanishings & Unsolved Murders
-----------------------------
Science Fiction & Fantasy
-----------------------------
=> Lord of the Rings
=> Science Fiction
=> King Kong, Gigantopithecus & the Mountain Gorilla
=> Godzilla, King of Monsters
=> Comic Books
===> Comic Book Creators
===> Videogames & Toys
-----------------------------
Halloween & Seasonal
-----------------------------
=> Halloween
=> Seasonal
=> Monsters of Myth, Movies & Folklore
=> Ghost Stories
=> the Zombie Apocalypse
-----------------------------
Genres of Film & Literature
-----------------------------
=> Universal Horror
=> H. P. Lovecraft
=> Horror
=> Dark Shadows
=> Twin Peaks
=> Online Horror Movies Sci-Fi & TV Series
-----------------------------
Arts & Literature
-----------------------------
=> Online Books & Research Papers
=> Classical Literature & Book Reviews
=> Art History
=> Architecture
=> Sculpture & Statuary
=> the Great Masters
=> Music
-----------------------------
Media & Film
-----------------------------
=> Cinema
=> the History of Film
=> Marilyn Monroe
=> Actresses & Models
=> Entertainment News
-----------------------------
Modern Historical Mysteries
-----------------------------
=> American History
===> Presidents of the United States
=> the World Wars
===> the Great Depression
=> the Holocaust
=> the Middle East: Past & Present
=> Modern History
===> the Industrial Age
===> Civil Rights
=> Great Cities of the World
=> the Kennedys: Their History & Assasinations
=> New York City: Then & Now
-----------------------------
September 11th, 2001
-----------------------------
=> September 11th: Conspiracies, Cover-ups & Remembrance
=> The World Trade Center Remembered
===> Life of the Twin Towers
=> Modern Warfare
=> Environmental Disasters & Mass Tragedies
-----------------------------
Suppressed Knowledge
-----------------------------
=> New World Order
=> Conspiracies
=> Suppressed Knowledge
=> Media Matters
-----------------------------
Politics
-----------------------------
=> the Barack Obama Administration
=> Conservatives, Trump, & Republican Politics
=> Joe Biden, Democratic Politics & News
=> Tea Party, Constitution, Libertarian Parties & Ron Paul
=> Politics & News
-----------------------------
Current Events
-----------------------------
=> Current Events & Odd Stories
=> The World Today
=> Financial News & the Economy
===> The History of Labor
=> Breaking News
-----------------------------
General Category
-----------------------------
=> Opinions & Editorials
=> Cartoons, Humor & Comic Strips
=> Ecology, Pets & the Animal Kingdom
=> General & Miscellaneous
=> Sports
=> Computers & the Internet
-----------------------------
Art, Graphics & Creative Writing
-----------------------------
=> Fantasy Art & Graphics
=> Creative Writing
===> Horror Fiction
=> Poetry
=> Photography & Models
=> Earth Images
-----------------------------
Past Events
-----------------------------
=> Case for Bush Impeachment/War Crimes
===> Bush Administration Torture Scandal
=> Campaign 2008
=> Atlantis Online - Memorial & Biography
===> Atlantis Online - Old Posts
Powered by
EzPortal
Loading...