Wednesday, December 10, 2014
I am taking some time today to provide some insights as to what can be done about the perceived use of excessive force by police. The following is a link to a thirty year old news article. It is indicative of a time when violence was quite pervasive in the City of Richmond and when the police response to the pervasive violence was deemed to be inappropriate. In response to the in custody deaths of a number of African American males, a couple of multi-million dollar federal lawsuit judgments against the City, and the 60 Minutes expose mentioned in the article, the City created a Police Commission comprised of local citizens, and appointed an independent Investigative Officer, to receive complaints about police officers. Additionally, internally, efforts were made to monitor the actions of officers to make sure that the actions of officers were not excessive. As the attorney assigned to produce police officer personnel records for twenty years (1983-2003), I was always cognizant of what had happened in 1983 and I was always determined that 1983 not be repeated. To the best of my knowledge, during that time, it never was.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19840315&id=SlsuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZNoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4394,2687453
For me, two of the keys to minimizing in custody deaths is vigilant civilian oversight of the police complaint process and a vigilant administrative commitment to making sure such actions are not repeated.
For me, two of the keys to minimizing in custody deaths is vigilant civilian oversight of the police complaint process and a vigilant administrative commitment to making sure such actions are not repeated.
Peace.
P. S. As a post-script to the post above, please see the following
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