Police Abuse:
Holding the Police Responsible for Their Actions
ByTheresa Chaze

The police are no longer harbingers of service and protection, but are a power driven force whose purpose is to intimate and humiliate the masses. Instead of good will and support, they are breeding resentment and anger in those they swore to protect. Increasingly civil rights are being whittled away and totally ignored by the police. They claim their actions are justified in the name of self-defense. It calls into question what came first, the attacks on the police or the brutality against the public? Yet the individual officers are not civilly or criminally held responsible for their actions. They can’t be sued by individuals they have been wrong and rarely are they prosecuted. Instead, the cities, counties and states are financially bearing the brunt of their ego driven rampages, which have caused great harm and sometimes death to individuals.


This needs to change. Officers need to be held responsible for when they have crossed the line. In every state of the union, here are examples of officers brutalizing the public but not being held responsible for their actions. The most recent and widely publicized event happened in New York City. Unarmed Sean Bell and two of his companions were leaving his bachelor party when the police turned a minor traffic accident into a shooting gallery. At least fifty shots were fired by five police officers into the car the three men occupied. Their vehicle was stuck by 21 bullets; Mr. Bell was killed and his companions severely wounded. But they were not the only victims. A neighborhood man had not only his car damaged by three bullets, but a fourth ripped through his front window, breaking a lamp in his living room. Two Port Authority Police Officers were injured by flying glass when a bullet shattered a window at the nearby AirTrain facility. All five officers involved have been put on paid administrative leave. Their names have been withheld as well as have any further details of the shooting. A Grand Jury will be convened to investigated the circumstances of the shootings; but like Patrick Dorismond and Amadou Diallo, can the Bell family expect justice from a system that as given free reign to officers to do as they will without consequences. Doing a Google search on “police abuse of power” brings up over seven million entries. From the Iran-American, Mostafa Tabatabainejad who was tasered by the UCLA police officers for now showing proper ID in the university library to the harassment WFOS TV-CBS reporter Mike Kirsch, who investigated the abuse of citizens who attempted to make complaints against officers, it quite apparent that law enforcement officers are out of control. In spite of witnesses and video evidence, the legal system continues to protect its own by persecuting innocent citizens. There were students in the library that used their cells to document the abuse of Mr. Tabatabainejad. On such video is at http://votesmith.wordpress.com/tag/abuse-of-power/; be warned that it is very graphic. In Kirsch’s case, the Broward County Police Benevolent Association initiated a BOLO, giving out Kirsch personal information including phone number, license numbers and address to officers on a special alert. BOLO stands for “be on the look out.” This section is normally reserved for fugitives from justice and missing persons. Although the listing was temporarily withdrawn, it was back on the site March 17, along with the address and mobile phone number of Gregory Slate, one of the Police Complaint Center's volunteers.

With all the coverage, the abuse isn’t a secret. What is as easily apparent is what is being done. It is foolish for a complaint to have to go to the department that abused her or him to make complaint and expect that justice be done. But that is how the system is now set up. There are very few associations, which have the ability to effectively police the police. In many states, the Attorney General cannot get involved until after the local complaints have been filed, which means if the complaints are not accepted or denied, nothing will be done. Each state and county needs to have an independent association that the pubic can file complaints where they will be seriously investigated without complaint being harassed or intimated. There is a national database where complaints can be registered at http://www.policecomplaint.com/. This site has links to the FBI and Department of Justice tasks forces as well as to a civilian compliant center and the ACLU. It is a good resource, but none of them will prevent the abuse. The only way is insure the officers have personal as well as profession consequences. They can held responsible economically and legally for their actions. The only way this will be possible is for the public to step. As with the students who used their cell phones to document, the public needs to speak out not only on the local level but also on the state. They need to report abuses to the Attorney General of their state and not allow the office to hide behind protocol. Writing letters to the editor, giving details of the abuse will also force the police to obey the civil rights laws. Don’t be afraid to speak up for others; you never know when you will be the one who needs a witness. The more who speak out, the more power the public has to protect itself against police intimation and harassment. Legislation needs to be passed that allows individuals to sue officers. In addition, officers, who are accused of a crime, cannot be investigated by their own department, but by the next level in the chain of command.

Lastly know what your rights and responsibilities are. The ACLU (www.aclu.org) has a list of what to do and not to do when approached by the police. It gives simple specific instructions what your rights are. Knowing what do to, will help you protect yourself and your loved ones.