Feds Find Shocking, Systemic Brutality, Incompetence In Cleveland Police Department

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- In recent years, Cleveland police officers have punched a 13-year-old boy who was in handcuffs for shoplifting and shot at an unarmed kidnapping victim who was wearing only his underwear, according to disturbing allegations released Thursday by the Justice Department. The agency's investigation found that officers in Cleveland routinely use unjustifiable force against not only criminals and suspects, but also innocent victims of crimes.

The so-called “pattern or practice” report from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was released Thursday afternoon as DOJ and the city announced plans to develop a court-enforceable agreement that would impose an independent monitor on the Cleveland Division of Police.

"Accountability and legitimacy are essential for communities to trust their police departments, and for there to be genuine collaboration between police and the citizens they serve,” said Attorney General Eric Holder in a press conference on Thursday.

Holder announced the measure during his trip to Cleveland, where police officers fatally shot an unarmed black child last month. In Cleveland, Holder has attended a series of meetings about rebuilding community trust between law enforcement and the public, even as protests erupted nationwide over the non-indictment of police officers who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City. Following his visit to Cleveland, Holder intends to visit Chicago and Philadelphia, as well as Memphis, Tennessee and Oakland, California, for additional roundtable meetings.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/04/cleveland-police-doj_n_6270220.html

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Cleveland police hit people in the head with guns, which sometimes fire

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland police officers routinely hit people in the head with their pistols, a deadly force and dangerous practice that should rarely be permitted, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

In some cases guns have accidentally fired when Cleveland police officers struck suspects.
...
Cleveland police officers often approach suspects with their guns drawn at inappropriate times, the report says. That approach increases the possibility of escalating violence and limits non-lethal options officers can use.

The approach also leaves officers with only one free hand, limiting less-lethal options to restrain a suspect and increasing the chance that a suspect could grab the gun.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/12/cleveland_police_hit_suspects.html

[heaven05]

1. duh, ya thinks!!!????!!!!

It's a nationwide problem.

[billhicks76]

14. Feds Fault

Their Drug War was just a thinly disguised war on poor people and minorities. Time to correct it.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. That's a shocker.

[Kelvin Mace]

3. Sorry, you folks no longer have credibility

Absent wholesale firings of violent officers, BS reports are BS.

We KNOW these people are evil thugs, what we want is for the Justice Dept to DO something about it other than stick their finger up their asses and massage their prostates.

[noiretextatique]

4. i want indictments, not reports and findings

i totally agree with you. until these assholes are relieved of duty, tried, and convicted...it's all just a bandaid on gangrene.

[Lenomsky]

5. As a Brit ...

Cleveland is scary but in all honesty I have always had more fear of the Law than the locals.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. As a "law-abiding" white, middle-class citizen

I can assure you that your fears are well founded.

[jwirr]

7. Why do any police departments wonder why we do not trust them anymore? Having said that I do

trust our small town police more than the large city military units. My grandson did say that I should not be so trusting as it only takes one to make the unit act this way.

Something has to be done and I know that President Obama is going to try - I also think that the rethugs, the people elected this year, are going to obstruct anything that he tries.

One thing that I think we need is a psychiatric exam of them all. And back ground checks when they are hired. If either of these had been done that little 12 year old boy would still be alive. Actually Wilson also talked like he needed a psychiatrist - fear of demons.

[flying_wahini]

8. fear of demons

now that IS scary.

[Initech]

12. But the smaller cities are the ones being equipped with the military units.

It's the smaller cities like Furgeson, Missouri that are getting the tanks and the riot gear. The big cities might get some of it but most of the big ticket items are going to the smaller police departments.

[jwirr]

13. Yes, I know that - I checked out our community - they got 60 assault rifles and one shotgun. They

Are not expecting any riots here I guess.

[Initech]

9. WTF is going on with the police in this country?

Did someone put something in their water supply or what?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. So they go for their gun first to use as a club?

[Don Draper]

11. Well, no shit Sherlock

Unfortunately, the Feds won't do a god damn thing about it.