ACLU files motion saying Cincinnati in Violation of Police Brutality Agreement
Sunday, November 21, 2004 at 04:08PM
TheSpook
The American Civil Liberties Union accused the city Thursday of failing
to heed police reform agreements reached with the Justice Department
and black activists in the wake of three days of race riots in 2001.
The ACLU of Ohio in its court motion asked that federal Magistrate
Judge Michael Merz find the city in breach of the agreements and order
their enforcement. "The basic problem is that the city is trying to
unilaterally declare success and end federal supervision of the city
when the problems haven't been fixed," ACLU lawyer Scott Greenwood
said. "The city can't just walk away from these agreements. They are
about police reform and are not just public relations campaigns to
attract tourism." The ACLU among other things said the city has failed
to implement problem-solving in the police department, improperly used
arbitrary arrest sweeps and is seeking to end the agreements
prematurely. The ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit against the city in
2001, accusing the police of harassing black citizens for 30 years.
That year, Mayor Charlie Luken asked the Justice Department to examine
police operations following three days of rioting. The riots came after
a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black man wanted on
misdemeanor charges who ran from police. The officer was cleared at a
trial. [more
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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