Judge Takes Oakland Police One Step Closer to Federal Control

From [ColorLines] The Oakland Police Department’s nine-year-long struggle with federal oversight took a significant turn last week, as a federal judge demanded an investigation by court-appointed monitors into police shootings involving OPD officers and speculated openly about placing the department under federal control.

In a court order issued on May 31, District Court Judge Thelton Henderson indicated that an independent monitoring team raised unspecified concerns about how Oakland officials—including OPD brass, Chief Howard Jordan and “the City officials who supervise him” (i.e. City Administrator Deanna Santana and Mayor Jean Quan)—handle police shootings.

“The Monitor’s concerns surrounding officer-involved shootings highlight the uncertainty over whether Defendants will, without further intervention by the Court, ever be able to comply with the reforms to which they agreed over nine years ago.” Henderson wrote.

Frequent changes in the police department and the city’s leadership have not helped matters either: three mayors and four police chiefs have come and gone since federal oversight of OPD began in 2003.

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Feds Open Investigation into 09 Denver Police Brutal Beating of Black College Student

From [HERE] (AP) — A case involving a 19-year-old Black college student who was beaten after he questioned officers' authority to search the trunk of his car is now the subject of an FBI investigation, authorities said Monday.

The Jan. 15, 2009, case involving Alex Landau is one of several high-profile cases that have raised questions about the Denver police department's policies and procedures and prompted calls for a federal civil rights investigation. The officers involved were cleared of any wrongdoing by the police department and no state criminal charges were filed against the officers. The city settled the case for $795,000 after Landau filed a lawsuit alleging the beating left him brain damaged.

Denver Police Chief Robert White and Manager of Safety Alex Martinez in a joint statement said the FBI investigation centers on whether Landau's civil rights were violated by the officers involved. The department's policies and procedures are not the target, White and Martinez said. 

The original lawsuit accused the officers of stopping Landau, 19, after midnight on Jan. 15, 2009, for making an illegal turn, then calling him "nigger" and beating his face and head with their fists, a radio and a flashlight until he was unconscious. 

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NYC Mayor Backs Plan to Limit Arrests for Marijuana: Blacks & Latinos account for 86% of Marijuana Arrests

From [HERE] The New York Police Department, the mayor and the city’s top prosecutors on Monday endorsed a proposal to decriminalize the open possession of small amounts of marijuana, giving an unexpected lift to an effort by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to cut down on the number of people arrested as a result of police stops.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, whose Police Department made about 50,000 arrests last year for low-level marijuana possession, said the governor’s proposal “strikes the right balance” in part because it would still allow the police to arrest people who smoke marijuana in public.

The marijuana arrests are a byproduct of the Police Department’s increasingly controversial stop-and-frisk practice. Mr. Bloomberg and police officials say the practice has made the city safer, but, because most of those stopped are black or Hispanic, the practice has been criticized as racially biased. In fact, a recent study found that 86 percent of those arrested are black or Latino. The overwhelming majority are people under the age of 30. In 2010, 50,383 people were arrested for low-level marijuana offenses. [MORE] 

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Witnesses say Dallas Police Fatally Shot Unarmed Black Man in the Back

From [HERE] DALLAS — Conflicting stories are emerging surrounding Saturday's killing of an armed man by a Dallas police officer. Police justify the shooting as self-defense, although witnesses report the 21-year-old suspect was shot in the back as he ran from the officer.

John Husband III (left), 21, of Dallas, was killed Saturday afternoon outside an apartment complex in the 3600 block of Folklore Trail in Oak Cliff. "He [the officer] shot him in the back," said Xavier Bryant, 22.

Bryant, Husband, and a third person were visiting a friend’s apartment Saturday afternoon, when — Bryant said — the officer pulled up behind their car as they parked. It’s unclear why the officer approached the car; police only say it was a "traffic stop."

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Forensics expert pokes hole in Pasadena Police Officer's Account of McDade shooting

From [HERE] A world renowned forensic pathologist said facts presented by the autopsy of a Black man shot to death by Pasadena police officers contradicts the official account of his slaying.

Dr. Cyril Wecht reviewed a report on the death of Kendrec McDade generated by a medical examiner with the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. Wecht said there were multiple inconsistencies between the autopsy and an account of the shooting given by Pasadena police officers.

Among the contradictions is a statement by Police Department officials that McDade was at close range as he approached a patrol car and appeared to reach for a weapon in his waist band. "There was no soot from the burning powder, or stippling, that produced superficial burns on the skin," Wecht said. "The rule of thumb for handguns, if they are less than 24 inches there needs to be some stippling."

McDade, a former Azusa High School football standout, was shot and killed by officers Mathew Griffin and Jeffrey Newlen on March 24. The Pasadena-branch of the NAACP President has criticized the Police Department's tactics and the tepid reaction by city leaders to the tragedy.

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Arizona Jail Death of Latino Veteran Haunts Joe Arpaio, 'America's Toughest Sheriff'

From [HERE] and [HERE] Enrest "Marty"Atencio is at least the 12th inmate to die under strange circumstances in the Maricopa County jail system. (The Phoenix New Times lists 11 other such cases here.) And listing “law enforcement subdual” as one cause of death, according to former Maricopa County chief prosecutor Rick Romley, is particularly unusual because it could implicate law enforcement in Atencio’s death. 

The former soldier’s allegedly rough treatment by officers at Arpaio’s infamous Fourth Avenue jail in Phoenix was caught on routine jail video tape. By then, Atencio had been in police custody for over four hours and had been showing signs of “acute psychosis,” the medical examiner reports. The video appears to show burly officers from Phoenix and Maricopa County piling on Atencio, apparently after he said something, though exactly what remains unclear because jail cameras don’t record audio.

Atencio was  subdued for seven minutes, according to the medical examiner’s report, which found evidence of “apparent carotid chokehold, prone placement and restraint, use of conducted electrical device and use of handcuffs” on Atencio’s corpse. He was eventually checked by a jail medical employee before being carried to a cell, where he was stripped naked and lay completely motionless except for an “unspecified movement in his abdominal region,” the report continues.  

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