Less than a day after New York had its own Ferguson moment when a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer involved in the chocking death of Eric Garner, in a mirror image of events that took place a week earlier in Ferguson, the tide seems to be turning when moments ago a Justice Department probe concluded that the Cleveland Division of Police "has a pattern and practice of using excessive force, both in firing weapons and in using non-deadly techniques."
The findings were announced Thursday in Cleveland by Attorney General Eric Holder , who has been spending an increasing amount of time dealing with issues of police force. On Wednesday night, after a New York City grand jury decided not to indict a police officer in the death of an unarmed man in July, Mr. Holder announced a federal civil-rights probe into the incident.
This follows in the aftermath of another report [3]that trookie Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice last month had been deemed unfit for duty at a previous police department and was in the process of being fired when he resigned from his post, according to records released Wednesday.
As a reminder, Cleveland police have said Officer Timothy Loehmann, 26, shot Tamir as the boy held a toy gun at a recreation center on Nov. 22. Video released last week of the incident shows Loehmann and his partner, Frank Garmback, driving up within feet of Rice, then Loehmann shooting him at close-range seconds later.
As the WSJ reports [4], Cleveland officials have agreed to an outside monitor to improve their training and practices, officials said.
This isn’t the first time the federal government has identified problems in Cleveland. A decade ago, it struck a similar agreement with local officials to correct what federal officials saw as excessive force problems among Cleveland police.
The announcement comes at a time when Cleveland police are already facing intense criticism over the recent fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy carrying a realistic looking toy gun.
According to the Justice Department, the problems at the Cleveland police department include: excessive force in shootings and blows to the head; excessive or retaliatory use of tasers, chemical spray and fists; excessive force against mentally ill people; the use of risky tactics that make the use of force unavoidable.
And finally, completing today's angry social snapback, also moments ABC reported that [5] a judge on Thursday granted Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan's request to allow the release of limited grand jury material in the Eric Garner case Thursday.
The information released does not include any evidence presented, only the following:
- Jurors sat for nine weeks
- Testimony was heard from 50 witnesses
- Those witnesses included 22 civilians and 28 cops, EMTs or doctors
- There were 60 exhibits, including videos, records and photos
- The grand jury was instructed in law regarding physical use of force
So with all this, there is perhaps still some hope that America will step away from the ledge of spiraling into ethnic and social chaos and focus on the underlying factors that have led to class and wealth schism that is manifesting itself increasingly more violently with every passing day.
