DOJ: APD violating citizens’ rights with excessive force (ABQ NM)

The Department of Justice has found the Albuquerque Police Department has established a pattern and practice in the use of excessive and fatal force that violates the Constitutional rights of those shot or harmed by police officers.

In a 46-page letter of findings to Mayor Richard Berry, the DOJ reported, “We have determined that structural and systemic deficiencies — including insufficient oversight, inadequate training and ineffective policies — contributed to the use of unreasonable force.”

The Department of Justice reviewed 20 fatal shootings by Albuquerque Police between 2009 and 2013 and found that in the majority of cases the level of force used was not justified because the person killed by police did not present a threat to police officers or the public. The DOJ also reviewed the use of nonlethal force involving significant harm or injury to people by APD officers and found a smilar pattern of excessive force by officers against people who posed no threat and was not justified by the circumstances.Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels said in an interview the findings were “pretty disturbing” and that public trust of the department has been eroded.

“A lot of the most troubling incidents involved mentally ill people,” Samuels said.

But the Justice Department said that whether it decides to seek a monitor to oversee changes in the department would depend in part on how willing APD was to make changes. Berry recently called on DOJ to begin negotiations for monitoring of the police department.

Samuels said that there was a “culture of acceptance of the use of excessive force” within APD that stems from “systematic failures” that are department wide.

The letter thanks city, police administrators and rank-and-file officers for cooperating with the DOJ investigation.

The report does not address the most recent death of a homeless man who appeared to be complying with police orders when he was shot and killed. He did not have a gun but a small pen-type knife. The lapel-video of the incident has provoked widespread criticism and protests of APD tactics.

A completely different result occurred two days ago when a disturbed man with a gun threatened to kill himself. In this case the police talked him into surrendering and did not shoot him.

The full 46-page report can be found at this link:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/217461565/U-S-Department-of-Justice-findings-letter-of-Albuquerque-Police-Department-APD-use-of-force

Darn, I wish DOJ was not such a political animal, totally corrupt. For all we know all these incidents could be totally justified, but involve minorities.

No, mostly Anglo and Hispanics (ABQ and NM are minority Anglo) with mental problems, many unarmed or with knives. Look at the "Timeline" link posted above with photos.

From the report:

"Albuquerque police used unreasonable force when they deployed a barrage of less lethal weapons at Albert, a 60-year-old man who was intoxicated and began arguing with his friend in March 2009. The friend called police twice, the second time reporting that Albert had threatened him with a knife and a pellet gun. Forty-seven officers responded to the scene, including snipers and officers from specialized tactical units. After some delay, Albert complied with officers' orders to drop a knife that he was holding while standing at the doorway and walked outside unarmed. After additional delay, he stopped and began to turn.

At that point, an officer was ordered to bag him. An officer fired five successive rounds of beanbags at Albert with a shotgun. Another officer deployed a flash-bang grenade. Another officer shot him with a canister of four wooden batons, two of which penetrated his skin. Another officer deployed a police canine that bit Albert in the arm, tearing his flesh as the canine tried to pull him down.

Albert grabbed onto a nearby fence. Two officers fired Tasers at Albert; one of them fired six five-second cycles of electricity into him. Albert finally collapsed, and officers carried him away unconscious, leaving behind a trail of bloodand urine. In an April 2012 order entering judgment as a matter oflaw in Albert's favor, District Judge Bruce Black found that no reasonable person could believe that an inhibited, slow-moving, 60-year-old individual, who made no physical or verbal threats, and wielded no weapons, could constitute a threat to the safety of any of the forty-seven armed and shielded police officers who stood over twenty feet away."

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