XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.law-enforcement, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.usa   
   From: busted.katie.hobbs@azcentral.com   
      
   PHOENIX — Phoenix police discriminate against Black, Hispanic and Native   
   American people, unlawfully detain homeless people and use excessive force,   
   including unjustified deadly force, according to a sweeping federal civil   
   rights investigation of law enforcement in the nation's fifth-largest city.   
      
   The U.S. Justice Department report released Thursday says investigators   
   found stark racial disparities in how officers in the Phoenix Police   
   Department enforce certain laws, including low-level drug and traffic   
   offenses. Investigators found that Phoenix officers shoot at people who do   
   not pose an imminent threat, fire their weapons after any threat has been   
   eliminated, and routinely delay medical care for people injured in   
   encounters with officers.   
      
   The report does not mention whether the federal government is pursuing a   
   court-enforced reform plan known as a consent decree — an often costly and   
   lengthy process — but a Justice Department official told reporters that in   
   similar cases that method has been used to carry out reforms.   
      
   Phoenix police didn't immediately comment on the report, referring questions   
   to the city. But a top police union official called the Justice Department   
   investigation a "farce," and warned that a consent decree would hurt officer   
   morale.   
      
   "The Department of Justice is not interested in making local police   
   departments and the communities they serve better," said Darrell Kriplean,   
   president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, which represents about   
   2,200 officers. "This action demonstrates that they are only interested in   
   removing control of local police from the communities that they serve   
   through consent decrees."   
      
   Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said in a statement that city officials would   
   meet June 25 to get legal advice and discuss next steps.   
      
   "I will carefully and thoroughly review the findings before making further   
   comment," she said.   
      
   Attorney General Merrick Garland called the report "an important step toward   
   accountability and transparency." He said in an email that it underscores   
   the department's commitment to "meaningful reform that protects the civil   
   rights and safety of Phoenix residents and strengthens police-community   
   trust."   
      
   'Overwhelming statistical evidence' of disparities due to discrimination   
   The Justice Department said Phoenix officers enforce certain laws — such as   
   low-level drug and traffic offenses, loitering and trespassing — more   
   harshly against Black, Hispanic and Native American people than against   
   white people who engage in the same conduct.   
      
   Black people in the city are over 3.5 times more likely than white people,   
   for example, to be cited or arrested for not signaling before turning, the   
   report says. Hispanic drivers are more than 50% more likely than white   
   drivers to be cited or arrested for speeding near school zone cameras. And   
   Native American people are more than 44 times more likely than white people   
   — on a per capita basis — to be cited or arrested for possessing and   
   consuming alcohol.   
      
   Officers investigating drug-related offenses also were 27% more likely to   
   release white people in 30 minutes or less, but Native Americans accused of   
   the same offense were detained longer, the department said. And Native   
   Americans were 14% more likely to be booked for trespass, while officers   
   cited or released white people accused of the same offense.   
      
   There is "overwhelming statistical evidence" that the disparities are due to   
   discrimination, the Justice Department said.   
      
   Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who leads the Justice   
   Department's Civil Rights Division, criticized Phoenix for "over-policing"   
   homeless people, including arrests without reasonable suspicion of a crime.   
   More than a third of the Phoenix Police Department's misdemeanor arrests and   
   citations were of homeless people, the report says. The DOJ investigation   
   began in August 2021.   
      
   Litigation is an option if the Justice Departments' efforts to secure a   
   consent decree are unsuccessful.   
      
   "We remain very hopeful that we can build on the track record of success   
   that we have had in other jurisdictions across our country and put in place   
   a consent decree that contains the strong medicine necessary to address the   
   severe violations identified," Clarke said.   
      
   Similar DOJ investigations in Albuquerque, Baltimore and elsewhere have   
   found systemic problems related to excessive force and civil rights   
   violations, some resulting in costly consent decrees that have lasted for   
   years.   
      
   In Phoenix, a 2020 case accusing 15 protesters of being in an anti-police   
   gang was dismissed because there wasn't credible evidence; in 2017, a   
   "challenge coin" was circulated among officers depicting a gas mask-wearing   
   demonstrator getting shot in the groin with a projectile; and in June 2019,   
   cellphone video emerged showing officers pointing guns when they confronted   
   an unarmed Black couple with two small children they suspected of   
   shoplifting.   
      
   Poder In Action, a Phoenix group that advocates for people of color and   
   workers, said the findings were no surprise.   
      
   "We never needed a DOJ investigation to tell us this," the group said in a   
   statement. "The data and the stories from residents have been telling us   
   this for years."   
      
   The report said some police shootings happened because of officers'   
   "reckless tactics," and that police "unreasonably delay" providing aid to   
   people they have shot and use force against those who are unconscious or   
   otherwise incapacitated.   
      
   In one instance, police waited more than nine minutes to provide aid to a   
   woman whom officers had shot 10 times, the Justice Department said. The   
   woman died.   
      
   The investigation zeroed in on the city's 911 operations. Even though   
   Phoenix has invested $15 million to send non-police responders to mental   
   health calls, the city hasn't given the 911 call-takers and dispatchers   
   necessary training.   
      
   Officers assume people with disabilities are dangerous and resort to force   
   rather than de-escalation tactics, leading to force and criminal   
   consequences for those with behavioral health disabilities, rather than   
   finding them care, the Justice Department said.   
      
   https://www.npr.org/2024/06/13/nx-s1-5005411/phoenix-police-civil-rights-   
   violations-excessive-force   
      
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