Police Violence in the Spotlight

http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4453
Date Written:  2015-07-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2015
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21217

Our investigation concluded that there is reasonable cause to believe that CDP [Cleveland Division of Police] engages in a pattern or practice of using unreasonable force in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

"Cleveland is unusual only in the sense that it not only has a large African American population (some 53%) but that police chief Calvin Williams is Black. The social composition of the police and city leadership of Ferguson, MO, a big factor in the protests there, is a non-issue in Cleveland.

What is common for African Americans, whether living in cities or rural areas, is the lack of respect by cops towards them. Skin color is a determining factor whether one is beat up, arrested or shot by cops. Whites in general are presumed to be law-abiding; African Americans are seen as suspects.

Cleveland and Ferguson police are united on the subject of "blue first" in blood and ideology. Chief Williams, since the DOJ findings, has gone out of his way to tell the media that he has never given his son "the talk" (about police attitudes toward Blacks) to his own son. He downplays the existence of racial profiling and racism in police work."