Settlement between City of Cleveland and U.S. Justice Dept. over police misconduct reported imminent

The New York Times is reporting that the City of Cleveland has reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department of Justice over what federal authorities have found to be a pattern of unconstitutional policing and excessive use of force.

The report comes two days after a local Cleveland judge found Cleveland Patrolman Michael Brelo innocent of all charges, including voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault, for his role in firing 45 bullets at Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams following a high speed chase by more than 10 police officers in November 2012 that resulted in the pair's death after their vehicle was cornered in a middle school parking lot.

Cleveland chase cops case churning slowly but surely toward uncertain end

Jackson administration announces discipline for 63 officers who were “outside the box”

"Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;

Though with patience stands He waiting, with exactness grinds He all." 

            — Traditional proverb

It ain’t over til it’s over.

            — Yogi Berra

Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath announced today that 63 police officers would be disciplined for their roles in the high-speed chase that resulted in the deaths of two unarmed citizens.

The officers will collectively receive a total of 178 days of suspension, with the maximum suspension being ten days. Two other officers will receive disciplinary letters.

The suspensions mark the second round of the city’s action against the more than 100 officers who participated in the chase.

The first phase ended in June when the city fired one police supervisor, demoted two others, and disciplined nine other supervisors.

The third phase will deal with the 13 officers who collectively fired the 137 shots that resulted in the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.
 

The highly controversial chase, which began in downtown Cleveland and ended at an East Cleveland school last November, still awaits final resolution.

Most if not all of the officers who were disciplined today are expected to appeal.

Of Congress, Council, Prosecutors, Outrageous public safety officers and 137 Bullets

[Note: I was working on an entirely different piece today when I received the following email. Its contents stopped me dead in my tracks and I sought and received permission to post it here, from its author, former Plain Dealer reporter and a man I am honored to call my good friend, Dick Peery.

I will be surprised if this piece does not give you pause as well. — RTA]

Congress and Cleveland

 — 7 Oct. 2013

Congress should take a lesson from Cleveland City Council, where they opt for silence instead of endorsing the slaying of unarmed citizens.

The House of Representatives, on the other hand, applauded with a unanimous vote of thanks after a mishmash of federal police agencies riddled a dental hygienist with bullets in front of her 17-month-old daughter Thursday. No one asked why the weaponless woman was gunned down and there was no expression of concern for the long term psychological needs of her traumatized child. Just thanks for executing someone who may have been a confused tourist who fled when weapons were pointed at her toddler, or at worst, a mentally disturbed citizen in need of medical help.

After a similar bungled chase in which more than 100 Cleveland police participated last November, officers fired at least 137 shots to kill two unarmed people. One policeman even stood on the hood of their car and shot through the windshield as he reloaded and discharged 47 bullets at them.

In fairness to City Council, there were some confused questions at first, followed by a sudden and long lasting hush. None of the 13 police who were identified as shooters has been disciplined. At least 12 returned to regular duty. The Cuyahoga County prosecutor is supposedly investigating, but there is no evidence that anything has been presented to a grand jury. A call to the prosecutor's office just gets a "no comment," as if it is none of the public's business. 

The apparent indifference of City Council looked incredibly insensitive until Congress showed how callous such bodies can be.

 Here's how it looks in another part of the world: http://iranian.com/posts/view/post/21969

• • •

East Cleveland mayoral debate tomorrow; 75 more police face suspension for chase roles

East Cleveland mayoral debate set for tomorrow at city library

Most of the news coming out of East Cleveland over the past year has been the stuff of misfortune and tragedy. To cite only a few of the lowlights: the city descended once again into fiscal emergency, the mayor called the police to escort the council president from his office, the school board rejected the favorable terms of offer to merge its shrunken and overburdened library system with the county’s acclaimed library system, more than 100 police officers from Cleveland gave chase to an unarmed pair of suspects, first cornering them in a school parking lot and then executing them on the spot, and finally, just last month, the decomposing bodies of three women were found in one of the city’s more desolate areas, victims of an apparent psychopath.

These and other issues are likely to be part of what should be a lively debate when the three Democratic Party candidates for mayor meet on stage at 1 PM tomorrow at the East Cleveland Public Library.

Residents will get to hear Mayor Gary Norton, City Council president Joy A. Jordan, and Vernon Robinson share their visions of better days ahead for their city, along with perhaps their plans for achieving their vision. Each candidate will have fifteen minutes to address the audience. A question and answer session will follow, moderated by Charles E. Bibb, Sr., president of the Ohio Eighth House District Black Caucus, the debate’s sponsor.

Bibb told the Real Deal yesterday that all three of the candidates have confirmed their plans to attend and participate.

The three candidates will square off in the Democratic primary to be held October 1. The winner will be the city’s next mayor as no Republican filed for the office and the city’s charter does not permit write-in mayoral candidates.

A suspect was indicted and arraigned this week in the suspected serial murders. He is being held in county jail in lieu of bail. No criminal charges have been filed as yet in the deadly 100 mph chase by dozens of police cars that led to the 137-bullet volley that killed Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. That case, like the serial murders, is in the hands of County Prosecutor Tim McGinty.

Cleveland police to discipline 75 officers for role in deadly chase

Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said today that 75 policemen would be disciplined for their involvement in the police chase last November that ended in the neighboring city of East Cleveland with the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.

None of the officers facing discipline is among the 13 who shot at the victims. Eleven supervisors have already been disciplined, including one who was fired.

Nineteen of the 75 officers will be referred to Cleveland’s Department of Public Safety and face temporary suspension.

Of the 75 officers facing discipline for violating police protocol, 19 will be referred to the Department of Public Safety for disciplinary hearings and could face temporary suspension, McGrath said.

McGinty shouldn't swallow DeWine bait; Vigil tonight

Prosecutor must steer clear of DeWine's editorial

“I … knew from my own experience about how ingrown, defensive and isolated the [Cleveland police] department had become. And I knew that it had to become a public issue. …

“The fact is, though, that our police department happened to be a federation of fellows, some good, some bad, most conservative, some reactionary, but all almost totally lacking in the training in human relations that some departments have at least made a beginning to provide. … The most obvious failure of the police was in their dealing with the black community. … All the police knew that few policemen faced charges or an appearance before the grand jury for shooting a black man while on duty.” *

Need I go on? These words were written almost a quarter century ago about the state of the Cleveland Police Department nearly a half-century ago. The man who wrote them knew what he was talking about: he had been a probation officer, a defense attorney, and a prosecutor. He had also been in position to appoint the city’s police chief and its safety director. His name was Carl Burton Stokes.

So let’s be clear. Notwithstanding claims of whitewash, Attorney General Mike DeWine was correct when he concluded there was “systemic failure” by the Cleveland Police Department on Nov. 29. That critique, though obvious, was an editorial judgment he offered based on his investigation. Given his explicit intent not to assign individual culpability, it’s fair to ask whether there was a political motive to his denouncing by implication the safety administration of Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson?

Were DeWine’s editorial comments intended to displace attention from the individual actions of individual police officers who are paid, and hopefully trained, to be at their most professional precisely when the stakes are highest?

Would DeWine excuse those American troops at Abu Ghraib from individual moral or legal culpability on the grounds that they were insufficiently trained? Would he have denounced the generals instead for failing to properly train our men and women to handle stress in combat?

I would hesitate to think that the State’s highest law enforcement official was inclined in any way to lend the prestige of his office to any effort to influence public opinion before a grand jury had received this case and before a jury of the officers’ peers hears evidence concerning any criminal charges that may result from grand jury proceedings.

To that extent I am concerned about media reports that County Prosecutor Tim McGinty will present the A.G.’s report to the grand jury. I believe that residents of this community who have put their faith and trust in McGinty to seek justice in the matters brought to his office, have a right to expect that he will use the DeWine report for its material value in preparing the case[s] he presents to the grand jury. He should not just turn the report over to the grand jury.

I wrote back in December that the county prosecutor is the linchpin in the ultimate arc of this case. More than any other public official — the attorney general, the mayor, chief of police or safety director — McGinty will determine whether this case bends towards the arc of justice. The old saying — that a good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich — has core elements of truth.

McGinty’s office has been relatively quiet in the aftermath of the Nov. 29 tragedy. He has yet to experience the scrutiny and heat that Mayor Jackson, Police Chief Mike McGrath, and DeWine have incurred. We see that as a good thing. But his time is surely coming. Let us hope he recognizes when the taking of lives is unwarranted and that each of us is accountable even where, and perhaps especially when the system fails to function.

Candlelight vigil tonight at Heritage Middle School

Area civil rights groups will hold a candlelight vigil at 6PM tonight in the parking lot at Heritage Middle School in East Cleveland, where the 25-minute police pursuit of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams on Nov. 29 ended in their deaths from a 137-bullet outburst by thirteen of the more than sixty police vehicles and 100+ officers involved in the chase of the apparently unarmed victims.

• • •

Click here to read this post in its entirety.

RECENT POSTS:

MONDAY ROUNDUP: CLEVELAND POLICE NOT ALONE IN NEED FOR TRAINING & RESTRAINT

IN SEARCH OF HARRIET TUBMAN

CHAOTIC KILLING OF TWO SUSPECTS? WHY, IT'S A 'PERFECT CHASE'.

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* Carl B. Stokes, Promises of Power: Then and Now, pp. 172-173. Stokes was Cleveland mayor from 1967 to 1971.