Protests calling for the end of police brutality and the indictment of officers who are responsible for excessive force may have dotted the nation in the past weeks, but cops in Cleveland think it’s all too much.
In fact, just a week after Cleveland police fatally shot a 12-year-old for holding a toy gun, nine members of the Cleveland Police Department filed a lawsuit accusing the department of discriminating against non-African American officers who used deadly force.
Interesting. Just last month, the officers who shot John Crawford III for also holding a toy gun in the same state avoided charges when a grand jury refused to indict them.
From Think Progress:
In the suit, the plantiffs claim that the department treated non-African American officers involved in the 2012 shooting of two African Americans “substantially harsher” than African American officers involved in the same incidents. The lawsuit deals with the aftermath of a deadly November 2012 car chase. During the car chase, 13 police officers fired over 130 shots at a Chevrolet Malibu. Both people in the car were shot over 20 times and killed. Neither had a weapon. During an investigation of the car chase, it came out that officers had omitted events in their statements, misidentified the suspects and did not specify that police officers had fired shots. Earlier in November, the city settled a lawsuit over the incident for $3 million.
The officers alleged that the department’s practices place “onerous burdens on non-African American officers, including the plaintiffs, because of their race,” which violates their due process and equal protection under the law. The officers argue that as a result, they have lost wages and have suffered “impairment of their professional reputations, humiliation, emotional distress, mental anguish, and other serious damages.”
The punishment? Three days of administrative leave, restricted duty for 45 days that allegedly required the officers to do “menial and unpleasant tasks,” and no overtime pay. In addition, the officers weren’t allowed to return to active duty for 16 months due to media and political pressure — an action they say hurt their ability to apply for promotions.
But then there’s this:
While the city is on the hook for the $3 million settlement over the incident, individual officers in Cleveland paid about 1 percent of the settlement. A study in the NYU Law Review found that it is rare that individual police officers actually pay the plaintiffs in such lawsuits. The study found that individual police officers in New York City and Los Angeles paid .03 and .008 percent of settlement money to plaintiffs respectively.
While we can certainly understand the loss of income and how that may affect individual families, this all seems like a slap in the face when coupled with the fact a 12-year-old boy named Tamir Rice, who police confirmed did not threaten officers, was killed on sight by a Cleveland police officer.
Or Crawford’s death at the hands of officers.
Or Eric Garner…
Or Mike Brown…
Or Ezell Ford…
Or…you get the picture.
SOURCE: Think Progress | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
