REVIEW RSS FEED
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Occasional follow-up items from stories the Review covered while headquartered in Washington. Your editor was also a member of the DC NAACP Taskforce on Police and Justice which opposed the neighborhood blockades.
Washington Post - A D.C. police detective says he overheard then-Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey order a controversial mass arrest during a demonstration in downtown Washington seven years ago, according to attorneys for people taken into custody that day.
The disclosure came in an affidavit filed Wednesday by lawyers suing the District on behalf of scores of people arrested during protests Sept. 27, 2002. The lawyers contend that the detective's statements contradict what Ramsey has said under oath about his role in the roundup.
The detective, Paul E. Hustler, said in an affidavit that he was a few feet from Ramsey during the protests at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank when he overheard the chief tell officers that "we're going to lock them up and teach them a lesson."
Nearly 400 people were arrested in Pershing Park, many of them bystanders, without any warning to disperse. Ramsey, who left the D.C. force in 2006 and is now head of the Philadelphia department, has publicly apologized for the arrests but has consistently denied telling officers to make them. . .
A federal judge has criticized the District in recent months for its handling of evidence in the case. A key report, which detailed police actions that day, and critical portions of radio dispatch tapes are missing. Attorneys for protesters and bystanders say the District destroyed the tapes and documents.
Partnership of Civil Justice - The D.C. Police Department has announced that the Chief of Police is rescinding the so-called "Neighborhood Safety Zone" program. Having had its program declared unconstitutional at the U.S. Court of Appeals, and then subsequently suggesting for months that it would take the case to the Supreme Court, the District of Columbia has now cancelled the military-style checkpoints program.
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund filed the successful lawsuit challenging the military-style checkpoint program whereby police could surround a targeted neighborhood, interrogate people without suspicion, and prohibit entry to those persons who lacked a police-defined "legitimate reason" for driving into the neighborhood.
Washington Post - A D.C. police detective says he overheard then-Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey order a controversial mass arrest during a demonstration in downtown Washington seven years ago, according to attorneys for people taken into custody that day.
The disclosure came in an affidavit filed Wednesday by lawyers suing the District on behalf of scores of people arrested during protests Sept. 27, 2002. The lawyers contend that the detective's statements contradict what Ramsey has said under oath about his role in the roundup.
The detective, Paul E. Hustler, said in an affidavit that he was a few feet from Ramsey during the protests at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank when he overheard the chief tell officers that "we're going to lock them up and teach them a lesson."
Nearly 400 people were arrested in Pershing Park, many of them bystanders, without any warning to disperse. Ramsey, who left the D.C. force in 2006 and is now head of the Philadelphia department, has publicly apologized for the arrests but has consistently denied telling officers to make them. . .
A federal judge has criticized the District in recent months for its handling of evidence in the case. A key report, which detailed police actions that day, and critical portions of radio dispatch tapes are missing. Attorneys for protesters and bystanders say the District destroyed the tapes and documents.
Partnership of Civil Justice - The D.C. Police Department has announced that the Chief of Police is rescinding the so-called "Neighborhood Safety Zone" program. Having had its program declared unconstitutional at the U.S. Court of Appeals, and then subsequently suggesting for months that it would take the case to the Supreme Court, the District of Columbia has now cancelled the military-style checkpoints program.
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund filed the successful lawsuit challenging the military-style checkpoint program whereby police could surround a targeted neighborhood, interrogate people without suspicion, and prohibit entry to those persons who lacked a police-defined "legitimate reason" for driving into the neighborhood.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home