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Today In Criminal Justice
When Police Officers Kill, Cities Face Tough Strategic Decisions
Selling OxyContin: How Abbott Labs Engendered Opioid Crisis
Chertoff on Trump's Safety Plan: 'Offensive, Waste of Time'
Tulsa Officer Booked, Freed on $50K Bond; in Court Next Week
Captive Lives: The ‘Invisible Victims' of Incarceration
NC GOP U.S. Rep.: Charlotte Protesters 'Hate White People'
MA Court: Black Men May Have a Good Reason to Flee Police
In Crime Spotlight, Chicago Mayor Vows to Stem Violence
Missouri PD to Require Written Permission for Car Searches
NYC Project Shows Value of Legal Aid in Immigration Court
Civil Rights Chief: Biased Enforcement Feeds Distrust
Top Story
When Police Officers Kill, Cities Face Tough Strategic DecisionsThe Washington Post examines some of the nettling questions that city leaders now routinely face when protests follow controversial police shootings: Do you release video footage of the confrontation? Do you deploy officers in riot gear? Do you call in the National Guard? This is their new reality when a tragically common occurence — the shooting of a black man by police — has the potential to unleash chaos upon their communities, in which the wrong decision can set a city afire. Charlotte is now struggling through those decisions, drawing on painful lessons learned in places such as Ferguson, Mo., Baton Rouge, Baltimore, Chicago and Minneapolis. But even now — more than two years after riots in Ferguson rocked the nation, after countless after-action reports, investigations and panel discussions by mayors who have weathered their own cities’ protests — it remains extraordinarily difficult to de-escalate public anger when police shoot and kill another black man.
In Charlotte, officials have declined to release police video of Tuesday’s fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. In stark contrast, officials in Tulsa this week waited just two days before releasing multiple videos and recordings documenting the fatal shooting of a 40-year-old black man in that city. (Tulsa Officer Betty Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter in the case on Thursday.) “It was something that we talked about over the years, that if something of this magnitude were to happen, being transparent, giving out information as quickly and as complete as possible,” Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett told the media. “We don’t want to be perceived as trying to cover something up.” Other cities have also have quickly released videos of officer-involved shootings in an effort to avoid becoming the next Ferguson. Washington Post Selling OxyContin: How Abbott Labs Engendered Opioid CrisisSTATNews.com reports on the extraordinary sales efforts of Abbott Laboratories to push medical professionals to write prescriptions for the potent painkiller OxyContin. The health-and-medicine news organization says newly released court documents “shows the lengths to which Abbott went to hook in doctors and make OxyContin a billion-dollar blockbuster.” Purdue Pharma LP, the Connecticut company that developed OxyContin, has been vilified for planting the seeds of today’s opioid crisis, which kills an estimated 78 Americans a day. But the role of Abbott in pushing the drug has largely escaped notice. The documents reveal it was a crucial partner in the aggressive — and misleading — selling of OxyContin during its first decade on the market.
Abbott’s relationship with Purdue and its part in building the OxyContin brand are detailed in previously secret court filings unsealed by a Welch, W.Va., state court judge at the request of STAT. The records were part of a case brought by the state of West Virginia against Purdue and Abbott that alleged they inappropriately marketed the drug, causing users to become addicted to the opioid. The documents include internal Abbott and Purdue memos, as well as sales documents and marketing materials. They show that Abbott sales reps were instructed to downplay the threat of addiction with OxyContin and make other claims to doctors that had no scientific basis. Abbott, with a sales force entrenched in hospitals and surgical centers, devoted at least 300 sales reps to OxyContin sales. Abbott marketed OxyContin from 1996 through 2002. Sales of OxyContin went from $49 million in its first full year on the market to $1.6 billion in 2002. Over the life of the partnership, Purdue paid Abbott nearly $500 million. STATnews.com Chertoff on Trump's Safety Plan: 'Offensive, Waste of Time'Branding himself the “law-and-order candidate,” Donald Trump has vowed to carry out a crackdown on crime and terrorism that would benefit white Americans and racial minorities alike. But an examination of the Republican presidential candidate’s recommendations for policing, terrorism and immigration enforcement reveals a series of policies that civil rights activists and national security veterans fear could have the effect of treating minorities with suspicion and singling them out for heavier government scrutiny, says the New York Times. Trump has intensified the racial and ethnic cast to his policies. On Wednesday, he suggested New York’s discontinued stop-and-frisk policing, widely denounced as racially biased, should be a model for other cities. And he replied to the bombings in New York and New Jersey by calling for aggressive profiling of terrorism suspects and criticized the authorities for showing restraint toward people from “that part of the world.”
Many of the details of Trump’s proposals are sketchy and thus difficult to analyze. But his vague policy prescriptions have stirred concern among some experts in national security and law enforcement, including prominent Republicans who warn that Trump’s agenda could undermine public safety by generating a backlash in communities that the police and intelligence officials rely upon for cooperation. Michael Chertoff, who served as secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, dismissed Trump’s characterization of law enforcement as hemmed in by political correctness. And he said racial or ethnic profiling is counterproductive.“Not only is it a waste of time, but you’re offending people who in many ways you want to be your allies,” he said, adding, “When you ethnically profile, you play into the hands of the enemy.” New York Times Tulsa Officer Booked, Freed on $50K Bond; in Court Next WeekA white Tulsa, Okla., police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man whose vehicle had broken down and blocked a street last week, turned herself in to authorities on a manslaughter charge early on Friday, reports Reuters. Betty Shelby, 42, was booked into the Tulsa County Jail just after 1 a.m. local time after being charged on Thursday with first-degree manslaughter in the death of Terence Crutcher, 40. Shelby was released on $50,000 bond and is scheduled for an initial court appearance on Sept. 30. Court papers filed by the Tulsa County attorney’s office accuse Shelby of overreacting and escalating the situation that led to the shooting of Crutcher last Friday. If convicted, she faces at least four years in prison, lawyers said.
The incident, which was captured on police videos, has intensified scrutiny over the use of excessive force and claims of racial bias by U.S. law enforcement officials against minorities. In two videos provided by Tulsa police, Crutcher can be seen with his hands in the air shortly before he was shot. Tulsa police said Crutcher was unarmed and there was no weapon in the vehicle. They released the videos, one of which was taken from a police helicopter and the other from a dashboard camera in a patrol car, in a bid for transparency. Reuters
Captive Lives: The ‘Invisible Victims' of IncarcerationSome 10 million U.S. children have parents who are incarcerated. These innocent youngsters, studies indicate, face long odds of success in life but efforts to help them are growing, according to an investigation by Jill Tucker of the San Francisco Chronicle, in a project produced for her John Jay/Solutions Journalism Reporting Fellowship. The Crime Report NC GOP U.S. Rep.: Charlotte Protesters 'Hate White People'U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger, a Charlotte Republican, apologized Thursday after saying the violence in Charlotte stems from black protesters who “hate white people because white people are successful and they’re not,” reports the city’s Observer. Pittenger’s district includes parts of the city where protests have turned violent in the wake of a police shooting of a black man. He made the statement on a BBC-TV news program Thursday when asked to describe the “grievance” of the protesters. “The grievance in their minds – the animus, the anger – they hate white people because white people are successful and they’re not,” Pittenger said.
He then criticized people who receive welfare. “It is a welfare state. We have spent trillions of dollars on welfare, and we’ve put people in bondage, so they can’t be all they’re capable of being.” He later apologized on Twitter, saying his answer “doesn’t reflect who I am. I was quoting statements made by angry protesters last night on national TV. My intent was to discuss the lack of economic mobility for African Americans because of failed policies.” Observer MA Court: Black Men May Have a Good Reason to Flee PoliceMassachusett’s highest court, tossing out a Boston man’s gun conviction, ordered judges this week to consider whether a black person who walks away from a police officer is attempting to avoid the “recurring indignity of being racially profiled” — and not because the person is guilty of a crime, reports the Boston Globe. The Supreme Judicial Court overturned the conviction of Jimmy Warren, citing studies by the ACLU and Boston police, both of which found that black people were more likely to be stopped and frisked by police. “The finding that black males in Boston are disproportionately and repeatedly targeted for [what police call “Field Interrogation and Observations,” or stops] suggests a reason for flight totally unrelated to consciousness of guilt,’’ Justice Geraldine Hines wrote in the court’s unanimous opinion.
Civil rights advocates lauded the decision, but police insisted that they did not engage in racial profiling. “This is huge for advocates who have been trying to get courts to recognize racial profiling across the country,” said Boston NAACP president Michael Curry. Police Commissioner William B. Evans criticized the ruling, and a spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney vowed to ask for a rehearing of the case. “I’m troubled, basically, that this decision relied on a biased report by the ACLU,” Evans said. The ruling also cited a Police Department report that also found disparities, but to a lesser degree. Boston Globe In Crime Spotlight, Chicago Mayor Vows to Stem ViolencePresiding over a city in the national glare for a yearlong failure to control sharp spikes in gang shootings and gun deaths, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel delivered a speech Thursday night aimed at convincing Chicagoans he’s getting a grip on the problem, reports the city’s Tribune. Before 300 invited guests, Emanuel announced that the city will spend millions of dollars to hire more cops and mentor more at-risk kids. For Emanuel, the speech was not only an opportunity to prescribe his treatment for fighting the violence that plagues the city, but a chance to repair his splintered relationship with African-Americans, a group of voters key in twice electing him.
Emanuel tried to seize the moment by laying out his vision to strengthen the Chicago Police Department, provide more jobs in economically challenged areas, and prevent crime by offering more hope and opportunity for young men who often turn to gangs in the city’s most violent neighborhoods. He said the gun violence “corrodes our core.” He said the city hopes to add about 970 new officers by the end of 2018. He said the city will focus on job growth in poor neighborhoods and initiate a three-year, $36 million plan to expand mentoring programs. Chicago Tribune Missouri PD to Require Written Permission for Car SearchesColumbia, Mo., police officers will soon need your written permission to search your car if they don’t have a warrant or probable cause, reports the Missourian. A new department policy will require police officers to fill out a consent-to-search form and ask the driver to sign it. If the driver declines to consent, that will be noted on the form and the officer will need to request a warrant from the court. Current policy allows officers to search vehicles with the driver’s verbal permission. Otherwise they need probable cause or a warrant signed by a judge.
Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton declined to talk about the change, but a spokesman said recently that the department was in the process of getting the consent forms into patrol cars. Attorney David Tyson Smith said the new policy will be “good for citizens” because officers who say they have received consent to search are often contradicted by defendants. Missourian NYC Project Shows Value of Legal Aid in Immigration CourtNearly two-thirds of the defendants in America’s immigration court system face a judge without legal help because immigrants have no right to counsel, reports Public Radio International. While it’s hard enough for the working poor to find qualified representation, doing so as an immigrant in detention is almost impossible. Just 37 percent of people facing deportation have an attorney with them. For people in immigration detention, that number falls to 14 percent, according to a study published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.
An apparent trend in a New York immigration court suggests how important legal representation can be. Deportation orders issued this year at the Varick Street Immigration Court in Manhattan are projected to be at their lowest level since 2013. In 2012, 1,202 people were ordered removed from the U.S. at that courthouse, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. This year, the number is just 535. The decline is partially credited to a first-of-its-kind legal project. In 2013, the New York Immigrant Family Unit Program began to provide publicly funded representation to poor detainees in removal proceedings. The initiative ensures that anyone in detention whose case is heard at the Varick immigration court has access to a qualified immigration attorney. “No family can have a loved one locked up and deported, simply because they can’t afford counsel,” says Peter Markowitz, director of the Immigration Justice Clinic at Cardozo School of Law. “That’s not justice, and we don’t do that in New York.” Public Radio International Civil Rights Chief: Biased Enforcement Feeds DistrustThe chief of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, speaking this week at an Atlanta symposium, said she and her colleagues “see a very clear link” between the criminalization of poverty by law enforcement authorities and the growing distrust of police and the government by the public, reports Law.com. “Unconstitutional policing undermines community trust,” said Vanita Gupta said. “Blanket assumptions and stereotypes about certain neighborhoods and certain communities can lead residents to see the justice system as illegitimate and authorities as corrupt. Those perceptions can drive resentment. And resentment can prevent the type of effective policing needed to keep communities and officers safe.” She said African-Americans living in two small Baltimore districts that account for just 11 percent of the city’s population, represented an estimated 44 percent of police stops.
Gupta said cited Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., as places where policing is used to generate revenue. That strategy, Gupta said, “resulted in a system where the police department and municipal court advanced policies that broke the law.” Gupta said that more than 60 percent of all inmates in county jails across the nation are defendants awaiting trial. Many of them, she said, “have committed nonviolent offenses and are there because they cannot pay bail.” For people living on the financial edge, an arrest or a fine can cost a defendant his or her job, family, children, home and health care, trapping “the most vulnerable among us in perpetual cycles of poverty, debt and incarceration,” Gupta said. That, in turn, “undermines the legitimacy of our justice system,” she added. “It threatens the integrity of our democracy.” She spoke at an event sponsored by the Southern Center for Human Rights. Law.com | |
| | On every business day, The Crime Report (TCR) and Criminal Justice Journalists (CJJ) provide a summary of the nation's top crime and justice news stories with Internet links commentary, and New & Notable research in the field. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the Langeloth Foundation and the Urban Institute. Today's report was prepared by David Krajicek and Alice Popovici. Please send comments or questions to alice@thecrimereport.org. | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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