-Caveat Lector-
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Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 10:01:07 +0100
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Subject: USA: Police brutality in Prince George's County must not be
tolerated
* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
29 August 2002
AMR 51/139/2002
Federal and local authorities must ensure that police actions in
Prince George's County, Maryland, adhere to international
standards on police use of force and on the prohibition of
torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty International said today in a
new report.
"While some reforms have been recently introduced to
tackle police brutality and complaints have reportedly fallen in
2001, there remains a disturbing pattern of abuse, mainly against
the county's African-American population," the organization
added. Reports include shootings, deaths in custody from
dangerous restraint holds or other use of force, and unresisting
suspects being mauled by police dogs.
Cases of particular concern to the organization,
highlighted in the report, include:
The death of Prince Jones, an unarmed college student,
who was shot in September 2000 after an undercover officer tailed
his car for several miles, mistaking him for a black suspect
involved in an earlier incident.
The deaths of two prisoners, in March and June 2002,
after they were restrained in a WRAP device (similar to a strait
jacket and designed to prevent deaths from choking or asphyxia).
The shooting of five reportedly mentally ill or disturbed
people in 2001, at least one of them fatally. Although the
Prince George's County Police Department has since introduced a
range of non-lethal weapons -- such as pepper spray and bean bag
rounds -- for dealing with suspects who are mentally ill or high
on drugs, such devices are often not effective in such cases. In
October 2001, Caesar Nathaniel Allen, a paranoid schizophrenic,
was shot dead with 10 bullets after reportedly being pelted with
four cans of pepper spray and 15 pepper ball missiles.
Amnesty International is also concerned about a "code of
silence" which results in police officers failing to report
misconduct, or even covering up abuses. "This 'code of silence'
is reported to have hampered many investigations into police use
of force," the organization stressed.
An investigation by the US Department of Justice,
initiated in November 2000, is currently underway to determine
whether the Prince George's County Police Department engaged in a
"pattern and practice" of brutality and racial discrimination.
Amnesty International is urging the Justice Department to release
its findings and recommendations as soon as possible. In the
summer of 2001, the organization sponsored three sessions in
which Justice Department investigators were invited to hear
complaints about alleged police misconduct.
"Police, County and federal authorities must send out a
clear message that police abuse will not be tolerated and bring
to justice those officers responsible for misconduct," Amnesty
International said.
Background
Although pepper spray has been promoted as a safer and more
effective alternative to mace or impact weapons, research has
found that it can be harmful to people with respiratory problems
or heart disease, and that it may not be effective against
subjects who are extremely agitated or under the influence of
drugs, possibly leading to over-use of the spray to dangerous
levels. Pepper spray was demonstrably ineffective in the case of
Caesar Allen (above). Amnesty International has called for an
independent, national inquiry into police use of pepper spray
and, in the meantime, for police departments to either cease
using pepper spray or to introduce strict guidelines and
limitations on its use, with careful monitoring procedures.
Amnesty International believes that police departments should
introduce training programs designed to minimize the risk of
unnecessary force and death or injury in such situations.
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