NAACP Buffoonery
Posted by admin01 on: 2006-04-14 12:59:18

The NAACP over much of the country demands citizen review boards to look over police activity. In this case, the Mayor is African, the head of the City Police is African, and the head of the Louisiana State Police, the entity which reviews local police death cases, is African. That is not good enough to assure African interests are covered.

Certainly African brutality is more of a problem than police brutality. Maybe there should be a committee......

In a vote split sharply along racial lines, the Metro Council shot down a proposal Wednesday to create a citizen review board to monitor complaints of brutality by Baton Rouge police.

The proposal to create a citizen review panel to look into allegations of police brutality was pushed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People after the fatal shooting of a black businessman during a traffic stop.

MediaLink

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/2626111.html

Citizen review board rejected

Panel sought to hear complaints on police

By SCOTT DYER
Advocate staff writer
Published: Apr 13, 2006

In a vote split sharply along racial lines, the Metro Council shot down a proposal Wednesday to create a citizen review board to monitor complaints of brutality by Baton Rouge police.

The proposal to create a citizen review panel to look into allegations of police brutality was pushed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People after the fatal shooting of a black businessman during a traffic stop.

But with no ordinance yet drawn up and no details to consider, Councilman Pat Culbertson said the proposal to create a citizen review panel seemed like an indictment of the Police Department.

“It seems like the vote that we’re being asked to take tonight is a vote on non-support for our Police Department, and I’m not willing to support that vote,” Culberton said.

Councilman Byron Sharper, one of four black council members to support the review board, argued that the city-parish has a variety of boards to address issues such as bike paths and trees. Sharper said creating a citizen review panel would improve communications between police and the community.

“For us to say, ‘No, we don’t want to talk about it,’ that’s crazy,” Sharper said.

Councilman Ulysses “Bones” Addison argued that the review board is an additional step to ferret out the low percentage of bad police officers.

“Most of the people in the Police Department are good people, but it’s the 10 percent, the 5 percent or the 3 percent that makes the rest of the Police Department look bad,” Addison said.

Black businessman George Temple II was killed Feb. 17 in an auto parts store parking lot on Greenwell Springs Road during a scuffle with a white police officer, Brian Harrison. A white onlooker, Perry Stephens, shot Temple five times, once in the head and four times in the torso. Harrison shot Temple once in the stomach.

Harrison is on paid leave until the investigation into the case is over, and no charges have been brought against Stephens. However, a grand jury is expected to review evidence in the case.

On Wednesday, Temple’s sister Tiffany told the council that her family supports creating an independent citizen review board to “help put a stop to what’s been going on.”

“We realize that it probably won’t do anything to serve justice in my brother’s case,” she told the council.
In arguing in favor of a citizen review panel, local NAACP Executive Director Kwame Asanté said about 100 American cities, including New York, have created citizen review boards to monitor allegations of police brutality and excessive force.

Sylvia Davis, who claims her 21-year-old son was beaten by a Baton Rouge police officer during a traffic stop earlier this year, said a review board would provide “additional eyes and ears” in the fight for justice.

“If an animal came into this room and I beat it, I would probably be arrested. If I beat my son, I would be arrested. So what gives them (police officers) the right to think they can beat someone and get away with it?” Davis said.

Adrian Hickman said police should welcome a citizen review board.

“I know there are only a handful of bad police officers, but they need to be weeded out,” Hickman said.

The vote was a victory for the city’s first black mayor. The idea of a review panel drew opposition from Mayor-President Kip Holden and 25 members of the Baton Rouge Area African-American Ministers.

Police Chief Jeff LeDuff told the group that he’s trying to rectify any problems with police brutality by assuring accountability with extra training and stepped-up supervision, including the use of surveillance cameras on police cars.

LeDuff said the citizen review board wouldn’t work because it conflicts with the police officers’ bill of rights, which states that officers can’t be forced testify before citizen panels.

LeDuff said the department has an internal affairs office dedicated to investigating allegations of brutality and excessive force that result from the 30,000 arrests made by Baton Rouge police each year.

The only four votes in favor of the review board came from the four black council members: Addison, Sharper, Lorri Burgess and Charles Kelly.

Voting against the board were six white Republicans: Culbertson, Joe Greco, Darrell Ourso, Martha Jane Tassin, David Boneno and Mickey Skyring.

Absent during the vote were two other white council members, Democrat Wayne Carter and Republican Mike Walker.

News Source: Lewis Doherty

http://natallnews.com/story.php?id=1533