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3B LIFE/ VJjt Clwrlotte IPiult Thursday, January 22, 2004 Challenge of policing brutality By Hazel Trice Edney NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION WASHINGTON - DeLacy Davis leads marches against police brutality. He embraces victims’ family members and shouts through megaphones for justice and peace. And he testifies in courtrooms against rogue cops and holds seminars to teach people what to do when stopped by the police. DeLacy Davis is no ordi nary activist. In fact, he would be the last person expected to be involved in these activities. That’s because Davis is a police offi cer. Twelve years ago^ he decided he would stop toler ating unprovoked beatings and abuse of criminal sus pects by police when he established Black Cops Against Police Brutality (B- CAP). ‘Those kinds of practices shamed me. I wasn’t a party to any of it. But as I traveled and moved around the coun try I was seeing this as a pattern in law enforcement. And what I found shameful was that I, as a Black man, did not have the courage to publicly speak out about it,” says Davis, a sergeant in the East Orange, N.J. police department. “And when I began to quietly ask ques tions about it, my colleagues — black and white - thought that was a taboo subject.” Police brutality is a topic that is no longer taboo. And from New York to California, cities are being forced to deal with brutal cops. Earlier this month in Louisville, Ky, Michael Newby, 19, was fatally shot four times in the back. Authorities said the shooting incident grew out of an undercover drug bust. In Cincinnati, the belea guered police department was in the news again over the beating death of Nathaniel Jones in Cincinnati, the 18th Black man to be killed by police in that city since 1995. In Columbus, Ga., police came under fire for the shooting death of 39-year-old Kenneth Walker. The unarmed man was shot twice in the head by a Muscogee County sherifTs deputy when he didn’t show both hands inside his car. Amadou Diallo, 22, was also unarmed in New York City when he was shot to death in a hail of 41 bullets on Feb. 4, 1999. New York police opened fire on him after they claimed to mis take his wallet for a gun. His mother was awarded a $3 million dollar settlement this month. The 1968 Kerner Commission, formed by President L5Tidon B. Johnson to investigate wide spread racial violence in major cities that erupted fol lowing the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., reported that nothing was likely to spark an urban rebellion quicker than an incidence of police brutality. Thirty six years later, authorities are still strug gling to curb police brutality, trying everything from com munity policing to deploy ment of civilian review boards. “Civilian complaint review boards: They get sort of ner vous results. But they create the sense in communities where the/re working that there’s someone looking over yoin* shoulder,” says Ronald Hampton, executive director of the Washington D.C. - based National Black Pohce Association. “Police brutality and racial profiling and all of these things would not even be an issue if there wasn’t a place in policing in this coun try where they could exist and hide.” They can’t hide in San Francisco, says Hampton. He points to Bay Area Police Watch, a citizens group that works to expose and chal lenge poUce violence. “Due to the increased mili tarization and expansion of police presence in localities across the country, low- income communities and communities of color are rou tinely policed by heavily armed officers subject to lit tle or no civfiian oversight,” the group says on its Website. “PohceWatch is the only project in the Bay Area operating a misconduct hot line, documentation center, and lawyer referral service for survivors of police abuse.” A program of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Police Watch, a non profit organization, has influenced the strengthen ing of San Francisco’s Office of Citizen Complaints (OCC), the publicly-fimded investigatory agency that has 15 investigators, subpoe na power, and the authority to discipline wayward police officers, including firing them. It answers to an inde pendent, seven-member commission. “The charter itself man dates that every city and county employee of San Francisco has to cooperate with us,” says Kevin Allen, director of the OCC. ‘You can call in an anonymous com plaint. You don’t have to be the victim of whatever it was you perceived. What the charter mandates we are able to do is investigate any complaint by a civilian.” Anthony R. Scott, President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Officers (NOBLE) and chief of the Holyoke, Mass. police department, isn’t impressed with review boards, especial ly those that are not inde pendent. “They don’t work. They end up being more lenient,” Scott says. “Training is the answer in all cases of unnecessary ( use of force. It takes its direc tions from the top down. It’s what the person at the top will tolerate and the mes sage that is going to be sent from the top down,” Scott says. The person at the top is often the mayor, not the police chief, says Wellington E. Webb, the first Black mayor of Denver and former president of the U. S. Conference of Mayors. “It’s import for elected offi cials to stand up and say, in the event that a mistake was made, that, We made a mis take,”’ Webb said. CfjarlottE ippst (704)376-0496 Palm Reading h MS, GABRIELLE Reader & Advisor Tdls Past, Present and Future 704-537-7518 Tarot Reading Jitflation .Totedioo Pioiect your sarings (rom ihe upsaiKidorBiolintiionwh tht m Series 1 Bond frani diciliTreasiiiy And I Bonds are avadable at most fitianciai insttaiions, Call l-dOORUS BOND lot more JBomfe WWW.av6lJSiMfld$.^ ^ Paying attention to parents of attention-deficit children Continued from page 1B accompanying behavioral problems such as opposition defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). This finding was not surprising to several experts on ADHD. “Disorders tend to go together in individuals and families,” says Stephen Faraone, clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of “Straight Talk About Your Child’s Mental Health” (Guilford Press, 2003). “Co-mor bidity is the rule rather than the exception.” . Why? According to Faraone, part of the answer hes in the genes. ADHD, he says, is one of the most heritable disorders in psychiatry: If you have ADHD, he says, it appears there’s a 20 to 50 percent chance that you will pass it along to your child. The disorders that often travel with it — depression, anxiety, substance abuse — also have a strong genetic component. But genes aren’t destiny: “If the parent has [a gene for] alco- hohsm or depression or antisocial personality, the child is at risk for those,” says Faraone, “but it doesn’t mean the child wiU get [that] disorder. . .. Genes play a substantial role, but they , may need to be triggered.” I One trigger, he says, could be exposure to a parent’s depres- i; sion or alcoholism: “The additional chaos [caused by a parent’s - disorder] will [increase] the chances of getting the disorder.” - Despite strong evidence that a disorder in one family mem- » ber is a strong predictor of disorders in other family members, ■ treatment traditionally focuses on the individual rather than ) the family as a whole. J This study is “a clear sign that a very comprehensive assess- l ment of the family is needed,” Faraone says. “A pediatrician is - a very busy guy, but it’s easy to ask some questions about [the ► parents’] past history of mental disorders, drinking, etc.” ; A simple paper-and-pencil test filled out in the doctor’s wait- • ing room could go a long way toward determining the parent’s need for a complete evaluation, says RusseU Barkley, a profes sor at the Medical University of South Carolina and author of ‘Taking Charge of ADHD, Revised Edition” (Guilford Press, 2000). “It’s not rocket science — any nurse or office secretary could [tally the score],” he says. Yet such assessments remain rare: “[There are] time limits due to managed care, but really it is the ignorance of clinicians that prevents them from getting this on their radar.” James Perrin, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical Did you know? • Newsweek magazine ranked 14 CMS high schools among its “Best in the U.S.” list, including four in the top 100. • CMS is home to 24 Schools of Excellence and 42 Schools of Distinction, as recognized by the North Carolina ABCs of Public Education program. • On SAT scores, the top 10 percent of CMS students outperform the top 10 percent of students, both state-wide and nationally. • CMS ranks second in the nation in the number of teachers with National Board Certification. Challenging Courses Caring Teachers Inspiring Character start here to learn more Participate in the 2004-05 Student Assignment Plan by January 30. ems Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Prepare for greatne^. For more information, caii 980-343-6192, iogon to www.cms.k12.nc.us or tune in to CMS-TV3. Nee(J a college savings plan for your graneJehild? North Carolina’s 529 plan. Tax-Free. Flexible. Affordable. North Carolina’s 800-600-3453 WWW. C F N C. org/Savings ? College Foundation, Inc. 2003 National College Savings Program College Foundation of North Carolina Helping You Plan, Apply, and Pay for College
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