A three-year federal investigation into alleged police
brutality in Harvey found no pattern of illegal behavior but did conclude the
department's "grossly
deficient" oversight
"tacitly endorses heavy-handed uses of force."
Although some local activists and civil rights attorneys
had for years described the south suburban police force as out of control, it
wasn't until December 2008 that the Department of Justice's Civil Rights
Division launched an investigation.
The investigation was prompted by a 2007 raid of the
department by Cook County authorities and state police who seized records and
evidence from unsolved murder and rape cases, according to a January letter
from the Department of Justice.
The department began reviewing documents related to
use-of-force incidents — in which people suffered a fractured spine, broken jaw
and other head injuries — in 2009 and 2010, according to its report.
That review found that Harvey police weren't properly
documenting why and how force was being used, encouraging "an environment
in which constitutional violations are more likely, as officers will know they
will not be held accountable," the report said. The report noted that in
one case a suspect was pepper-sprayed while being fingerprinted at the Harvey
police station.
About half of the incidents involved "contempt of
cop" situations in which people were charged with minor ordinance
violations such as disorderly conduct, said the report signed by Justice
Department special litigation section chief Jonathan M. Smith.
"These arrests may be designed to justify use of
force or other excessive authority where there may have been no legitimate
justification for that exercise of authority," the report found.
The report also found Harvey kept no records of officer
firearms training and had three "commanders" who supervised nobody.
The city also lacked in its policy manual a ban on police officers using
excessive force.
In a statement attributed to acting-police Chief Denard
Eaves, the city said it has taken the report's recommendations to heart. It has
increased use-of-force training for its officers and is updating its policy
manual.
"The Harvey Police Department will continue to work,
over the next year, to implement policies and initiatives to address identified
recommendations and reduce any perceived risk," Eaves said in the
statement.
A Justice Department spokesman did not respond to an
email seeking comment.
The federal review didn't look back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, a time civil attorneys described the Harvey police force operating like "the Wild West" with a tactical crew of "jump-out boys" who allegedly harassed and sometimes roughed up Harvey residents.
"There was an underlying and consistent pattern of
police misconduct through the years," said Chicago civil rights attorney
Arthur Loevy.
One case his firm handled involved Harvey Officer Manuel
Escalante, who a jury found shot an unarmed man in the back and then tried to
frame him for holding a gun.
In 1997, Escalante was an armed part-time deputy marshal
out on patrol even though he hadn't passed the state's part-time certification
test nor completed Harvey's police training program when he shot Archie Robinson,
then 19, narrowly missing his spine, according to court records.
Escalante said he spotted Robinson running near 147th and
Vail streets, chased him, then opened fire when Robinson pointed a gun at him
and ignored orders to drop it. But Escalante's version displayed "major
cracks," an appeals court found.
The gun at the scene strongly resembled one taken during
a Harvey raid that Escalante had participated in the night before, an officer
testified. Records showed that two of the five guns taken during the raid were
never logged into evidence.
Another Harvey police officer said he saw no gun, didn't hear Escalante give warning before opening fire and told another officer the shooting was "bogus," records show. The police chief at the time testified the firearm was the perfect one for use as a "drop gun."
A jury found in Robinson's favor, and he and his
attorneys won more than $750,000 in damages and attorney's fees.
But neither the verdict — nor a still pending 2004
lawsuit filed by the state accusing him of running an illegal landfill — seemed
to hurt Escalante's career.
He was later promoted to detective.
Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal
hearings into the police problem in America.
Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a
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Misconduct.