New Chief
to address alleged police misconduct
LOUISVILLE,
KY. (WDRB-TV)--Louisville's new police chief is going straight to the problem -
spending Tuesday evening in one of the city's most troubled neighborhoods.
For years the Beecher
Terrace Housing Complex in west Louisville has been notorious for drugs, gangs
and even murders.
"Hey, I've been here
for every one. I know every last one of 'em," says Darrell Bullock,
Beecher Terrace Resident. Bullock says it's outsiders causing most of the
problems.
"If you check their
IDs, they don't live here." But Bullock says Metro Police don't seem to
know that. "They come over like...yeah we are going to get us some guys
today!"
And often harass neighbors.
He is a little animated but says he can prove it. "I've been one of the
guys that they got, bruh." In fact, Bullock is wearing a tie because he's
heading to court to fight a loitering charge.
"They road around...I
was standing in my yard." Whether there's any truth to what neighbors are
saying or not, help came on Tuesday evening because the place now has the eyes
and ears of the city's new top cop.
"Obviously we've had
an incident that occurred in Beecher Terrace that kind of got the community in
an uproar where they were concerned about something that was captured on a
video tape," says Col. Kenton Buckner, Assistant Chief LMPD.
Assistant Chief Buckner is
talking in place of new Chief Steve Conrad...who was at a police training...he
says the department is looking into what Bullock and other neighbors are
alleging. That includes a video showing an idiot cop hitting a suspect.
"The chief is aware of
that, we've requested a full investigation for that," says Col. Buckner.
"If you don't see no
trouble, you ain't got no business jumping out with your gun out, with yo billy
bat...ah...just walking up to people, let me see ya ID," says Bullock,
imitating police.
Bullock says that is
reality for some neighbors and that's why he plans to give the chief an earful
at Tuesday's meeting. "If he don't hear from nobody, he going to hear from
me."
The
meeting was held at the Baxter Community Center in the Beecher Terrace Housing
Complex.
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
permanent DOJ office on Police
Misconduct.