WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Damon Jones and
other active and retired law enforcement officers are calling on Westchester
County to create a civilian complaint review board that could review local
police investigations of incidents like the Kenneth Chamberlain shooting.
Jones, head of Blacks in Law
Enforcement of America's Westchester Chapter, led a news conference Monday in
front of the Westchester County Courthouse, which Kenneth Chamberlain Jr. and
his family lawyers also attended.
"We're standing here calling for
the County Exective [Robert Astorino] to put together a civilian oversight
committee, similar to the human rights committee that he already has,"
Jones said.
In response, Donna Greene, deputy
communications director for Westchester County, said:
"The county is always open to
ideas that appropriately address the concerns of residents. However, until
there is an actual proposal to react to, any comment on its merits would be
premature."
Jones also spoke out for such a
committee Saturday at an NAACP rally at the Thomas Slater Center.
Both news conferences were in response to a grand jury’s decision not to indict the White Plains police officers involved in the
fatal shooting of Kenneth Chamberlain on Nov. 19, 2011.
Chamberlain, 68, was shot by a police officer after police responded to a
medical alert that he accidentally triggered. During the hour-long standoff at
his apartment, Chamberlain refused to open his door to allow police to verify
his condition. Police said he was shot when he lunged at them with a knife when
they entered the apartment.
"If Barack Obama can put himself
in Trayvon Martin's family position and feel there pain, where is our elected
officials feeling our pain," Jones said.
Blacks in Law Enforcement of America
will create a petition to support such legislation on the county level, Jones
said. It has already started a petition to support legislation in the state Senate to create an inspector
general’s position to act as a “special state-level prosecutor to handle
investigations and, if necessary, prosecute these cases,” according to the
petition.
Lawyers for the Chamberlain family have
asked for a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which has
said it will review the evidence in the case.
“We will cooperate fully with any
Justice Department inquiry into the Chamberlain incident,” said Public Safety
Commissioner David Chong, of the White Plains Police Department.
The organizations attending Monday’s
news conference included: Black Law Enforcement Alliance, 100 Blacks in Law
Enforcement, National Black Police Association, National Latino Officers
Association, the Grand Council of Guardians, the Network for Police Accountability
and Chamberlain family friends and supporters.