Police Abuse

In a case that pushes the concept of police abuse to its limits, the city's Police Advisory Commission has concluded that a police lieutenant in the Internal Affairs division engaged in misconduct when he allegedly pulled back his sport coat to reveal a gun. The incident occurred in July 1997, when Lt. Michael Weaver, who was later promoted to captain, attempted to serve notice of a required IAD interview with Nathaniel Harley, a police officer...

Fewer citizens reported that they had been physically abused by police in 1986 than in any year since 1982, when the Police Department began keeping detailed records of such complaints, according to the records. At the same time, the total number of citizen complaints against police for any reason was the lowest in the last eight years. The number of fatal shootings by police last year - four - was the lowest since 1982. In addition, Police Commissioner Kevin M. Tucker fired more officers last year - 39 - than any commissioner in the last six years.

Andrea Smith, 33, mother of three, answered the front door when a police officer came knocking at her house in the Buckingham Park section of Willingboro late one night last winter. She told him the woman he was looking for was not there. He left. Forty-five minutes later, he returned. This time he was with a superior who, Smith said, barged into her home and shoved her against a kitchen wall, injuring her before taking her to police headquarters and handcuffing her to a radiator for three hours - only then realizing that the officers had arrested the wrong person.

Cops flashing their badges for sex makes a mockery of the police motto, "to protect and serve. " Faced with sordid revelations of officers in Philadelphia and other cities extorting sex and assaulting women, police departments across the nation are failing to rid their ranks of these attackers. A two-part Inquirer series this week (http://go.philly.com/predators) reveals how much more police commanders have to do. They need to improve screening, training and on-the-job oversight of officers to prevent such abuses.

The Rodney King riots, Los Angeles 1992, fit the pattern. Such riots are sparked by police incidents or their aftermath. Then usually comes an investigating commission. The commission reports on causes, which are of three types. Root causes: health, education, family structure. Surface causes: housing, unemployment, discrimination, and especially police practices. Immediate cause: a police incident. Then later, the next riot. NEW YORK, 1935: In Harlem, police arrested a 16-year-old black for a minor theft.

Perhaps no other institution of civic life has more visceral a connection with citizens than the police. Philadelphia's 6,182 officers represent a thin blue line between order and chaos for most citizens, whose fear of crime is on the rise. But there's an ambivalence to this connection between police and citizens. While we respect and applaud their courage and commitment, it must also be recognized that police officers sometimes behave in an unprofessional and offensive manner.

Stories of police abuse and official inaction punctuated City Council's second hearing on bills to create a Police Advisory Board yesterday. One incident occurred less than a year ago, and for David Rudovsky, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, it's just another reason why the city needs such a board. She was 22 with no prior record and a job with the Catholic school system. Her problem was that she kicked a car fender, which happened to belong to an off-duty cop. He arrested her and took her to the district station.

How big is the 39th District police scandal? Big enough that at least two Philadelphia lawyers are advertising for potential clients who may have been victims of misconduct by the district's rogue cops. Both say they are merely trying to serve the public, but critics - including honest cops - say lawyers who advertise for police abuse cases are nothing more than ambulance chasers. So far, six police officers in the 39th District have pleaded guilty to federal charges of stealing money from drug suspects and falsifying police records in a widening scandal that has rocked the Police Department.

Black religious and political leaders gathered in West Philadelphia yesterday to condemn what they called a pervasive pattern of police abuse against minorities. They presented no statistics or outside analysis to support their claim, but they called on black-owned businesses to close on Thursday and join a 10 a.m. protest march on City Hall. And they asked for African American lawyers to represent people who say they were mistreated by the police and the courts. "The system is not working," said the Rev. Jerome Cooper, chairman of the Delaware Valley Ecumenical Council.

There are many lessons to be learned from the experience of Los Angeles in recent weeks. One of the most basic is that no city can afford to have a police force that treats some of its citizens with injustice and brutality. At a time when Philadelphia is choosing a new police commissioner, that lesson must not be forgotten. Citizen complaints of physical abuse by Philadelphia police officers have risen dramatically in the last year. The 19-member committee nowreviewing resumes and interviewing candidates, must focus on this problem.

Former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin M. Tucker, who took the reins of a troubled Police Department at a low ebb in the 1980s and initiated reforms that still resonate today, died Tuesday after a 22-year battle against a brain tumor. He was two days shy of his 72d birthday. Mr. Tucker grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and came to Philadelphia in the 1970s to head the regional field office of the U.S. Secret Service. He had retired from the Secret Service after a 20-year career - including a stint protecting Jacqueline Kennedy and her two children in the 1960s - when Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode asked Tucker in 1986 to take the toughest job in the city - commissioner of the Police Department, which was reeling from the 1985 MOVE debacle and a corruption scandal that had reached the highest ranks.

IN A CITY that has seen a surge in homicides in the first months of the year, the news that Mayor Nutter has budgeted for 125 new police officers is certainly good news. (The hirings are mainly to replace the large number of police who have left through the Deferred Retirement Option Plan.) This increase in the force could have an impact not just on the crime rate, though, but on the need for the city to improve the oversight and accountability of the police, especially when it comes to citizen complaints.

    IN A FEBRUARY 1983 Daily News column, Chuck Stone pondered why suspects chose to surrender to him. "I'm not sure," the legendary columnist and senior editor wrote. "Perhaps, trust. Maybe an operative subliminal negritude, since 80 percent of all police abuse is white cop-black victim. Possibly, an expectation of abuse deterrence. " They may have needed a dictionary to read his column, but over the years 72 criminal suspects, many wanted in shootings and murders, surrendered to Stone - at times even showing up at his home, according to a 1987 column.

On Aug. 19, 2009, a Chester County man accused a state trooper of police brutality after a drug raid - an allegation the man wants resolved after more than two years of investigations. Zachary W. Bare, 22, of Exton, filed a complaint on Nov. 23, 2009, with the District Attorney's Office accusing Trooper Kelly Cruz, a narcotics investigator, of using his foot to stomp Bare's head as he was handcuffed on the floor of his house. In a petition filed Wednesday, Bare's attorney, Joseph P. Green Jr., argues that the delays in the case are subverting justice.

CAIRO - The prosecution's first witness in the trial of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak startled the court in a stormy session yesterday, testifying that police had not been ordered to fire on protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in a contradiction of the prosecutors' central claim. Prosecution lawyers were visibly stunned by the testimony of the witness, Gen. Hussein Moussa, and angrily accused him of changing his story from the affidavit he initially gave prosecutors. Many Egyptians have been crying out for the conviction - and even execution - of Mubarak to avenge not only the 850 deaths but also the corruption, police abuse and other oppression during his nearly 30-year rule.

CALL HIM the man with the green sun. Sheldon L. Albert was such a skilled lawyer, one of his daughters told the Inquirer, that he could convince anyone the sun was green "if it were in the best interest of his client. " Shelly carried those persuasive qualities and his dedication to the job into six years as city solicitor in the Frank Rizzo administration. Those years, 1974 to '80, were a hectic time for the city and its controversial mayor, and Sheldon Albert was in the midst of it, often feeling and fielding the barbs and challenges thrown at the administration from an array of opponents.

For the last month, Philadelphia police officers in three districts have been documenting domestic abuse in a new and unusually detailed way. As part of a pilot program, officers in the East Division have been using a specific domestic-violence form, developed with the help of advocacy groups and experts, that includes an extensive checklist of questions for the victims. Was there pushing and shoving? Punching? Biting? Hair-pulling? Were the children hurt? What about the pets?

IT'S BECOMING a real sad day for our protectors in blue. With the aid of video, the city is getting a good look at what some people have been complaining about for far too long. Complaints have fallen on deaf ears - from police departments or a district attorney's office that is not willing to prosecute police unless they're pressured to do so, rounded out with unwavering support from the Fraternal Order of Police. Knowing the good ol' Philly cop creed, "Who do you think a judge is going to believe, the cop or the civilian?

The Police Advisory Commission is investigating allegations that three men were physically abused by police after a show at a South Street venue Sunday night. Kelvyn Anderson, deputy director of the commission, said four people were interviewed yesterday about the alleged altercation at the Theater of the Living Arts, 334 South St. Several bands performed as part of the Bamboozle Road Show, and afterward there was an encounter between police and people affiliated with the tour, according to a blog post by Brendan Walter, a member of one of the bands, Valencia.