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CounterPunch
August
24, 2002
A Line
Drawn in the Street
Confronting Police Brutality
in Atlanta
by Jonathon S. Wright
Shattered glass lies in piles in a vacant parking
lot in Atlanta's trendy Buckhead district. Much of this glass
can be traced to automobile break-ins, as late-night revelers
sacrifice security for a free parking space. On July 14, however,
the life of 18-year-old Corey Ward was ended prematurely in a
different shower of glass, after an undercover Atlanta police
officer shot and killed him.
Officer R. S. Bunn says that he shot
Ward in self-defense, alleging that Ward attempted to ram him
with an SUV after being ordered to stop. According to Bunn and
his partner, Ward and five friends were attempting to steal a
car when he identified himself as a police officer and attempted
to make an arrest.
Ward's family and at least some of the
people in the car with him tell a different story, claiming that
Ward was wrongly profiled as a thief simply because he was a
young black man driving a new SUV. They maintain that Bunn and
his partner never identified themselves as police officers, and
then shot him for no good reason.
A five year veteran, this is not the
first time that Officer Bunn has been accused of using unnecessary
force. There are four other cases in his file in which claims
have been brought. The only one of those four which resulted
in any disciplinary action was the beating of Michael Jascomb
during a drug arrest, and that centered on Bunn's failure to
report the use of force. Although Jascomb was suffering from
a retinal hemorrhage after the incident, his claim of excessive
force was dismissed.
About a week after Jascomb's claim was
dismissed, Bunn was accused of hitting Mark Norfleet in the head
with his baton during an arrest. Norfleet's claims were dismissed
entirely, as were those of Joe Summers, who accused Bunn and
a group of other officers of taking him into an alley and beating
him.
On September 3, 2000, Bunn was involved
in an altercation with Ylia Lavender, who claimed that he punched
her in the face without provocation, breaking her eye socket.
Lavender's claim was dismissed due to lack of evidence, but she
has since joined with the family of Corey Ward in bringing a
suit against the Atlanta police. Her vision remains impaired
due to the incident.
Rev. Markel Hutchins, national president
and CEO of the National Youth Connection, opined at an August
3 rally that these incidents are representative of a justice
system that would "rather lock young black America up than
lift them up," contending that "if the Atlanta Police
Department had done their job and taken R. S. Bunn off the street
in 2000, Corey Ward would be here today." Unfortunately,
the case of Corey Ward appears symptomatic of a police department
too willing to use deadly force.
Twelve people have been shot by Atlanta
police this year, the most since 1995, and five of the shootings
have been fatal. At the time of the killing of Corey Ward there
had been three incidents involving police shooting at cars within
eight days, and, in the last month, two alleged prostitutes have
been shot by undercover vice officers, prompting Police Chief
Richard Pennington to suspend vice patrols temporarily.
On July 10, 18-year-old Aneika James
was wounded after she allegedly stabbed a vice officer during
an arrest at 5pm in Perkerson Park, an area heavily occupied
by local children, despite the request of a park employee that
the police cease patrolling the area at that time of day. Less
than a month later, on August 5, 35-year-old Tessa Hardeman was
fatally shot by another undercover vice officer after she allegedly
pepper-sprayed him and stabbed him during an arrest.
On August 8, only three days after Tessa
Hardeman's death, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a story
outlining several complaints of police abuse by prostitutes,
who claim that they are often taken advantage of by policemen
who use their badge as a form of extortion. Maj. Leander Robinson,
who is in charge of the criminal investigation unit that oversees
the vice squad, suggests that these men could be posing as police
using fake badges; however, in the face of these allegations,
it remains difficult to discount the possibility of either of
these women feeling forced to wield a knife in self-defense against
an ill-intentioned assailant who was later revealed to be an
officer.
Chief Pennington maintains that "This
department has a great reputation in terms of not being involved
in excessive force," and has promised to look into department
policies and procedures with regards to both shooting at vehicles
and vice squad patrols. However, the efficacy of disciplinary
procedures for Atlanta-area police has been called into question
recently, most notably in the November 28, 2001 issue of Creative
Loafing, which exposed issues of gross miscommunication and lax
discipline in the cases of ten Fulton County Sheriff's Deputies
who had been charged with excessive force or reckless behavior
either on or off duty but had faced little or no disciplinary
action. The Creative Loafing report also documented a near-complete
lack of communication between the Sheriff's Department and the
Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, the only agency
with the authority to revoke the license of a peace officer in
Georgia, meaning that a deputy whose license had been revoked
could continue to hold onto his or her job and badge. As a result,
community confidence in police disciplinary procedures has been
sorely shaken.
To exacerbate matters, the city was recently
split by the trial of Imam Jamil al-Amin, a trial regarded by
many to have been biased and unfair. This spate of shootings
has only served to charge the atmosphere further. When 300 protestors
rallied peacefully on August 3 in support of the families of
Corey Ward and Ylia Lavender, the hundreds of police lined up
to "control" them seemed to signify a growing rift
between Atlanta's police and its populace, a battle line already
drawn, increasingly distinct. Sgt. V. Sellers, a supervisor in
the zone where R. S. Bunn shot Corey Ward, states, "You
can't even go to the restaurants anymore. Where are you going
to park? What's the crowd like? Is my car going to get broken
into? It's not even worth it. This is the battle we're trying
to fight for the people of Atlanta." All of this martial
symbolism begs one question: if there is in fact a war in progress,
what can be done to bring peace to the streets of Atlanta?
The basic root of the conflict is our
society's method of policing, a method that pervades our entire
justice system, and that has led to the misguided and rhetorical
declaration of a "war on crime". Our police department
must evolve from a paramilitary organization into an organization
that is integrated with the fabric of the community, an organization
that provides for the public safety in a manner that doesn't
make ordinary citizens feel uncomfortable every time they pass
a uniformed officer. This transition could be effected by moving
most officers from the crime fighting and investigation sectors
of the department to a sector designated "Public Safety".
A small number of police should continue
to perform "traditional" police jobs like responding
to crime scenes, investigating crimes, and pursuing criminals.
Officers in the Public Safety sector, on the other hand, would
dramatically alter the community's view of police. They wouldn't
be the faceless people who always show up too late; they would
be the familiar faces from the everyday beat. The resulting trust
would enable public safety officers to take the pulse of the
community, to be a conduit of information from the community,
and to solve minor problems before they escalate into violence.
These officers would not carry guns.. The use of guns to "keep
the peace" is counterproductive because guns inspire fear,
which in turn inspires irrational and violent behavior, as well
as distrust.
Shifting our policing focus to community-based
Public Safety patrols would likely decrease the occurrence of
violence in those communities, as is evidenced by lower crime
rates in countries that have traditionally followed that approach.
It would also allow police departments to provide much more intensive
training for those officers who are permitted to carry guns,
thus helping to minimize the abuse of firearms. The plan would
take time and patience to implement, but would be a tremendous
step forward in community-police relations.
The suffering of the families of Corey
Ward, Ylia Lavender, Aneika James, Tessa Hardeman, and countless
others demands justice. While a portion of this justice is manifested
in holding police accountable for their actions, true justice
cannot be achieved until we address the larger issue. It is time
that the people of Atlanta not fear the police as much as they
fear the crime that police are intended to fight. It is time
that our police move away from their reliance on intimidation
and guns as a method of controlling the populace, and instead
invest in the communities they are hired to protect and serve.
Jonathon S. Wright can be reached at: jonwri@bellsouth.net
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August 24
/ 25, 2002
Susan Davis
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