Communities United Against Police Brutality
EMAIL NEWS
May 25, 2010
**********************************************
SWEET! IMPORTANT VICTORY FOR COMMUNITY ACCESS TO MINNEAPOLIS POLICE COMPLAINTS
Earlier today, the State Court of Appeals released its ruling in our lawsuit Communities United Against Police Brutality vs. City of Minneapolis (available at http://www.mncourts.gov/opinions/coa/current/opa091972-0525.pdf ). The ruling essentially upholds the right of public access to information about the status of police complaints. We are absolutely delighted about this victory for the community.
Perhaps even more significant, this ruling also restores the right of complainants to appeal non-sustained complaints. For the past two years, people filing complaints with the CRA have not been able to know the outcome of their cases, effectively denying them the right of appeal as provided for in the ordinance. Under this ruling, the CRA must tell people their cases are not sustained.
In the past, the CRA routinely released information on complaints in response to requests under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA). CUAPB, members of the media and the general public were permitted to know of the existence of a complaint, the status of the complaint anywhere along the process, whether the complaint was sustained or not sustained, whether the complaint was referred to the chief of police for discipline and, once the complaint has reached final disposition, any discipline imposed.
However, on May 2, 2007, the Minneapolis city attorney’s office issued a memo directing the CRA staff and board to cease releasing status information on cases. The CRA immediately reclassified all cases, including sustained cases from years ago as “closed” with no indication as to how the case was actually handled. After trying other means to get the city to follow the MGDPA, we filed suit in February 2009 in state court. The initial ruling from Judge Regina Chu was so bad that both sides wanted to appeal it. In early April, the appeal was heard and the decision was announced today.
We are pleased as punch that our actions has returned transparency to the CRA complaint process and helped people regain their rights.
___________________________________________________________
UPCOMING EVENTS
MN National Day of Action Against SB1070
Saturday, May 29 from noon to 3pm
Whipple Federal Building (Light Rail to Fort Snelling stop)
1 Federal Drive St. Paul, MN 55111
Meetup for Copwatch:
10:30 a.m.
Walker Church, 3100 16th Ave S, Minneapolis
CUAPB has endorsed the May 29th local march in solidarity with the National Day of Action Against Arizona's SB1070, a vicious law that codifies racial profiling and attacks on immigrants. Part of the urgency of the local action is that backward legislators have introduced a copycat bill in Minnesota. We will be supporting the local action by providing copwatch to provide a measure of safety for the marchers. Marchers will meet at the Whipple Federal Building, home to the local branch of the notorious Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as the local Homeland Security office.
Afterwards the march will head to nearby Fort Snelling to link up with people protesting the renovation of the fort, which was used as a Dakota concentration camp. You can find more information about the protest here: http://may29resistance.wordpress.com/
If you would like to help us with copwatch, meet us at Walker church at 10:30 a.m. for a short training. From there, we will assign people to teams and go together to the march.
Courtwatch
Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan Ordered
to Appear in Court and Explain Lack of Discipline in CRA Cases
Friday, June 4 at 8:30 a.m.
Hennepin County Government Center, Room 757
As a result of our Writ action, Judge Susan Burke has ordered Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan to appear in her courtroom on June 4th to explain why he has been violating the law in failing to issue discipline based on the CRA's findings of fact in sustained cases. For more information on the case, see http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1553383.shtml?cat=1
This should be some amazing courtwatching--don't miss it!
Courtwatch
Paul Hansen
Friday, June 4 at 3:00 p.m.
Hennepin County Government Center
Some of you joined us a couple of years ago when we protested the Newport City Council over ongoing harassment by the local police of CUAPB board member Paul Hansen. Paul continues to experience harassment from police. In this latest incident, he was changing the locks on a rental property he owns when cops accused him of having a knife. When they searched him and none was found, he was charged with felony terroristic threats. They handcuffed him so tight that his wrists bled before handing him a ticket. This is just the latest in a long string of bogus charges. We need to let the cops know that we have Paul's back.
___________________________________________________________
THIS DUDE'S A REAL WINNER: CARVER COUNTY DEPUTY CHARGED FOR STEALING METH FROM EVIDENCE ROOM
Updated: 05/25/2010 10:08 PM KSTP.com
By: Liz O'Connell
http://kstp.com/article/Pstories/S1576198.shtml
[] A Carver County Sheriff's Deputy is charged stealing methamphetamine from the department's evidence room.
According to the criminal complaint, surveillance video shows 47-year-old Daniel David Kahlow entering the evidence room and drug evidence vault at the Carver County Sheriff's Office and departing during the same time frame.
An audit conducted on May 22nd revealed that several items appeared to have been tampered with or moved.
Kahlow appeared at the sheriff's office Sunday on his day off and was arrested.
BCA agents executed a search warrant and found a Carver County evidence bag with 15.5 grams of methamphetamine and two smaller bags of methamphetamine, one weighing 5.1 grams and the other 2.8 grams, in Kahlow's right front pants pocket.
A glass pipe was also found in Kahlow's left front pants pocket.
The deputy is charged with second degree possession of six grams or more of methamphetamine.
Kahlow is an 18-year veteran of the Carver County Sheriff’s Office. Most recently, he served as the department’s latent fingerprint examiner and as one of four staff members who were authorized to enter the evidence room.
Kahlow is in custody at the Wright County Jail.
If convicted, Kahlow faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
___________________________________________________________
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN CONSTITUTIONAL
By Sol Wachter
May 12, 2010
New York Times
SINCE its adoption after a landmark 1966 Supreme Court decision, the Miranda warning has worked its way into not only everyday police procedure, but American culture as well even if you’ve never been arrested, you probably know the words “anything you say can and will be used against you.”
But as the Obama administration considers carving out an exception to the Miranda rules < http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/us/politics/10holder.html> for terrorism suspects in the wake of the arrest of Faisal Shahzad, the Connecticut man accused of being the Times Square bomber, it’s important to note how little most people understand what Miranda does and doesn’t mean.
First and foremost, the failure to give a Miranda warning does not result in a case being dismissed. It only results in the inability of the police to use a confession and its fruits in evidence. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of successful criminal prosecutions do not involve confessions.
The warning’s genesis lies in the Fifth Amendment, which says that the government may not compel a person “in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” The framers knew how easy it was to obtain a confession through torture or other forms of overt coercion, and how tempting it was for a government to use such tactics. To prohibit this kind of abuse, the founders said, in effect, that a person could not be forced to confess.
The problem was trying to determine what counted as a coerced confession. Well into the 20th century, police officers would beat suspects, or keep defendants in isolation for days, to get a confession. The methods of police interrogation were so diverse, and the effects of isolation, intimidation and defendant ignorance so varied, that appellate courts found it difficult to determine afterward whether a confession had been truly voluntary.
Finally, in 1966, the Miranda decision < http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0384_0436_ZO.html > established a universal standard, requiring people in police custody to be read their rights before being questioned. Under most circumstances, failure to comply with this rule would lead to a suppression of the confession.
However, contrary to common belief, the Miranda warning doesn’t confer rights; it simply reminds arrestees of the rights already granted to them by the Constitution. Moreover, talk-show hosts and television police dramas have led people to believe that before the police may interrogate or arrest a suspect, the Miranda warning must be given. That just isn’t the case. Neither arrest alone nor interrogation alone (if there has been no arrest) requires the warning to be given. Miranda applies only to in-custody questioning; a statement made to the police by a suspect not in custody is not subject to Miranda.
Still, many supporters of Miranda exclusions argue that the rule hamstrings law enforcement. This is wrong, too.
When Miranda was decided, I was a young lawyer who had served in the military police and was chairman of the Committee on Public Safety of the Nassau County Board of Supervisors in short, law enforcement was a big part of my life. I, along with members of the county police force, the prosecutor’s office and others in the law enforcement community, was frightened by the decision. Would arresting officers ever remember to read the entire warning? We envisioned wily defense lawyers using Miranda to suppress a confession, often the strongest foundation on which to build a conviction.
Over time, however, police compliance became second nature, and the warning has become a routine part of post-arrest interrogation. Today, judges only rarely suppress confessions because the warning wasn’t given, and acquittals on the basis of such a suppression are even rarer. In fact, because it clarifies more than inhibits the arrest and interrogation process, law enforcement agencies nationwide support Miranda.
The truth is, we may have even reached the point where defendants are so familiar with the warning that they forget its meaning; indeed, the penal system is filled with prisoners who confessed or incriminated themselves despite having been read their rights.
This doesn’t mean that Miranda is irrelevant, or that there isn’t a place for exceptions. In 1982, while I was a judge on New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, we heard a case in which a man was said to have entered a supermarket with a loaded gun. When the police detained the man, they found him wearing an empty holster, and they asked him the whereabouts of the weapon. After he showed the police where he had hidden the gun, he was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon.
The lower courts held that he should have been given his Miranda warning before being asked the location of the gun. I wrote an opinion, later embraced by the Supreme Court < http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=467&invol=649 > , that created an “emergency exception” to Miranda, allowing the police to defuse a dangerous situation before administering the warning.
But resolving immediate emergencies is about as far as we should go in delaying the Miranda reading or creating exceptions to it. To open non-emergency exceptions, like the one proposed by the Obama administration for terrorism suspects, would be to go down a road toward the eventual nullification of the constitutional protection against self-incrimination.
The Miranda rule strikes a delicate balance, enabling us to protect a fundamental constitutional right without forcing the courts to allow the legitimacy of every confession to be proven before it is allowed into evidence. To compromise the rule would be counterproductive and destructive to the kind of freedom we enjoy as Americans a freedom that terrorists would like nothing better than to destroy.
Sol Wachtler is a professor of constitutional law at Touro Law School and former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals.
___________________________________________________________
Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Communities United Against Police Brutality newsletter
Communities United Against Police Brutality
EMAIL NEWS
May 11, 2010
**********************************************
UPCOMING EVENTS
Appeal in Fong Lee Case
Wednesday, May 12
Press Conference at 8:00 a.m.
Hearing at 9:00 a.m.
Federal Courthouse
316 N Robert Street, St. Paul
Join us for a rally and press conference starting at 8:00 a.m. at the courthouse. This case has great significance to the community, especially in light of today's rehiring of the murderer cop Jason Anderson (see below). An all white outstate jury ruled in May 2009 that Andersen was justified in shooting the unarmed Fong Lee in the back as he fled, after Andersen ran him down with his squad car and knocked him off his bicycle. Join this family in their struggle to gain some measure of justice in this truly horrifying incident.
Courtwatch for Paul Hansen
Wednesday, May 12 at 1:30 p.m.
"Public Safety" Building (new jail)
401 4th St, Minneapolis
Some of you joined us a couple of years ago when we protested the Newport City Council over ongoing harassment by the local police of CUAPB board member Paul Hansen. Paul continues to experience harassment from police. In this latest incident, he was changing the locks on a rental property he owns when cops accused him of having a knife. When they searched him and none was found, he was charged with felony terroristic threats. They handcuffed him so tight that his wrists bled before handing him a ticket. This is just the latest in a long string of bogus charges. We need to let the cops know that we have Paul's back.
Courtwatch for RNC 8
Thursday, May 13
Friday, May 14
9:00 a.m. each day
Ramsey County Courthouse
15 W Kellogg, St. Paul
Carpools leave each morning at 8:00 a.m. from Walker Church, 3104 16th Ave S, Minneapolis
This is the second week of pretrial hearings in the RNC 8 case. Last week's hearings were on whether there is even a basis for the charges against the 8 and from the pathetic testimony of the cops, the bogus nature of this prosecution is becoming more apparent. For great coverage of last week's hearings, see reports on Twin Cities Indymedia. Chris Dugger, who spied on the RNC Welcoming Committee in exchange for a job as a Ramsey County Sheriff's Deputy, will testify next. This should be really exciting.
___________________________________________________________
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: NEW INITIATIVE TO HOLD COPS ACCOUNTABLE
During last weekend's Mayday festival, CUAPB launched a new initiative to amend the Minneapolis city charter so that police officers will have to purchase individual professional liability policies to cover police brutality and misconduct. This initiative is long overdue as misconduct by the cops costs taxpayers millions each year--money that could have been used for housing homeless people, keeping our libraries open or any number of other important items. Not only will this relieve the burden from taxpayers but it is an ingenious way to add an element of risk management to local policing--if a police officer gets too many complaints/lawsuits, he or she will be dropped by the insurance company and would no longer be able to be a cop in Minneapolis.
For this initiative to be successful, we have to get it on the ballot and that means we need to collect the signatures of 15,000 registered Minneapolis voters by July 1. That's where you come in. We need lots of canvassers to go door to door in selected neighborhoods in Minneapolis to explain the charter amendment and ask people to sign to put it on the ballot. From our work last weekend, we found that many people are eager to sign on once we explain the amendment. You'll work on a team with others and will be trained and have a script to follow.
If you can be part of this historic effort, please come to a training session on Saturday, May 15 at 4:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3100 16th Ave S, Minneapolis or call our hotline at 612-874-7867 to let us know you can help.
___________________________________________________________
ONE STEP FORWARD: COURT REQUIRES DOLAN TO FOLLOW THE LAW
In response to our writ petition filed back on February 12, Judge Susan Burke issued an order requiring Minneapolis Police Chief Timothy Dolan to “comply with Minneapolis Ordinance § 172.130.” Judge Burke further ordered that Chief Dolan “shall show cause before this court why he has not done so on June 4, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom 757 of the Hennepin County Government Center.” Folks, you are going to want to mark that date on your calendar as that hearing should be one great show!
Under Minneapolis ordinance 172.130, the police chief is required to make disciplinary decisions on sustained CRA cases “based on the adjudicated facts as determined by the civilian review authority board.”
The recently released CRA 2009 Annual Report and the previously released CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan provide ample documentation of Chief Dolan’s refusal to accept CRA findings and refusal to discipline based on those findings. The 2009 Annual Report states “the MPD continued to use insufficient evidence and disagreement with the evidence as a reason for not imposing corrective action on officers who received sustained complaints” (p. 20-21). This report also cites a new excuse by the chief for not disciplining complaintsthat of the investigation taking “too long.” For a discussion of this issue, see p. 29 of the report. The 2009 Annual Report can be found at < http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/docs/2009-Annual-Report043010.pdf > and the CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan can be found at < http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/docs/CRA-Board_Chief-Dolan_review_2009.pdf >.
In a companion ruling, Judge Burke set a trial schedule in the matter of whether CRA Board Chair Don Bellfield adequately responded to a requirement in the CRA ordinance that he submit notice to Minneapolis City Council’s Executive Committee of Chief Dolan’s failure to follow the discipline section of the CRA ordinance and that this failure could subject Chief Dolan to discipline. With this ruling, we are two for two against the city's shenanigans for shielding Dolan from the law.
Judge: MPD chief must explain discipline decisions
Created: 05/10/2010 10:51 PM KSTP.com By: Becky Nahm
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1553383.shtml?cat=1
[]
Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan will be required to tell a Hennepin County judge why he did not discipline police officers found to be at fault by a citizen review board.
A judge ordered Dolan to appear in court in June.
The ruling is a victory for the group Communities United Against Police Brutality.
In February, the group filed a lawsuit, saying Dolan failed to punish officers even after the Civilian Police Review Authority sustained complaints against them.
___________________________________________________________
TWO STEPS BACK: ON EVE OF FONG LEE APPEAL, MURDERING COP PUT BACK ON FORCE
Hold your stomachs, folks--the sympathetic tone of this article will really make you ill. Note that no one from the community was interviewed for a response. This is an old pattern--pretty much every cop fired after an incident of excessive or deadly force who appeals to the arbitrator gets rehired. Folks will remember that Mike Sauro was reinstated after costing the city $3 million. All the more reason to be at the Fong Lee hearing tomorrow.
Fired Minneapolis police officer in Fong Lee case is ordered rehired
By David Hanners
Updated: 05/11/2010 07:33:53 PM CDT
http://www.twincities.com/ci_15064684?nclick_check=1
An arbitrator has ruled that Minneapolis Chief of Police Tim Dolan was wrong to fire Jason Andersen, the officer involved in the 2006 shooting of Fong Lee, and has ordered the cop reinstated with back pay.
Dolan fired Andersen for allegedly violating the department's code of ethics; the firing came after a prosecutor dropped a misdemeanor domestic assault charge that had been filed against Andersen.
"It feels good to be vindicated," the officer said in a statement released by his father, Steven Andersen. "I'm anxious to get back to work and serve the citizens of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department administration with pride."
The 33-year-old officer was fired four months after a jury in a federal wrongful-death trial found that he did not use excessive force in the July 2006 shooting of Fong Lee. Andersen shot the 19-year-old eight times after he said the Hmong man began to raise a pistol towards the officer.
Dolan had long defended Andersen's actions, even returning him to duty before the department's own investigation into the shooting was complete. But after the verdict, some of Andersen's colleagues expressed concern that even though he'd been cleared of wrongdoing, the publicity created by the trial and the rift the shooting had left in the Hmong community had left him a marked man.
When the chief fired Andersen, the Minneapolis Police Federation filed a grievance, and today the union's vice president said the union was pleased with the arbitrator's ruling.
"We're obviously very happy," said Lt. Bob Kroll. "Jason's looking forward to getting back to work. He's one of these guys who was born to be a cop."
Sgt. Jesse Garcia III, a spokesman for the police department, said he hadn't heard of the ruling and couldn't comment.
He said Dolan was not available for comment.
Fred Bruno, the attorney who represented Andersen in the domestic assault case, said he was glad the arbitrator ruled in the officer's favor.
"I always thought that thing stunk from the beginning, so I'm happy to hear that," he said. "He's a single dad with kids and a mortgage, so he deserves it."
Andersen had been placed on paid administrative leave after he was arrested June 14 following an incident at his Big Lake home. His ex-wife had called a Big Lake policeman and complained that Andersen had struck his girlfriend.
Both Andersen and his girlfriend were charged with misdemeanor domestic assault. Sherburne County prosecutors soon dismissed the charge against the woman, and on Sept. 2, the charge against Andersen was dropped as well.
Prosecutors said there wasn't enough admissible evidence that Andersen had broken the law.
Bruno then asked the department to reinstate the officer, a second-generation cop who had joined the Minneapolis police department in August 2005. But the domestic assault cause had sparked an internal affairs investigation; a disciplinary panel recommended to Dolan that the officer be fired, and the chief agreed.
Andersen was told that he had violated the department's single-paragraph Code of Ethics, which reads:
"All sworn and civilian members of the department shall conduct themselves in a professional and ethical manner at all times and not engage in any on- or off-duty conduct that would tarnish or offend the ethical standards of the department. Employees shall abide by the City's Ethics in Government Policy, Chapter 15."
"I think from the get-go, the city's case was baseless," said Kroll. "We think that the arbitrator came to the right conclusion. It was a right and just decision."
Andersen's father, Steven Andersen, said that his son is "a public servant through and through" and that he had learned from the experience.
"He's grown as a person," said the elder Andersen, a retired Beltrami county sheriff's deputy. "He's grown in his faith, I think he's matured a lot over this. There's been some real growth in his life. And he's not bitter. When he called me (to tell him of the ruling) there was absolutely not a breath of bitterness from him. He was just elated that he can go back and continue to serve the citizens of the community. That's what he wants to do."
___________________________________________________________
Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
EMAIL NEWS
May 11, 2010
**********************************************
UPCOMING EVENTS
Appeal in Fong Lee Case
Wednesday, May 12
Press Conference at 8:00 a.m.
Hearing at 9:00 a.m.
Federal Courthouse
316 N Robert Street, St. Paul
Join us for a rally and press conference starting at 8:00 a.m. at the courthouse. This case has great significance to the community, especially in light of today's rehiring of the murderer cop Jason Anderson (see below). An all white outstate jury ruled in May 2009 that Andersen was justified in shooting the unarmed Fong Lee in the back as he fled, after Andersen ran him down with his squad car and knocked him off his bicycle. Join this family in their struggle to gain some measure of justice in this truly horrifying incident.
Courtwatch for Paul Hansen
Wednesday, May 12 at 1:30 p.m.
"Public Safety" Building (new jail)
401 4th St, Minneapolis
Some of you joined us a couple of years ago when we protested the Newport City Council over ongoing harassment by the local police of CUAPB board member Paul Hansen. Paul continues to experience harassment from police. In this latest incident, he was changing the locks on a rental property he owns when cops accused him of having a knife. When they searched him and none was found, he was charged with felony terroristic threats. They handcuffed him so tight that his wrists bled before handing him a ticket. This is just the latest in a long string of bogus charges. We need to let the cops know that we have Paul's back.
Courtwatch for RNC 8
Thursday, May 13
Friday, May 14
9:00 a.m. each day
Ramsey County Courthouse
15 W Kellogg, St. Paul
Carpools leave each morning at 8:00 a.m. from Walker Church, 3104 16th Ave S, Minneapolis
This is the second week of pretrial hearings in the RNC 8 case. Last week's hearings were on whether there is even a basis for the charges against the 8 and from the pathetic testimony of the cops, the bogus nature of this prosecution is becoming more apparent. For great coverage of last week's hearings, see reports on Twin Cities Indymedia. Chris Dugger, who spied on the RNC Welcoming Committee in exchange for a job as a Ramsey County Sheriff's Deputy, will testify next. This should be really exciting.
___________________________________________________________
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: NEW INITIATIVE TO HOLD COPS ACCOUNTABLE
During last weekend's Mayday festival, CUAPB launched a new initiative to amend the Minneapolis city charter so that police officers will have to purchase individual professional liability policies to cover police brutality and misconduct. This initiative is long overdue as misconduct by the cops costs taxpayers millions each year--money that could have been used for housing homeless people, keeping our libraries open or any number of other important items. Not only will this relieve the burden from taxpayers but it is an ingenious way to add an element of risk management to local policing--if a police officer gets too many complaints/lawsuits, he or she will be dropped by the insurance company and would no longer be able to be a cop in Minneapolis.
For this initiative to be successful, we have to get it on the ballot and that means we need to collect the signatures of 15,000 registered Minneapolis voters by July 1. That's where you come in. We need lots of canvassers to go door to door in selected neighborhoods in Minneapolis to explain the charter amendment and ask people to sign to put it on the ballot. From our work last weekend, we found that many people are eager to sign on once we explain the amendment. You'll work on a team with others and will be trained and have a script to follow.
If you can be part of this historic effort, please come to a training session on Saturday, May 15 at 4:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3100 16th Ave S, Minneapolis or call our hotline at 612-874-7867 to let us know you can help.
___________________________________________________________
ONE STEP FORWARD: COURT REQUIRES DOLAN TO FOLLOW THE LAW
In response to our writ petition filed back on February 12, Judge Susan Burke issued an order requiring Minneapolis Police Chief Timothy Dolan to “comply with Minneapolis Ordinance § 172.130.” Judge Burke further ordered that Chief Dolan “shall show cause before this court why he has not done so on June 4, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom 757 of the Hennepin County Government Center.” Folks, you are going to want to mark that date on your calendar as that hearing should be one great show!
Under Minneapolis ordinance 172.130, the police chief is required to make disciplinary decisions on sustained CRA cases “based on the adjudicated facts as determined by the civilian review authority board.”
The recently released CRA 2009 Annual Report and the previously released CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan provide ample documentation of Chief Dolan’s refusal to accept CRA findings and refusal to discipline based on those findings. The 2009 Annual Report states “the MPD continued to use insufficient evidence and disagreement with the evidence as a reason for not imposing corrective action on officers who received sustained complaints” (p. 20-21). This report also cites a new excuse by the chief for not disciplining complaintsthat of the investigation taking “too long.” For a discussion of this issue, see p. 29 of the report. The 2009 Annual Report can be found at < http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/docs/2009-Annual-Report043010.pdf > and the CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan can be found at < http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cra/docs/CRA-Board_Chief-Dolan_review_2009.pdf >.
In a companion ruling, Judge Burke set a trial schedule in the matter of whether CRA Board Chair Don Bellfield adequately responded to a requirement in the CRA ordinance that he submit notice to Minneapolis City Council’s Executive Committee of Chief Dolan’s failure to follow the discipline section of the CRA ordinance and that this failure could subject Chief Dolan to discipline. With this ruling, we are two for two against the city's shenanigans for shielding Dolan from the law.
Judge: MPD chief must explain discipline decisions
Created: 05/10/2010 10:51 PM KSTP.com By: Becky Nahm
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1553383.shtml?cat=1
[]
Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan will be required to tell a Hennepin County judge why he did not discipline police officers found to be at fault by a citizen review board.
A judge ordered Dolan to appear in court in June.
The ruling is a victory for the group Communities United Against Police Brutality.
In February, the group filed a lawsuit, saying Dolan failed to punish officers even after the Civilian Police Review Authority sustained complaints against them.
___________________________________________________________
TWO STEPS BACK: ON EVE OF FONG LEE APPEAL, MURDERING COP PUT BACK ON FORCE
Hold your stomachs, folks--the sympathetic tone of this article will really make you ill. Note that no one from the community was interviewed for a response. This is an old pattern--pretty much every cop fired after an incident of excessive or deadly force who appeals to the arbitrator gets rehired. Folks will remember that Mike Sauro was reinstated after costing the city $3 million. All the more reason to be at the Fong Lee hearing tomorrow.
Fired Minneapolis police officer in Fong Lee case is ordered rehired
By David Hanners
Updated: 05/11/2010 07:33:53 PM CDT
http://www.twincities.com/ci_15064684?nclick_check=1
An arbitrator has ruled that Minneapolis Chief of Police Tim Dolan was wrong to fire Jason Andersen, the officer involved in the 2006 shooting of Fong Lee, and has ordered the cop reinstated with back pay.
Dolan fired Andersen for allegedly violating the department's code of ethics; the firing came after a prosecutor dropped a misdemeanor domestic assault charge that had been filed against Andersen.
"It feels good to be vindicated," the officer said in a statement released by his father, Steven Andersen. "I'm anxious to get back to work and serve the citizens of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department administration with pride."
The 33-year-old officer was fired four months after a jury in a federal wrongful-death trial found that he did not use excessive force in the July 2006 shooting of Fong Lee. Andersen shot the 19-year-old eight times after he said the Hmong man began to raise a pistol towards the officer.
Dolan had long defended Andersen's actions, even returning him to duty before the department's own investigation into the shooting was complete. But after the verdict, some of Andersen's colleagues expressed concern that even though he'd been cleared of wrongdoing, the publicity created by the trial and the rift the shooting had left in the Hmong community had left him a marked man.
When the chief fired Andersen, the Minneapolis Police Federation filed a grievance, and today the union's vice president said the union was pleased with the arbitrator's ruling.
"We're obviously very happy," said Lt. Bob Kroll. "Jason's looking forward to getting back to work. He's one of these guys who was born to be a cop."
Sgt. Jesse Garcia III, a spokesman for the police department, said he hadn't heard of the ruling and couldn't comment.
He said Dolan was not available for comment.
Fred Bruno, the attorney who represented Andersen in the domestic assault case, said he was glad the arbitrator ruled in the officer's favor.
"I always thought that thing stunk from the beginning, so I'm happy to hear that," he said. "He's a single dad with kids and a mortgage, so he deserves it."
Andersen had been placed on paid administrative leave after he was arrested June 14 following an incident at his Big Lake home. His ex-wife had called a Big Lake policeman and complained that Andersen had struck his girlfriend.
Both Andersen and his girlfriend were charged with misdemeanor domestic assault. Sherburne County prosecutors soon dismissed the charge against the woman, and on Sept. 2, the charge against Andersen was dropped as well.
Prosecutors said there wasn't enough admissible evidence that Andersen had broken the law.
Bruno then asked the department to reinstate the officer, a second-generation cop who had joined the Minneapolis police department in August 2005. But the domestic assault cause had sparked an internal affairs investigation; a disciplinary panel recommended to Dolan that the officer be fired, and the chief agreed.
Andersen was told that he had violated the department's single-paragraph Code of Ethics, which reads:
"All sworn and civilian members of the department shall conduct themselves in a professional and ethical manner at all times and not engage in any on- or off-duty conduct that would tarnish or offend the ethical standards of the department. Employees shall abide by the City's Ethics in Government Policy, Chapter 15."
"I think from the get-go, the city's case was baseless," said Kroll. "We think that the arbitrator came to the right conclusion. It was a right and just decision."
Andersen's father, Steven Andersen, said that his son is "a public servant through and through" and that he had learned from the experience.
"He's grown as a person," said the elder Andersen, a retired Beltrami county sheriff's deputy. "He's grown in his faith, I think he's matured a lot over this. There's been some real growth in his life. And he's not bitter. When he called me (to tell him of the ruling) there was absolutely not a breath of bitterness from him. He was just elated that he can go back and continue to serve the citizens of the community. That's what he wants to do."
___________________________________________________________
Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
Monday, May 10, 2010
Judge orders MPD chief Dolan to follow the law
You'd think that'd be simple for an "officer of the law."
Increasingly, as an activist and writer who still believes in the need for law and public safety, the police apparatus in place today is not up to the task, and in my opinion, acts as a national criminal class protected by the badge."
from the report:
Under Minneapolis ordinance 172.130, the police chief is required to make disciplinary decisions on sustained CRA cases “based on the adjudicated facts as determined by the civilian review authority board.”
The recently released CRA 2009 Annual Report and the previously released CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan provide ample documentation of Chief Dolan’s refusal to accept CRA findings and refusal to discipline based on those findings. The 2009 Annual Report states “the MPD continued to use insufficient evidence and disagreement with the evidence as a reason for not imposing corrective action on officers who received sustained complaints” (p. 20-21).
Increasingly, as an activist and writer who still believes in the need for law and public safety, the police apparatus in place today is not up to the task, and in my opinion, acts as a national criminal class protected by the badge."
from the report:
Under Minneapolis ordinance 172.130, the police chief is required to make disciplinary decisions on sustained CRA cases “based on the adjudicated facts as determined by the civilian review authority board.”
The recently released CRA 2009 Annual Report and the previously released CRA Participation in Performance Review of MPD Chief Dolan provide ample documentation of Chief Dolan’s refusal to accept CRA findings and refusal to discipline based on those findings. The 2009 Annual Report states “the MPD continued to use insufficient evidence and disagreement with the evidence as a reason for not imposing corrective action on officers who received sustained complaints” (p. 20-21).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
