Probe: Cleveland police use 'excessive' force

Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy shot to death by Cleveland police two weeks ago, has become another symbol of what protestors across the nation say is a widespread problem of over-aggressive police behavior.

The issue took a heightened significance in Cleveland on Thursday when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder arrived in the city to announce the unflattering results of a lengthy Justice Department investigation: Federal officials noted “reasonable cause to believe that Cleveland police officers engage in a pattern or practice of unreasonable and in some cases unnecessary force in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.”

The Department of Justice report, although unrelated to Rice’s death, came just 12 days after an officer shot the boy at a Cleveland park. Rice was brandishing what turned out to be a nonlethal gun that fires plastic pellets. His death, along with recent grand jury decisions not to indict two white police officers in the deaths of two black men in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City, has galvanized protests against what many see as excessive police force against African Americans.

“Accountability and legitimacy are essential for communities to trust their police departments,” Holder said in a statement Thursday. “Although the issues in Cleveland are complex, and the problems longstanding, we have seen in city after city where we have been engaged that meaningful change is possible.”

Holder has opened civil rights probes into the deaths of Michael Brown, who was shot in Ferguson in August during a confrontation with an officer, and Eric Garner, who died on Staten Island in July after an officer placed him in a chokehold. Protests over the deaths have been ongoing for weeks in cities across the nation.

The Justice Department review of the Cleveland Division of Police lends support to the claims of aggressive behavior. The review blames police for “the unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force, including shootings and head strikes with impact weapons,” and “the unnecessary, excessive, or retaliatory use of less lethal force including Tasers, chemical spray, and fists.”

The 58-page report also said the Cleveland police department failed to objectively investigate allegations of officer misconduct and hadn’t provided officers with adequate training and equipment.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said in a statement Thursday that while his administration “may have disagreements on some facts or conclusions” in the report, the city was committed to making appropriate changes. The Justice Department and the city of Cleveland have agreed to develop a plan for an independent monitor to oversee reforms.

The federal probe in Cleveland began in March 2013. Investigators looked into nearly 600 use-of-force incidents between 2010 and 2013. Among them was a high-speed car chase in 2012 that ended with officers firing 137 rounds at the two unarmed occupants, who died.

Not included in the probe: The Nov. 22 shooting of 12-year-old Rice, who was playing with an “airsoft” pistol near the Cudell Recreation Center on a Saturday afternoon. Airsoft guns, popular among boys, fire plastic pellets and are available for sale for under $20. Police said an orange tip indicating the gun was not real had been removed from the muzzle of Rice’s gun.

It looked realistic enough to worry bystanders, one of whom called 911 to report “a guy here with a pistol. … It’s probably a juvenile.”

The caller added before hanging up: “I don’t know if it’s real or not.”

The dispatcher reportedly did not tell police responders the gun might be fake. Surveillance footage of the incident shows Rice walking back and forth on a sidewalk and sometimes flourishing or aiming the pellet pistol.

After he sits for several minutes at a picnic table, he stands and appears to approach a police car that skids to a stop in the grass front of him. The footage shows an officer—identified as 26-year-old Timothy Loehmann—emerging from the passenger door and shooting Rice almost immediately. The boy falls to the ground within two seconds after the squad car stops. He was shot in the abdomen and later died.

In the police department’s version of events, Loehmann shot at Rice because he had reached to pull from his waistband what they believed was a real pistol. They also said the officers told Rice to “show your hands” three times. But the surveillance footage casts doubt on whether there was enough time to issue three commands, or whether the boy could have understood them.

Officials revealed this week that Loehmann, who joined the Cleveland police force in March, had been described by his superiors as “distracted” and “weepy” while briefly working for a suburban police department in 2012. During a firearms qualifications test, Loehmann appeared emotionally upset and couldn’t follow simple instructions, apparently under stress from a personal situation.

“He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal,” wrote Deputy Chief Jim Polak of the Independence Police Department. “Unfortunately in law enforcement there are times when instructions need to be followed to the letter and I am under the impression that Ptl. Loehmann, under certain circumstances, will not react in the way instructed.” Loehmann resigned from the Independence police force a few days later.

Cleveland police said on Wednesday they had not reviewed Loehmann’s personnel file from Independence before hiring him in March. Cleveland has revised its hiring policy to include checking such records now. Both Loehmann and the officer who drove the squad car involved in the Rice shooting, Frank Garmback, 46, have been placed on administrative leave while city investigators look into the incident.

More than 100 friends and family attended Rice’s funeral on Wednesday. Last week, several hundred people demonstrated and blocked traffic on Cleveland streets in response to his death.

According to Northeast Ohio Media Group, the Cleveland police force is 27 percent black—more diversified than the Ferguson police force, which is 94 percent white. Neither force contains blacks in proportion to local populations: Roughly half of Cleveland’s population is black, and about two-thirds of Ferguson’s population is black.

Blaine Griffin, the director of Cleveland’s Community Relations Board, said the police department works closely with a street outreach group called the Peacemakers Alliance. Its members include clergy and former prisoners who can help bridge the gap with people in the community. “[People] may not trust the police but they trust these guys because they have credibility,” Griffin said.

Cleveland is “very tense and very upset” because of what happened to Rice, Griffin added.

“We lost a 12-year-old child, so of course there’s sadness, there’s a lot of emotion, a lot of frustration,” he said.