Group Calls For New Orleans Style Consent Decree to Overhaul Rochester Police Department

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Submitted by Citizens Against Police Brutality & Misconduct on Thu, 2012-08-23 21:42

Loria has successfully sued the City of Rochester and various members and former members of the Rochester Police Department four separate times in Federal Court back in the 1990’s for violating his civil rights. Loria currently has a 5th, 6th, and 7th lawsuit against the City and certain members of the Rochester Police Department pending in Federal Court.

What: A Press Conference immediately following the Public Hearing on (“status of one year”) Reform of the Civilian Oversight Committee of the Rochester, N.Y. Police Department.

Where: City Counsel Chambers
Third floor
30 Church Street
Rochester, New York 14614

When: 5:30 p.m. Thursday August 23, 2012.

In response to Rochester, N.Y. City Councilman Adam McFadden stating that for the past 8 years, through City Council, there has been a Civilian Review Board with Subpoena power, which the public has never known about and which hasn't been uitilized by City Council members at all, in regards to any investigation.

The citizens of Rochester, N.Y. have been left with no fair and impartial agency to hear and investigate their complaints. Time and time again, it has been proven that the current and existing avenues for a citizen to file a complaint against the Rochester, N.Y. Police Department (Internal Affairs and Center for Dispute Settlement) are ineffective and both have ties and affiliation with the City of Rochester, N.Y. and it's Police Department.

Loria’s suggestion to improve the CRB:

“You need an independent body that has no interest in the outcome whether it’s favorable or not favorable--to investigate claims especially for an institution (CRB) set up to protect the civil rights of residents.”Loria said “the City of Rochester, N.Y. is a Municipal Corporation, “Business” like Kodak, Xerox and Wegmans, and it is imperative that as a business, they protect their interests, which is why they have to be in control of the complaint process.” The City (Police Department and Internal Affairs) therefore, needs to make sure that the outcome of any complaint is in their favor.

The City can not allow complaints of serious allegations of Brutality, False Arrest and Misconduct, to be investigated by an independent agency--that has no interest in the outcome whether it’s favorable or not favorable--because they would be sustained on a regular basis due to Rochester Police Department’s long history of systematic pattern and practice of violating primarily minority citizens constitution and civil rights on a daily basis here in Rochester, New York, as this would then set the stage for the City of Rochester, N.Y. and its police department to be held liable in federal civil rights lawsuits, which would eventually cause the City to go bankrupt and leave them with no money. So, as in any corporation, the City therefore has a vested interest in controlling the outcome of any serious complaint. In some cases petty incidents may be sustained as the City needs to have those few minor complaints sustained so as to give a false impression that they can do a fair and impartial investigation, because in the end they know that these minor incidents cannot result in a lawsuit.

Conclusion & Official Statement:

The “Civil Rights Division” of the U.S. Department of Justice needs to immediately do a complete and through investigation of certain members of the Rochester Police Department that abuse people’s rights because the systems in place for officers to police themselves are useless or nonexistent.

The end product should be a consent decree: An agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and City officials that will establish guidelines and impose conditions that must be followed by members of the Rochester, N.Y.Police Department.

Historically, decrees have forced police departments to revise their policies and change the way they deal with the general public, control the use of force and address race and community relations. RPD officers must act in ways thatdon’t violate the civil rights of citizens, and they must document everything along the way.

Theodore "Teddy' Loria

Citizens Against Police Brutality & Misconduct.
President
(585) 739-7113
e-mail: TeddyLoria@yahoo.com

Anti-racism / Racism