Use-of-force report called 'Police Reform for Dummies'
Jonathan Bandler
The Journal News May 15, 2008
MOUNT VERNON - An activist yesterday criticized as simplistic a report calling for more training in the wake of the fatal police shooting of Mount Vernon Officer Christopher Ridley.
"What this should be called is 'Police Reform for Dummies'," said Marq Claxton, head of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, at a news conference. "It's a statistical justification for a horrific tragedy ... It's not worth the paper its written on."
A seven-member panel, established after the police shooting to review police procedures, released the report yesterday and made numerous recommendations related to use-of-force training, particularly that more be done to make officers prepared in cases of off-duty confrontations. Ridley was shot by county police officers Jan. 25 after he tried to subdue an assault suspect while off duty in downtown White Plains.
Claxton made his comments after calling on Albany lawmakers to support state Sen. Eric Adams' proposal for a permanent special prosecutor to handle police shootings and alleged police brutality. Adams, who co-founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement with Claxton, made the proposal after last month's acquittal of three New York City police detectives in the killing of Sean Bell. Claxton and other speakers yesterday said Ridley's death and the subsequent investigation provided just as strong a case for why police and prosecutors should not investigate their own.
training of police officers. Claxton is head of the group
100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.
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The four county officers were cleared of criminal wrongdoing by a grand jury following an investigation by White Plains police and the Westchester District Attorney's Office.
"(These cases have) consistently shown the New York justice system is not blind when the colors are black and blue," said Damon Jones, executive director of the National Black Police Association's Westchester chapter.
Paul O'Connell, an Iona College criminal justice professor who chaired the panel, could not be reached for comment.
Claxton said there was an incestuous relationship among police departments and prosecutors, and that a permanent special prosecutor would protect police from allegations of coverup and the politically sensitive task of requesting a special prosecutor.
A spokesman for Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore said it would be inappropriate to comment because she has not yet seen the proposed legislation.
Ridley's relatives and supporters were upset from the outset by the tenor and pace of the investigation and enraged when the officers were not indicted. The report on use-of-force training in the county was an insult, they said.
But the president of the county police union, Michael Hagan, said yesterday that the report indicated the Westchester police academy exceeds state requirements for training.
"When confronted with an armed, non-compliant subject, the responding officers took appropriate action, as confirmed by a grand jury," Hagan said in a written statement. "Although I have no doubt that his intentions were noble and his actions heroic, Detective Ridley's inexperience appears to have been a major factor in the escalation of this incident."
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