Police Shootings / Possible Abuse Threads [merged]

The Phoenix police department routinely discriminates against people of color and kills civilians without justification, the US Department of Justice announced in an investigative report on Thursday.

The government found a “pattern or practice” of the police department using excessive force and violating the civil rights of Black, Hispanic and Native American people.

In a first finding of its kind against any US police department, the justice department also concluded that Phoenix police unlawfully detain unhoused people and dispose of their belongings.

The justice department further uncovered police discrimination against people with behavioral health disabilities when officers are dispatched to help with people in crisis, and found that police had violated the rights of people engaged in protected speech.

The sweeping three-year-investigation into the department’s “pervasive failings” follows a steady stream of scandals surrounding police brutality and extraordinarily high rates of killings by officers in the Arizona city.

In recent years, the Guardian revealed cases of Phoenix officers attacking and injuring a young woman during a minor traffic stop; burning a teenager on hot pavement while restraining her; and facing accusations of sexual assault on the job.


The justice department said certain laws, including drug and low-level offenses, were enforced more severely by Phoenix officers against Black, Hispanic and Native American people than against white residents who engaged in the same conduct.

Investigators found that Phoenix police use “dangerous tactics that lead to force that is unnecessary and unreasonable”.……..

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...ivil-rights-violations?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other