Just days after protests over a police shooting verdict rocked Cleveland, the Justice Department said it has reached a settlement with the city to overhaul a police department that has shown a “pattern and practice” of unnecessary force. The settlement comes after a Cleveland patrolman was acquitted Friday for his role in the fatal shootings of two unarmed black people in 2012.
The Justice Department, now led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, announced the details of the settlement today including a federal monitor to oversee the overhaul. The investigation of the Cleveland police by the Civil Rights Division found that the police had a disturbing record of shooting residents, striking them in the head, and spraying them with chemicals, when such extreme force was not needed. The highly critical report was issued last December, a month afterTamir Rice, a 12-year-old African American boy, was fatally shot by police officers while he was holding a toy pistol. Video of the incident went viral, and drew national attention to Cleveland’s police department.
Then-Attorney General Eric Holder went to Cleveland in December to announce the results of the DOJ investigation, and said the police and the city had agreed to appoint an independent monitor to oversee police reforms, and increase supervision and training of officers. Today’s settlement is likely to expand on that agreement.
The protests in Cleveland over the Memorial Day weekend were triggered by the acquittal of Officer Michael Brelo on manslaughter charges in the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams in 2012. Russell and Williams were killed after they allegedly led police on a long car chase across Cleveland that eventually grew to more than 60 police cars.
Prosecutors charged that once the car was finally stopped, more than a dozen officers fired more than 100 rounds into the vehicle. Officer Brelo was accused of climbing in the hood of the car and shooting 15 rounds through the windshield, striking Russell and Williams.
The Justice Department said it is continuing its investigation of that shooting, despite Brelo’s acquittal, and it could bring federal civil rights charges against the officer.
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