The Ferguson cops charged Henry Davis with destruction of property because he bled on their uniforms when they beat him.
Then, as if fearing it might be outdone in ridiculousness, a federal district court ruled that Davis could not sue the cops for violating his Fourth Amendment rights because they had not injured him badly enough as he lay handcuffed on the jailhouse floor, a working man arrested on a traffic warrant in a case of mistaken identity.
“As unreasonable as it may sound, a reasonable officer could have believed that beating a subdued and compliant Mr. Davis while causing only a concussion, scalp lacerations and bruising with almost no permanent damage did not violate the Constitution,” the district court ruled in tossing out the case.
Davis appealed and his attorney James Schottel responded to absurdity with legal reasoning. He argued that the decisive factor was not the seriousness of Davis’s injuries but the nature of the officers’ actions.
The district court had ruled that the officers enjoyed “official immunity” because they “acted within their discretion and caused only de minimis [slight] injuries.”
Schottel contended that official immunity “does not apply to discretionary acts done in bad faith or with malice.”
The appeals court could not have been clearer in its response on Tuesday.
Los Angeles Police Department officer Mary O’Callaghan was sentenced to 36 months in prison on Thursday after being convicted of assault caught on her police cruiser dash cam, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The 35-year-old victim, Alesia Thomas, died after the altercation, which began when officers went to Thomas’s home to investigate claims that she had abandoned her children, says The Guardian.
As you can see on the video, O’Callaghan kicked Thomas in the crotch and struck her with an open hand. Thomas then lost consciousness and fell to the ground, as O’Callaghan apathetically smoked a cigarette. The surveillance shows the officer assaulting Thomas both outside of and as she was entering the vehicle.
As Thomas is taken to the back of the car by the officer, she can be seen on the video, saying “I can’t breathe. I can’t move.”
A conversation with LaDoris Cordell
Superior Court Judge, Retired
Independent Police Auditor for San Jose, Retired
Following numerous high-profile cases of police killings of unarmed African American and Latino civilians, public confidence in law enforcement is clearly in crisis. California is not immune. Suggestions have been made — and rather widely supported — to require police to wear body cameras. But is that a sufficient response to deeply endemic problems? What else can be done?
At this month’s Other Voices forum, we’ll examine some other ideas.
At the urging of San Jose’s Independent Police Auditor, Judge LaDoris Cordell, the department there started collecting basic demographic data about every police stop made, regardless of whether an arrest was made or not. An initial analysis of the data shows results that, while perhaps not surprising, are nevertheless alarming. Although black and Latino residents are a third of San Jose’s population, they comprise almost two-thirds of the individuals stopped in 2014.
Judge Cordell and legislators in Sacramento are urging all police departments in the state to compile data in the way San Jose has started doing. A bill recently introduced in the legislature would require them to do so.
“State-wide data collection of police stops … is the starting point. Once we understand what is happening on the streets, we can go forward together — police and community — to balance public safety and the right all Californians to be treated with dignity and respect.” – Judge Cordell (SJ Mercury News)
Judge Cordell also believes the grand jury system must be abolished.
“As demonstrated in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, today’s state criminal grand juries serve no useful purpose and make a mockery of justice; they should be abolished. There is nothing grand about grand juries.” – Judge Cordell (Slate)
Join us for this timely conversation with someone who has a true inside perspective and expertise on the urgent need for police and court reforms. Come prepared to join the conversation with your questions and suggestions.
LaDoris Cordell is a 1974 graduate of Stanford Law School. A native of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, she has resided in California since 1971. For five years, she practiced law in East Palo Alto, California, establishing herself as the first lawyer to open a private law practice there. In 1978, she was appointed Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at Stanford Law School, a job that she held in addition to her private law practice.
In 1982, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Ms. Cordell to the Municipal Court of Santa Clara County, making her the first African American woman judge in all of northern California. On June 7, 1988, Judge Cordell overwhelmingly won election to the Superior Court of Santa Clara County. She was the first African American Superior Court Judge in the county’s history, and the first African American woman to sit on the Superior Court in northern California.
In 2010, following a national search, Judge Cordell was appointed by the San Jose City Council to the position of Independent Police Auditor. When this forum is held, she will have just retired from that position.
“I felt helpless. I felt violated. And honestly, I felt molested,” says the completely innocent woman who was assaulted in her own home, while nude, by public servants.
