In November, nine of the 13 Cleveland police officers who shot Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams in 2012 filed a federal lawsuit against the city and department leaders alleging discrimination (see our reporting on that). The group — including eight white and one Hispanic officer — say they were treated harsher (extended gym duty and a longer “cooling off period,” for example) for shooting black people than when black officers shoot black people.
It’s already a contentious case, full of bickering and heated legal filings that will surely take years to wrap up. But for as tone-deaf as the lawsuit is — it was filed just days after Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann shot and killed Tamir Rice and just before the Department of Justice released a summary of their damning investigation into the department — even more information showing the inner workings of how the Cleveland Police Department reacts following police-involved shootings will be included in the court file (these records are already public record, technically, but it takes months and months for a reporter to get records on even a single shooting).
Lawyers for the officers initially asked for the city to release 13 years of police shooting records — including the ethnicity of the police officer who shot and their discipline and/or reassignment records following that. The lawyers are trying to find correlation between the race of the officers who shoot black people and what happens to them afterwards to prove that these “non-African American” officers were treated slightly worse when they shot black people.
A federal judge initially ruled last month that the department must provide shooting records (including the race of the officer) and disciplinary records for police shootings that resulted in death for the past five years. But after a motion filed by the officers’ lawyer, a judge ruled that last week that records of police shootings that didn’t result in death will be included, too.
The records will come from police shootings between Nov. 2007 and Nov. 2012.
In another filing in April, the officers, including some who refused to to testify in the trial against their colleague Michael Brelo, squarely place blame on Brelo saying their own shots did “no harm.” Filed in the midst of the Brelo trial is this:
The plaintiffs’ use of deadly force resulted in no harm much less death. They are similarly situated to a larger number of officers who have used deadly force and who did not cause harm. They are not similarly situated with officers who used deadly force but caused physical injury.
The plaintiffs’ were involved in a lengthy pursuit on November 29, 2012. They all discharged their weapons. The discharge was justifiable according to the report issued by the Ohio Attorney General. One officer involved in the pursuit and who is not a plaintiff in this case [Michael Brelo] fatally injured two people. His conduct was determined not to be acceptable under the circumstances. He is facing a criminal trial at this time for manslaughter.
This article appears in May 6-12, 2015.
Y do yu guys keep reporting racism. All your doing is cause an even bigger void between the ppl who live in this city. Ive lost good friends over this stupid race war. STOP contributing tp the problem by exploiting this trash. Black white yellow blue green or purple… Please stop. Or ill file a law suit for causeing me mental stress
Why do you guys talk about things I’m uncomfortable with. The comments section is so divided, it’s almost like there are racist people, and folks who are fed up with that shit. I hate having to think of topics besides how great or terrible our sports teams are doing?
STOP posting articles cause people to see a perspective outside of their own, it might cause people to discuss this and learn to understand one another! What would happen then?
I’m not going to stop reading your articles I’ll just complain on each one I disagree with, I don’t have much going on, thanks.
Thank you Scene for keeping us up to date on what’s happening in Cleveland. Good or bad, it’s good to be informed.
It is more gutter politics of garbage in, garbage out, garbage strewn over the landscape — with taxpayers ultimately picking up the tab.
There are 100’s of cases all over the United States wherein white people are killed by black people and yes black officers killing white suspects. Do we hear about them? NO. And nobody uses it as an excuse to loot, riot, steal and burn down buildings. These fema camps are set up on purpose because I believe the government wants and even pays these looters to give them a reason to use the camps. Some people have seen the same people looting in other areas and heading to the next state to do their job. Sort of like mercenaries. If the judges had locked up Freddy Gray up for the 18 previous arrests maybe he would still be alive.
Reading the comments, racism is very real. why no one is asking and pressuring the good officers to blow their moral whistles when something is wrong is beyond me. Why you would be a police officer today, yesterday or tomorrow without a body camera for your own protection and accountability is beyond all logical reasoning.
This story is beyond disturbing….reverse racism?? Are you fking kidding me? It’s an open and shut case for racism against the dead victims yes, but for the the murdering police to accuse reverse racism is just perverse. The acquittal of these killers was a perversion of justice, this is obvious to me, a 52 yr old white woman, and I don’t see how any conscionable person can claim otherwise. For the killers to paint themselves as victims just makes me sick beyond words.
If blacks were not involved so frequently in criminal behavior, they would have fewer interactions with the police, so says the black intellectual Jason Riley, who also said, the cemeteries of Chicago are not filled with black youth killed by cops.