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Civil Rights Groups Question Police Shooting, Issue Renewed Call for Civilian Review Board
June 7, 2001
MIAMI ? In what has become yet another tragic killing at the hands of City of Miami police, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida and the Liberty-City based Coalition Against Police Brutality & Harassment today called for answers to the shooting of 55-year-old Richard Wayne Beatty.
Various news reports stated that on June 6 a squad of City of Miami police officers "used everything within their power" to persuade Mr. Beatty to drop the pocketknife he was allegedly using to keep them at bay. When Mr. Beatty allegedly "lunged" at one of them, the officer fired his .40-caliber semi-automatic weapon, emptying 17 bullets into him from about four or five feet away. It all happened before another squad of officers carrying riot shields could have prevented the shots from being fired, as stated in a news story today.
"Miami is seeing an epidemic of police shootings that poses a danger to every person living here," said ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard L. Simon. "People who should be apprehended and brought into custody for a variety of minor crimes are paying with their lives. This city is doing little more than sitting back and watching as people continue to grow more and more fearful of the officers who are sworn to protect them."
Both the ACLU and the Coalition Against Police Brutality are renewing their call for an independent civilian commission -- with subpoena and sanctioning powers ? to thoroughly review the operations and polices of the Miami Police Department in the wake of the increasing number of shootings. An unarmed Nick Singleton, 18, was shot-down by Miami police on April 30, 2001, as he bailed out of a stolen Jeep and ran from police. Singleton was hit as he was climbing a roof in the Overtown neighborhood of Miami.
"The corruption and brutality that has been festering in Miami for years has not, and will not, be uncovered by police officers policing themselves," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, President-Elect of the Greater Miami Chapter of the ACLU of Florida. "These systematic problems and tragic deaths will continue unless the city takes steps to implement meaningful civilian review of its police department."
The Beatty shooting occurred in the midst of a federal grand jury inquiry into other shootings that have reportedly been "unjustified" and "covered-up." The City of Miami Police Department continues its own investigation into the Singleton shooting.
"We have all these investigations taking place, meanwhile people continue dying," said Max Rameau, of the Coalition Against Police Brutality. "I think we're learning, at the expense of innocent lives, that cops can't police themselves. Virtually nothing that the police say while they're investigating themselves is credible. They're more interested in protecting themselves from lawsuits than from finding out what really happened."
