PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) A lawyer calls it the third-shift terror squad: a band of white officers who patrol the South Side of Providence at night and, residents say, strike fear into blacks and Latinos by harassing and in some cases beating them.
Theyre terrorizing the city, said Charm Howie, a black former police cadet who was arrested by the crew. I told them, Im a father. My kids are up there in the window. Please dont disrespect me in front of my children.'
A drive through the neighborhood for pizza in July 2015 ended with Howie splayed against a car and charged with disorderly conduct, assault and resisting arrest by the white rookie officers who stopped him for a broken headlight. A judge later acquitted Howie, citing among other things doubts about the officers credibility.
In interviews, Providences top police officials defended the departments record and said they have worked to improve relations and discipline and retrain officers. More than 75 percent of the nearly 400-member force is white, versus 36 percent of the citys 179,000 residents.
Were not perfect, but weve had a tremendous record of our use of restraint as a police department, Police Chief Hugh Clements Jr. said last month after welcoming the citys most diverse class of cadets to the academy. Were proud of our record, were proud of what weve done, and we anticipate were about to get better.
Cellphone videos that surfaced last year showing questionable use of force against South Side residents have spurred calls for reform and a push for an ordinance banning racial profiling by police.
Community members are telling us that police are following them, taking photos of youth when they get out of school, putting them in gang databases, said activist Vanessa Flores-Maldonado. The further you go down Broad Street, the more and more police officers you see. Thats no coincidence. The further you go down Broad Street, the more black and people of color there are.
The head of Providences police union, Sgt. Robert Boehm, said the poor and heavily black and Hispanic neighborhood generates a lot of police calls, and that tends to translate into more citizen complaints against police. He said the area has had loud parties and large crowds not cooperating with the police.
Howie, a 35-year-old barber and personal trainer who has a criminal justice degree, knew the men who arrested him: They were his former classmates at the police academy, which he was dismissed from in 2014 after what he said was bullying by instructors and fellow trainees.
Steven Nelson, the city lawyer who prosecuted Howie after his arrest, argued during the non-jury trial that Howie was obstinate, he was defiant and he was bitter when he saw his former classmates, because they made it and he did not.
Howie contended that the officers disliked him from their days in the academy and that one of them telephoned another ex-classmate during the arrest to laugh at what was happening to Howie.
Judge Madeline Quirk acquitted Howie in November and admonished the officers for huge inconsistencies in their testimony.
EDIT - Unit is in Providence, RI...why the hell did I think Boston? ---
Among the red flags, she said, was the cellphone call one of Howies former classmates, Patrolman Matthew Sheridan, made to another, Patrolman Christopher Benoit. Sheridan testified it was accidental a pocket dial. Another former classmate, Patrolman Michael Place, was also involved in the arrest.
Advocates demanding reforms and firings hoped the ruling would have repercussions. So far, none of the officers have been disciplined for the encounter with Howie. But some have been punished for other encounters that happened just a few blocks away, always at night.
After video surfaced showing Sheridan beating a disabled Latino nightclub employee in 2015, the city said it gave him six months of departmental probation and retrained him in the use of force. The club employee pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct.
Sheridan attracted attention again in May when he arrested black writer and performance artist Christopher Johnson, at the time a candidate to be the states poet laureate, on charges of disorderly conduct, assault and resisting arrest. Johnson later wrote an essay titled walking while black that alleged Sheridan grabbed him and threw him against a cruiser.
Johnsons lawyer said he hasnt filed a complaint because the charges against him havent been resolved.
A few days later that May, cellphone video captured officers from the same South Side shift grabbing a Latina woman by the hair and throwing a man to the ground.
The city said Place, who pulled the womans hair, received a written reprimand, retraining and a one-day suspension. Benoit received an oral reprimand and was retrained. Another officer was also reprimanded and retrained.
Howies lawyer Shannah Kurland, who also represents Johnson and other South Side defendants, called the officers the third-shift terror squad and said the incidents show a pattern of behavior that is completely unacceptable for any person, let alone one who is paid with our tax dollars to carry a gun.
Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare wouldnt address whether officers would face further discipline but said the department responds thoroughly to complaints.
He said he hopes the city expands the use of police body cameras so that we can see the entire story and not just snippets on the internet.
It be feelin' like the life that Im livin' man out of control Like every day Im in a fight for my soul Could it be that my medicines the evidence For pigs to stop and frisk me when they rollin' round on patrol? And ask Why youre here? I just tell 'em cause it is what it is I live here and thats what it is He chimed You got a dime? I said Man, Im tryin' to smoke and chill Please dont lock me up in front of my kids And in front of my wife Man, I aint got a gun or a knife You do this and you ruin my life And I apologize if it seems like I got out of line, sir 'cause I respect the badge and the gun And I pray today ain't the day that you drag me away Right in front of my beautiful son And he still put my hands in cuffs, put me in the truck When my woman screamed, said Shut up Witness with the camera phone on Saw the copper pull a gun and Put it on my gorgeous queen As I peered out the window I could see my other kinfolk And hear my little boy as he screamed As he ran toward the copper begged him not to hurt his momma 'cause he had her face down on the ground And Id be much too weak to ever speak what I seen But my life changed with that sound ---
// BEAUTY IS NOT LOVE - LOVE IS NOT MUSIC - MUSIC IS THE BEST - WISDOM IS THE DOMAIN OF THE WIZ--WHICH IS EXTINCT // http://www.last.fm/user/Pogo92
