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Part II: 142 Dead, and Rising
Critics demand action on disproportionate shootings of blacks
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© 2011, LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Jan. 3, 2012 | 3:36 p.m.
Las Vegas police were involved in 17 shootings in 2003. Ten subjects were black, an unusually high number even for a department that historically shoots a disproportionate number of minorities. None of the officers were black.
That year, Clark County Sheriff Bill Young and Undersheriff Doug Gillespie formed a task force aimed at improving relations between the Metropolitan Police Department and minorities. One goal of the Multi-Cultural Advisory Council has been to increase officers' racial sensitivity so they can more effectively police minority neighborhoods and reduce violent confrontations.
The initiative has yielded few tangible results in a region where less than 10 percent of the population is black yet 32 percent of people shot at by police since 1990 were black.
Gillespie, who was elected sheriff in 2006 , said the council has benefited both the department and the community: "It may not get into the brass tacks of writing policy, but it has provided me in the five years I've been sheriff with some good insight into how we operate as an organization."
In the two years after the council's formation, shootings of black subjects dramatically fell. But they spiked again in 2006 and 2007. According to Las Vegas police figures, 40 percent of shootings by police between 2003 and 2008 involved blacks. Department data show blacks are also overrepresented both as crime suspects and as crime victims.
In the past 20 years, 39 percent of Las Vegas police shooting subjects were white, 32 percent were black, and 26 percent were Hispanic. Those breakdowns were about the same for shootings over both decades studied. Nearly half of all shootings of unarmed people since 1990 involved black men.
In a national study of justified homicides, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics determined that 35 percent of people killed by police in 1998 were black, down from 49 percent in 1978. The study did not look at nonfatal shootings.
This suggests the racial makeup of subjects shot by Las Vegas police is in line with national figures.
But that doesn't mean the department is colorblind. A 2001 Nevada attorney general's office report on treatment of people during routine traffic stops showed that Las Vegas police handcuffed black motorists at a far higher rate than others.
Every shooting has its own set of circumstances, so raw numbers don't necessarily explain whether a department is acting more aggressively toward one group than another, but the frequency with which Las Vegas police shoot blacks concerns community leaders.
Richard Boulware, a member of the executive board of the Las Vegas chapter of the NAACP, said the attorney general's report and the Review-Journal's findings show a troubling pattern.
"What bothers me when I hear numbers like these is the failure to follow up on this information," Boulware said. "Where is the further investigation into these numbers? Where is the further investigation into police tactics?"
Boulware said the advisory council brings police and community leaders together but doesn't have authority to make changes.
"Dialogue is just the first step to change," he said. "We've had the dialogue. Now it's time for change."
Other police departments, most recently Miami's, have been subject to Department of Justice "pattern and practice" investigations that look for racial bias by police. Las Vegas has never had one.
Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and an advisory council member, said he is troubled by the frequency of deadly force used in minority communities.
"I don't think anyone would dispute that those numbers are high considering the size of the (black) community here," Lichtenstein said. "There are things that could and should be done to lower the number, including better training, better supervision, and better relationships with minority communities."
In another effort to address these issues, Las Vegas police recently commissioned a study by the Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity, a research group based at the University of California, Los Angeles. The group is midway through a two-year process.
Lichtenstein said efforts to recruit black officers have been hampered by lingering mistrust of police in Las Vegas. Blacks account for only 7 percent of department officers.
Gillespie said the department is "continuously looking to diversify the department" but is currently not hiring. He pointed to his department's recent involvement in an award-winning effort to reduce gun violence in West Las Vegas as evidence of commitment to helping minority communities.
"We're working on those relationships, but we're not where we need to be," Gillespie said. "It will always be a work in progress."
Alan Maimon is a Review-Journal special correspondent.
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BGidiot....uhhh...the authors of this rag, are selling this as an exhaustive yearlong INVESTIGATION......To have the amount of factual errors is borderline criminal.....not to mention the misleading assumptions.
Are the police biased against blacks or do blacks commit an inordinate amount of crime in relation to their population percentage? The truth probably lays somewhere in between. The shootings of unarmed people is a tough one to justify however.
Mauricio Hernandez pulled a gun on Sgt. Toney and was killed. Are you really trying to say that because the FOD page said Hernandez had shot someone else a month, rather than hour, earlier really changed the opinion of any reader. As if, after reading about Pease, and how or officers kill more often those in New York and Chicago, it wasn't until the saw that Toney killed a guy who pulled a gun on him and said, 'Well now I believe cops are bad, this guy hadn't shot someone for 30 days. Now if this guy had shot someone that day, well then all the other things I read about Metro would be no big deal."
@BM.SM..." In the latest shooting, the suspect pointed a gun at the officer while running which is why he is not alive today." Where did you come up with that. Metro's own statement, which was repeated verbatim in this an several other new outlets said "Police did not say whether the man pointed a gun at officers before he was shot. Police do not think he fired his weapon." So, as I said, and as you have proven once again, you had to MAKE UP A FACT in order to bring that shooting in line with Garner. And please give me an example that " Metro will fire an officer at the drop of a hat ..." You can include that apology you owe me for calling me "ignorant" for telling the truth about Metro's minimal hiring standards
The bottom line is we could go on and on. Wake me when those shot arent violent felons, drug users, criminals. Cause as Nolocal said in reading the faces of death page it just showed what constant threat there is to local officers. As well as documenting many many heroic acts by our local police. For those spewing venom here its simple. Ive been here for over 30 yrs. And in my y dato day travels I rarely if ever hear complaints about the dept. Those on here complainng have their axe to grind plain and simple. Keep up the good work Metro.
You want a FACT Tanker- Here you go...Faces of death page states that Sgt. David Toneys shooting of a suspect a a PT 's Pub....it states that the suspect was found to have been involved in a shooting from a MONTH prior. This is a factual error. Sgt. Toney responded to the shooting that night. Left the scene of the shooting and drove to the PTS Pub. Walked in and was ambushed by a male suspect who drew a gun onhim and started shooting. Toney shot and killed this Subject. It was learned that he was the same suspect from the shooting just a couple of hours prior!!! Hours....not a month. The suspect obviously thought the Sgt was there for him. So I think that surely changed the impression of any readers. This is sold as a top flight investigation. No stone left unturned. NO. If under the stone was info they didnt want to find then the stone was put right back. Disgusting. Mower ought to be shamed.
BGHS....I agree with the later part of your statement but Tenn V garner and Graham V connor are not the bare minimum but are the basis for every use of force policy regarding deadly force. I have never said we get less protection than normal citizens. I know all about SCOTUS language but these two laws are very important and are used every day along with other policies to govern a police officers actions. In the latest shooting, the suspect pointed a gun at the officer while running which is why he is not alive today. We chase felons every day that do not get shot. Metro will fire an officer at the drop of a hat but many times it is a lot more complicated and not that cut and dry.
Tank its a lot more than just factual errors.....Its the exagerations of real events...its drawing conclusions that the writer has no way of knowing, but is presenting like facts. One such is the Headline that states that many shootings were avoidable. Within the article it clearly says that the vast majority of shootings were totally unavoidable.......with a small amount being avoidable( of course this is the writers EXPERT opinion.) However the title made it seem as though the "study" found that a majority were avoidable.... call that sensationalism. I could go on and on. On the faces of death page several if not all of the small blurbs about the shootings left out critical points, and 100% were skewed to paint the picture they wanted. I think we all know how easy it is to do this. And since i found this throughout I must assume it was intentional.
i wonder how soon before chris collins arrived at the Pate incident. does ppa membership also include a throwaway with each signing on? not that i heard this but one could easily wonder if this is the case with all the lies and manipulation in recent times.
@Superman.batman. Break it up into smaller chunks. We all want to know what factual errors there are. It seems that many of us are able to make longer posts without issues.