The death of Anthony Anderson, a drug suspect who died in police custody, prompted allegations of police brutality. But the city police commissioner said an independent panel spent five months reviewing Anderson's death and agreed with the state's attorney's findings that the police acted accordingly despite the deadly outcome.
The final minutes of Anderson's life played out on a vacant lot in east Baltimore. Police said the 46-year-old fought officers after they caught him in a drug deal, and officers ended the confrontation by pinning him to the ground in a take-down maneuver.
Witnesses reported police brutality, but more than a year later, that independent committee determined the police were justified.
"It's clear to me that there was no crime committed here," said David Mitchell, a member of the independent committee. He's also the University of Maryland chief of police.
City police Commissioner Anthony Batts asked the group of legal, medical and criminal justice experts to review the Anderson case amid accusations of a police cover-up. The five-member panel was composed of a doctor, a law professor and others who were not tied to city police.
"They have no allegiances to the Baltimore Police Department. All I asked them to do when they came in is tell the truth -- good, bad or indifferent. Just tell the truth and let us know what's going on. We will reform this organization if it needs reform," Batts said.
The committee echoed the finding of Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, who decided not to charge the officers involved. All pointed to the autopsy report, which found that Anderson died from blunt-force trauma when he fell and that a pre-existing medical condition was to blame, not police brutality.
That reasoning didn't sit well with Anderson's family.
"They said he was just faking because he didn't want to go to jail, and that's not true. Tony suffered on that lot. He was handcuffed and suffering, and he died. We want these officers fired. We want them arrested, and we want them convicted," said Anderson's sister, Nancy Harvey, during a news conference in October 2012.
The case is considered closed as far as Baltimore City is concerned, but the review board did prompt a list of recommendations to be released to the Police Department. Those recommendations include developing a system to correlate injuries suffered by officers and suspects, creating a force investigation team, evaluating arrest and control techniques and ensuring that officers use proper care when checking a person's well-being.
The report also called for the creation of a use-of-force board to review other cases that trigger questions of officer conduct; however, Batts made it clear that those reviews would not become routine and would instead take place at the department's discretion.
No comments:
Post a Comment