From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Kansas Police Charged With Racism
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: University of Missouri
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 09:40:13 GMT

From: PENN@MITLNS.MIT.EDU (steve penn 26-567, 253-1521 Remember Our Humanity; Science is Not Neutral; MIT War Research Kills.)

Included below is an article from the New Liberation News Service
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NLNS  Packet 2.8  -  31 March 1992
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Kansas Police Charged With Racism
Review Board Clears Police, But Questions Remain

S.X. Blansten, Take This!

	It seems like police brutality is the latest rage. News reports 
from coast to coast reveal many more horrors than the beating of 
Rodney King. Police in one state stop a hitch-hiker on the interstate 
and club him to death. Nearly every rib is broken and the victim has 
crushed testicles. An officer in another state shatters the jaw and 
brakes the nose of a juvenile delinquent's father for asking a 
policeman why he was arresting his son. You just see so many people 
getting beaten by law officers these days that you think, "Hey, how 
can I get some too?"
	Gregg Sevier seemed to have a pretty good idea last spring. He 
decided to get a little upset with himself...suicidal in fact. Things 
weren't going too well, so Gregg decided to hole up in his bedroom a 
while with a knife. That was enough for two Lawrence police officers 
to shoot him six times, twice in the heart.
	Relations between Lawrence police and local Native Americans 
were at an all-time low following the shooting of Gregg Sevier. The 
incident was one more in a series of controversial Native American 
deaths since 1988. When Sevier was killed, some Lawrence residents 
began charging the police department with racism, prejudice and 
police brutality.
	As a direct result of the public outcry, city commissioners 
empanaled a special committee (made mostly of law enforcement 
"experts") to evaluate local police. After nearly seven months, the 
committee has finally released a report saying there's nothing wrong 
with the substance of the Lawrence police department's use of lethal 
force policy. 
	Critics of the Sevier shooting have said Gregg would be alive 
today if police had followed other policies or tactics when answering 
his parents' 911 call for help. But the peer review panel's report says 
the L.P.D. use of force policy only needs to be reorganized to make it 
easier for officers to understand.
	Police Chief Ron Olin says this proves Lawrence has an 
excellent police department. "I think really (the report) could have 
been a very big time bomb," he said. "It could have contained things-
-if the police department had not been in good shape I would have 
expected the report to have said we were not in good shape. But it 
does not say that and the community can rest assured that it does 
not say that." Olin notes that in 1990 his department responded to 
nearly 60,000 calls and had only 25 citizen complaints. He refused to 
comment on the Sevier shooting.
	The peer review committee also says there isn't anything 
wrong with the Lawrence police department's policies for handling 
domestic disputes. Again, critics have argued that police answering 
the Seviers' call for help were responding to a domestic dispute, and 
at best botched the job. But the peer report only suggests that 
Lawrence police develop a more specific domestic violence policy 
that offers more scenarios for officers to study.
	While members of the review committee and city officials 
maintain the report was not intended to address past cases (like the 
Sevier shooting or other Native American deaths), the panel would 
never have been formed had it not been for community outrage, and 
concern that the Lawrence police department was racist. Many 
Native Americans were hoping the peer review would suggest 
concrete changes in the local police department that would help 
prevent future shootings, or at least ease tensions. So far, reaction to 
the report among local Native Americans has been mixed.
	Dan Wildcat is board president with the Lawrence Indian 
Center. He says the peer review report is merely political rhetoric 
and that it does little to improve Native American trust in local 
police. "In my view, the issue is one of trust and credibility. That is, 
do members of the community, those of low and high socio-economic 
status, Native Americans and African Americans, all feel police in 
Lawrence are treating them the same? The problem in Lawrence is 
that there are many who feel that maybe there isn't always equal 
treatment."
	Wildcat points out that many members of the Native American 
community believe that police wouldn't have shot and killed Gregg 
Sevier if he'd been wealthy or white. Ron Olin emphatically denies 
any charges of racism or prejudice. He says that people sometimes 
expect too much from police. "We have to hire from the human race," 
said Olin. "We train those individuals because of heir deep love of 
trying to help people. When (officers) are placed into situations 
where they are asked to make instantaneous decisions regarding life 
and death, I would suggest that sometimes they make excellent 
decisions and sometimes they make less than excellent decisions. But 
ultimately they are human decisions. We do expect officers to 
maintain a higher level of competence and ability in stressful 
situations, but we do not expect our officers to die for us."
	While Wildcat says he doesn't expect officers to die for the 
community, he does expect more specific and substantive changes in 
the police department than those offered in the peer report. He 
believes that Lawrence needs a special panel made of civilian 
representatives, to hear and resolve citizen complaints. "Who do 
police serve? Let's not forget they are important agents of public 
service," said Wildcat. "They work for me and you. And I think the 
public has a right to know and be involved in reviews when 
allegations are made against the police department that something 
isn't right, that there has been some injustice."
	Olin, however, says a citizen complaint review committee is 
unnecessary. "If we have a complaint, isn't it the city commission's 
role to review that incident? I would suggest that we already have a 
citizen's review board." Olin also says that civilian review boards are 
expensive, ineffective and slow. In some cities that do have such 
boards, cases are backlogged for as much as two years.
	The peer report agrees with Chief Olin that a review board is 
unnecessary. But it does say the police department should find ways 
of calming any fears about the use of lethal force. It suggests that 
police "learn from past cases" in which force was used so that officers 
can avoid using force in the future.
	Officers could certainly learn a lot from the shooting of Greg 
Sevier. Gregg's mother Orene says she doesn't think the peer report 
is specific enough to make any real changes. She points out that the 
report fails to address suicide calls like the one she and her husband 
made last April. "Nothing is really changing here," she said. "It's just: 
let's reword this a different way. They need to change their policies. 
They need more training in how to deal with this sort of thing."
	But some members of the peer review committee say their 
recommendations will help prevent tragedies like the Sevier 
shooting. Mike Tossee, a former FBI agent, was the only Native 
American on the committee. He thinks the report will help simply by 
drawing attention to the issue of deadly force. "It has to improve 
relations between Native Americans and police," he said. He believes 
there is virtually no chance at all that something like the Sevier 
killing will ever happen again.
	Despite his optimism, the report has done little at this point to 
help ease tension between police and local Native Americans. City 
commissioners have not reacted to the report but plan to hold a 
televised public meeting about policy proposals next month. Until 
then, it's status quo. While the Seviers are keeping pretty tight-
lipped now, Orene Sevier has hinted that she and her husband plan 
to bring a federal civil suit against the Lawrence police for violating 
their and their son's civil rights. The Seviers' attorney may make an 
announcement in the next few weeks.

Take This! can be reached c/o Disorientation, Box 46, 400 Kansas 
Union, Lawrence KS 66045.

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