Opinion ID: 785414
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure To Supervise

Text: 38 Plaintiffs' first theory of municipal liability is that the need to supervise the police officers' conduct at both demonstrations should have been obvious to Chief McCue because he allegedly witnessed the brutality, but that he nonetheless failed to supervise the officers in a way that would have prevented the violation of plaintiffs' constitutional rights. In Fiacco v. City of Rensselaer, 783 F.2d at 326-27, we held that plaintiffs injured by a police officer's use of excessive force may establish a basis for municipal liability by alleging that the city's policymakers were knowingly and deliberately indifferent to the possibility that its police officers were wont to violate the constitutional rights of arrestees. Id. at 326. In this context, plaintiffs must establish McCue's deliberate indifference by showing that the need for more or better supervision to protect against constitutional violations was obvious, but that McCue made no meaningful attempt to forestall or prevent the unconstitutional conduct. Vann, 72 F.3d at 1049. 39 Plaintiffs have proffered ample evidence from which a reasonable factfinder could conclude that the necessity for more supervision was glaringly obvious at both demonstrations and that McCue ignored the alleged constitutional violations in progress. Plaintiffs' proffered affidavits, if credited, establish that at both demonstrations, police officers inflicted severe pain on arrestees and made comments suggesting that they intended to inflict pain, and that continuous screams of pain punctuated the demonstrations. Thus, plaintiffs' evidence would allow a reasonable factfinder to conclude that violence did not occur as an isolated instance, involving a few protesters and officers in one physical location, but that it permeated the entire arrest scene. Given this environment, a factfinder could infer from McCue's presence at the demonstrations that he must have witnessed the violence and heard the screams. Plaintiffs also aver that, during the second demonstration, McCue not only observed, but actively encouraged and supervised some of the allegedly brutal treatment of the arrestees, including yank[ing] one arrestee's head up by the hair, and failing to intervene as another protester's face was pressed to the floor while an officer put a knee into her back. 40 The Town argues, however, that the district court correctly concluded that plaintiffs failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to McCue's failure to supervise because they have not proffered evidence that the demonstrators repeatedly complained about the excessive force after the demonstrations, or that McCue repeatedly failed to investigate such complaints. This argument is misplaced. While we have held that proof of a policymaker's failure to respond to repeated complaints of civil rights violations would be sufficient to establish deliberate indifference, Vann, 72 F.3d at 1049, we have never required such a showing. The means of establishing deliberate indifference will vary given the facts of the case and need not rely on any particular factual showing. The operative inquiry is whether the facts suggest that the policymaker's inaction was the result of a conscious choice rather than mere negligence. City of Canton, 489 U.S. at 389, 109 S.Ct. 1197 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Bd. of County Comm'rs v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 410, 117 S.Ct. 1382, 137 L.Ed.2d 626 (1997) (stating that deliberate indifference... requir[es] proof that a municipal actor disregarded a known or obvious consequence of his action or inaction (internal quotation marks omitted)). 41 Thus, plaintiffs' evidence must establish only that a policymaking official had notice of a potentially serious problem of unconstitutional conduct, such that the need for corrective action or supervision was obvious, Vann, 72 F.3d at 1049, and the policymaker's failure to investigate or rectify the situation evidences deliberate indifference, rather than mere negligence or bureaucratic inaction. Considered under this standard, plaintiffs' proffered affidavits are sufficient to withstand summary judgment, because the evidence allows the inference that McCue himself witnessed (and perhaps encouraged) the unconstitutional conduct, and that the conduct was so blatantly unconstitutional that McCue's inaction could be the result of deliberate indifference to the protesters' constitutional rights. 42 Rather than considering plaintiffs' allegations as a whole, the district court treated each allegation as to McCue and the officers' actions as an isolated act, leading it to conclude that none of plaintiffs' allegations that McCue witnessed or encouraged the brutality indicated that he was acting pursuant to a municipal policy. This analysis of the evidence, however, misapprehends both the force of plaintiffs' evidence, and the showing necessary to establish municipal liability. A reasonable factfinder, considering the demonstrators' allegations together and viewing McCue's conduct as a whole rather than as a series of unconnected acts, could conclude that McCue's conduct throughout the two demonstrations evinced deliberate indifference to the demonstrators' rights. More importantly, even under the district court's view of the evidence, plaintiffs' allegations may have been sufficient to withstand summary judgment. Because deliberate indifference need not be proven by any particular method, and need not involve allegations of a repeated failure to act, McCue's witnessing of a single, isolated act of brutality might be sufficient to allow a factfinder to infer deliberate indifference if the use of force were so extreme as to leave no doubt that McCue consciously chose not to act. 9 See Turpin v. Mailet, 619 F.2d 196, 202 (2d Cir.1980) (noting that while a single instance of inaction on policymaker's part may not be sufficient to establish deliberate indifference, a single, unusually brutal or egregious beating administered by a group of municipal employees may support an inference that the conduct was attributable to inadequate supervision amounting to deliberate indifference). Moreover, as discussed above, a single instance of deliberate indifference on the part of a policymaker is sufficient to provide a basis for municipal liability; there is no need, as the district court apparently assumed, to establish that policymaking officials maintained a consistent policy of deliberate indifference.