You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

DOJ Reveals Pattern of Excessive Force by Cleveland Police

HeadlineDec 05, 2014

A Justice Department investigation has found a pattern of “unreasonable and unnecessary” force by police officers in Cleveland, Ohio. The report details a history of abuse across hundreds of cases, characterizing police behavior as “chaotic and dangerous.” In some cases, Cleveland police opened fire on people who were running away and posed no threat. In one case, the Justice Department said a Cleveland police officer punched a handcuffed 13-year-old boy in the face repeatedly; in another, police used a Taser on a man who was strapped to a gurney and experiencing seizures, because he was making verbal threats. The investigation was launched last year but comes on the heels of the fatal police shooting of 12-year-old African American Tamir Rice, who was killed while holding a toy gun. We will go to Ohio to speak with Democratic Ohio state Senator Nina Turner about the case later in the broadcast.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top