DOJ Probe Request Vetoed

Mayor Richard Berry on Thursday vetoed the City Council�s request for a federal investigation into civil rights violations by Albuquerque police, the same day he met with top executives of the U.S. Department of Justice to discuss the allegations.

Berry said the actions aren�t inconsistent. The veto of the legislation, he said, was based partly on procedural questions, such as whether City Council approval of the bill violated the state Open Meetings Act.

Furthermore, he said, his administration is already cooperating with the Department of Justice, which will decide on its own whether a full investigation is warranted.

APD officers have shot 19 men since January 2010; 13 of them have died. The majority have been Hispanic men in their 20s and 30s.

In addition to the shootings, APD has struggled with officers posting offensive comments on social media websites.

Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the DOJ�s Civil Rights Division, was in Albuquerque on Thursday for a plea deal in the infamous �swastika branding� case. That case, the first in the nation prosecuted under a strengthened federal hate crimes law, involved the assault of a Navajo man who is disabled.

Since the Justice Department was already reviewing civil rights allegations against APD, Perez met with Berry, police officials and local advocacy groups while he was in town. The Justice Department receives police misconduct complaints from advocacy groups, private citizens, news accounts and cities themselves. Federal officials decide whether to start a full investigation by determining if a �pattern or practice� violation has occurred, meaning �police misconduct is the agency�s �standard operating procedure� � the regular, rather than the unusual practice.�

Investigations can take up to a year and a half. If it finds there has been a violation, the Justice Department works with the cities to develop a plan of action. If that doesn�t work, the department can sue the city for changes.

Perez would not say when the department�s review of allegations against APD began or what prompted it. And he would not provide a time frame for when a full-blown investigation may begin.

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• richard
• berry
• misconduct...

[tomitstube]

so the albuquerque mayor is protecting it's racist white police department from an investigation. got it. stay classy arizona. george wallace and bull connor would be proud.