Brutality’s enablers
The video of Albany police brutalizing people duringacallinwesthill last month should be mandatory viewing — especially for their union, and the state Legislature.
For the union, because it stands by this behavior. For the Legislature, because it enables it.
The chilling March 16 video shows officers kicking in the door of a home on First Street, beating and kicking one man and pummeling another with a baton. All this over a complaint of loud music, and the occupants’ refusal to open the door for fear of a “bum rush” — which seems to be exactly what they got.
To their credit, the local officials entrusted to ensure justice is done appear to be trying to do just that. Police Chief Eric Hawkins saw that the matter was investigated, with one officer criminally charged and two others put, for now, on suspension. Chief Hawkins and Mayor Kathy Sheehan publicly condemned the officers’ behavior. Albany County District Attorney David Soares moved to drop the bogus charges against the civilians, and City Court Judges Holly Trexler and Gary Stiglmeier dismissed them.
Those are clear messages to police that such behavior won’t be tolerated, and to civilians that the people running things have their back.
The outcome, though, might have been quite different had the officers not been wearing body cameras. Even cellphone video footage captured by bystanders has a way of being discounted. Body cams are a tool of accountability that this episode shows the need for. How many accusations of police abuse in the years before Albany began using them in 2017 were in fact valid, we can only wonder.
The damage here is hard to calculate. The senseless violence hurts the police department’s years-long efforts to forge better community relations, particularly in the city’s highminority neighborhoods. It makes crime-fighting and crime-solving that much harder. And it’s likely to weigh on the mind of every good officer who shouldn’t have to hesitate to use force when the situation demands it, or fear that a fellow officer will lose control and jeopardize both their careers.
The Albany Police Officers Union does its members no favors by declaring that it unequivocally stands by every officer involved in this incident. It only affirms citizens’ fear that police will overlook misconduct, even criminal behavior, to protect their own.
And the state Legislature does neither the public nor law enforcement any favors by refusing to repeal section 50-a of Civil Rights Law, which serves as a far too broad shield against public disclosure of police misconduct and disciplinary actions. Were there warning signs on any of the officers’ records? Could no one have seen this coming?
Finally, the Albany Police Department should be asking itself what it can do beyond the strong message it sent this week. Is there a culture in the department that tolerates such unnecessary force? Can Albany better train recruits? And can it better screen candidates, to keep people who don’t belong in law enforcement out of it in the first place?