In Albany, pass Proposal 7 to strengthen police oversight

After the murder of George Floyd and the massive wave of organizing for social justice that followed, a wider range of people have been exposed to a reality that those of us in the criminal justice system have known for too long: Many police departments across the country lack transparency, integrity, and accountability.

Within our own city, we watched then-albany Police Officer Luke Deer pummel an unarmed Black man with a police baton while his fellow officers watched. In Albany criminal court, Luke Deer will get a noncriminal violation after a year of probation. The other two men, attacked and wrongfully prosecuted, were awarded money by the city after filing their own lawsuits. What happened to the more than eight other officers on the scene? The internal report from APD noted misconduct, but under existing law, the Community Police Review Board (CPRB) has no opportunity to offer any official input other than recommendations to the Common Council and the mayor regarding police policies and practices.

Albany also watched as members of the CPRB called for reform to the Civilian Police Academy after racist and offensive remarks by Albany Lieutenant Howard Schecter prompted Nairobi Vives and the CPRB program manager to leave the class. To date, the investigation and status of the reforms to the Civilian Police Academy remain unresolved. Under the current law, the CPRB does not have authority to offer any official input in this instance, either.

Proposal 7 on this year’s election ballot will allow the CPRB to conduct its own investigation into any police conduct without having to wait for a complaint and a completed investigation by the police department, including incidents like the ones we’ve highlighted. It would allow the CPRB to request audio or video recordings from the department, require the department to produce them in a timely fashion, and allow the CPRB to share the recordings with the public. The CPRB would be able to discipline, when appropriate, in accordance with the discipline matrix it would create with the chief of police. All of these changes make the process more effective and meaningful for the

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hear the fatal shots.

The citizen’s arrest theory of the defense involves Greg Mcmichael’s claim that Arbery resembled a man captured earlier by a security camera walking suspiciously through a house under construction. There had apparently been some burglaries in the neighborhood, and, well, we all know that a Black man in a white neighborhood is by definition a likely suspect. We also know that Black men, in general, are assumed to have superhuman strength and malign intent.

The basic facts of the incident are not in dispute. The verdict on Bryan’s and the Mcmichaels’ guilt or innocence will likely hinge on two questions of law: whether the trio were justified, under a Civil Warera statute (which has already been repealed, in response to Arbery’s killing), to detain a man they believed, rightly or wrongly, had committed a crime; and whether Travis Mcmichael, as he struggled physically with Arbery, was justified in killing him in self-defense. The defense will likely argue that race had nothing to do with the tragic encounter.

If I were one of the prosecutors, I’d ask the jury to do a thought experiment. I’d have them imagine Travis Mcmichael jogging through one of Brunswick’s majority-black neighborhoods and being physically detained by three Black men, two of whom are brandishing firearms and one of whom ultimately kills him. Would they call that a legal arrest? Or would they call it murder?

This one looks open and shut. Then again, this is America. So we’ll see.

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