Organization cites 50 years of “unaccountable police brutality’’
Mothers Against Police Brutality (MAPB) has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice seeking an investigation of the Dallas Police Department’s disproportionate violence against people of color and its handling of brutality cases.
The 19-page complaint details how Black citizens are more likely to be shot or killed by Dallas officers; how Dallas officers use deadly force on people who do not pose an imminent threat; how only a fraction of officers facing complaints of excessive force over the last half century have ever been disciplined; how citizens face needless barriers when attempting to file police misconduct complaints; and how the police department’s internal investigations fail to conform with federal standards. The complaint includes almost 30,000 internal Dallas police records going back more than five decades.
MAPB’s findings are comparable to those of DOJ investigators in other troubled police departments across the U.S., including in Chicago, Los Angeles, Ferguson, Minneapolis, and Phoenix.
MAPB, a national organization based in Dallas, was founded by Collette Flanagan after a Dallas officer shot to death her unarmed son, Clinton Allen, in 2013.
“Clinton was shot seven times,” said Ms. Flanagan. “Five times in the chest, once in his upper left arm, and once at close range in the back. What we have documented in this request to the DOJ is the untold human cost of this department’s brutality over many years.”
Ellwanger Henderson is a law firm based in Austin and Dallas with a deep legacy of civil rights work through the Ellwanger family, which worked with leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Partner David Henderson is an expert on issues of inequity and failed justice systems, frequently appearing in national and local media.
John Fullinwider, a longtime Dallas activist and co-founder of MAPB, said the complaint is long overdue. “Dallas police chiefs have always used the rhetoric of reform after violence by officers, beginning with the killing of Michael Morehead in 1970. But the reality of unaccountable police brutality is embedded deep in the city’s police culture. Police chiefs come and go, but the history and culture of the department remain.”
Miles Moffeit, a veteran investigative journalist who works for the Peter Johnson Institute for Non-Violence in Dallas, said the public records turned over to the justice department make up a “rare and massive trove of evidence showing a broken accountability system.”
MAPB is seeking a probe commonly known as a “pattern or practice” investigation that broadly examines Dallas police practices. Such investigations generally lead to federal oversight.
“We have described in this complaint a culture of impunity when it comes to police violence while documenting highly racialized uses of force,” said Mr. Henderson. “This system must be reformed.”
