It’s hardly clear that the Houston police are any more brutal or abusive than any other police department, but the video of Chad Holley being used as a kicking bag is the sort of thing to galvanize interest. A smart politician will make a grand gesture after being outed as the facilitator or concealer of misconduct, and so the Houston City Council held a hearing. There’s no better way to clear the air than to allow the malcontents to vent.
Paul Kennedy was unable to attend the hearing, but provided the forum for former Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association president, Robert Fickman, to tell the story.
Well that’s not a great start, but not necessarily because it reflects a lack of concern by defense lawyers. Many, like Paul, are likely to have been in court, standing beside people who needed them more at the moment. Others were sure that plenty of people would appear, relieving them of any personal responsibility to be there. And still others decided not to waste their time because, well, it was obvious that this was nothing more than a show where local politicos could pretend to care.I attended today’s City Council Meeting along with my officemate Vivian King. Altogether I am sorry to report that the meeting left me largely disappointed. However, my resolve to fight police brutality has never been stronger.First, I had called upon our fellow members of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association to attend. I thought that some of our 500 plus members would want to join us in speaking out against police brutality.I was mistaken. Vivian and I were the only two members of the Defense Bar there.
Unfortunately, with few exceptions mostly what we heard from Council was semi- patronizing lip service and statements about how they had done all they could do. Council Members Bradford and Jones seemed to be the only two on Council who were in touch with the community outrage. Curiously Councilwoman Wanda Adams spent much of the meeting, posturing on her desk phone.
Fickman spoke out, blaming the Harris County District Attorneys office for their failure to prosecute bad cops.
I pointed out that except for rare occasion the District Attorney’s Office had failed for three decades to prosecute police brutality. I urged the Mayor to contact the Attorney General of the United States and ask him to form a special task force to investigate and prosecute police brutality in Houston.The City Attorney responded by saying that they had already contact the Department of Justice about the Holley case and were awaiting a response. Fickman was unimpressed.
I think they missed my point. I was not speaking about the Holley case. I was speaking about all police brutality cases in Houston. Having pointed out the historic failings of the DA’s Office on these cases, I was calling on the Mayor to call on the feds to form a task force to handle all police brutality cases in Houston.
Paul Kennedy then wonders whether there is a solution to the problem.
A civilian review board sounds nice – but in reality, do they really do any good? The boards tend to be made up of politically-connected folks who don’t really want to go out on a limb. Even if you give the board subpoena power, what would you accomplish? Would the board be tasked with seeking out the truth – and forgoing criminal prosecution? Would the board’s job be to uncover evidence and turn it over the the DA’s office? Would members of the board have any idea what they were doing?
Scott Henson echoes these sentiments at Grits for Breakfast.
In all the years I’ve worked on the issue, I’ve never seen nor heard of a civilian review board, anywhere, that worked as advertised, effected meaningful change or satisfied those that advocated for it. Ditto for “police monitors” like in Austin. I’ve come to believe they’re largely a waste of time and divert activists, media, officialdom and public attention generally from issues where focused attention might produce more meaningful reform.
What’s happening in Houston, as a result of the Holley video, is a microcosm of the larger issue that exists wherever there are police, both in terms of the problem as well as the solution, or lack thereof. Civilian Review Boards, once the silver bullet for police misconduct, has not only proven to be a miserable failure as a check on police abuse, but has come to be at best a diversion and at worst an apologist for the problem. The concept may have been fine, and is easily lauded by those with an interest in sloughing off responsibility as tangible proof that the problem is being dealt with, but the execution has been an abject failure.
Fickman’s solution, putting it into the hands of the Department of Justice, shares many of the same problems that local prosecutors have, with both a large degree of camaraderie and tacit understanding that some eggs have to be broken to make an omelet, plus that the DOJ, even if it was inclined to get into the business of policing police, lacks the personnel and facilities to do so. And then, given the issues that the DOJ has in keeping its own agents clean, why anyone would think it would do a better job with cops on the street remains inexplicable.
As Radley Balko relishes pointing out, every time the cops engage in some undeniable misconduct, it’s put into the “isolated incident” basket and dismissed. But the parade of horribles continues unabated, and the number of videos on Youtube continues to grow. This is hardly a Houston, or a Texas, phenomenon, though Harris County is the locus of one of the more recent, and most flagrant, examples.
The answer to the problem, at least from a long-term perspective, is that we won’t rid ourselves of police abuse and misconduct until there is a fundamental change in police culture, where cops won’t tolerate other cops harming people for kicks.
Consider what might have been, had a precinct full of New York City police officers not turned their heads away when Justin Volpe held up the trophy plunger he had just used to rape Abner Louima. There’s not a cop I know who wasn’t disgusted by what happened, yet none have been able to adequately explain how no cop in the precinct took action, either before, during or after.
Until then, should such a cultural revolution occur, people will seek silver bullet solutions to police misconduct. It’s not like anyone involved in the criminal justice system doesn’t know it exists, and it’s likely that many, perhaps even most, want to see it end, but the current incentives make it impossible. Prosecutors rely on cops, and can’t become their enemy by challenging ordinary abuse and expect cops to take it in stride. External solutions, like Civilian Review Boards, federal oversight, impotent or ignorant monitors, don’t work, and worst yet, create an easy whipping boy for future failures and divert attention from finding a better answer.
All of this serves to make us forget who is responsible for police abuse. It’s cops. It’s cops who shouldn’t be cops. It’s cops who get off on hurting others. It’s cops who can’t bring themselves to stand up to fellow cops who hurt others. It’s cops in Houston. It’s cops in New York. It’s cops.
Like Fickman, we talk to mayors and city councilfolks. We talk to prosecutors and government officials. We talk until we get tired of talking and decide to spend our time more fruitfully. None of our talk gets us very far, perhaps because we’re talking to the wrong people.
Ask a cop when the last time he stopped a fellow cop from hitting or kicking someone. Ask a cop when the last time he stopped a fellow cop from lying about someone to frame the guilty. The rest may be an exercise in futility, which would explain why the criminal defense lawyers in Houston, in reaction to the Holley video, simply yawned.
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In Robb’s defense, it is “Fickman” not “Flickman.” However, he does post so many items on the HCCLA listserv that some members may have accidently deleted his call to protest.
My bad on the name. Paul had it correctly, and I just inadvertantly added the “L”, which I’ll now correct. As for HCCLA listserv members “accidentally” deleting his call, well, that’s for the locals to ponder.
Sir, re: Police Brutality & Those That Enable It –
In Egypt, all it took was ‘one’ too many bad cop episodes (despite there being no video) and the public at large said F— -T and turned their rage on the Police Stations and then the President.
In California, all it took was ‘one’ too many Black crack heads getting beat down in order for rage to spread across the country targeting Whites, Asians and Police Stations, until they ran out of crack.
Anyone that’s doesn’t think that cops of ‘all’ races, routinely beat citizens of ‘all’ races, hasn’t been to injusticeeverywhere.com I’m afraid that the next time the American public at large experiences ‘one’ too many, it’ll involve humans from ‘all’ races and it won’t be pretty.
In closing, a crime is crime and a cover up is a cover up. Those that choose to stick their heads in the sand and ignore crimes & cover-ups have knowingly and willingly conspired with criminals. We talked this to death and now it’s just a matter of time before we the people take to the streets. Thanks.
The Chad Holley case sparks tesnion in the Houston criminal defense community because several of the senior members of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Assn. represent the officers involved. Their appearance before City Council was certainly improbable. While part of the Bar rails against the brutality in the video, a significant part also invokes the presumption of innocence on behalf of their clients. Many of us have defended law enforcement officers in state or federal court and know that the trial that takes place in the courtroom hardly resembles the trial in the media.
Brutality is not endemic in our police department and it has progressed markedly from the one tinged by racism in the 1970’s. Yet brutality still occurs. Maybe this case will cause the police to be just as aware as the crooks of the pervasive presence of video recording devices so that it may check their baser impulses.
It appears that there’s similar disagreement about whether brutality is endemic. The presumption of innocence is a legal concept (and a barely viable one at that). It is not an argument against what appears in a video. While the lawyers for the cops should do whatever they can to defend their clients, there is no reason why the rest of the criminal defense bar and the public shouldn’t address the video and what it reflects. The cops aren’t their clients, and the video shows what it shows.
As for the efforts of the “senior members”of HCCLA to silence others, I don’t blame them for trying, and I don’t blame others for speaking out against brutality. That’s the way it should be. Our world is filled with tensions, and each of us has to come to grips with it.
I am outspoken because there is a lot about the Harris County “criminal” Justice Center that is repugnant to any concept of due process .
I have fought these injustices side by side with many of My fellow defense lawyers. We filed 5 judicial ethics complaints in a two year period.
We still have to fight:
Police brutality;
The Presumption of guilt promoted by our media and adherred to by our judges;
The systematic denial of PR bonds to the poor which results in coerced pleas;
The incestuous ex parte relationship between our mostly ex-da judiciary and the Das assigned to their courts( we refer to these judges as the ” judicial branch of the DA’s office.
When they fix these long-standing problems, ( and the others), I will be quiet.
Robb Fickman
My belief is that it took the Federal Government to “sorta ” end segregation. It will take the power of the Federal Government to “sorta” end police brutality. Our DA’s office is inept or complicit in police brutality matters. By not prosecuting and no-billing the DAs office has created an atmosphere where cops in Houston feel quit free to beat whomever they want. We have 5000 cops here. Most, no doubt, are honorable. The others need to go. Our own clients are the victims of the police brutality. As defense lawyers in speaking out against police brutality, we are speaking out for our clients.
As the Da does little or nothing, as review boards are worthless, as the police culture will not change on it’s own, I conclude Federal prosecutions are the only viable remedy. This does not make me pro Feds. I take this position to get the cops to stop beating people.
The cops in the Holley case deserve to be accorded all rights afforded by the Constitution. The video makes the issue of police brutality timely. Watch the video. 4 officers were charged by the DA with misdemeanors.
Robb Fickman
When the Feds are able to stop their own from beating and brutalizing defendants, I might be more inclined to put some faith in them. Thus far, they can’t or won’t. Police brutality isn’t the same as racial integration, particularly when the Feds lack the desire to alter police culture as existed to enforce civil rights laws.
I can appreciate your frustration and desire to find a way to fix the problem. But the fix is the honorable cops you refer to. If they are, as you assume, honorable, then they should be the ones standing up to the animals and cleaning up their own fouled nest.
I agree that a truly honorable cop would stop and/or report those who dishonor their oath and badge. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of Cops in Houston named Serpico. In Houston, an honest cop would not get very far with IAD or the DAs. I understand and agree that the Feds need to Police their own. We have all seen Cases where Federal agents have abused or murdered people.
In the end it will probably take a combination of community outrage, Good cops speaking out, and Consistent federal prosecutions to get this matter under control.
In the meantime, thanks for the forum. Constructive dialogue that leads to action is a good thing.
Robb Fickman