Deprecated: mb_convert_encoding(): Handling HTML entities via mbstring is deprecated; use htmlspecialchars, htmlentities, or mb_encode_numericentity/mb_decode_numericentity instead in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/super-cool-ad-inserter/inc/scaip-shortcode-inserter.php on line 37
Karl Marx once said that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. And the third time, apparently, it repeats as an allegation in a federal civil-rights suit against the Pittsburgh police.
As the Post-Gazette first reported Sunday, the city’s police brass is on trial in a federal civil court this week, thanks to a lawsuit filed by 32-year-old Jarret Fate, who alleges that his vintage Porsche was damaged in 2010 by a former police detective, Bradley Walker. Walker reportedly rammed his vehicle into Fate’s and later choked the man; he was fired after pleading guilty to simple assault in the incident. But Fate is alleging that the city was negligent in keeping Walker on the force even after he’d been the subject of more than 30 complaints between 1993 and 2008. The complaints included allegations of excessive force, domestic violence, and “road rage”-like behavior. You can read a list of those allegations against Walker below, in a document culled from fillings in Fate’s lawsuit.
Fate vs City of Pittsburgh Stipulations.pdf by Charlie Deitch
Judging from yesterday’s arguments in court, city attorneys will argue that Walker was off-duty when he accosted Fate, so his behavior isn’t the city’s fault. It’d be ironic if that defense actually worked: In another case of a cop accosting an innocent citizen while off the clock, a judge found that police officers are never really “off duty” — even when they are celebrating their wife’s birthday on the South Side and shoot someone by accident.
But whatever the court finds in the Fate case, there’s at least anecdotal evidence to suggest that the city can’t effectively handle officers with long disciplinary records.
Even as Fate’s trial was beginning, the police bureau was reeling from another case in which an officer with a lengthy disciplinary history — Detective Frank Rende — was accused of improper conduct. Rende was caught on tape during a St. Patrick’s Day event in the South Side, yelling at bystanders, waving around a Taser, and accosting a partier who appeared to be leaving the scene. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has said Rende ought to be fired, and while the FOP says he’s reacting too quickly, you could also argue that the response has been far too slow. Concerns about Rende, after all, date back more than a decade. In fact, allegations that Rende’s political ties were helping him avoid discipline became the subject of yet another federal lawsuit.
I’m on record as not being entirely convinced by those allegations. Still, considering that Rende has been the subject of a dozen citizen complaints — including a reported instance where he had sex with a woman who’d called police to her home — you have to wonder whether this is the guy you want supervising rowdy St. Patrick’s Day revelers.
For that matter, as City Paper first reported two years ago, the city also allowed some two dozen complaints to pile up against another officer, Garrett Brown, who like Walker was accused of accosting uncomprehending motorists.
Brown and Walker were eventually removed from the force. Maybe Rende will be too. But the question here is: How did it get to this point at all? How is it that an officer piles up two or three dozen complaints in the first place?
That’s not a new question. As we reported in our Brown story, and as some city officials later echoed, people have been asking it as far back as 1996. That was the year then-City Controller Tom Flaherty audited the city’s handling of police complaints. His ensuring report found that “‘a few bad apples’ on the force [are] causing a disproportionate amount of citizen dissatisfaction.” While most officers had never been the subject of a single complaint, less than 4 percent of cops accounted for roughly one-third of all the complaints lodged against the bureau. One officer had 34 complaints alone.
As it turned out, all but five of those officer’s complaints were dismissed, and of course the FOP will point out that being accused of misconduct isn’t the same as being guilty of it. But Flaherty’s audit suggested that so many complaints — proven or not — ought to be a red flag in its own right. “How, after 33 citizen complaints,” it asked, “could a police officer possibly be in a position to attract a 34th?”
More than 15 years after Flaherty’s audit, the city appears to have no good answer for that question. History has now repeated itself so many times that the department itself is starting to look like a farce.
Most members of the city police force don’t deserve that: As we’ve also been reminded recently, they put themselves in harm’s way every day. And today, as in 1996, the vast majority of police officers do a good job. The problem is, they work for a police bureau that — over the course of nearly two decades and multiple mayoral administrations — seems almost completely incapable of telling the difference. They, and the city, are paying a price for that, no matter what verdict Fate receives.
This article appears in Mar 13-19, 2013.
This is bias bullshit. To the author, if you took an oath to serve and protect all citizens at any cost, including your life, wouldnt you do whatever you had to, too protect others. In this article you slandered this man. You listed all these statements that the man was accused of but FORGOT to list why. Working under cover narcotics is the most dangerous job on the planet hands down their is no job like it. 99.9% of the cases you listed you FORGOT to allow this man to tell his side of the story. He worked in the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city and went after the most dangerous ppl in the city. All whom have destroyed 1000s of families pushing drugs in our city. Everytime forced is used against a criminal or a drug dealer who sold that bag of herion to your little sister, which killed her, you would only wish their were more officers like the one you bashing. I met this man not long and worked along side him, he is a good man, a humble man, a man who would give anyone the shirt off his back help them. Your speculation has no facts behind it at all. Listing what he had been accused of but not listing his side of the story or his experiences to what happen at the moment in time is ignorance. For that you should be ashamed, their are ppl like this ex officer that put their life on the line every day to keep our city streets a safe place to enjoy, a neighborhoods from being bought up and controlled by gangs. Pittsburgh isnt like some parts of Detroit right now because of officers like Brad Walker. I would love to take you into a really bad part of city at night or even in broad daylight and drop you off. I bet you would go from bashing a man you know nothing of to begging him for his help.
Brad Walker is a good man. He loved his job as an officer. He put his life on the line each day to take careless criminals and drug dealers off the streets. He worked the roughest neighborhoods and went after the worst of the worst criminals and drug dealers.
Every police officer has a long list of conduct issues because ppl think the cuffs might be too tight or simply want to justify themselves getting caught and taken off the streets. This man was one of Pittsburgh’s best officers and if you would spent 2 hours sitting with the man, allowing him to tell his side of the story you would realize your sitting next to a true good heart police officer that did what he had to, to take the bad guys off the streets. Instead of bashing him, you would truly be touched if you would get to hear his side of every allegation against him. Shame how we speculate and assume without knowing nothing of the person himself.
He was one of the good guys who had a ton of stress on his shoulders at the time. The city shouldnt put so much stress on the backs of officers and expect so much outta them. Its really ashame that this man isnt still an officer, if he where i bet the herion epidemic were facing wouldnt be killing family members all over the city.
In narcotics, most of the officers working it have long disciplinary records because they go under cover and put their lives on the line. These drug dealers cry the blues when an end is put them dealing drugs and making money from it. These arent ordinary citizens 99% of the time but harden criminals looking to hurt the lives of others for profit. This ex officer is a veteran and a good man. He should be reinstated and allowed to finish his career. Most of them should because we all learn from our mistakes in time and change over time. This is the perfect example. This man needs to be reinstated as an officer, he is needed right now and could really make an impact on the herion epidemic in our city…