Post by Shuftin on Jan 9, 2007 18:27:49 GMT -5
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – Members of a group representing black police officers, as well as the family of a man shot and killed by police two years ago, spoke out Tuesday against the punishment received by the police officer involved in the shooting.
Timothy Stansbury was unarmed, taking a shortcut to a party, when Officer Richard Neri shot him on a Brooklyn rooftop in January of 2004. Neri was on patrol at the time.
A grand jury failed to indict him last year, but last week, the police department decided to suspend him for 30 days. He was permanently stripped of his gun and reassigned to the property clerk’s office. He is also on probation for a year.
Members of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement, Stansbury’s family, and community leaders said the punishment is not strong enough, and they want Neri fired.
“I was shopping and I got a phone call from my lawyer, and after I was notified I just fell because I just couldn’t believe that they would just give him 30 days,” said Stansbury’s mother, Phyllis Clayburne.
“The fact that the grand jury didn’t indictment doesn’t mean that this cop is innocent and did nothing wrong,” added Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron.
The NYPD argues the officer’s punishment is much stricter than what a department judge proposed after the trial. Neri pleaded guilty to failing to properly safeguard his weapon, causing it to discharge. A judge suggested he should lose 30 vacation days.
A spokesman also says there is no precedent for firing an officer after an accidental shooting. Without such a precedent, criminal justice expert Maki Haberfeld, says it would be hard for the police commissioner to fire Neri.
“In theory is he that powerful that he can fire anybody he feels like firing? Maybe, but it wouldn’t be the right thing to do because then it would create a very dangerous precedent for him, or for the next police commissioner to fire people that committed various violations out of the range of various punitive options,” explained Haberfeld.
She says that it was unusual for the police commissioner to impose a harsher punishment than that suggested by a departmental judge.
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Timothy Stansbury was unarmed, taking a shortcut to a party, when Officer Richard Neri shot him on a Brooklyn rooftop in January of 2004. Neri was on patrol at the time.
A grand jury failed to indict him last year, but last week, the police department decided to suspend him for 30 days. He was permanently stripped of his gun and reassigned to the property clerk’s office. He is also on probation for a year.
Members of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement, Stansbury’s family, and community leaders said the punishment is not strong enough, and they want Neri fired.
“I was shopping and I got a phone call from my lawyer, and after I was notified I just fell because I just couldn’t believe that they would just give him 30 days,” said Stansbury’s mother, Phyllis Clayburne.
“The fact that the grand jury didn’t indictment doesn’t mean that this cop is innocent and did nothing wrong,” added Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron.
The NYPD argues the officer’s punishment is much stricter than what a department judge proposed after the trial. Neri pleaded guilty to failing to properly safeguard his weapon, causing it to discharge. A judge suggested he should lose 30 vacation days.
A spokesman also says there is no precedent for firing an officer after an accidental shooting. Without such a precedent, criminal justice expert Maki Haberfeld, says it would be hard for the police commissioner to fire Neri.
“In theory is he that powerful that he can fire anybody he feels like firing? Maybe, but it wouldn’t be the right thing to do because then it would create a very dangerous precedent for him, or for the next police commissioner to fire people that committed various violations out of the range of various punitive options,” explained Haberfeld.
She says that it was unusual for the police commissioner to impose a harsher punishment than that suggested by a departmental judge.
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