In the largest suburb of Las Vegas, Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen expressed remorse last week over injuries caused to the unresisting Adam Greene, who was in diabetic shock when city police beat and kicked him during a traffic stop in October 2010.<\/p>\n
It was the first public comment on the incident by anyone on the City Council since it approved a $158,000 settlement with Greene, 38, on Tuesday, Feb. 7.<\/p>\n
The traffic stop was videotaped by a Nevada Highway Patrol dashboard camera. That tape, which was released by Greene\u2019s lawyer on Tuesday, showed police Sgt. Brett Seekatz kicking Greene in the head five times and another officer kneeing the unresponsive Greene — who had already been handcuffed — in the midsection four times, breaking his ribs. Highway Patrol troopers did not appear to hit or kick Greene, though one did level a cocked pistol at him and — somewhat bizarrely — kick his car window.<\/p>\n
\u201cStop resisting moth-rfuck-r! Stop resisting moth-rfuck-r!\u201d an officer yelled as the man lay on the ground, physically incapable of resisting.<\/p>\n
Greene –a former basketball player for the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and himself the son of a highway patrolman — suffered broken ribs and bruises that didn\u2019t heal for two months. The city attorney approved a $99,000 settlement with Greene\u2019s wife — a sum just under the $100,000 that would have required the City Council\u2019s approval. The state agreed to pay Greene $35,000, for a total settlement of $292,500.<\/p>\n
Mayor Hafen said the Henderson Police Department modified its training and use-of-force policies after the incident, and \u201cas a result, we have already seen the numbers of those types of incidents go down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hafen said the mark of a good organization is the ability to learn from mistakes, own up to them and improve.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have tried to do that and will continue to do so in the future as we try to hold our officers and our department to the highest standards of accountability,\u201d the mayor managed to say with a straight face.<\/p>\n
Henderson City Councilman Sam Bateman said that while he doesn\u2019t condone what happened to Greene, he understands emotions sometimes run high in police work. \u201cI work with law enforcement all the time,\u201d Bateman said. \u201cThey (police) didn\u2019t know what they were dealing with, and sometimes they have to be aggressive to defuse a public threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials wouldn\u2019t specify how or if Seekatz was disciplined over the incident, saying the information is a personnel matter and will not be released. He remains a sergeant.<\/p>\n
Officers Douglas Lynaugh, Francis Shipp and Seth Vanbeveren were named as the other officers who joined in, though it was unclear which managed to break Mr. Greene\u2019s ribs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHenderson Police Chief Jutta Chambers ordered a closer look at the training Henderson officers receive,\u201d according to a prepared statement. \u201cThe training on use of force techniques was subsequently modified.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now everything is hunky-dory?<\/p>\n
Oh, please. This incident took place nearly a year and a half ago. Yet the public learned nothing about it until this week — and then only from Mr. Greene\u2019s attorney? What if he\u2019d kept silent? What would the public know today? Nothing. Henderson officials are suddenly \u201csorry\u201d today — 16 months after this abomination — only because they were \u201couted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only named culprit is still a sergeant, retaining all his rank and accrued seniority? The city won\u2019t even detail what his discipline was? A day off with pay and a free round of drinks down at the Dew Drop Inn?<\/p>\n
Henderson officers were clearly unaware they were being recorded by the highway patrolman\u2019s dashboard camera, leaving the clear impression in the public\u2019s mind today that this was and remains \u201cstandard operating procedure\u201d in Hooterville. Why did use-of-force policies have to be (allegedly) changed, and how were they changed? Doesn\u2019t that imply the Henderson officers\u2019 actions seen here were in keeping with the use-of-force policies in place at the time? If so, why isn\u2019t Henderson advertising for a new police chief?<\/p>\n
(In fact, sources told the Review-Journal Feb. 15 that Henderson\u2019s departing city manager has told Chief Chambers to clear out her desk and resign, pronto.)<\/p>\n
Henderson police already had a reputation for amateurism and wildly inappropriate use of force — most infamously shooting and killing ice cream lady Deshira Selimaj, who had raced to the scene of a traffic stop to translate for her Albanian-born husband who was having health problems (a $700,000 settlement in 2009.) Has the police chief been dragged before the Council to publicly explain this latest abomination — or any of the others? Why not?<\/p>\n
Chief Chambers should have held a press conference a year ago, making a clean breast of this incident as soon as details were known, promising a public investigation, firings if appropriate, and reform. The discipline of Sgt. Seekatz is not a \u201cconfidential personnel matter\u201d — it has nothing to do with his health or domestic arrangements. Rather, full disclosure of how he was punished is vital is the Henderson Police hope to restore public confidence. And why wasn\u2019t the officer who broke Mr. Greene\u2019s ribs similarly singled out, along with the nature of HIS discipline? Breaking the ribs of comatose, handcuffed individuals is OK, as long as you lay off the head? What\u2019s that called, \u201cThe Corleone Rule\u201d?<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes the police need to be aggressive\u201d in pulling an unresponsive man from a car and beating him? Why? Even if Mr. Greene had been drunk, this behavior was completely unwarranted. Once his car was stopped, it\u2019s clear that Mr. Greene\u2019s only offense was not shouting \u201cYes sir!\u201d quickly enough. The behavior of the Henderson Police in this case wouldn\u2019t have been appropriate even for military personnel occupying a captive nation.<\/p>\n
Meantime, it now turns out Henderson officials can pay off an injured party with a sum as high as $99,000 without so much as a public vote? That\u2019s a policy designed to sweep problems under the rug — the cut-off for full public disclosure should be lowered to something a lot closer to $10,000.<\/p>\n
The mayor happily asserts the number of incidents of this nature has already dropped. Really? How many more of \u201cthose types of incidents\u201d — easily hidden by staying under that $100,000 secret payoff limit — has the public not been told about? Three per year? Six? A dozen? Should St. Rose\u2019s Hospital set up a special ward just for the parade of Henderson Police beating victims? Could we have a number, please — an itemized list of secret payoffs between $10,000 and $99,000 for the most recent eight years, at least?<\/p>\n
Right now, all across the nation, a new police-beating video is going viral, and would-be tourists are adding \u201cHenderson, Nevada\u201d to the list of places they\u2019re promising themselves never to go. Henderson\u2019s silent police chief — assuming she even retains her job — and elected officials have a long hill to climb if local businesses aren\u2019t to spend the next 20 years suffering the effects of those informal blacklists. Instead, they\u2019re patting themselves on the back, congratulating themselves that at least their bully-boys didn\u2019t kill this one.<\/p>\n
Because the payoff from taxpayer funds can be TWICE as expensive when you kill them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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