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| NEWS > 18 March 2010 |
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Ferriday chief faces ethics bo
FERRIDAY — Police Chief Richard Madison is being called before the Louisiana Board of Ethics Thursday.
On Feb. 13, Board of Ethics Attorney Alesia M. Ardoin requested the subpoena for Madison to appear before the board for alleged nepotism charges.
“Charges were filed, and this matter was set for public hearing to explore these charges,” Ardoin said Tuesday. “Generally, that is the procedure.”
In July 2004, Mayor Gene Allen hired both Madison as an investigator for the town and his half-brother, Robert “Rock” Davis, as police chief.
According to ethi... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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The Australian
18 March 2010
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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OPI Victoria
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Victorian police watchdog shel
MORE than 20 complaints of racism by Victorian police, including allegations of criminal behaviour, were made to the Office of Police Integrity by lawyers acting for young African Australians between 2006 and 2009.
Only one has been investigated by the OPI and several resulted in charges being laid by police against those who made the complaints in what lawyers describe as "cover charges".
No police officers have been sacked for race-related incidents, despite Chief Commissioner Simon Overland admitting he was aware of several "substantiated cases".
Asked yesterday whether police had investigated and found substantiated cases of racist behaviour, Mr Overland, who has been embroiled in race rows, replied: "Yes."
Asked whether these cases were recent, he replied: "Yes."
Asked what happened to the police officers concerned, he replied: "Some of those matters are still continuing. They are not yet finalised."
Mr Overland said it was disappointing that claims by a young Sudanese man, Emmanuel Makoi, in The Australian yesterday, had not so far been raised with the Ethical Standards Department for investigation.
Mr Makoi, 18, told The Australian he was beaten by police, called a "black c . . .", taken to an isolated location on the Maribyrnong River and beaten again.
Mr Overland's comments, sparked by a report on police racism in three Melbourne areas - Greater Dandenong, Flemington and Braybook - came as the issue deepened, with detailed reports of police racism in the Flemington and Kensington area.
In a 160-page report for the Victoria Law Foundation late last year, Tamar Hopkins, principal solicitor at the Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre, chronicled a litany of abuse by police, ranging from calling out "Get back to Africa" while covering their badges to serious assaults.
Claims against police included beating and kicking a young African who was handcuffed on the ground, threatening sexual violence, threatening to kill, excessive batoning, punching a person during an interview until he lost consciousness, using capsicum spray as punishment, desecrating a copy of the Koran during a raid by throwing it on the ground and calling it "shit", and punching a person in the eye with a torch, causing permanent eye damage.
Ms Hopkins told The Australian more than 20 complaints of racist behaviour by Victorian police involving young Africans, including allegations of criminal behaviour by police, were made to the Office of Police Integrity between 2006 and 2009. Only one has been investigated by the OPI, and it is still unresolved.
During the period of the complaints, the OPI's highest-profile investigations were led by the watchdog's deputy director, Graham Ashton. Mr Ashton quit the OPI last year to join Victoria Police as Mr Overland's unsworn director of strategy and corporate governance.
Police yesterday denied reports that a 22-year-old Somalian man, Ahmed Dini, last month received more than $70,000 in an out-of-court settlement, saying the case was ongoing. Mr Dini has claimed police hit him in the mouth with a torch while he was handcuffed, smashing some of his teeth, and then launched a malicious prosecution against him.
In another civil action, eight police officers based at Moonee Ponds are facing assault and false imprisonment claims, in which it is alleged a 19-year-old youth lost part of the sight in one eye.
Police said last night that matter remained "subject to investigation".
Ms Hopkins said complaints to the OPI were invariably referred down to the police Ethical Standards Department and then referred down again to regional police stations.
In this "utterly inappropriate" system, which was "infected" by police investigating allegations against police, most complaints were dismissed.
In several cases, "cover charges" were then brought against those who made complaints, for resisting arrest and assaulting or hindering police.
Ms Hopkins said one of these charges was so weak that police withdrew it before trial, while the others were dismissed in the magistrates courts.
In her report for the Victoria Law Foundation late last year, Ms Hopkins compared Victoria's complaints systems unfavourably with systems in Britain and Northern Ireland and called for a new independent civilian agency to investigate complaints against police.
She concluded: "The pattern and scale of reports of abuses indicated `dangerous, institutional and systemic failures', while the failure of the complaint system to result in the discipline or punishment of any police called for `a total overhaul of the complaint systems in Victoria'."
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