Just as we predicted and almost an exact copy of what we already wrote, the Department of Justice blasted the Phoenix Police Department in a 126-page summary report on Thursday. It seemed like a Saturday Night Live Skit as Assistant Attorney General, Kristen Clarke, who admitted to lying under oath to Congress, read the executive summary to a national audience.
The good news is that Clarke in pure Simple Jack fashion from the movie Tropic Thunder, “went full ……” Her allegations were so ridiculous and so obnoxious, that it’s almost too easy to debunk…and we will over the course of the next few days.
The bad news is that the leading law enforcement agency in the country is also the dumbest and likely much worse than that. It is truly sad.
This will be the first of many articles that will expose the DOJ for what they are. We take no pride in doing that because, like you, we want what is best for the city of Phoenix and it is clear that the DOJ is seeking to hurt our fine city with lies, misinformation and deceit.
Today, we will simply break down what Clarke said and in future articles we will expose the entire report for the scam that it is. Before we begin, we have a message to the decision makers in Phoenix.
DON’T BE FOOLED, THE DOJ DID NOT GIVE YOU THE INVESTIGATIVE REPORT. THEY GAVE YOU A SUMMARY REPORT FULL OF HALF TRUTHS, OUT OF CONTEXT CLAIMS AND A MISREPRESENTATION OF THE TRUTH.
As the leaders in Phoenix, you must demand the entire investigative report. That report will give important details including their methodology, experts used and a host of other items that need to be examined to determine why and how they came up with their conclusions. You are owed this investigative report. Phoenix taxpayers have spent millions to support the investigation and the DOJ is a public entity and required to release their findings in full. If they refuse, you must sue them to obtain it. The stakes are too high for the safety of our community.
DOJ Executive Summary
The Department of Justice has reasonable cause to believe that the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of their rights under the Constitution and federal law: •
PhxPD uses excessive force, including unjustified deadly force and other types of force. •
PhxPD and the City unlawfully detain, cite, and arrest people experiencing homelessness and unlawfully dispose of their belongings. •
PhxPD discriminates against Black, Hispanic, and Native American people when enforcing the law. •
PhxPD violates the rights of people engaged in protected speech and expression. •
PhxPD and the City discriminate against people with behavioral health disabilities when dispatching calls for assistance and responding to people in crisis.
These are bold and criminal allegations against Phoenix officers. . Where is the evidence of this “pattern and practice” and what constitutes a “pattern and practice?” If this is indeed true, where are the criminal charges? Who are the victims? Isn’t in interesting that all of that is missing here?
In the years leading up to our investigation, PhxPD officers shot and killed people at one of the highest rates in the country. Some city officials blamed a “more violent population” for the number of shootings, rather than police conduct. But we found a significant number of the shootings did not meet constitutional standards.
Once again, the number of shootings mean very little. This is exactly why the DOJ destroyed the city of Albuquerque. Ten years later, the DOJ is claiming a rousing success in Albuquerque and their shootings have doubled and their violent crime has spiked 80%. If there were shootings that did not meet “constitutional standards,” what are those details and where are the criminal charges?
PhxPD relies on dangerous tactics that lead to force that is unnecessary and unreasonable. PhxPD has taught officers a misguided notion of de-escalation. Rather than teaching that de-escalation strategies are designed to eliminate or reduce the need 4 to use force, PhxPD has misappropriated the concept and teaches officers that all force—even deadly force—is de-escalation. According to one police official, this distorted view of de-escalation is “ingrained in the vernacular of the department.”
This crazy statement stands alone as crazy so there isn’t much to say here. Of course it is a lie and this is why the full investigation needs to be released. How and on what planet did they make this determination?
The harm caused by unconstitutional policing is not spread evenly across the City’s population. PhxPD targets people experiencing homelessness, retaliates against people who criticize the police, and disproportionately uses force against people with behavioral health disabilities. Officers enforce certain laws, including drug and low-level offenses, more severely against Black, Hispanic, and Native American people than against white people engaged in the same behaviors. And despite these disparate outcomes and longstanding community complaints, the City still claims it is “unaware of any credible evidence of discriminatory policing.”1
We will dedicate other articles on this ridiculous claim, but this is what the DOJ says everywhere they go. In short, discrimination cannot be determined by “outcomes” and that is especially true for law enforcement. As an example, the decision to enforce laws rarely sides with the police officer but calls for service. The idea that police officers are only making arrest decisions based on discretion shows how uninformed or intentionally deceiving the DOJ is being. You won’t see a comparison of arrests with a particular group or area compared to 911 calls for this very reason. That would not give the DOJ what they want.
In regard to use of force, the DOJ is leaving out a very important component here…the behavior of the suspect(s). Use of force will fall directly along the line of arrests. If police officers are conducting this properly, the percentage of force will be equal among all races that have committed crimes…not all races from the United States Census. Since the DOJ did not make this important comparison, we assume that Phoenix PD is in line with appropriate policing (when use of force against groups match the arrest of those groups). The DOJ doesn’t discuss this and comparing police activity to the general population is not recognized as actual science or research. Once again, this is why the full investigation, along with their methodology must be seen.
The practice of stopping, citing, and arresting unhoused people was so widespread that between 2016 and 2022, 37% of all PhxPD arrests were of people experiencing homelessness. Many of these stops, citations, and arrests were unconstitutional. A federal court order has been insufficient to change these entrenched policing practices. In 2022, a court ordered the City to stop enforcing certain laws against unhoused people, seizing their property without notice, and destroying property without an opportunity to collect it.
It is interesting that the DOJ left a lawsuit out here. Before the lawsuit was filed they discussed, the Phoenix Police Department was sued by business owners for not dealing with the homeless. When the department addressed the crimes being committed against business owners and their patrons, they were then sued by the ACLU for doing their job. Of course, describing “many” stops and arrests as “unconstitutional” sounds bad, what and who are they talking about? The DOJ failed to mention that the reason 37% of the arrests were of those “experiencing homelessness” is because 911 calls dealing with the homeless and the crimes being committed were one of the top calls for service during that time period. Calls for service is a predictor of police activity. Why did the DOJ leave that fact out?
Despite the unlawful practices we describe in this Report, we spoke with dozens of officers and city officials committed to serving the people of Phoenix with thoughtfulness and respect.
They spoke to “dozens of officers.” Well, that is one detailed investigation. The DOJ spoke to dozens of officers out of thousands. It is clear that the DOJ is not happy that the politicians in Phoenix did not agree to a consent decree and thus, a total destruction of their police department and city.
After reading this so called summary report, the citizens of Phoenix should be thanking their representatives today and demanding that the DOJ be swiftly removed from Phoenix. The DOJ should sue in Federal Court to impose their scam consent decree and then we will all see the fraud that they are. They will have to actually prove, with evidence, the outrageous and defamatory statements they have made.
It is also time for Congressional Leaders that represent Phoenix stand up and demand congressional hearings on DOJ Consent Decrees. Thirty years of destruction must come to an end and it should stop right here in Phoenix.
