Citizens Against Police Abuse

• CAPA ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• SPONSORS/ MEMBERS
• HISTORY

Apr	CAPA was born.

Apr	Movement was started to get the city to create a civilian police-review board
        that would independently and openly investigate police abuses.

Apr 22	CAPA helped organize a Community Meeting about a civilian police review board
        at the Chestnut Street YMCA with the Justice Resource Center and the NAACP
        Youth Council.

May 13	Desmond Rudolf was shot by Louisville police officers Chris Horn and Paul Kincade.
        He was unarmed and shot dead (22 rounds were shot at him- he was hit at least
        10 times) by the officers who claimed that Rudolph was going to run them over 
        with a vehicle that was crashed into a telephone pole. 

June 4	CAPA and others march on Louisville police headquarters and City Hall to protest
        the killing of Rudolph and the investigation process and demand justice.

July 22	CAPA organized citizens to attend the first of three hearings, at city hall,
        on the need for a Civilian Police Review Board that is independent from the police,
        that is open to the public and that involves citizens. The hearings were sponsored
        by alderpeople.

Aug 19	CAPA organized citizens to attend the second hearing at the Shawnee Golf Course
        Clubhouse.

Sep 25	CAPA organized citizens to attend the third hearing at St Paul United Methodist
        in east end.

Feb	CAPA launched a postcard and letter-writing campaign to influence politicians to
        introduce a city ordinance that would create a civilian review board.


Mar 1	CAPA protested the Louisville Police Department's awards ceremony because it gave
        exceptional valor awards to Officers Horn and Kincade, who shot Desmond Rudolph dead.

Mar 2	Due to community pressure, Louisville Police Chief, Gene Sherrard, was fired by
        Mayor Armstrong, for "violating the Mayor's trust" in approving the awards given to
        Horn and Kincade. Nine police commanders stepped down to protest the mayor. At least
        75 officers temporarily left their beats, leaving many areas of the city unattended.
        The story was reported nationwide, including a large story in the New York Times. 

Mar 3	Louisville Police officers marched on City Hall to protest the mayor's firing of the
        police chief.

Mar 5	CAPA participated in a march (with 1000 citizens) to the 4th District police station,
        following the death of Desmond Rudolf and the mayor's firing of police Chief Gene Sherard.

Mar 17	Louisville Police officers marched again to downtown.

Mar 17	Two of Rudolph's brothers and his cousin were arrested on misdemeanor charges.

Mar 24	CAPA organized a forum on "community-oriented policing" at the Presbyterian Community
        Center in the Sheppard's Square housing complex. A film was shown called "New Cop on
        the Beat" which reveals how community-policing principles have transformed the city of
        New Haven, Connecticut. Nick Pastore, the New Haven police chief who started the new
        policing methods, was there to answer questions.

Mar 26	Use-of-Force by the Louisville police was explored for three days in the Courier Journal.
        It revealed that the police engage in force against citizens [sometimes brutal and
        inhumane] more often than people know. Police have not been filing use-of-force reports
        every time they use any kind of force. From 1996-1999, there were 848 use-of-force
        reports filed by officers (in reality more than half aren't reported by police). Of the
        848 instances of force used by officers, 506 (60%) were against blacks- even though
        they only make up 33% of the population. The system, that monitors officers' use-of-force
        reports, is incredibly flawed. Abusive conduct by the officers is favored over the 
        citizens who complain; officers are rarely punished. Of the 79 people who filed complaints
        that police used excessive force, 78 were rejected by the police command. People are
        discouraged from filing complaints. The use-of-force policy is vague and gives leeway to
        cops. These are just some of the facts. 

Mar 28	CAPA members attended state rep Paul Bather's forum at the Shawnee Golfcourse Clubhouse
        about his request to the US Justice Department to investigate the Louisville Police Department.

Mar 31	CAPA organized the Police Brutality Teach-In at the University of Louisville. Members of
        CAPA spoke about our work. Other speakers included Blaine Hudson (UofL professor in
        Pan African Studies), Ricky Jones of the Black Radical Congress and Dana McDuffie of
        Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

Apr 3	Mayor Armstrong announced that he will improve police training and accountability and 
        the police need to take every complaint seriously. 

Apr 3	Public safety director Ron Ricucci announced that 18 Louisville police commanders
        (some of whom walked off the job just weeks earlier) and 2 outside candidates applied
        for the new police chief position.

Apr 4	The Courier Journal reported that arrests by Louisville police were down by more than
        half in the month following the firing of Chief Sherard. The police seemingly staged a
        protest by not making as many arrests- or did they over-arrest citizens the year before?
        In March 1999, they arrested 2,806 people. In March 2000, they arrested 1,237.

Apr 11	The Louisville Police Department announced that:

        Officers will be required to fill out a use-of-force report every time they charge
        someone with resisting arrest.
        
        It will make more use of an early intervention system to identify officers who file a lot
        of use-of-force reports or are subject to complaints and lawsuits

Apr 23	CAPA helped organize a Rally for the Victims of Police Brutality at Jefferson Park.

Apr 24	CAPA staged a late-night sit-in at City Hall outside the mayor's office, after weeks
        of trying to get a meeting with the mayor. CAPA tried to get a meeting with him to
        discuss the need for a civilian police-review board, a community-oriented policing 
        program and the need to hire a police chief from outside the ranks of the Louisville
        Police Department. He agreed to meet with three of our members, and only one at a time.
        We refused. He later agreed to our conditions.

May 1	CAPA spoke to Mayor Armstrong's One Louisville Commission about police brutality and
        the drug war.

May 4	CAPA organized a protest at the Pegasus Parade during Derby week. We created a 11-foot-tall
        puppet of a victim of police brutality which drew a lot of attention.

May 5	CAPA participated in an Oaks Day rally, at which Al Sharpton and Dick Gregory were present,
        at Memorial Park. This was part of a series of activities during Derby week to bring
        attention to issues of police brutality, racism and the lack of care from city officials.

May 7	CAPA helped monitor police behavior during Derby weekend in the West End. The police
        developed strategies to contain blacks in the West End, probably in an effort to contain
        the anger brewing in the black communities over recent shootings. The Mayor apologized.

May 9	The civilian review board ordinance that would investigate police abuses was passed by
        the Louisville Board of Alderman, after CAPA conducted months of forums, hearings,
        door-to-door signature campaigns and grassroots organizing.

May 19  The civilian police-review ordinance was vetoed by the mayor. 

May 20  The Ku Klux Klan had a rally in downtown Louisville, in support of Police Chief Sherrard.
        Its small group was met by 100s of anti-KKK citizens.

May 31  CAPA representatives had a meeting with Mayor Armstrong to present a proposal for a
        community-oriented policing program to ask him to reconsider his veto of civilian review
        and choose a chief from outside the ranks of the Louisville Police Department.
 
Jun 11  A new police chief was appointed, Greg Smith (from LPD). Fired chief Sherrard became
        assistant commander of Metro Narcotics in April. Smith was commander of it from 1994-97. 

Jun 13  The Louisville Board of Alderman voted to override the mayor's veto of civilian police-review.

Jun 14  Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to block the civilian
        police-review ordinance. It has been held up in court ever since.

Jun 30  CAPA released a statement calling on the LPD to revise its use-of-force policy to prevent
        other police killings.

Sep 6   A racial profiling study was launched by the state to determine if police departments in
        Kentucky engage in racial profiling. Louisville and Jefferson County police did not
        participate, claiming they don't have a problem.

Sep 20  Rodney Abernathy's killing by four police officers ruled a homicide by a Jefferson County
        coroner's jury.

Oct     CAPA participated in the Mayor's Strategic Planning Leadership Committee (SPLC) to create
        a plan for Community-Oriented Policing. Even though outnumbered by police officers, CAPA
        members were able to get some important solutions included in the report, such as drug
        treatment, as opposed to incarceration. 

Oct 22  CAPA organized an anti-police brutality event at Central Park called National Day of Protest
        Against Police Brutality and the Criminalization of a Generation. The event featured music,
        poetry, rap and speakers. A caravan followed to Lexington for a press conference about the
        Barnes trial on Oct 23.

Oct 23  The murder trial of Timothy Barnes, one of the corrections officer accused of killing
        Adrian Reynolds in jail, started in Lexington. 

Oct 30  CAPA organized a press conference to call on the city and the police to end racial profiling
        and roadblocks by police. The Courier Journal conducted a racial profiling study. It found
        that police stopped blacks twice as often as whites. Police Chief, Smith, said that he had
        no intention of stopping roadblocks.

Nov 9   The Barnes (killed Adrian Reynolds) murder trial ended in a hung jury (mistrial); he'll be
        retried.

Nov 29  Drug roadblocks were ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court. It reaffirmed the 4th Amendment. 

Nov 29  Rodney Abernathy 's killers, four officers, were not indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury. 

Dec 1   The Jefferson County Police Department announced that county police officers will start 
        recording the race of every driver and pedestrian.

Dec 5   The mayor and police chief announced that city police officers will start recording the race
        and sex of every driver they stop starting Jan 1. They also announced a new policy that 
        prohibits officers from using "race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion,
        socio-economic status, or disability of a person as the sole reason for stopping a vehicle"
        or for searches, arrests or detentions.

Jan 9   Clifford Lewis (18 years old) was killed by detectives of the undercover Street Crimes Unit.
        They pulled into a parking lot behind the van he was driving in an unmarked sport-utility
        vehicle.  The plainclothes officers approached him with guns drawn, thinking he was someone
        else and, according to witnesses, no warning was given. Officers shot at Lewis, the car rolled
        across the street hitting a house and officers fired at the driver again, claiming that he was
        reaching for his waistband (which they could somehow see from outside van). Lewis had no gun
        but he was struck by five bullets that came from different angles. The Courier Journal reported
        that Detective Johann Steimle, the principal (or only) shooter, and the other six detectives
        who were there all have previous use-of-force reports in their files.

Jan 12  CAPA helped organize a protest outside City Hall in regards to recent shootings and the lack of
        changes to the culture of the police department.

Jan 15  CAPA participated in a march of over 500 people to police headquarters, to protest police
        shootings. 

Mar 10  CAPA members lobbied state legislators. A racial profiling bill passed unanimously through the 
        House and the Senate of the Kentucky state legislature. It requires local police departments to
        have a polic banning racial profiling and to develop punishment for violating the policies, or
        lose state funding that helps pay officers.

Apr 14  CAPA and other groups caravanned to Cincinnati for the funeral of Timothy Thomas, an unarmed
        18-year-old who was shot dead. The Cincinnati SWAT at the funeral site shot one of CAPA's 
        members twice in the back with beanbags, resulting in a fractured rib, punctured spleen and
        bruised lung.

May 8   The Civilian police-review board ordinance was declared unconstitutional, because it included
        subpoena power, by Jefferson Circuit Judge Tom McDonald. In June, the Board of Alderman agreed
        to appeal the decision against the civilian review to the Kentucky Court of Appeals.


May 10  Clifford Lewis' killer, Det. Steimle, was not indicted on any charge by a Jefferson County
        grand jury.

May 19  CAPA participated in a press conference in support of Tammy Ricketts who was racially profiled
        at Lazarus in Oxmoor Center.

Jun 11  East End members of CAPA and others organized a march in the Highlands to support a civilian 
        police-review panel.

Oct 21  CAPA organized an anti-police brutality event at Central Park called National Day of Protest 
        Against Police Brutality and the Criminalization of a Generation. The event featured music,
        poetry, rap and speakers.

Dec     Jefferson County settled a lawsuit agreeing to pay $350,000 to the family of Adrian Reynolds.

Jan     The City of Louisville settled a lawsuit agreeing to pay $200,000 to the family of
        Desmond Rudolph.
	
Jan 9   The City of Louisville settled a lawsuit agreeing to pay $600,000 to the family of
        Rodney Abernathy.

Jan 31  Community-Oriented Policing plan was approved by Mayor Armstrong, Police Chief Smith and
        Safety Director DeHoney. CAPA members helped write the plan through the Mayor's Strategic
        Leadership Planning Committee. Some of the parts that CAPA struggled to include, such as
        drug treatment options instead of incarceration, were left out. They stated that state
        laws have to be changed. 
 
For the last few months, CAPA has worked on its long-range goals and strategies, gone door-to-door in
different neighborhoods, passed out CAPA info at the Pegasus parade and other Derby activities and
traveled to Cincinnati to support local efforts against police abuse. This history was last updated
January 2002.

This summary does not include all of the forums, meetings, rallies or press conferences we have
organized or participated in.

For more info, call CAPA at 778-8130