Citizens Against Police Abuse
(A Coalition of Community & Religious Groups)

3208 West Broadway, Louisville, KY 40211
(502)778-8130 fax: 778-8173 email: KYALL@bellsouth.net

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Who We Are

Citizens Against Police Abuse (CAPA) is a diverse coalition of community groups, religious organizations and individual members working together to build a safer, healthier community through reform of police, prisons and the criminal justice system. CAPA meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays at 7:00pm at the Braden Center, 3208 West Broadway.

Our Mission

The mission of CAPA is to effectively use the democratic process to stop police abuse and other forms of criminal injustice. Our mission will be accomplished when the highest standards of human rights, public safety and professional ethics become sustainable realities within the entire justice system.

Our Vision

CAPA is building a powerful and diverse movement that is working for a time when the culture in which we live is socially and economically just, and when the "criminal" justice system serves and protects all people with equality, fairness and respect.

CAPA Goals

Police accountability

• implement independent Citizen Review Board to investigate police abuse
• expose and stop police cover-ups
• get easier access to records

Police misconduct

• stop excessive use of force/false arrests
• end racial profiling
• stop harassment and intimidation
• increase training for all officers
• prevent violations of due process

Police culture

• advocate professional police conduct and officer accountability
• hire police department staff that is gender, racially and ethnically diverse
• implement community-oriented policing
• change culture from "power over" to "serve and protect" the community

Institutional oppression

• stop the war on drugs
• provide drug treatment on demand vs. incarceration
• prevent the erosion of civil liberties
• change unjust laws and police policies
• end mandatory sentencing
• stop the prison-industrial complex
• create meaningful economic opportunity for low-income areas and citizens

Build a powerful and diverse movement

• organize for community empowerment
• assist victims of police abuse with filing complaints/seeking legal representation

Our Broader World View

• Putting people before profits
• Creating jobs with a living wage
• Citizen involvement in the political process
• Supporting amends for historical racial inequities
• Defending human rights, civil rights and civil liberties
• Recognizing and respecting diversity

In Memory of Adrian Reynolds

Adrian Reynolds was unarmed on the night of Jan 1, 1998 when he was beaten beyond recognition by several Louisville police officers. He died 5 days later in the Jefferson County jail. The autopsy showed that he died from blunt-force trauma to his head. Jefferson County Corrections officers stomped his head and neck into the concrete of his jail cell. One correctional officer was tried for murder. His first trial ended with a hung jury. His second trial in the fall of 2002 ended with his acquittal. The other officers involved were investigated by other officers and were found not guilty of any wrongdoing.

The beating and murder of Adrian Reynolds and other victims have lowered public trust in the police. Many families are devastated and, in Adrian's case, two sons are left fatherless. Over and over, children are left without mothers and fathers, after their families are destroyed by the criminal justice system. We believe that children are also the victims of police killings and brutality. One of our goals is to start the Adrian Reynolds Scholarship Fund to assist victims' families.