Revenge of the White Cops

 The $2.4 million jury verdict against the city of Inglewood for disciplining two white police officers involved in the videotaped beating of black teenager Donovan Jackson was like a slap in the face. How could the two alleged rogue officers - Jeremy Morse and Bijan Darvish - be rewarded for their actions? Many Inglewood residents concluded it had to be another example of injustice to the black community.

"No justice, no peace," came the cries from black-community leaders and activists on Friday, as Inglewood officials stoked a city's outrage.

But more than two years after supposedly the worst case of racially motivated police abuse since Rodney King, Inglewood residents still don't know exactly where to focus their anger, or whom to hold accountable for the havoc wrought by the Jackson videotape. With costs still rising as a result of attorneys' fees and a spate of federal civil rights lawsuits, Inglewood officials are vilifying Morse and Darvish; at the same time, the city's attorneys are stuck defending them in some cases, and fighting off claims that they should be exonerated in others.

On July 6, 2002, Morse was videotaped slamming 16-year-old Donovan Jackson onto the hood of his car and punching him in the face during a traffic stop at a Thrifty gas station. Jackson, according to court papers, had lunged at a Sheriff's deputy and resisted arrest by grabbing Morse's ear and scratching his face. After being handcuffed, he grabbed Morse's testicles, court documents say. Morse's partner, Officer Bijan Darvish, filed a report stating that Morse used reasonable force. Jackson alleged that Morse grabbed him by the throat. Two criminal trials left the officers bitter but unscathed. Darvish was acquitted of filing a false police report. Morse walked away from two hung juries.

After the release of the videotape, Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn called for punishment. Morse was fired in October 2002. Darvish was suspended for 10 days and relegated to administrative duty. An arbitrator later found that he did nothing wrong, but a city administrator reversed the decision, according to Darvish's lawyer Corey Glave. Meanwhile, their colleague, a black officer named Willie Crook, who allegedly struck Jackson with a flashlight but was not videotaped, was suspended for just four days, after reporting that he used no force. Crook testified that he later resigned and returned to his job as a jailer. Last week, a Los Angeles jury decided that the white officers received harsher punishment than Crook, and awarded Morse $1.6 million and Darvish $800,000.

On Friday, Inglewood erupted. Several dozen community leaders and activists joined Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Inglewood officials at a press conference at City Hall. The crowd, almost all black, was angry. Someone held a sign that read: "Can you believe this? Two rogue cops receive $2.4 million." Others chimed in as Waters spoke. "Just like in Mississippi," proclaimed one onlooker. "An eye for an eye," demanded another. "This decision is very sad, and it sends the wrong message," Waters said. "It opens the door to every white officer to bring about a discrimination lawsuit, and this cannot stand. We encourage the city to appeal. The Donovan Jackson saga cannot be closed with this decision. Justice awaits."

Mayor Dorn, protesting what he characterized as a travesty of justice, spoke as if he were delivering a Sunday sermon. He praised Police Chief Ronald Banks for his handling of the two white officers, who now have cost Inglewood more than $4 million. He called for a new trial. He railed against inequality on the jury. "Not one black juror," said the mayor. (The jury included six Latinos, three Asian-Americans and three whites, according to Inglewood City Attorney Anita Willis.)

Dorn, a former judge, directed much of his ire at Paul Coble, the lawyer for the city. "We need a lawyer to properly defend us," the mayor continued. "[Coble] should have called the police chief [as a witness] to explain his discipline of the black officer. The black officer was going to be fired and he knew it. We can't stand for a perception that white officers get treated differently, in a city with a black mayor and a black police chief." City Councilman Curren Price echoed, "[Coble] should be fired. The actions of the police chief were proper. The officers need to get their just deserts." Coble replied that "Clients have the right to get angry at their lawyers," but said he thinks he can win on appeal.

Activists took their turn at the microphone. "If you want to get rich quick, be skilled in the art of racial profiling and put brutality on people of color," said Talibah Shakir, a member of the Donovan Jackson Defense Committee, who also is his cousin. "We reacted to Donovan's beating with a campaign of militancy," said Dedon Kamati, also with the defense committee. "Our struggle got co-opted by lawyers who told us to stop talking to the city. The voice of the grassroots got kicked to the curb. Justice was sacrificed to keep the peace. Without militancy, there are no results." Waters said she wished Dorn could try the case for the city. "It appears we don't do so well in the courts," the congresswoman said. She urged the crowd to return for a nighttime rally. "We cannot be satisfied with decisions favoring people who we pay and who have brutalized others," Waters said. "Let's blow it up."