PHOENIX, Arizona (AX) — A blistering exposé by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) accused the Phoenix Police Department of repeatedly breaching civil liberties through misconduct, including unwarranted deadly force.
The feds pointed fingers at plenty of cases showing excessive force and bias against Black, Hispanic, and Native American folks. Cops also snagged, fined, and locked up homeless folks without cause, they claimed.
One gut-wrenching case happened in September 2022, when 34-year-old Somali refugee Ali Osman was fatally gunned down. Public outrage exploded, and the city handed his family $5.5 million. Osman, a violence survivor from Somalia, was nestled in Phoenix when things went south. Responding to a man chucking rocks at cars, officers said Osman lobbed rocks at their cruiser. They drew their guns, and when Osman raised another rock, they opened fire, killing him.
The fatal encounter set off a firestorm, particularly among Somali and immigrant communities, who grilled the cops’ actions and rationale. Advocates contended that Osman’s rock-tossing hardly warranted capital punishment, demanding more accountability and a policing overhaul.
That DOJ report put Osman’s blood on display as a sign of Phoenix PD’s “deep-rooted chaos”—marked by rampant excessive force, crummy training, and lousy supervision. They also spotlighted the department’s track record of excessive brutality, especially against people in mental distress, showing systemic rot.
Following the killing, the overzealous officer got the boot but faced zilch criminal charges. A multi-million-dollar payout to Osman’s kin was inked, amidst Phoenix’s largest settlements.
Ali Osman fell to police bullets on Sept. 24 during a dust-up with officers. Courtesy Muktar Sheikh. Besides the moolah, the tragedy birthed cries for sweeping police reforms in Phoenix—like better de-escalation training, mental health crisis responses, and more community oversight.
The report featured some grisly anecdotes:
Officers gunned down a man chucking rocks at their ride.Officers fired 10 bullets into a woman who seemed suicidal. They let her suffer for over nine minutes before she passed away. They pummeled a man with “less-lethal” rounds while a police dog yanked him around. Aid was delayed for more than nine minutes. Stun bag rounds kept hammering a man even after he was down. No CPR for 15 minutes, and he was dead upon approach. Officers Tasered a suicidal man yanked from a car park, mashing him to the ground.
Between 2016 and 2022, cops hauled off lots of homeless folks—37% of all arrests. They’d trap, cite, and arrest the homeless, ditching their stuff unlawfully. The officers were prodded to be proactive with projectiles and stripped of weapons if they didn’t play rough enough. This gun-slinging culture saw them shooting at low-threat individuals and trapping themselves in perilous situations where deadly force was inevitable.
Reacting to DOJ’s damning findings, Phoenix PD vowed to revamp policies, accountability, and training. City manager Jeff Barton took it to heart, ready to dissect the scathing report. However, the Phoenix Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 2 scoffed at the findings, calling them a hot pile of half-baked half-truths and wild-goose theories.
This Phoenix drama ties into broader efforts to scrutinize and reform police forces across the country. Since 2021, the DOJ has probed 11 different police departments, including Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, unearthing serious misconduct and civil rights infractions.
