Phoenix Cops Didn't Disable Body Cams While Aiming Guns At Family
PHOENIX, AZ — The public relations battle for Phoenix police took a new turn after false claims circulated on social media over the weekend that white police officers turned off their body cameras while pointing their guns in an angry confrontation with an African-American family suspected of shoplifting from a local store.
The truth is, most Phoenix police aren’t yet outfitted with the cameras, though they were authorized early this year by the Phoenix City Council after a record number of police shootings in the city last year..
A bystander captured the May 27 confrontation between 22-year-old Dravon Ames and his pregnant fiancee, 24-year-old Aisha Harper, on video, leading some to speculate it was the only path for justice for the family.
Ames and Harper have filed a $10 million lawsuit civil rights lawsuit filed by the couple. The video shows police shouting profanities and pointing guns at the children — an infant Harper was holding and a 4-year-old girl accused of shoplifting a doll from a dollar store at 36th and Roosevelt streets.
After a news report noted that “neither officer had a body camera or dash cam,” some people misinterpreted that to mean they’d turned off the cameras. Across the country, Qasim Rashid, an activist and Democratic candidate for the Virginia Assembly, tweeted that police “turned off their dash cams & body cams.” His tweet has been shared nearly 59,000 times.
Rolling Stone writer Jamil Smith was among those retweeting Rashid, and his tweet was shared 1,245 times. “Bystanders with phones created the only path to accountability,” he wrote. “The system is broken.”
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The Phoenix City Council authorized body cameras in February after a record number of Phoenix police shootings last year. About 2,000 body cameras will be purchased under a $5.7 million contract with Scottsdale-based Axon Enterprises.
Currently, about one in five sworn officers currently have them, the Arizona Republic reported.
The Rev. Jarrett Maupin, an activist and spokesman for the family, told the Arizona Republic that people think Phoenix has made more progress getting officers outfitted with body cameras than it actually has.
“Every time someone’s beaten or killed by the police, we ask the same question: ‘Where are those cameras?’ ” Maupin told the newspaper. “How could that many people in the Central City precinct turn up for an incident, including a lieutenant, and nobody has a body camera?”
Phoenix Police Sgt. Tommy Thompson told the Republic that the precinct where the incident took place has since received body cameras, and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said body-cam deployment will be “streamlined” so every precinct will have them by August.
“We hope to have the whole city equipped by August,” Thomspon said.
The family spoke out at a news conference Monday, saying their 4-year-old daughter stole a doll without them knowing about it. Harper, her mother, said her daughter is traumatized by the incident
“I thought something bad was going to happen to me and my children. I thought I was going to be shot, like he told me,” Harper said. “I always taught my daughter to depend on the police. She had to find out herself she cannot depend on the police.”
Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams apologized to the public, telling AZFamily that “this is not not the type of behavior you should see from a Phoenix police officer. Period.”
But the couple said Monday they’re not ready to let it go. Ames said “it feels like it’s a half apology” and the fact that the officers involved are still working as police investigate feels like “a slap in the face.”
Phoenix Law Enforcement Association President Britt London released a statement about the incident Monday:
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“Every day, Phoenix police officers interact with thousands of members of the public in neighborhoods across the city. In each instance, we do our best to protect residents, uphold the law, and keep families and our community safe.
“The vast majority of these interactions go unremarked upon. On occasion, an interaction receives intense scrutiny by the public, the media, the city and the department. That is as it should be — as police officers, each of us must be held accountable under the law. However, accountability first requires the completion of a thorough, fact-based investigation. To hold court using only emotion, without obtaining facts, or ignoring facts, does not benefit our community.”
He said the police union hasn’t yet received the results of an ongoing investigation into the events, and until that is complete, “we are in no position to explain based on our opinion every moment of the video that has ‘gone viral.’ Such guesswork is not fair to our members or the members of the public who were involved in this incident. Moving forward, we hope reason and calm will soon become part of this community conversation.”
Gallego, the mayor, also condemned the actions of the officers.
“I, like many others, am sick over what I have seen in the video depicting Phoenix police interacting with a family and young children. It was completely inappropriate and clearly unprofessional,” Gallego said in a statement. “There is no situation in which this behavior is ever close to acceptable. As a mother myself, seeing these children placed in such a terrifying situation is beyond upsetting.”
She called a community meeting for 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 18, at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church. Williams, the police chief, will be present.
“We owe it to our residents to give them an open forum to discuss their concerns with us and to propose solutions,” Gallego said.
The incident attracted the attention of at least two Democratic candidates for president.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California called the actions by police “indefensible.”
Another Democratic presidential candidate, former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro, said the police actions were “disgraceful.”
“There is no reason to brandish a weapon on an unarmed pregnant mother holding a child,” he said on Twitter.