Our response to the arrest of ASU professor Ersula Ore + “Use of Force” review panel?

ASU profesor Ore arrest

We have received a LOT of emails asking about our opinion about the arrest of ASU professor Ersula Ore. We wanted to comment about this situation and also tie it into other issues we’ve previously mentioned on The Integrity Report (to bring the discussion full-circle).

First, we would like to preface this post with the qualifier that none of the writers of the blog were there for the arrest of Ms. Ersula Ore. We have not spoken to the arresting officer nor any other officers involved in this situation; our conclusions come solely from second-hand and media accounts of the situation.

Our blog, The Integrity Report, was created after problems involving accountability and integrity with ASUPD employees began to overshadow the goal of having a safe and secure learning environment. Our mission is to hold officers accountable for their actions which tarnish the oath all of us swore to uphold; we have absolutely NO interest or stake in defending the officer involved in the arrest of Ms. Ore.

That being said, we are pretty perplexed by the statement made by Arizona Critical Ethnic Studies where they state Ms. Ore was racially profiled by ASUPD Officer Ferrin. There was nothing in any part of the initial contact or arrest that was remotely racially based! ACES made the assumption that Ms. Ore was contacted while walking in the City of Tempe only because she was black; what they failed to mention is that Ms. Ore was walking down the middle of the street in a major intersection and the officer contacted her because nearly hit her while responding to a call.

Walking down the middle of the street is behavior that can be indicative of someone in mental distress, under the influence of alcohol/drugs, or possibly suicidal. As first responders, sometimes we don’t have the ability to stop and explain the entire situation with someone if the circumstances are too exigent. This is just common sense! Would you want an officer responding to a burglary call at your house to stop and give you the play by play while the bad guy runs out your back door?

Officer Ferrin reportedly had no intention of citing Ms. Ore for walking in the street (which is against the law!). Ms. Ore repeatedly refused to show her ID multiple times when asked by the responding officer (which she is required to provide under the law). When Officer Ferrin attempted to take Ms. Ore into custody, she began to resist arrest and also attempted to trip the officer by wrapping her leg around him. Once Ms. Ore was taken into custody, the dash cam video clearly shows her kicking Officer Ferrin in the leg.

ACES stated that Ms. Ore’s lower body was exposed during the altercation, but they fail to mention if it occurred while Ms. Ore attempted to trip the officer (something that occurred–her dress flew up–as a result of an action she did–tripping the officer). The fact that Ms. Ore’s lower body was exposed was unfortunate, but certainly not intentional, especially given the fact there were multiple witnesses filming the situation.

If Officer Ferrin was at fault, ASU would throw him under the bus in a heartbeat to preserve their image. Additionally, the officer would be facing administrative punishment or criminal charges, neither of which is occurring at the moment. Is the dash cam video footage shocking? Absolutely. But the untrained observer must realize there is no pretty way to use force on a subject. Unlike the scenarios TV shows and movies portray, there is no “easy” way to take someone into custody that is actively and physically resisting arrest. In this scenario, the force used to affect the arrest certainly appears reasonable given the circumstances of the arrest.

Does ASUPD need a “Use of Force” review panel?

The above scenario involving Officer Ferrin raises the larger issue of reviewing officers’ use of force; are the members of the department that are actually investigating these incidents even qualified to do so? In this circumstance, due to the very sensitive subject matter, ASUPD requested that DPS review Officer Ferrin’s use of force, even after the department found that his use of force was reasonable. DPS undoubtedly has people that are certified defensive tactics instructors that possess the training and experience to review the case with a certain degree of expertise that ASUPD cannot do (We are extremely confident that DPS will also find Officer Ferrin’s use of force was justified, by the way). ASUPD’s Commanders (who would be tasked with an investigation such as this) have NO advanced DT training or certification that would make them qualified to investigate a use of force scenario, period.

How would ASUPD respond to a use of force scenario that was much more muddled than this one (no video or audio)? Or perhaps a scenario in which the responding officer used force, was tried in the court of public opinion, and the university wanted to fire him/her to save face? Better yet, what about an officer who used excessive force and was never reprimanded or investigated? ASUPD’s ability to initiate and investigate use of force scenarios is arbitrary, at best (just like all ASUPD initiated IAs).

The deciding factor in an officer’s fate shouldn’t be left to a supervisor who has little training on the topic of use of force, and who may not be able to review the case without bias due to a preexisting relationship with the officer or external influences. ASUPD should consider establishing a “Use of Force” review panel comprised of DT instructors, some administrators, and possibly a civilian, none of which would have any ties to ASUPD. A review panel is in place at almost every other major law enforcement agency in the valley already! This would serve to vindicate officer’s whose use of force was justified (Officer Ferrin), and punish those who have used excessive force (Corporal Khalid).

 

Edited to add some links to media coverage of this incident:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/30/justice/arizona-jaywalking-arrest/index.html

http://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/tempe/video-officer-throws-arizona-state-university-professor-to-the-ground

http://www.azfamily.com/news/ASU-professor-talks-about-arrest-on-CNN-265267761.html

http://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/7336906-Video-of-police-arresting-ASU-professor-goes-viral/

 http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2014/06/ersula_ore_arrest_to_be_reviewed_by_asu_and_independent_agency_after_video_goes_viral.php

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31 thoughts on “Our response to the arrest of ASU professor Ersula Ore + “Use of Force” review panel?

  1. Ohmy says:

    By no means is this an excuse for her unlawful behavior, but I wonder how much her specific field of study played a role in her resistance to a white male police officer contacting her and giving her orders. In this case this professor studies the practice of lynchings in America.

    You can’t study the systematic murdering and indifference to the suffering of your people and not have strong feelings about it. A subject very moving, depressing, and shocking like the holocaust of Jews or genocide of Native Americans. Strong feelings about something that didn’t happen to you do not give you the right to act out against people who had no part in those heinous acts.

    See it here:
    http://asu.academia.edu/ErsulaOre

    There’s a link on this page that leads you to this:

    https://www.academia.edu/2043450/Visualizing_the_Citizen_Lynching_Photography_and_the_Construction_of_Civic_Personhood

    If professor Ore can’t separate her field of study from her personal life that’s a problem. She seems to have projected her hatred for racism against blacks into resisting and acting out against a white officer. That’s unfortunate. It’s important to understand how hatred, racism, bigotry of all kinds come about without becoming bigots ourselves.

  2. DL500unit says:

    The news media has been all over the place on this. The news media is full of people who were never cops. The fact is cops ride around looking for violations of law, officers contact people for minor things all the time.

    Typically we give warnings and minor traffic tickets. That’s what would have happened to professor Ore if she wasn’t making an ass out of herself, complied with giving her I’D, and used her English professor skills to just talk it over.

    In this case you have a supposedly educated college professor refusing to cooperate at all with the officer on a legal contact. She uses her title as a podium to demand special treatment and gets the same treatment any pedestrian should expect when you break the law, are caught by the police, and fail to cooperate.

    If she used the cross walk and walked when it bleeped and said “walk” then this never would have happened. We have a black officer, Corporal Luqman Khalid, who took out his tazer and tazed a white male prisoner in handcuffs four times while in the presence of Officer Joe Montgomery.

    No internal affair was done, no use of force, Chief John L Pickens just made it go away because he’s a dirty corrupt chief. Any protest from his assistant chiefs or commanders involved? Anyone who looked the other way should be ashamed of themselves , fucking fired, and have their peace officer certifications pulled.

  3. indeedYOUsay says:

    I looked at some of her interviews with the news as this so called professor is trying to ride the media wave right out of the toilet bowl. Look at the video and count the signs of deception. Only seasoned investigators see this many signs of deception in a short period of time.

    If you behave like a criminal with something to hide, refuse lawful orders, then you have to expect to get treated like a criminal. Something as simple as providing I’D, name/date of birth would have prevented this whole event.

  4. PAs FTW says:

    I like how the unarmed CIVILIAN employee is the first to respond to the scene. Officer Janda doesn’t roll in until this woman is already in custody. That says EVERYTHING about the state of ASUPD’s officer staffing levels!!

    • guerriero says:

      It’s summer, nights, streets are dead, nobody is here. Anywhere is less than five minutes away with or without catching lights.

  5. DontLOLmeJP says:

    Every person who cries brutality, racism, etc and lies about it to gain sympathy for something they did wrong robs the true victims who are not taking seriously when these things really happen to them.

    Right now professor Ore is fighting for her job, reputation, and hopefully when this over she has neither. Her actions brought about the contact, her actions brought about the arrest, and her actions to resist arrest brought about the takedown, the dress flip, and the kick to Officer Ferrin.

    Maybe Professor Ore can find it in herself to apologize, attend counseling, and do community service to get off the crazy train.

  6. Quick call Tempe! says:

    “ASU authorities have reviewed the circumstances surrounding the arrest and have found no evidence of inappropriate actions by the ASUPD officers involved.”

    Ok, the ASU professor is an ASU employee so where are the ASU authorities to review the situation and find if the professor committed inappropriate actions!?!

    They have moved plenty fast to rush to judgement on the officer with no judgement on the professor. Nice double standard, sounds like the work of Kevin Salcido.

    • guerriero says:

      The police department is filled with red headed step children right now, the mad man in HR and university management aren’t very happy with the blog publicity. Who would have thought free speach would be so upsetting to Americans? They finally identified the chief as one of the key problems facing the department. Too little too late.

  7. guerriero says:

    Ore keeps jumping in front of news cameras making an fool out of herself and proving the original argument. If she would have complied with the law she wouldn’t have been subject to it.

    Now an agitator at the Sun Devil Wellsfargo riot comes out acting as if he was a victim. Neither party takes responsibility for what they did and out of millions of law abiding people who are never contacted by police lightning struck twice just for them.

    • Justanotherdispensible50 says:

      They are both “special” people who demand respect without giving any. Maybe they can go work under our chief in his new bullshit job where that attitude will be encouraged and protected.

      His two accusers are guilty, feel they deserve special treatment, and I look forward to her felony conviction. She has no respect for the law but she wants to teach our kids? To hell with that counter culture crap.

  8. Justanotherdispensible50 says:

    Even though he did nothing wrong…why do I get the feeling our PD administration would sacrifice Ferrin’s career to cover their own asses? Their track record perhaps?

    Stewart is a good guy, he’s a new officer, has a strong work ethic, but he’s outside the good old boy protection racket. He’s in the stage some new officers go through the investigate quantity over quality because they don’t have the skill set to identity quality contacts.

    Our command must be scrambling to placate everyone they can in a endless series of meetings where they tell nobody no. The chief has a way out of the roach hotel, the rest of them don’t. What are they going to do? Work patrol someplace else, they ran away from working the road here.

    A word of advice Stewart, you need to be careful with our administration. Bring a tape recorder to every meeting and set it out on the table. Nobody trusts our command because they have done everything in their power to lose that trust.

  9. Jason D. Bostick says:

    This is more of a question than a comment. Following the link to the state code regarding “showing identification” cited above, it appears to state that a person lawfully detained is required to state his or her full legal name, and no more. If so, why did this officer ask to see her driver’s license instead of asking for her full name?

    • theintegrityreport says:

      That is a great question sir. There are several different answers in the scenario; given the fact again that we haven’t seen the report or know the exact statutes Ore was cited for, our answers are based on speculation.

      1) The officer COULD have cited her for 28-1595C which states “A person other than the driver of a motor vehicle who fails or refuses to provide evidence of the person’s identity to a peace officer or a duly authorized agent of a traffic enforcement agency on request, when such officer or agent has reasonable cause to believe the person has committed a violation of this title, is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor”. The definition of “a person other than the driver of a motor vehicle” could mean a passenger, but it could possibly be a pedestrian. We don’t know in this case.

      2) The officer could have misspoken. IF the professor was cited for the statute we linked, then yes, he should have asked her for “her full legal name”. Sometimes it is less confusing to the person being contacted (and easier to get the correct name) to ask for ID. Could Officer Ferrin have followed up the question with a request for Ore to provide “her full legal name”? Yes, but at that point, the situation was already escalating.

      3) The officer could have been issuing her a citation (cite in lieu of detention) for obstruction of a public thoroughfare. In that case, he would need her descriptive information, address, etc.

      Again, this circumstance could have played its self out in a thousand different ways; we don’t know the specifics so we can merely speculate.

    • Getitright says:

      Jason, you should really look at the rest if this site to get a clear inside view of this department is at now. The inmates took over the asylum. Most of us wouldn’t bother pressing the issue to this degree and he has only been on for a year.

      When I look back at the officers who trained this officer on nights they have been doing the same shit for years to include numerous issues with search and seizure.

  10. ComeOnNow4real says:

    Recently there has been a lot of media attention given to the arrest and charges filed against ASU Professor, Ersula Ore. It’s reached the point where according to an email issued today by the departing ASUPD Chief Pickens, “At the request of ASUPD, the FBI has agreed to review the Ore stop and arrest to determine if there were any civil rights violations.” Knowing Pickens and his command to be very prideful, vain, and willing to stretch the truth or ignore it entirely this translates to the Federal Bureau of Investigation told the insignificant obscure state agency of ASUPD it’s coming, ready or not, to do an investigation. You may wish to investigate issues concerning this officer’s primary supervisor, Sergeant Mark Aston, for the year he has been on the road since graduating the academy. You will find plenty of racial issues there!

    F.B.I. we are glad you’re coming to ASUPD, there’s more to investigate!

    Excessive Use of Force/Assault by ASU Police Officers:
    Take for example a case where a current ASU Police supervisor, friends with the current ASUPD chief who is being removed, assaulted a subject in handcuffs in front of another officer four times.

    Corporal Luke Khalid and Officer Joe Montgomery were making an arrest of suspect “R”. Suspect “R” was in handcuffs. While in hand cuffs Corporal Luke Khalid tased Suspect “R” four times and committed the crime of aggravated assault, four counts. From the start this issue was crafted to go away and no Internal Affair Investigation or review of the use of force was done. The Taser also keeps an electronic record of the event in memory.

    Keep in mind the ASU Police Department has a long history of initiating Internal Affairs for the most frivolous of issues, such as an officer not submitting a time card on time. This IA was initiated by Corporal Katie Fuchtman against then Officer Richardson who soon thereafter left the department for an officer position elsewhere. The IA stated Officer Richardson has violated the following Policies: SPP 801 Conduct (Failure to maintain prescribed records) and PSM 221-01 Accurately Report hours worked. As you can see the threshold for doing an Internal Affair Investigation at ASU Police is very low, but only applies to a specific group of people not protected by the command structure in power.

    The Integrity Report on the ASU Police Department broke the story on the Taser cover-up, but did not have all the details. In response to the publicity, months after the initial incident, Chief Pickens charged former Commander Kevin Williams with doing what they call “an informal review” where no IA number is started and they can administratively make an issue go away. Williams conducted the review and never interviewed Officer Joe Montgomery. No IA was ever done. Shortly afterwards Kevin Williams left ASU Police to become Chief of Police for the University Of Michigan Dearborn. http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2014/06/23/news/doc53a828952114c794534774.txt

    The Integrity Report on the ASU Police Department has some information on this:
    https://network23.org/theintegrityreport/2013/11/20/excessive-use-of-force-cases-who-watches-the-watchmen/

    More information can be found here:
    ASU Police Report Number (DR#13-81650)

    Arresting Officer, Corporal Luqman “Luke” Khalid

    Suspect “R”, tased four times while in hand cuffs.

    Issues of racial biased policing by ASU Police Officers:
    When it comes to charges of racism, racial biased profiling within the department those are nothing new either. Although the chief is African American he has covered for members under his command to keep questionable biased contact issues from coming to light and hurting his career. Do a freedom of information act request for the discipline files, especial the Internal Affairs, for ASU Police Sergeant Mark Aston. Look at how many of Sergeant Mark Aston’s field contacts and arrests were African American. Look at the complaint of former ASUPD officer Ray Kizee, where Sgt. Mark Aston said, “Nigger Please.” Kizee was run out of the department on FTO like many officers have been, probably in an attempt to protect Sgt. Aston.

    Do a FOIA for the complete IA and recordings of Sgt M. Aston’s discipline file, check ASUPD Internal Affair Investigation Number 1302-07, the Allegation of racial profiling against Mark Aston. Supposedly Chief Pickens contacted the Maricopa head of the NAACP, Reverend Tillman, to head off any complaint by the complainant and Sgt. Aston’s closest friends within the PD were interviewed to protect him as character witnesses.
    Clearly Sergeant Aston is a protected member under the current command at ASUPD. Sergeant Aston was the topic of “guest writer A.I.” here: https://network23.org/theintegrityreport/2013/12/01/internal-affairs-spotlight-a-look-at-the-numbers/

    Sergeant Mark Aston
    ACTUAL IA: Was accused of racial bias from a citizen. Although, he was cleared this time look at the majority of people he has targeted with IAs or bullshit write ups: Ray Kizee, Damion White, Matt Parker, Tony Momon, Luke Khalid, Rudy Freese (anyone noticing a “racial” pattern here).

    Interview Ray Kizee, Damion White, Matt Parker, Tony Momon, Luke Khalid, and Rudy Freese. Coincidently all but Tony Momon and Luke Khalid are former employees and they worked at getting rid of Momon but thankfully have been unsuccessful because he is an honorable officer. The same can’t be said for Khalid.

    Sergeant Aston is also the topic of poster “Yallmomsboyfriend” on http://www.indeed.com/forum/cmp/Arizona-State-University/Arizona-State-University-Police-Department-Review-employee/t471607

    On the same forum the poster,”311” talks about a incident involving this individual here, “When a supervisor of police officers thinks it’s OK to chase another supervisor around a police station holding his own excrement and NO internal affair comes of it AND everyone knows about it?!?” In this case Sergeant Mark Aston chased Commander Lou Scichilone around the police station at 325 E Apache holding his excrement in a glove. Brilliant leadership!

    Federal Bureau of Investigation, does anything here fit the investigation you are doing concerning violations of civil rights, racial profiling, and other issues? To be quite frank we the majority of employees of ASUPD, past and present, are sick of what has been tolerated at the Arizona State University Police Department because it runs contrary to the oaths we took as police officers of this state and nation. We have a lack of confidence in the state to investigate the state on these issues because there is a lack of transparency between ASUPD and AZDPS due to the extensive overtime the former gives the latter at football games, the influence of ABOR on state issues, and others.

    We hope your investigation will get to the root causes of suspected excessive force and racism at ASUPD, the corrupt negative supervision who will do an IA for a late timecard, but not one for an officer who assaults a prisoner. We only ask for justice, that you hold the oath breakers responsible.

    • yurhuckleberry says:

      Somebody did their homework! This is excellent. However without a formal complaint I doubt they will initiate anything beyond the initial complaint. Who knows?

    • WheresMy907 says:

      This is outstanding!!!!! Nice job Serpico.

    • Getitright says:

      You just dropped a giant bag of dicks on command and deserve an award worth more than all the engraved plexiglass turds these animals have been handing out like candy for years.

      With their management style I am confident they will know what to do with them!

      I bet they are making every excuse in the book to downplay and divert attention from this. Too late. The fucking shell game is over and it’s time to pay the piper.

    • BurningheapofFail says:

      Well that’s a ton of bricks. Nice.

    • Supervisor Facepalm says:

      Good work. Maybe something will get done about this before it goes viral in the news. The shredders on the third floor are probably overheating since this release.

    • DontLOLmeJP says:

      This is amazing. You called them out with details providing them a detailed roadmap, blueprint, x-ray of ASUPD command differing standards of discipline, non-existent ethics, and classic corruption. Anyone responsible for this mess needs to be held accountable and at least have their certifications revoked if not charged with a crime. AZPOST has done it for less, what makes these chuds so special?

  11. […] notifying them at ASUPD has requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate the allegations that Ursula Ore had her civil rights violated by Officer Ferrin. This is not surprising to any PD employee, because the issue of racially profiling was already […]

  12. yurhuckleberry says:

    Officer Ferrin didn’t do anything technically wrong in this contact. If he had a better working knowledge of control and compliance holds and takedowns this would have looked much more smooth, but he’s new and deserves a break.

    Verbal judo can go a long way to gain compliance and work things out. Clearly Ore had no desire to work things out or comply and that’s all too clear on the video. Now this whole dramatic mess has grown out of proportion to what really happened.

    • WheresMy907 says:

      I don’t know about what you mean by “technically”. The primary concern is safety, is she drunk or high and going to get hit by a car? No? Then let it go with a warning. I have seen so many fellow officers come off hard and have nowhere to go because they committed to the stick over the carrot/ vinegar over honey routine.

      Did she commit a crime? If she was a possible suspect this whole thing would make sense. Then you get that identification via card or name and date of birth/lic. state asap.

      The fact she was simply crossing a road is chicken shit. Almost got hit by the car…ok, but did she get hit? No. So much of what goes on at the university is chicken shit and new officers would do well to recognize it otherwise they get caught up in this mess. I think everyone can agree this is a total waste of time and money for what now?

      Guess what, whether right or wrong people will say to us fuck you, I don’t want to talk to you and walk away. Is it contempt for you? No. They don’t know you, they just see the uniform.

      If they are that much of an activist you are getting baited into over reacting. An experienced officer, more often than not, will engage them in consensual conversation and elicit an apology from them in less than five minutes because the contact realizes they are dealing with a good guy. Instead of community outrage you have community policing.

    • BurningheapofFail says:

      I’m guessing by “technically” this refers to letter of the law rather than spirit of the law. It’s important to know the difference otherwise you’re going to have problems.

  13. yurhuckleberry says:

    The entire focus of the university appears to be on the officer. You mean to tell me they can’t look at the video and make an informed decision about her actions? They get after ASU police employees for the slightest of non-issues, so we will see what happens with this.

    • WheresMy907 says:

      You are right, the university hasn’t issued one statement about the professor being looked into, but releases information about the investigation and admin leave of the officer as the professor runs around to every news organization trying to paint herself innocent while painting him as a villain. Bullshit. Does the university want someone who is confrontational and combative with law enforcement instructing here?

  14. Getitright says:

    Would it have been that hard for her to go fine, here’s my is, license, name and dob? If she didn’t like the approach, how she was treated, she could have asked to speak with a supervisor and take it from there.

    Instead her sense of entitlement and pride overwhelmed her judgement. I hate to say this but honestly I see our guy in the same light. This should have been handled differently.

    She should have handled it differently as well. She could have filed a written formal complaint at the station. After reviewing her course of study in English, how it’s focus is on the rascist hate and murder of blacks I’m not surprised at her attitude and resistance,. I’m disappointed. Both parties escalated this encounter and made it a situation.

    • Headsup says:

      It is too hard to her to go fine, here’s my id, license, name and dob! It’s too hard to cooperate in any way when you are a “reverse racist” whose study of racism didn’t make you a better person, it just made you another racist.

      If she didn’t like how she was being treated she could have asked for his boss instead of fighting “the man” in the street. Then she could have avoided screaming, “Respect for meeee!”

  15. ComeOnNow4real says:

    Integrity Report, Thank you for using the information I provided. I want to make sure this doesn’t get overlooked by comments, so I’m posting again. Please don’t delete.

    Recently there has been a lot of media attention given to the arrest and charges filed against ASU Professor, Ersula Ore. It’s reached the point where according to an email issued today by the departing ASUPD Chief Pickens, “At the request of ASUPD, the FBI has agreed to review the Ore stop and arrest to determine if there were any civil rights violations.” Knowing Pickens and his command to be very prideful, vain, and willing to stretch the truth or ignore it entirely this translates to the Federal Bureau of Investigation told the insignificant obscure state agency of ASUPD it’s coming, ready or not, to do an investigation. You may wish to investigate issues concerning this officer’s primary supervisor, Sergeant Mark Aston, for the year he has been on the road since graduating the academy. You will find plenty of racial issues there!

    F.B.I. we are glad you’re coming to ASUPD, there’s more to investigate!

    Excessive Use of Force/Assault by ASU Police Officers:
    Take for example a case where a current ASU Police supervisor, friends with the current ASUPD chief who is being removed, assaulted a subject in handcuffs in front of another officer four times.

    Corporal Luke Khalid and Officer Joe Montgomery were making an arrest of suspect “R”. Suspect “R” was in handcuffs. While in hand cuffs Corporal Luke Khalid tased Suspect “R” four times and committed the crime of aggravated assault, four counts. From the start this issue was crafted to go away and no Internal Affair Investigation or review of the use of force was done. The Taser also keeps an electronic record of the event in memory.

    Keep in mind the ASU Police Department has a long history of initiating Internal Affairs for the most frivolous of issues, such as an officer not submitting a time card on time. This IA was initiated by Corporal Katie Fuchtman against then Officer Richardson who soon thereafter left the department for an officer position elsewhere. The IA stated Officer Richardson has violated the following Policies: SPP 801 Conduct (Failure to maintain prescribed records) and PSM 221-01 Accurately Report hours worked. As you can see the threshold for doing an Internal Affair Investigation at ASU Police is very low, but only applies to a specific group of people not protected by the command structure in power.

    The Integrity Report on the ASU Police Department broke the story on the Taser cover-up, but did not have all the details. In response to the publicity, months after the initial incident, Chief Pickens charged former Commander Kevin Williams with doing what they call “an informal review” where no IA number is started and they can administratively make an issue go away. Williams conducted the review and never interviewed Officer Joe Montgomery. No IA was ever done. Shortly afterwards Kevin Williams left ASU Police to become Chief of Police for the University Of Michigan Dearborn. http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2014/06/23/news/doc53a828952114c794534774.txt

    The Integrity Report on the ASU Police Department has some information on this:
    https://network23.org/theintegrityreport/2013/11/20/excessive-use-of-force-cases-who-watches-the-watchmen/

    More information can be found here:
    ASU Police Report Number (DR#13-81650)

    Arresting Officer, Corporal Luqman “Luke” Khalid

    Suspect “R”, tased four times while in hand cuffs.

    Issues of racial biased policing by ASU Police Officers:
    When it comes to charges of racism, racial biased profiling within the department those are nothing new either. Although the chief is African American he has covered for members under his command to keep questionable biased contact issues from coming to light and hurting his career. Do a freedom of information act request for the discipline files, especial the Internal Affairs, for ASU Police Sergeant Mark Aston. Look at how many of Sergeant Mark Aston’s field contacts and arrests were African American. Look at the complaint of former ASUPD officer Ray Kizee, where Sgt. Mark Aston said, “Nigger Please.” Kizee was run out of the department on FTO like many officers have been, probably in an attempt to protect Sgt. Aston.

    Do a FOIA for the complete IA and recordings of Sgt M. Aston’s discipline file, check ASUPD Internal Affair Investigation Number 1302-07, the Allegation of racial profiling against Mark Aston. Supposedly Chief Pickens contacted the Maricopa head of the NAACP, Reverend Tillman, to head off any complaint by the complainant and Sgt. Aston’s closest friends within the PD were interviewed to protect him as character witnesses.
    Clearly Sergeant Aston is a protected member under the current command at ASUPD. Sergeant Aston was the topic of “guest writer A.I.” here: https://network23.org/theintegrityreport/2013/12/01/internal-affairs-spotlight-a-look-at-the-numbers/

    Sergeant Mark Aston
    ACTUAL IA: Was accused of racial bias from a citizen. Although, he was cleared this time look at the majority of people he has targeted with IAs or bullshit write ups: Ray Kizee, Damion White, Matt Parker, Tony Momon, Luke Khalid, Rudy Freese (anyone noticing a “racial” pattern here).

    Interview Ray Kizee, Damion White, Matt Parker, Tony Momon, Luke Khalid, and Rudy Freese. Coincidently all but Tony Momon and Luke Khalid are former employees and they worked at getting rid of Momon but thankfully have been unsuccessful because he is an honorable officer. The same can’t be said for Khalid.

    Sergeant Aston is also the topic of poster “Yallmomsboyfriend” on http://www.indeed.com/forum/cmp/Arizona-State-University/Arizona-State-University-Police-Department-Review-employee/t471607

    On the same forum the poster,”311” talks about a incident involving this individual here, “When a supervisor of police officers thinks it’s OK to chase another supervisor around a police station holding his own excrement and NO internal affair comes of it AND everyone knows about it?!?” In this case Sergeant Mark Aston chased Commander Lou Scichilone around the police station at 325 E Apache holding his excrement in a glove. Brilliant leadership!

    Federal Bureau of Investigation, does anything here fit the investigation you are doing concerning violations of civil rights, racial profiling, and other issues? To be quite frank we the majority of employees of ASUPD, past and present, are sick of what has been tolerated at the Arizona State University Police Department because it runs contrary to the oaths we took as police officers of this state and nation. We have a lack of confidence in the state to investigate the state on these issues because there is a lack of transparency between ASUPD and AZDPS due to the extensive overtime the former gives the latter at football games, the influence of ABOR on state issues, and others.

    We hope your investigation will get to the root causes of suspected excessive force and racism at ASUPD, the corrupt negative supervision who will do an IA for a late timecard, but not one for an officer who assaults a prisoner. We only ask for justice, that you hold the oath breakers responsible.

  16. Judge rules against ASU Police in second controversial arrest case says:

    It looks like there are more examples of shitty training and supervision going on at the ASU police department!

    http://www.azfamily.com/news/Judge-rules-against-ASU-Police-in-second-controversial-arrest-case-266150931.html

    Better have a pink slip party, the lawsuits and bad publicity is stacking up!

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