MIM Notes 208                   April 15, 2000

Report proves ineffectiveness of NYC Citizen Review Board: 
Make community control part of a revolutionary strategy 

by RC316

The New York Civil Liberties Union's (NYCLU) recently released 
a report entitled "Five Years of Civilian Review: A Mandate 
Unfulfilled July 5, 1993 -- July 5, 1998". It details the 
ineffectiveness of the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) 
to the New York Police Department. The report described the 
Board as "an ineffectual agency that has failed to live up to 
the dreams of those who fought for the establishment of an 
independent body to investigate police brutality."(1)

The NYCLU report found that, in the five years studied, only 
about 36% of the 24,300 complaints disposed of by the CCRB 
have been fully investigated and that only about 5% of 
complaints filed are "substantiated," and that, in a low 
estimate, only 1.5% of all complaints disposed of led to 
imposition of discipline.(4) According to the report "in three 
of four cases in which disciplinary action was taken between 
January 1998 and June 1999, the punishment was relatively 
minor, ranging from the loss of vacation days to a 
warning."(1)

While giving the police commissioner a chance to respond to 
the report, the New York Times reporter did not get feedback 
from Review Board members or community activists or from those 
most affected by police brutality: the oppressed nations on 
the streets of New York. Most importantly for our purposes, 
the article left out voices of those who are willing to 
address the questions of why the Board is ineffective and what 
other options there are for those who want to end police 
brutality.

Background

The Civilian Complaint Review Board has operated in its 
current form since 1993, with 13 civilians, all appointed and 
approved by the mayor. The City Council designates a 
representative from each of the five boroughs, while the 
police commissioner himself designates three members.(2) 
Requiring the members of the board to be approved by the pro-
cop state makes even the pretense of overseeing the pigs 
ridiculous. The CCRB deals with a complaint by having its 
investigators attempt to "substantiate" it, and then the board 
can recommend disciplinary action against the cops involved to 
the police Commissioner. The Police Commissioner is not 
obliged to act at all or in a timely manner on the few 
complaints that the review board deems "substantial."

Even at the initial investigation process, the CCRB proves 
itself inadequate. The "Shielded from Justice" report by Human 
Rights Watch describes how many complaints are not fully 
investigated. Some are handled by "conciliation," which is 
just a meeting with the officer involved to explain the 
complaint. Many other cases fall apart because the person with 
the complaint doesn't fully follow through.

In the end the board does not have the power to put the 
officers on trial or dole out punishment, and instead leaves 
it to the police department to determine the "innocence" of 
the officers and to the Commissioner to enact "disciplinary 
measures." This amounts to leaving the punishment of pigs to 
the head pig.

The NYCLU report confirms an important trend in police 
brutality that MIM and RAIL have been educating people about 
for years: "The abuse and injury that follow from police 
misconduct are visited most frequently upon people of color, 
and upon those in the city's low-income communities."(4) The 
Black Panther Party was very vocal in educating and organizing 
around police occupying and spreading terror throughout their 
neighborhoods as an occupying enemy army would another 
country. It is the teachings of the Panthers that we can now 
look back to in asking what we can do to stop this.

How to stop police brutality

Ultimately to curb pig brutality and have accountability in 
this thoroughly corrupt system there would need to be complete 
community control over the police, rather than ineffective 
review boards designed to pacify community activists and 
protect police and state power. While the Black Panther Party 
in its revolutionary years advocated revolutionary national 
liberation, they also developed programs and petitions for 
changes to serve the needs of the people while building 
revolutionary consciousness and support. The following is a 
summary of the BPP's petition statement for community control 
of the police, which was published in [ital] The Black Panther 
[end ital]  on June 14, 1969 (5):

* Have separate police departments for each major community of 
a city: the Black community, the predominantly White area, 
etc..

* Departments will be administered by full-time police 
commissions instead of single police chiefs.

* These Commissioners are to be selected by a Neighborhood 
Police Control Councils composed of a number of members from 
that community elected by those who live there.

* Each Council will have the power to discipline officers, to 
direct their Commissioner to make changes in department wide 
policy (which would be voted in by majority vote of the 
department Commissioners), to fire their appointed 
Commissioner at any time that s/he is no longer responsive to 
the community.

* The community would have the power to recall Council members 
at any time.

* All police officers must live in the community their 
department works for.

This type of program would be much more effective in curbing 
police brutality than existing models that pretend to ask the 
pigs to reform themselves, while giving the pigs no motivation 
to do so and giving the people no power to force change. 

The failed approach of relying on pigs to reform themselves 
goes against everything that the lessons of U$ history and 
power relations teach us, and is further disproved by the 
NYCLU's report. And it is just as wrong to rely on a program 
that is run by people chosen by the pigs and their lackeys, in 
which officers are unduly protected and complaints are almost 
always resolved against the interests of the people.

To really work against police brutality, murder, and all 
around lawlessness under imperialism, we need a program such 
as that advocated by the BPP that would allow for full 
community control of the police departments. In addition other 
Serve the People programs need to be instituted to supplement 
this program, such as a program to watch police in action, a 
program to educate the public on how to respond to police 
brutality and what to do if they victims.

It would be unrealistic and unscientific for us to think that, 
under Amerikan imperialism, with its corrupt government, an 
ideal review board can be won by petitioning local officials. 
Thus, demands for a real accountable police system should only 
be made in the context of a real revolutionary movement, where 
the revolutionary alternative is made clear. That way, 
inevitable defeats in the struggle for reforms do not have to 
lead to disillusionment. And victories along the way only 
strengthen the cause of revolution. What we can and should do 
is work to build revolution to overthrow this corrupt system 
and expand our Serve the People programs on the way to meet 
more of the needs of oppressed peoples. 

Notes: 

1. New York Times Dec. 30, 1999.

2. www.41shots.org ("A website devoted to ending police 
brutality in New York City.")

3. New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board home page: 
www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/ccrb/home.html

4. The NYCLU report is online at: www.nyclu.org/fiveyears.html

5. The Black Panthers Speak, ed. Philip S. Foner, p. 179.