Why the feds came down on Phoenix Police

The real people in the DOJ report ... If you dig, it's not a Flat ... And you may kiss the groom (after he tweets).

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department released its findings that Phoenix’s Police Department disproportionately targeted people of color and used systematic violence.

It was the culmination of a three-year federal investigation that relied on city staff interviews, thousands of documents and thousands of hours of body-worn camera footage to detail how police deprive people of their constitutional rights.

The DOJ said Phoenix Police engaged in discriminatory policing, violated the civil rights of Black, Latino and Native American residents and routinely used excessive force. They found officers engaged in aggressive treatment of children and unlawfully arrested people experiencing homelessness and mental health crises.

Among many examples, the DOJ pointed to police unduly arresting a homeless man and waiting nine minutes to see if a woman they shot at 10 times was alive.

Less than a year later, those findings were undone by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division under President Donald Trump.

Trump's DOJ announced last week that it’s dismissing its findings against and investigation into Phoenix Police and seven other police departments nationwide that used similarly unconstitutional policing practices.

Rescinding the report means Phoenix won’t have to enter a consent decree, which many city leaders pushed back against because it would subject the city to expensive, independent federal monitoring. Phoenix officials and the Phoenix police union, which denied the report findings, said the financial burden wouldn’t be worth it.

The Phoenix Police Department can regulate itself, some argued. Phoenix made an interactive webpage linking to events in the DOJ report, and the City Council put money toward positions and departments to monitor reform efforts. Those efforts have their own set of issues.

While the DOJ rescinded its findings against Phoenix PD, they’re still widely available online.

So today, we’re looking back on what the DOJ found before Trump took over. Because while the Trump administration is happy to whitewash PPD's history of abuses — and similar abuses by police departments across the nation — it's important to remember why the DOJ was investigating them in the first place.

There are about 132 events the DOJ uses to support its claims against PPD. Those stories explain its scathing findings.

Warning: The body camera footage in these incidents is extremely disturbing.

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Finding: Unreasonable Deadly Force

To compile its report, the DOJ reviewed every case of a PPD officer shooting someone from January 2019 to December 2022.

PPD has one of the highest rates of annual fatal shootings among big city police departments, the DOJ found.

“Officers use unreasonable force to rapidly dominate encounters, often within the first few moments of an encounter,” the report says.

Page 15 of the DOJ report.

Matthew Begay

Police shot and killed 22-year-old Matthew Begay at a behavioral health group home in July 2022 after he pulled out a pocketknife and told officers he wanted to die.

Begay began walking down a flight of stairs toward the officers, and after attempts to subdue him didn’t work, Officer Victor Salas shot him three times.

“Because the man was not physically aggressive, told officers he wanted to die, and never threatened the officers, the shooting was unreasonable,” the DOJ report says.

An administrative review from PPD found the killing was “within policy, but training or performance issue identified.” The Maricopa County Attorney's Office declined to prosecute Salas.

Ali Mukhtar Osman

In September 2022, police asked for backup with less-lethal options to respond to 34-year-old Ali Mukhtar Osman throwing rocks at their patrol vehicle.

But the officers didn’t wait for backup to arrive.

Instead, officers drove back toward Osman as he continued to throw rocks at them. Two officers — Jesse Johnson and Brennan Olachea — fired four shots at Osman and killed him, per the DOJ report.

Phoenix’s PD’s “Critical Incident Briefing” of the shooting spends a lot of time noting the damage a police patrol car sustained from the rocks. The video even shows pictures of each rock labeled with its respective weight in ounces.

Phoenix’s use of force report shows Osman sustained one gunshot wound and 19 abrasions.

PPD fired Johnson. The City of Phoenix agreed to pay Osman’s family $5.5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.

Helen Jones

Phoenix Police killed Helen Jones in December 2020 after shooting her 10 times and waiting more than nine minutes to approach her.

Officers approached Jones in a strip mall parking lot, and she wouldn’t lift the right side of her shirt when police tried to check her for weapons. Jones backed away and at one point said, ”if you touch me, I'm going to kill myself.” She pulled out a gun, and two officers shot her.

After Jones fell, officers didn’t immediately try to find out if she was conscious, and “about six minutes after the shooting, with at least six officers watching the woman, one officer said that the woman appeared to be still breathing, but not moving,” the DOJ report says.

Officers unsuccessfully tried life-saving measures on Jones nine minutes later.

Phoenix’s Professional Standards Bureau said Officers Austin Stephenson and Morgan Traylor shot at Jones seven and three times, respectively, while Officer Andrew Rusnac fired two rounds from a stun bag shotgun.

The Critical Incident Review Board said the shooting was “in accordance with the Department's policy.”

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Finding: Violating the Rights of People Experiencing Homelessness

Federal investigators found that PPD violates homeless people’s rights in two main ways: by arresting people without reasonable suspicion that they committed a crime and by destroying property without adequate notice.

Even though homeless residents make up less than 1% of Phoenix’s population, they accounted for 37% of all misdemeanor arrests and citations from 2016 to 2022, per the report.

“The Phoenix City Code broadly prohibits ‘obstruction or interference’ of public property, and obstruction of a sidewalk or alley means the person’s presence impedes traffic. But we often saw officers stop unhoused people who were not obstructing anyone’s access and were sometimes even taking care to stay out of the way,” the DOJ report says.

Aaron Jackson

In February 2020, officers arrested Aaron Jackson, who they said was panhandling on the side of a QuikTrip. He told officers he didn’t do anything wrong and resisted arrest.

Officers forced Jackson to the ground, knelt on his neck and tased him, per the DOJ report. (PPD banned neck restraints in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, but the DOJ found police still use them.)

PPD’s Professional Standards Bureau unit sustained allegations that Officer Tyler Luna arrested Jackson without probable cause, but not that police used excessive force.

James Komorny

James Komorny was arrested and cited several times for sleeping on public property while he was homeless, per the report. Police arrested him for trespassing in June 2017, for example, after they found him sleeping in a park at 4:25 a.m.

Police again found Komorny sleeping upright in a canal in February 2021. They told him to move through a dark area, and he tripped and fell. He was 69 at the time.

“Is there no end to the harassment of the homeless?” Komorny asked the officers.

“Is there no end to the trespassing?” an officer replied as another laughed.

After police cited him for trespassing, Komorny asked if he could go back and get his stuff.

“Get your trash,” one officer replied.

Ronald Green

Police cited a 56-year-old man for failing to move his property quickly enough during an April 2020 cleanup. Officers charged Ronald Green with shoplifting because he had two Shamrocks Farms-branded milk crates.

After police told people in the area to leave and pack up their stuff, the man remained in his tent and told police he was trying to move as fast as he could. He insisted he didn’t steal the milk crates — someone donated them to him.

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Finding: Discriminating Against People of Color

The DOJ said it has “reasonable cause” to believe PPD treats people of color differently. Police focus on low-level, quality-of-life-based offenses that show “stark disparities in how officers treat Black, Hispanic, and Native American people,” the report says.

Federal investigators found that while Black people comprise 7% of Phoenix’s population, they’re cited or arrested for traffic equipment-related offenses three times as often as white people. Hispanic people are also disproportionately arrested for low-level offenses.

Page 60 of the DOJ report.

Jermaine Doss

A Phoenix Police investigator dismissed a man’s claims that he was racially targeted and told him, “If you break the law, then there’s no racial profiling,” the DOJ found.

Jermaine Doss was arrested for obstructing a thoroughfare in November 2021 and called the Professional Standards Bureau about two months later to report he was arrested “because he was told he fit the description of a subject who assaulted two juveniles,” per the PSB report.

Doss said he lost his dog because of the arrest.

That PSB report also confirms that a sergeant recognized the man’s “resemblance to an unidentified aggravated assault suspect.”

Dravon Ames and his family

PPD pulled over a Black family in May 2019 who they suspected of shoplifting. Police held the family at gunpoint, shouted profanities at them and tried to remove a one-year-old from a mother’s arms.

The video of the encounter went viral. Officer Christopher Meyer swept Dravon Ames’ legs from under him while he was handcuffed and threatened to "put a fuckinging cap in (his) fucking head” in front of his kids.

Meyer left a lot out in his version of events and was fired from the department, despite several appeals. Phoenix settled a civil rights lawsuit with the family for $475,000.

Phoenix Police employees

Former Assistant Chief Steve Martos used a racial slur to refer to a recently promoted commander in 2021. Former Executive Assistant Chief Michael Kurtenbach (who was second in command of the entire agency) heard the comment but didn’t report it, per the DOJ report.

Phoenix’s Equal Opportunity Department substantiated the claims, then shut the investigation down and revised the claims to “unsubstantiated” after the city made an agreement with Kurtenbach, where he agreed to retire and not sue the city, ABC15 reported last year.

Martos remains a commander in the agency.

In about three weeks, voters will start casting ballots to pick their replacement for Democratic U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva in Southern Arizona’s Congressional District 7.

And while we say “Southern Arizona’s” CD7, the district is actually quite sprawling. If you live in the West Valley — including Tolleson, Avondale or Goodyear — there’s a good chance it’s your district too.

Didn’t know that fun fact? Well, you should tune into today’s Tucson Agenda, where Joe is doing a Stephen Colbert-inspired “Better Know a District” explainer.

We wrote a political primer to the candidates a few weeks back, but the Tucson Agenda has been watchdogging the race, including landing a sit-down on Tuesday with dark horse candidate Deja Foxx.

And yesterday, the five Democratic candidates met for their first televised debate.

Subscribe to Tucson Agenda for more.

Oak Hole: The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a case attempting to stop Resolution Copper from building a massive mine in Oak Flat, which is sacred to the Apache and other Indigenous people, the Arizona Mirror’s Shondiin Silversmith reports. That’s the end of the road for Apache Stronghold, the group that has spent the last decade fighting to preserve the site near the Tonto National Forest. Justices were split on whether to take up the case, with Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas arguing the decision was a mistake.

“Before allowing the government to destroy the Apaches’ sacred site, this Court should at least have troubled itself to hear their case,” Gorsuch wrote, adding that the consequences of the decision “threaten to reverberate for generations.”

Her?: Politico declares Gov. Katie Hobbs would make a good member of the “shadow cabinet” Democrats should create to counter President Donald Trump. Politico was riffing off an idea by Democratic U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who argued Democrats need to stop being “weak and woke,” to “fucking retake the flag” and adopt “the goddamn Alpha energy.” Into this vision of the party, Politico slots Hobbs as the “Shadow Secretary of Education” because she has battled Republicans on vouchers and anti DEI measures.

“With the Trump administration waging war on both K-12 public education and higher education, Hobbs can show the on-the-ground impact of the GOP’s education agenda,” Politico writes.

Cheap cellos destroy palates: A wealthy Gilbert family attempted to spend their school voucher on a $16,000 cello, 12News’ Craig Harris reports. Other families tried to spend ESAs on a $24,000 golf simulator, a $5,000 Rolex and a vasectomy testing kit before Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne caught it and stopped them. Harris stopped by the home of the cello parents (who ultimately put their kid back in public school) and asked them what’s up.

“Certainly there’s cheaper, like a $2,000 or even $500 cello out there in the market,” the parent said. “But that will not help my son at all — it will even damage or destroy his musical palate.”

Buy us a cello!

(Don’t) let it burn: After burning about 20,000 acres of northeastern Arizona, the Greer Fire is finally contained, as is the Corral Fire, which burned 200 acres near Flagstaff, and the Cortaro Fire that burned about 100 acres in Marana. The Cody Fire is still burning near Oracle, but it’s 90% contained after burning about 1,200 acres, per the Republic’s fire team, John Leos and Rey Covarrubias Jr.

We love a cheat sheet: Getting lost on which of Hobbs’ appointees have been confirmed and which haven’t? The Republic’s Stacey Barchenger has you covered with this handy rundown.

Climate change?: Saguaros around Southern Arizona are once again working overtime — producing more flowers than usual and in more “side-blooms” on the cactus. The bumper crop of saguaro blooms also happened in 2021, the Daily Star’s Henry Brean reports, and scientists are still stumped about why it’s happening.

We’re offering a 25% discount on paid subscriptions for this short Memorial Day workweek.

And as a little inspiration for you to subscribe, we’re paying our respects to our favorite local newspapers, blogs or media outlets that have gone under.

Sadly, it was super easy to come up with a list. There are more great, recently deceased news organizations in this state than there are days in a short workweek.

Today’s 40oz of malt liquor is getting poured out for The Guardian.

The Guardian was born after the East Valley Tribune gutted its newsroom and fired a bunch of reporters, including Paul Giblin, who was laid off just before learning he won a Pulitzer for his coverage of Joe Arpaio’s racial profiling and immigration sweeps.

And he wasn’t the only pro — Dennis Welch (now seen on TV via AZFamily) was part of the founding staff, as well as longtime Valley journos Patti Epler and Mary K. Reinhart.

It was a fantastic local news service hyper-focused on the state Capitol, government and politics. But after a few years, it folded, meaning fewer eyes on the state Capitol, fewer stories being told and fewer issues getting the attention they deserve.

Anyway… to keep this news organization from going under, here’s the button.

Mazel tov!

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes apparently got married over the weekend to Nicole Wheatcroft, a CPA and former CFO for the Casa Grande Elementary School District.

We weren’t invited. But we feel less bad about that after learning that only their kids were there — and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, who officiated the ceremony at Phoenix City Hall.

They look like a happy couple and we wish them the best.

So why are we laughing?

Well, in true Fontes fashion, he seemingly alerted the press before telling his broader family and friend circle.

“Announcements to friends and family are forthcoming,” the press release we received yesterday reads.