PHOENIX (AP) – The case of a homeless black Muslim man who died while being held by officials after attempting to carry his tiny service dog into a public toilet may have helped the U.S. Department of Justice this week has launched a full civil rights investigation into the Phoenix Police Department, says his family and their lawyer. Mussallima Muhayim said her brother Muhammad Abdul Muhaymin Jr.’s teenage daughter wrote to President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this year, asking for an investigation into her father’s death in January 2017. “I’m glad you got this and that View department as a whole, ”said Mussallima Muhayim, who has since adopted the child. “These things have been going on for too long.” Attorney David Chami said he believed the girl’s letter and the family’s efforts to reach the Justice Department were “a crucial factor” in the decision to open the investigation. The Justice Department said Thursday it would examine whether officials used excessive force, abused disabled people and the homeless, engaged in discriminatory police practices and retaliated against people for activities protected by the First Amendment. A number of community complaints follow about police excesses – indictments of Black Lives Matter protesters as gang members, insulting and threatening a black family in a shoplifting investigation, and numerous incidents alleging police brutality. The new investigation is known as a “pattern or practice” – it looks to see if there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing – and is generally a comprehensive review of an entire police station. Law enforcement experts say such investigations can be useful but are limited in scope as they cannot make sweeping changes in a police agency’s culture. “Often times, the patterns and practices of the agreements they make are not matched on a cultural level. They come at the political level and at the educational level, “said Dennis Kenney, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York who is focused on organizational change. “If they can’t achieve and sustain change on a cultural level, it probably won’t last or last.” This is especially true of changes that are forced by outside pressure, such as the Department of Justice, which imposes legal action like a consent decree . Such actions are expensive, time consuming, and likely to be unsuccessful unless the local law enforcement agency accepts the changes. “These patterns and procedures can work best by alerting not only the police department but also local government officials to the need for change,” said Michael Scott, a professor of criminal law at Arizona State University who works extensively with Phoenix Police . “And to make change essentially non-negotiable.” The real change comes when police officers accept the changes and make sure line officers understand their expectations, Scott said. This means that the reforms must be accepted by both police officers and the public. “I think the short mindset is that they provide the vital leverage to make other governance reforms,” said Scott. Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams promised Thursday that he would take the Justice Department’s findings seriously. She talked about reforms she’s implemented and said she was open to more. “What do we say to the public?” said Williams. “We are not afraid to say hello to anyone who does an external assessment of our agency and wherever the loopholes are we will find those loopholes and become a better police force.” The Justice Department investigation is the third Garland’s investigation this year announced to police authorities. It has launched similar investigations into police forces in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd and in Louisville, Kentucky, following the death of Breonna Taylor. The Phoenix investigation is expected to take at least a year. Phoenix Police have come under fire in recent years for a high number of shootings and their handling of protests. The chief prosecutor in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix, permanently denied charges in June that included gang allegations against more than a dozen people arrested during a protest against police brutality in October 2020. Civil rights lawyers said the Phoenix police and prosecutors are pursuing the gang’s charges of abusive political persecution aimed at silencing dissenting opinions. In another much-discussed case, a black family was berated and threatened by Phoenix officials two years ago after their 4-year-old daughter carried a fashion doll from a dollar store without paying for it. The officers aimed guns at Dravon Ames and Iesha Harper during the cell phone videotaped confrontation. The couple, who said they did not know their daughter had taken the doll, later received $ 475,000 from the city of Phoneix in compensation. In the case of Muhammad Muhayim, 43, the family is on trial in March in federal court against the Phoenix police for wrongful death. The lawsuit, citing the Americans with Disabilities Act, states that Muhayim carried a dog named Chiquita to help alleviate symptoms of his schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress order, and acute claustrophobia. “The Justice Department’s investigation is an important step forward in finally achieving justice for the Muhaymin family,” said Asifa Quraishi-Land and Farah Brelvi, interim co-executive directors of Muslim Advocates, a national civil rights group that brought the case to the attention has “Who will take me to the altar when I get married?” Muhayim’s daughter wrote in her letter shared with The Associated Press, “Why can’t my father be here to say, ‘I’m proud of you’ when am I going to college? ”
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