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Gainesville Area NOW: Women need a Police Review Board
Iguana  July/August 2002 
Statement by NOW in front of the Gainesville Police Department, July 8, 2002: 
Gainesville Area National Organization for Women (NOW) is here today to
denounce the Gainesville Police Department's poor track record on crimes against
women. Today the City Commission has the opportunity to vote on whether or
not to form a Citizen Police Review Board - and we demand they vote in favor of
this measure and immediately establish a Police Review Board. 
Our police department has a pretty bad scorecard on protecting women. As of
May 31st 2002, in an 18 month period, 109 reports of sexual assault were
reported to GPD. Out of these 109 reports, only 22 arrests have been made.
Statistics released by the State of Florida in 1998 reveal that our State Attorney's
office only prosecutes 3 out of every 10 cases. Based on these statistics, only 6 of
the original 109 will ever see their rapist prosecuted - a dismal 5.5%. And if you
take into account that only 1 in 4 rapes ever gets reported according to the FBI -
that means an estimated 436 rapes occurred and only 6 got to court - which
translates to a mere 1.37% chance of a rapist ever seeing his day in court. Those
are pretty good odds for the rapist. These figures lead us to believe that our police
and state attorney don't seem too interested in deterring rapists - in fact they are
making the crime pretty easy to get away with. 
In the face of this good ole boys system, where 1 in 73 rapes will ever see
prosecution, women are seeing on TV and in the papers that they are actually
arresting women who report rape. They are not just turning us away, or dropping
our cases, they are actually throwing us in jail now. In April of 2002 GPD arrested
a woman for allegedly filing a false rape report and jailed her for at least two
weeks. This is the second woman that we know of in Gainesville in the past three
years that has been arrested and jailed for coming forward to report a rape. These
actions show us that GPD is not interested in stopping violence against women -
they are interested in shutting us up and punishing us when we come forward. In
February 1999 a woman was arrested for reporting she was raped at the Delta Chi
fraternity house at the University of Florida. Campus NOW led a 10-month
campaign that gathered 3,500 signatures and international support for the woman
and State Attorney Rod Smith was forced to drop the false report charges against
her and the University Police Department also added a wing for victim services.
Recently at Harvard University, the school passed a resolution that requires
women to provide their own evidence and witnesses if they want the school to
take action on their claim. As if it is not enough to endure rape, go through
demeaning and humiliating questioning from police and deal with public attention
- now we have to do the investigating ourselves? This is a double standard for
crimes against women. What other crime draws this procedure? Surely businesses
that report robberies are not required to provide witnesses before their claims are
investigated. The percentage of prosecuted robberies without a doubt surpasses
the 5.5% sexual assault prosecution rate. 
The track record of GPD on violence against women and the arrests of women by
police is part of a larger problem - a sexist system designed to strip us of basic
human rights - our right to freedom from violence and the threat of violence
against us. The system is set up to benefit men and punish women - GPD
arresting this woman is just one blatant example of men lashing back at us for
speaking up. Candi Churchill, former president of Campus NOW stated this at the
1999 Justice for Women NOW Rally: "When men get away with crimes against
women, it makes it easier for them to get away with other forms of sexism:
judging us based on how we look, talking over us in work or in social situations,
not being concerned with birth control, and not sharing housework and childcare.
. . If the standard for what men can get away with is so low that men who rape us
have over a 98% chance of getting away with it, then what grounds do I have for
demanding equality in my relationships with my co-workers, father or boyfriend?" 
We are here to let GPD know they can't get away with punishing us when we
come forward to report crimes against us. We are presenting GPD with the
following demands: 
We demand that GPD make a true commitment to providing women equal
protection under the law by thoroughly investigating all reports of violence against
us. 
We demand GPD and all law enforcement agencies establish a no-arrest,
no-charge policy for alleged false reports of rape and any other crimes against
women and by appropriately punishing the men who commit these crimes. 
We demand GPD promote the immediate establishment of an independent citizen
police review board, a place where women can file complaints against police policy
and decisions. GPD's strong opposition only indicates that they fear democracy in
police matters. GPD should be at today's City Commission meeting working with
citizens to improve our police force. Instead they are rallying against us, the
people they work for, to maintain their status quo - a system where police back
each other up and seldom work for our interests as citizens. 
In addition, we are issuing this demand to all men - Men - Stop raping, harassing,
assaulting, and stalking us. Also - stop backing up the men who do these things
by speaking out against them and by supporting us when we come forward. 
 
"And another reason we need a police review board"
July/August 2002 
"In February 2001, Officer Frederick Munn was arrested for domestic battery.
According to the prosecuter's summary, officer Munn had a record of battering his
wife. A few months later officer Munn was disciplined for committing bigamy. This
became his second sustained charge of illegal, immoral and improper conduct in a
six month period. According to GPD's general order on Rules of Conduct, the
recommended course of action for a second sustained charge of illegal, immoral
and improper behavior is dismissal. Interestingly, in the internal affairs
investigative report concerning the charge of bigamy, under the heading
"Applicable Internal Affairs History" the report simply stated "NONE." To our
knowledge officer Munn remains in a position on the force were he can carry a
firearm and be a first responder to a domestic battery situation. It might serve our
community well to have citizens explore the issue of whether or not this is
acceptable."
--Ernesto Longa of Citizens for Police Review at the July 8, 2002 City Commission
meeting.
 
City Commission: "We ARE the police review board"
City cancels further police review board discussion
July/August 2002
Jenny Brown 
Although a third of the meeting was taken up arguing over how to cram in
everything they needed to discuss, the Gainesville City Commission on July 8
claimed that they could also fulfill the role of a Police Review Board. "We don't
need a police review board, we are the police review board," said commissioner
after commissioner at a meeting which lasted until 12:30 am and entirely failed to
cover most of its scheduled agenda. The City Commission voted 4-1 to end
forever any "discussion of, or discussion of the creation of, a police review board."
Mayor Tom Bussing cast the lone dissenting vote, supporting a continuation of a
dialog which started in March 2001. 

New commissioner Ed Braddy brought the motion forward and pushed for it to be
discussed as the auditorium filled with people wanting to speak on other issues
scheduled for the evening's agenda. Ernesto Longa of Citizens for Police Review,
the organization that brought forward the proposal for an independent police
review board over a year ago, said that he had only found out that Braddy had
placed the item on the agenda when he was called for comment by TV-20. He said
that this was after a yearlong process and numerous hearings in which all parties
were informed of the proceedings with adequate notice. He and other police
review board supporters, along with Bussing, argued that the item should be
taken up at a later date. 
After lengthy bickering, during which both Braddy and Commissioner Tony
Domenech stated that they had already made up their minds on the issue, the
commission finally voted to discuss the issue and citizens lined up to support the
concept and implementation of a police review board. Two dozen spoke for it
while 4 spoke against it. 
Despite the short notice, police review board advocates attending the meeting
included over 20 feminists organized by the Gainesville Area National Organization
for Women. They came to the meeting following a demonstration in front of the
Gainesville Police Department. That the demonstration coincided with the meeting
day was pure coincidence. (See NOW's statement) Woman after woman testified
that GPDs arrest and jailing in April of a woman for falsely reporting rape showed
the need for review of the police. Women who stated that they were victims of
sexual assault explained how difficult it is to report rape in the first place, knowing
that they are likely to be disbelieved by police and forced to prove their case in a
'my word against his word' type situation. 
"If I see on TV that a woman was arrested for reporting her rape, makes me think
even more that the police might decide to believe the man and throw me in jail for
a supposedly false report," stated Gainesville Area NOW member Andrea Costello.

Feminists said that the Gainesville Police Department should "establish a no-arrest,
no-charge policy for alleged false reports of rape." They argued that a Police
Review Board would be "a place where women can file complaints against police
policy and decisions." 
Former NAACP president Ruth Brown said that in the African American
community in Gainesville there is a perception of unfairness by the police
department and ended her remarks by stating, "Somebody needs to be reviewing
the police." 
Gainesville resident James Callahan described a recent experience in which he
witnessed an African American man being threatened at gunpoint by a Gainesville
Police officer and then hit. (Callahan's story is in box at right.) 
Callahan said he'd recently been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington and then
he'd seen the movie Rosewood about the massacre and destruction of a town near
here in the 1920s. Callahan described to the Commission his wonder that people
didn't speak out to stop these things at the time. He stated that from witnessing
what he'd witnessed he couldn't keep silent but that the process of filing a
complaint was a nightmare designed to deter anyone from speaking out.  He said
that one of the other witnesses in his tree crew backed down and changed his
story to say he'd just heard some whacking noises. When Callahan asked the man
why he wasn't willing to say what he saw, the man said he wanted to be a police
officer someday and he was worried that if he spoke out it would mean he
wouldn't get hired by the police department. 
Jeff McAdams, President of the Fraternal Order of Police, dismissed Callahan's
statement, saying that since the other witnesses had backed down, that proved it
didn't really happen the way he said it had. The officer Callahan said he witnessed
using excessive force was later identified as John O'Ferrell. Callahan's complaint
was disposed of as "unfounded" by the police 
Three others besides McAdams spoke against the concept of a police review
board. Deborah Martinez said that she didn't know how good we had it in
Gainesville until she'd lived in other towns where she was "more frightened of the
police than the criminals." She also said that in communities where police review
boards had been implemented there was a 600% increase in crime. It was unclear
if these were the same towns where the police were so frightening. 
There were also numerous calls on Braddy and the rest of the commission to
allow the process of dialog around the issue to continue, since the Public Safety
Committee's recommendations, which followed months of meetings, had not yet
been thoroughly reviewed. 
Two commissioners sit on the Public Safety Committee, Charles Chestnut IV and
Warren Nielson. Last fall, the Public Safety Committee recommended that the city 
Hire an outside consultant to conduct a comprehensive review of the Gainesville
Police Department's performance and procedures, and 
at the same time allow the continuation of the dialogue of Commissioner
Chestnut's draft document, entitled Citizen Advisory Review Board, by retaining
this referral with the Public Safety Committee. 
This recommendation was approved 5-0 on November 26, 2001 by the full City
Commission. Seven months and a city election passed, but the Public Safety
Committee never continued the dialogue, and City staff had only just gotten
figures for what a consultant would cost when Braddy moved that all discussion be
killed. 
So it was an odd twist when Chestnut and Nielson both voted against their own
recommendation and voted to end further discussion. 
Early in the July 8 meeting, Chestnut stated that he had sat through numerous
public safety committee meetings in which many problems with GPD had been
exposed, and he said that he thought a consultant would get help get to the
bottom of the problems. Then, later in the meeting, explaining his vote, he stated
that in all the meetings he attended, no problems were ever brought up about
GPD. 
New Commissioner Domenech stated emphatically "I'm your police review board,"
and said that if people have problems with the police they should bring them to
him and he would get to the bottom of them. 
Oddly, Braddy attacked the idea of a police review board because, he said, it
would have no power to subpoena people to testify. The original proposal for the
police review board prepared by Citizens for Police Review included subpoena
power. Braddy also argued that a police review board would be pointless because
it would be unable to discipline officers or even interview them about incidents in
which they were involved. This argument was echoed by police chief Norman
Botsford who said that these events would violate the "Police Officer's Bill of
Rights" and the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment right against
self-incrimination.   Gainesville resident Charlie Grapski argues with this claim. "It
's absurd for the chief of police to allege that officers have more rights than
ordinary citizens. There is only one Bill of Rights and it applies equally to all. Thus
the chief's assertions are wholly groundless, and this is supported by legal
precedent, the plain language of the statute and the legislative record." 
After the vote, around 11:30 p.m., Police Review Board supporters and the two or
three opponents spilled out onto the steps of City Hall, dazed by the surreal
meeting they had just endured. There seemed to be agreement among both
opponents of the board and supporters, complaints against the Gainesville Police
Department will continue, whether the City Commission wants to discuss
proposals for dealing with them or not.