A protester faces off with police during the fourth night of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Downtown Las Vegas, Monday, June 1, 2020.
Sunday, June 21, 2020 | 2 a.m.
In the years since 2012 when the U.S. Department of Justice issued a scathing review of use of force policies by Metro Police, the local agency has been touted by the federal government as exemplary, a national leader in transparency, de-escalation and community policing.
And while controversial police killings, notably of unarmed black men across the U.S., have roiled the nation, Las Vegas was mostly sheltered from the larger calls for action. Sporadic well-attended protests in recent history hadn’t led to significant demands for additional reform.
Until now.
The 2017 killing by a Metro officer of Tashii Brown, who was shocked with a Taser a half-dozen times, punched and held in an illegal chokehold for 73 seconds, didn’t stir widespread community outrage — not when the body-camera footage was released, nor after prosecutors failed to secure an indictment on charges of involuntary manslaughter and oppression under the color of office for Kenneth Lopera, the officer booked into jail when Brown’s death was ruled a homicide.
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Brown was “our own George Floyd,” Nissa Tzun said during a Black Lives Matter vigil June 13 in the Arts District in downtown Las Vegas. Tzun is with the Forced Trajectory Project, an independent media outlet that reports on police violence and the impact it has on affected families and communities.
It was Floyd’s death on May 25 that spurred a call to action in major U.S. cities, including here, after footage emerged of a Minneapolis police officer holding Floyd on the ground by digging a knee into the back of his neck for about nine minutes despite Floyd’s desperate pleas that he couldn’t breathe.
Since then, there have been daily demonstrations and vigils across the country, including in Las Vegas — and even around the world — with no indication of when they’ll end. The demonstrations here have overshadowed in a way Metro’s implementation of a “major overhaul” to its use of force policy, which went into effect 10 days before Floyd’s death. The agency said it had consulted with American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP and academia.
“We have worked very hard over the past eight years to build trust and have a department that reflects our community,” Metro Police Deputy Chief John McGrath said in a news release publicly announcing the changes June 5. “But, sadly, yesterday as I walked through a crowd of demonstrators, I realized that we need to do more to educate our citizens about our reform efforts that we’ve worked so diligently on. The more point of views we have, the more we strengthen our community.”
The 26-page document highlights de-escalation and includes a passage about officers’ “duty to intervene” when a law enforcement colleague is using excessive force. Supervisor duties are also clarified, and there’s a model that maps the steps officers must take when they encounter unruly civilians. De-escalation is the goal and a new section outlines expectations on how officers should present themselves and communicate, “such as speaking calmly and showing empathy to diffuse conflict and reduce the need to use force,” the policy states.
After a May 31 protest turned unruly in Las Vegas, Metro Police Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said he couldn’t recall the last time tear gas was deployed on a crowd. Some had choked the air in downtown Las Vegas the previous night, and again hours after the Metro veteran spoke to the media in an attempt to diffuse tension in the community.
McMahill’s message wasn’t effective, and during protests the night of June 1, two separate Metro-involved shootings left an armed protester dead and an officer on life support.
Such anger wasn’t present last September when Byron Williams died in Metro custody. Like Floyd, Williams was recorded repeatedly pleading, “I can’t breathe.”
Williams, who is Black, had been on his bike around dawn and fled an attempted traffic stop when officers spotted him riding without lights near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Bonanza Road.
His death, from methamphetamine intoxication, was exacerbated by the “prone restraint” he was placed on with an officer kneeling on his back, the Clark County Coroner’s Office said in ruling Williams’ death a homicide. Organizations like the ACLU of Nevada and others expressed concern about officers who turned off their body cameras after Williams was in custody and waited for an ambulance to take him to a hospital, where he was declared dead.
Williams’ death didn’t lead to any arrests, but before it was ruled a homicide, Sheriff Joe Lombardo told the Sun that his officers “could have done a better job.” And as a result, Metro was upping departmentwide training to address possible scenarios that find officers encountering someone who says they can’t breathe. Metro officers, Lombardo said, are taught to place suspects on their side, sit or stood up once they are restrained, Lombardo said.
However, he dispelled the notion expressed among some in the community that the responding officers, one of whom is Hispanic, had racially profiled Williams.
Participants in the Floyd demonstrations have shouted demands for the end of “racist” policing. They also want transparency and justice for those they believe have been wronged by police.
Following the DOJ’s probe, after a string of controversial police shootings in Las Vegas, Metro moved to outfit its officers with body cameras. Additionally, now when Metro uses deadly force, officials brief the public several hours later. The officers involved are publicly identified within 48 hours, and 24 hours after a fatal shooting, Metro high brass provide a more-detailed briefing, broadcasting any video available of the incidents. Metro investigators then conduct two separate reviews of the incident, one to see if the officers broke the law and another to check on any possible policy violations.
Policy changes are considered after every review.
But organizations like Forced Trajectory Project have said those steps were not enough. The briefings, they say, serve as a medium for police to vilify the deceased and promote a one-sided narrative. Oja Vincent, who’s with Forced Trajectory Project, described the process as a “slow death.”
Police kill a person, then kill their reputation, which is followed by the metaphorical death of their loved ones, especially those who chose to challenge the narrative, Vincent charges.
Sheriff Joe Lombardo gives details to the media on a Black Lives Matter protest that left one officer critically injured and one protester dead in Las Vegas, Tuesday, June 2, 2020.
Lombardo balked at the suggestion that briefings following deadly-force incidents are one-sided.
“I don’t believe it to be true,” he said this past week in a media briefing, asserting that Metro “is more transparent than any police department in the nation … and it’s more timely.”
Often, when controversial police-involved deaths have occurred in other jurisdictions, it can take weeks or even months for officials to release body-camera footage and additional details. Metro identifies the officers involved within 48 hours, and presents a detailed account of the incident, including video, 24 hours after that.
“Officers know that there’s a video,” he said, "so if the officer has a poor action associated with the event, we’re going to show you we’re not picking or choosing.”
Days after Floyd’s death, the NAACP highlighted demands nationwide to “ensure our survival as free Black people.”
It asked the United Nations to hold American authorities accountable by classifying “the mistreatment of Black people in the U.S. by the police as a human rights violation,” and to “impose sanctions if necessary.”
The organization demands that police departments establish rules of escalation (with at least six steps), ban knee holds and chokeholds, make available disciplinary records and establish citizen review boards.
In its updated policy, Metro charted a manual on which tools and techniques its officers are allowed to use based on the level of threat, the four steps ranging from compliant to life-threatening.
The lateral vascular neck restraint, which is not considered a choke because it doesn’t obstruct the airway, can only be used in life-threatening situations, according to Metro policy.
The lateral vascular neck restraint is not allowed to be used on people who have been exposed to tear gas or who have difficulty breathing. Unauthorized and “dangerous” chokeholds, such as the one in which an officer would press their arm across the detainee’s throat are not allowed. The lateral vascular neck restraint must also be relaxed once the detainee is “brought under control,” according to the policy.
Nevada law deems disciplinary records of public employees to be confidential. Metro’s Citizen Review Board, formed in the aftermath of the 1997 killing of Daniel Mendoza, who was shot by off-duty Metro officers, allows board members to subpoena police and recommend sanctions for officers accused of misconduct, according to the independent body.
Speaking at a vigil for Jorge Gomez, the protester killed by Metro officers during the June 1 protests, attorney Edgar Flores referenced good police officers working for a flawed system.
Flores wondered how an agency with purchasing power to have hundreds of well-coordinated officers outfitted in riot gear couldn’t have provided additional body cameras, or strategically placed officers who did have them to possibly capture Gomez’s shooting.
Local leaders, elected officials and authorities agree that more can be done.
“We are hopeful and we implore you Las Vegas community,” said Metro Capt. Sasha Larkin in a teleconference with the community after the deadly protests, asking for peace. “Does there need to be change? Absolutely. Every community has room for change and growth. But it’s done through peace, it’s done through time and it’s done through collaborative partnerships.”
