A new approach on witness safety

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(Marcia Holmes, left, Earl Ofari Hutchinson and Lita Herron at last Saturday's news conference calling for improved strategies to safeguard witnesses).

Sometimes big things start small.

Last weekend, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, and Marcia Holmes, whose daughter Ashley Cheval was murdered in LAPD's 77th Street Division last year, held a news conference in a room filled mostly with empty chairs.

The crowd was limited to three: HR, one television reporter and one camerawoman.

The KCAL-9 reporter had come to the Leimert Park gathering on Saturday mainly to get Ofari Hutchinson's response to a high-profile story that day: The pending closing of King Drew hospital. Ofari Hutchinson broached the second topic on the agenda almost apologetically, seemingly unsure whether the reporters would stay to hear it.

The topic was witnesses.

The activists were there to announce call for more resources and attention to the issue of witness protection.

As has been reported on this site in the past, the problem of witness cooperation is at the core of the national homicide problem.

There is perhaps no more important single impediment to the successful investigation and prosecution of the masses of murder cases than frightened or uncooperative witnesses. The scope and complexity of this problem cannot be overstated. "Colossal" is how Deputy Dist. Atty. Halim Dhanidina classified it in a Times story last year. "I don't think we have ever had a gang case where the specter of fear didn't raise its head for at least one witness."

Witnesses don't testify for many reasons. But fear is a central one. Their reluctance assures impunity for killers. And when killers get away with it, killing becomes that much easier the next time. The more murders, the more fear. The more fear, the less witness cooperation. The less cooperation, the more impunity. And so on. The result is a sclerotic criminal justice system in the very communities where crime hits hardest.

Police and prosecutors have fretted for decades over this problem. To hear it taken up by Ofari Hutchinson, one of L.A.'s most prominent black leaders, is a noteworthy moment in this city's racial history, even if only three journalists were there to see it:

Twenty years ago, such a news conference would have been unthinkable, Ofari Hutchinson acknowledged later.

"Twenty years ago, I would have said I don't want to talk about black-on-black violence. I want to talk about police-on-black violence. But this is 2007," he said. "Things have changed."

The activists called for more money, more publicity, and witness-security measures as effective as the federal witness protection program made famous by organized crime cases.

When it came to Holmes, who has been caring for her young granddaughter since her daughter was murdered, she looked steadily into the lone camera: "Where there are no consequences for crimes, what you get is absolute lawlessness," she said.

 

Comments

[A Mother]

Had the news conference been announced to the public I'm sure more people would have attended. You can't send out notice to a select few and expect to have a decent turn out.

Why does black on black crime receive all of the attention? In reading this blog there appears to be just as much brown on brown crime.

[Ron]

The slaves were freed in 1863. Unfortunately, the slave mentality still rules the outlook of many of our people. That is why we continue to commit crimes against ourselves. We allow crimes to be committed against our neighbors. Meanwhile comfort ourselves with the notion that helping police our neighborhood would be helping the MAN. So we don't snitch. Just like a slave.

[susan]

This quote is the key of the issue.

"Twenty years ago, I would have said I don't want to talk about black-on-black violence. I want to talk about police-on-black violence. But this is 2007," he (Ofari Hutchinson,)said. "Things have changed."

Until the local community takes control and views violence as wrong, nothing will change. Stop socially rewarding the violence and it will stop.

[Gabe]

A lot more attention and resources need to be directed to witness protection. People in the community need to feel like law enforcement is partnering with them. The community will not on its own begin cooperating, in part because of the danger. But in today's Washington Post, community activist Ron Moten explains that not cooperating with law enforcement may be deeply ingrained in African-American communities, going back all the way to the culture of slavery. He notes that many of these communities now are confronting a hip-hop-fueled campaign called "stop snitchin'." There seems to be confusion between "snitching" against your criminal co-horts to cut a better deal for yourself (Moten sees this as taboo), and "snitching" by helping law enforcement address wrongdoing that you witnessed but were not necessarily a part of (Moten says this is not really "snitching" and ought to be encouraged so the community stands up for itself). The overbreadth of "stop snitchin'" seems to be the exact opposite of what probably is needed to cure the problem of impunity and curb street violence; perhaps it could be appropriately renamed "stop caring about your community and let the criminals rule." But as revolting as that notion is, it ought to remind us of the level of distrust of law enforcement, and of the importance of designing a real witness protection program that will help law enforcement be viewed more as a partner than as an adversary.

Moten's thought-provoking op-ed piece may be found at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/17/AR2007081701715.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 .