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Springfield Massachusetts Police Officers against minority teens

Background:

On February 26, 2016, a group of teenagers were arrested by Springfield, Massachusetts police officer Gregg Bigda and officer Steven Vigneault for stealing an unmarked police car. During the incident, two police officers used excessive force and racist language. A 14 years old Hispanic teen was being kicked, bitten by dogs and handcuffed. Additionally, Officer Bigda yelled "welcome to the white man's world" at one of the arrested teens. Officer Bidga and Officer Vigneault were arrested by federal authorities for deprivation of rights and using excessive force. As a result, Officer Bidga was suspended and Officer Vigneault resigned later on and denied all the charges.

Evidence

A 30 minutes surveillance camera captured officer Bigda abusing two of the arrested boys, physically and verbally. According to the video footage, officer Bigda yelled at one of the them, "People like you belong in jail...I'll stick a ...kilo of coke in your pocket and put you away for ... 15 years". In addition, officer Bidga also threatened to kill the teen by saying "I could crush your [expletive] skull and [expletive] get away with it." Moreover, the camera recording shows that Officer Bigda did not read Miranda rights and the teen's parent had no idea that they were arrested. Moreover, a 14 years old arrested teen was sent to hospital with two black eyes, head contusions and fractured nose after beaten cruelty by two officers.

Another video recorded Officer Bidga's reaction when he first walked in to the juvenile jail cell. The first thing he did was point to the blood on his boot. He warned the kid that his blood might end up on his other boot if he didn’t cooperate. He said to the arrested teen, “You see that camera right there? They don’t ... exist [in Springfield].” When the boys were headed to jail next, Bigda said. “So anything that happens to you at my place never happened. If I don’t write it in the report, it never ... happened.”

Investigation

Springfield Police Department

A lawsuit against Springfield Police Department has been conducted. Additionally, there has been numerous misconduct claims against the Springfield Police Department ,ranging from false reports, wrongful convictions to brutal beatings. According to the Washington Post, "Since 2006, the city has settled 25 police misconducts." The Department of Justice is conducting an investigation, in order to understand why Springfield Police Department did not address the problem of police brutality after receiving all the misconduct claims. In contrast, some of the officers were promoted.

FBI

Officer Bigda and Officer Vigneault were arrested by the FBI. Officer Bigda was charged with three criminal charges for alleged civil rights violations, one for using excessive force and two for abusive interrogations. On the other hand, Officer Vigneault is facing one criminal civil rights charge for allegedly using excessive force.

Responses

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice in Boston

Sophia Hall, a staff attorney at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice in Boston said “What Springfield has demonstrated through these patterns of violations is that the police are not able to police themselves...Basically, in the absence of any sort of accountability... DOJ steps in.”

FBI office in Boston

“Those who break the law stain the reputation of the law enforcement profession.Badges and guns do not come with the authority to ignore the Constitution or the rights of others, and those who violate it will be held accountable,” special agent in charge of the FBI investigation, Harold Shaw , said.

Attorney of Officer Vigneault

Vigneault’s attorney, Daniel D. Kelly :“There is a tendency to rush to judgment in cases like these. We would ask that the public not rush to judgment.”

Spring Field Police Department

Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said, "This is very troubling, as our police officers are sworn to enforce our laws, not break them. Any officer that breaches the public trust should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There is zero tolerance for this type of behavior. This reflects unfairly on the vast majority of our brave and dedicated police officers, who put their lives on the line protecting our citizens day in and day out.”

Controversy

In 1997, Officer Bidga was caught on a video standing by while his colleague kicked a black man in the face. Since 2000 Officer Bidga has be accused 24 times misconduct, including pushing a pregnant woman in front of her child, violently attack a mental ill person and breaking his jaw. However, none of these complaint were upheld. If they were found guilty of the event, Bigda faces a maximum of 32 years in prison on the charges, and Vignault faces a maximum of 10.