Alberta Spruill murder taken seriously By City Council

Fortunately the City Council is taking what happened very seriously, as could be seen at a press conference and the City Council meeting of May 28^th.

Before the meeting, Council Members Philip Reed and Peter Vallone Jr. held a press conference on the steps of City Hall to announce a hearing on June 12^th at 10:00 AM to scrutinize the entire policy and procedures of police raids. "We want to assure the public that there is judicial review over the issuance of warrants," stated Vallone, who is Chair of the Public Safety Committee. "We also want to look into what went wrong with that process to ensure that these mistakes never happen again."

Council Member Reed spoke of how harrowing what happened to Ms. Spruill would be to any person. "Officers break down a door to a residence, storm in with their guns, and it turns out to be a completely innocent person, minding his or her own business," Reed said. "It is difficult to imagine how traumatic that must be. This shocked the entire city, not just the African American community."

Deputy Majority Leader Bill Perkins then told of his own personal experience with a faulty warrant: "At 5:30 one morning I get a knock on the door. My son-in-law comes and tells me some officers are at the door with a warrant. I go to the door and it turns out it is for someone who lives in apt 15D - but they have the entirely wrong address! It was another person altogether. Thank God I opened the door myself," he continued, "because I don't know what would have happened if my son-in-law had done so and been identified as the person they were looking for. It's very good that this council is taking some leadership with regard to unraveling the mystery and tragedy of these warrants."

Council Members Charles Barron, James Davis, Kendall Stewart, Tracy Boyland, Larry Seabrook, Miguel Martinez and Robert Jackson also took part in the press conference. Stated Jackson, "We must find out the process with these 'no-knock' warrants and fix it so that we never ever see someone frightened to death again." Martinez added, "We have seen in our communities over and over again the police make a mistake and then they just apologize." Speaking first in English and then in Spanish he declared, "We don't want apologies! We want to make sure that before they enter the homes of our residents they have accurate information."

The discussion of Ms. Spruill's wrongful death (the coroner called it murder) continued in full force during the City Council meeting. Stated Council Member Barron, "I think we need to move beyond looking into procedural changes on "no-knock" warrants. The City Medical Examiner said that her death was directly linked to her heart attack. Someone needs to be arrested and prosecuted. A crime was committed."

He spoke, too, of the fact that some people prefer to call it an "accident" rather than murder. "They don't have "accidents" like this in other communities," he commented. "These "accidents" always seem to happen in our communities. Well, our communities are fed up with it and so am I. Someone should be held accountable and pay dearly for the death of Ms. Spruill."

As Council Member James Davis, a former police officer and Police Academy instructor, spoke, it was clear just how criminally negligent the entire maneuver at Alberta Spruill's apartment had been. "When I worked on the warrant squad, at 4 and 5 in the morning we would go and get so-called 'bad' individuals," he explained. "But there were checks and balances - at least 5 steps of verification before you rushed in. We never just took the word of an unreliable informant right off the bat. You're supposed to do some type of quality investigation - talk to the neighbors, to the owner of the building, etc. What these cops did in this particular case was outrageous and it saddens my heart."

Three pieces of legislation regarding this issue were introduced by Council Member Larry Seabrook. One resolution calls on the Manhattan District Attorney, the New York State Attorney General and the United States Department of Justice to launch a full-scale independent investigation into the New York Police Department's use of diversionary devices such as stun grenades, including whether there are discriminatory practices in their use. It also asks for a review of whether the procedure for "no-knock" search warrants is a civil rights violation.