SUMMARY: After recurring instances of excessive force by Cleveland’s police force, the Department of Justice and city officials announced a sweeping legal agreement that rewrites the rules for the police department. Gwen Ifill learns more about the efforts to rebuild relations between police and the city from Ronnie Dunn of Cleveland State University.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): The Department of Justice and the city of Cleveland announced a sweeping legal settlement today that rewrites the rules for the city’s police department after recurring instances of the use of excessive force.
The U.S. attorney, the city police chief and Cleveland’s mayor all praised the agreement at a joint news conference.
STEVEN DETTELBACH, U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Ohio: Compliance with this agreement, which means taking on truly systemic change, is going to be — and I say this as a Clevelander — it’s going to be hard work.
CALVIN WILLIAMS, Chief, Cleveland Division of Police: We talked a lot about the nuts and bolts of this, but what it really comes down to is, we have to, I have to, as chief, make sure that community policing philosophy is part of the DNA of the Cleveland Division of Police. And that’s what I intend to do.
MAYOR FRANK JACKSON, Cleveland: I have expressed throughout this my major issue was twofold, one, that it didn’t go far enough, and, two, that we wanted to have substantive, real reform that was sustainable, not just, as the U.S. attorney said, some pretense of reform. So this gives us the tools.
GWEN IFILL: For more on what it took to get to this agreement, and what happens next, I’m joined by Ronnie Dunn, associate professor of urban studies at Cleveland State University. He also serves on the Ohio Task Force on Community-Police Relations.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): And we turn again to the shocking story in Cleveland (Ohio) of three women held captive and abused for a decade. Today, the man accused in the case appeared before a judge.
Ray Suarez has the latest.
MAN: Ariel Castro.
RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): Ariel Castro kept his head bowed and buried throughout his early morning appearance in Cleveland Municipal Court. It was his first public appearance since he was arrested Monday in the kidnapping of three women, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight.
All had been held captive in Castro's Cleveland home since their separate disappearances between 2002 and 2004. Prosecutors said today the former school bus driver repeatedly beat and sexually assaulted the women.
TIMOTHY MCGINTY, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Prosecutor: This child kidnapper operated a torture chamber and private prison in the heart of our city. The horrific brutality and torture that the victims endured for a decade is beyond comprehension.
RAY SUAREZ: The New York Times reported today that, according to a police document, the women were chained in the basement for years before finally being moved to the second floor.
It also said Knight told police she'd been impregnated by Castro on multiple occasions and that each time, he starved and punched her until she miscarried. Castro didn't enter a plea today to the four counts of kidnapping, one for each of the women, plus Berry's six-year-old daughter conceived in captivity, and to three counts of rape.
His bond was set at $8 million dollars, $3 million more than the prosecution requested. After the proceedings, Castro's public defender said her client will likely be kept isolated.
KATHLEEN DEMETZ, Public Defender: I would imagine he will be in a single cell, and I would imagine he probably will be under a suicide watch observation unit.
RAY SUAREZ: Castro's brothers, Pedro and Onil, also appeared in court on unrelated misdemeanor charges. They were later released from custody. Authorities say the two men knew nothing about the women allegedly being held captive in their brother's home.
SUMMARY: Ray Suarez talks to Matthew Dolan of The Wall Street Journal for more details on the case, and then gets analysis from Dr. Frank Ochberg, clinical professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University, about the healing process for the Cleveland kidnapping victims and what can be learned from past cases of abuse and trauma.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
*Anti-First Amendment policies that attempt to turn America into a theocracy by enshrining ANY religious belief as law.
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