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24 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRIcr OF COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW
It is extraordinary that a police chief would (i) prejudge complaints before
they are considered, (ii) exclude consideration of all complaints other than those
of physical abuse, and (iii) impose an unlawfully difficult standard for complainants
to meet, namely "overwhelming evidence." This unwillingness to hold officers
accountable is longstanding. In the Washington Mobilization case in which
the United States District Court found numerous instances of intentionally unlawful
arrests and assaults on demonstrators in a series of demonstrations over a
two-year period, the Court found that "not a single formal disciplinary action was
taken against any officer involved in the demonstrations considered in this
case.,,99
More than thirty years ago, during the Mayweek 1971 demonstrations, the
Washington Post published a front page photograph of Deputy Chief Theodore
Zanders, then Commander of the Metropolitan Police Department's Civil Disturbance
Unit, in direct violation of M.P.D. directives, spraying chemical Mace at a
distance of less than three feet on a group of demonstrators blocking an intersection.
The District Judge in the Washington Mobilization case stated: "The Court
feels compelled to comment that if the Commander of the CDU ... conducts
himself in a manner contrary to . . . [Police Department] policies, then it is not
unlikely that this ... will also be manifested among his subordinates."loo
That is precisely what we are seeing today. M.P.O. management should not be
allowed to escape their delinquencies by attempting to shift the focus to their
police officers. It is not the officers who are to blame. It is the Chief who is
responsible for the misdirection and lack of accountability which encourage excessive
actions. As envisaged in the American system, in which a tripartite government
structure is designed to provide checks and balances, the M.P.D.'s
abdication of its responsibilities has resulted in the judicial and legislative interventions
described in Part IV, infra.
ID. THE UNDERMINING ROLE OF AN UNCRITICAL PRESS
"How did it come to this?" asked the Washington Post in its March 4, 2003
editorial condemning the police for the September 27, 2002 Pershing Park arrests.
IOI The answer to that question goes back thirty years, which is when D.C.
Police management began using and the Post began praising the methods it now
condemns. Even when the Post finally recognized that there had been widespread
police lawlessness in Mayweek 1971, as described in Section LA of this article,
99 Washington Mobilization Committee, 400 F. Supp.186, 205 (D.D.C. 1975).
100 [d. at 204.
101 Editorial, Mishandled Mass Arrests, supra note 68.