For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 10, 1994

President William J. Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to urge you to appoint a national commission to review the policies and practices of all federal law enforcement agencies and to make recommendations regarding steps that must be taken to ensure that such agencies comply with the law. This review in necessitated by widespread abuses of civil liberties and human rights committed by these agencies and their failure to undertake meaningful and ameliorative reforms.

Federal police officers now close to 10 percent of the nations total law enforcement force. Today, some fifty-three separate federal agencies have the authority to carry firearms and make arrests. This represents an enormous expansion in recent years in terms of both personnel and jurisdiction. What is lacking, however, is systematic oversight and review of federal police practices. This has led to numerous cases of serious abuse--some well-publicized and some relatively unknown--in which the following problems have been evident:

There is a precedent for the appointment of a national commission to look into such abuses. In 1929, after a decade of corruption and lawlessness in federal law enforcement, President Hoover appointed the eleven-member National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement under the chairmanship of George Wickersham, a former U.S. Attorney General. The 1931 Wickersham Commission Report "Lawlessness in Law Enforcement," exposed a pattern of pervasive police brutality and helped stimulate major reforms in federal law enforcement practices.

We propose the appointment of a national commission similar to the Wickersham Commission: an independent body, appointed by the President, and staffed by some of the nation's prominent experts on law enforcement. Such a commission would be charged with reviewing the problematic federal law enforcement policies and practices noted above. These problems are graphically illustrated by the following cases, among many others, that have come to our attention:

DONALD CARLSON
On August 25, 1992, at about 1030 p.m., Donald Carlson returned to his home in Poway, California, opened his garage door with a remote control device, simultaneously illuminating the garage so that Drug Enforcement Administration agents conducting surveillance from nearby could see inside. Just after midnight, when Carlson was asleep, a group of DEA agents burst into his house. Thinking they were robbers, Carlson grabbed his pistol to defend himself. He also dialed 911 for help. The agents shot Carlson three times, twice after he was down and clearly disabled. Carlson spent seven weeks in intensive care, fighting for his life. No drugs were found on the premises.

It was later learned that the Federal Customs Service, the DEA and the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego had relied on an informant who was known to be untrustworthy and who claimed Carlson's garage contained 2,500 kilograms of cocaine (a large amount which would have taken most of the garage) and four armed guards. The agents conducted the raid in spite of the fact they could see the informant's information was erroneous.

As of this writing, none of the federal agents involved in the incident have been sanctioned, nor has Mr. Carlson been compensated for his injuries.

SINA BRUSH
Just after dawn on September 5, 1991, some sixty agents from DEA, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), and National Guard, complete with painted faces and camouflage and accompanied by another twenty or more National Guard troops with a light armored vehicle, raided the homes of Sina Bush and two of her neighbors near Mountainair, New Mexico. Brush and her daughter were asleep. Hearing noises outside, Ms. Brush got up and was only half-way across the room when the door was kicked in by agents. Clad only in their underwear, Ms. Brush and her daughter were handcuffed and forced to kneel in middle of the room while agents searched the house. No drugs were found. Just as in the Carlson case, the police had obtained a warrant using information furnished by an unreliable informant and had entered Brush's home without knocking first.

DONALD SCOTT
On October 2, 1992, DEA agents and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department staged a raid on the Scott ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, California. When Scott emerged carrying a gun, a deputy sheriff shot and killed him. Although agents claimed they were searching for marijuana plants, none were found. The Border Patrol, which had participated in the investigative work leading up to the raid, later claimed they were looking for undocumented aliens. None were found.

An independent investigation by the Ventura County District Attorney's Office concluded that the Sheriff's Department was motivated, in part, by a desire to seize and forfeit Scott's ranch. The investigation also questioned the DEA's claim that marijuana was observed through aerial surveillance.

BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS POLICE
In the fall of 1993, the Associated Press reviewed 17 complaints of brutality filed in six Western reservations against the Bureau of Indian Affairs police. They included complaints of choking, improper use of mace, and broken limbs. After six months investigation the AP found that "BIA police officers routinely use force when arresting suspects and are rarely disciplined for assaulting them."

In another case which occurred in 1991, Milton Trosper, an Arapaho Indian, was seriously injured by BIA police who broke his arm during an incident on the Wind river Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest against Trosper were dropped by the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Court, and in 1993 Trosper's civil suit against the government was settled for damages.

According to the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department, although the BIA, with only 412 officers, is the smallest federal police force, it engenders the second highest number of complaints of misconduct. The BIA has no internal affairs unit and no complaint procedure.

IMMIGRATION LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS
The Justice Department receives the largest number of complaints of federal police misconduct against Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents, particularly Border Patrol Officers. A 1992 report by Americas Watch, entitled "Brutality Unchecked," documented "appalling" levels of misconduct in which "(b)eatings, rough physical treatment, and racially motivated verbal are routine." Acts of abuse included unjustified shootings, torture and sexual abuse. In a second report issued in May 1993, Americas Watch found that "the abuses continue and current mechanisms intended to curtail abuses and discipline officers are woefully inadequate."

THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS
Last year's tragic confrontation between the Branch Davidians and federal agents has been reviewed by both the Treasury and Justice Departments. While these reviews find fault with the planning and execution of the government's attack on the Waco compound, they both accept the notion that armed confrontation was unavoidable. This is in spite of the fact that several independent experts who participated in the reviews seriously questioned the assault's inevitability.

For example, Alan Stone, a Harvard Professor of Psychiatry and Law, disagreed with "the view within the FBI and in the official reports that suggest the tragedy was unavoidable." In his report, he noted that the FBI's own behavioral experts on the scene advised against the use of "all-out psycho-physiological warfare" and the abandonment of "any serious effort to reach a negotiated solution." But FBI ignores this advice, and launched a paramilitary attack that jeopardized the lives of the very children whose health and safety it claimed it wanted to protect. In particular, Professor Stone criticized the use of toxic levels of CS gas over a period of 48-hours in a building occupied by so many children. As Professor Stone writes, "The question is: did 'military' mentality overtake the FBI?"

Another independent expert, Professor Nancy Ammerman of Princeton University, pointed out in her report that the FBI did not consult "a single...expert on the Branch Davidians or other marginal religious movements..." She also noted that the psychological warfare tactics employed by the FBI, including the sounds of dying rabbits, the use of flood lights, the helicopters hovering overhead, were not favored by the Bureau's own Behavior Science Service Unit. In fact the Unit advised that the "ever increasing tactical presence...could eventually be counter productive and could result in loss of life."

A third independent expert, New York University Professor of Psychiatry Robert Caco, questioned whether the military model used by the agents for the assault was "an appropriate model for dealing with a group such as the Branch Davidians."

At this time it is not clear that the reviews conducted by the Treasury and Justice Departments will lead to any meaningful changes in the way the FBI or Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) will handle situations in the future.

RANDY WEAVER
Randy Weaver became a fugitive in 1992 after the BATF tried to compel him to infiltrate a neo-Nazi organization. BATF agents targeted white separatist Weaver, a veteran with no criminal record, because they erroneously believed him to be a member of the organization. A BATF informer then convinced Weaver to saw off two shotguns and then sell them to him. The BATF then told Weaver he would be indicted on gun charges unless he served as a government informant. After receiving inconsistent information concerning his trial date from the court clerk, and fearful that the government intended to harm his family, Weaver failed to appear in court, remaining with his family in his isolated mountain cabin in Idaho.

The U.S. Marshal's Service attempted to apprehend Weaver. In August 1992 the Weaver's dog began to bark at six camouflaged marshals in the vicinity of the cabin who were carrying fully automatic assault weapons. When Weaver's fourteen-year-old son went out investigate, the marshals shot the dog. In an exchange of gunfire, Weaver's son was shot in the back and killed, and a deputy marshal was killed.

The FBI Hostage Rescue Team arrived the following day and issued extraordinary orders to its agents to shoot any armed adult on sight whether or not he posed an immediate danger. No attempt was made to talk with Weaver. When Weaver, his teenage daughter and a friend went from the cabin to an outbuilding where the son's body lay, an FBI sharpshooter opened fire, killing Weaver's wife as she stood in the cabin doorway holding her 10-month-old daughter. Nine days later, Weaver and his friend Kevin Harris, surrendered and were charged with the murder of the U.S. Marshal and criminal conspiracy.

Ultimately, a federal jury acquitted Weaver and Harris of all charges, except for Weaver's failure to appear for trial on the original gun charges. Judge Edward J. Lodge fined the FBI, charging that the Bureaus's conduct had "served to obstruct the administration of justice" and that "The actions of the Government, acting through the FBI evidence a callous disregard for the rights of the defendants and the interests of justice."

We recognize that the majority of federal officers strive, often under dangerous and demanding circumstances, to carry out their duties in a restrained, lawful and professional manner. But the cases described above demonstrate the need for leadership and accountability in order to prevent future incidents of abuse.

Therefore, we urge you to appoint a national commission composed of law enforcement experts, constitutional scholars, criminal defense lawyers and prosecutors, judges, representatives of federal law enforcement professional and labor organizations, and representatives of organizations that monitor police practices. Several of the undersigned organizations can provide you with the names of potential commission members for your consideration.

For more than fifty years the federal government has provided leadership, training and resources in the ongoing effort to improve the nation's system of law enforcement. The creation of a high level national commission will contribute greatly to the continued improvement of federal police agencies by helping to ensure that federal police not only enforce the law in an effective, humane and constitutional manner, but that they also serve as models for local and state law enforcement agencies.

Sincerely,

Ira Glasser
Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union
132 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036

John Snyder
Public Affairs Director
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
Washington, D.C. 20003

Eric E. Sterling
President
The Criminal Justice Foundation
1899 L Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20036

Arnold S. Trebach
President
Drug Policy Foundation
4455 Connecticut Ave., NW Suite B-500
Washington, D.C. 20036

David Kopel
Research Director
Independence Institute
14142 Denver West Parkway, Suite 101
Golden, Colorado 80401

James Grew
President
International Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
1627 K Street, NW, 12th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20006

Mary Broderick
Director, Defender Division
National Legal Aid and Defender Association
1625 K Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, D.C. 20006

James J. Baker
Executive Director
National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Affairs
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, Virginia 22030

Alan Gottlieb
Founder
Second Amendment Foundation
12500 NE 10th Place
Belleview, Washington 98005