"Crazy" Cops

Four Miami police are charged with manslaughter

At first the police reports aroused little suspicion. At 1:59 on the morning of Dec. 17, a black male was said to have crashed his Kawasaki motorcycle in Miami while dodging police at speeds of up to 100 m.p.h. He supposedly battled policemen, who tried to subdue him with nightsticks. Four days later he died of head injuries, but by then the story was taking quite a different turn.

Arthur McDuffie, 33, was no wild-riding motorcycle freak. A former Marine, he was an insurance salesman who worked as a volunteer with unemployed ghetto youths. He had no criminal record. The divorced father of three, McDuffie was planning to remarry his childhood sweetheart. Police officials became suspicious of inconsistencies in the officers' reports and started an intensive investigation. Evidence began to indicate that the "accident" had been faked. Last week four Metro policemen, all white, stood charged with manslaughter and fabricating evidence in the case.

As detectives reconstruct the event, McDuffie may well have tried to flee the police. He had accumulated traffic violations and was driving with a suspended license. Investigators believe that when McDuffie finally slowed down, police pulled him off his motorcycle. Then one officer held him as the others started to slug. "Adrenalin gets going during any high-speed chase," says one officer. "The cops just went crazy. They wanted to teach him a lesson." Says another who witnessed the incident: "They looked like a bunch of animals fighting for meat."

A medical examiner found that the 138-lb. McDuffie suffered six severe head wounds. The killing blow was struck squarely between the eyes. Investigators believe that one of the officers grabbed a flashlight in his fists and swung it like a sledgehammer. Then, to make the injuries appear to have been the result of a crash, police allegedly drove a squad car over the motorcycle.

What has heightened outrage in Miami is the fact that the indicted policemen --Ira Diggs, 31, Alex Marrero, 25, Michael Watts, 30, and William Hanlon, 27 --had a history of brutality charges. So did Herbert Evans Jr., 33, who was implicated in the coverup. In all, the five men have been cited in 47 citizen complaints and 13 internal review probes in the past seven years. Not one ever received severe disciplinary measures, although Diggs and Evans were relieved of street patrol for short periods. With the trial set for March, the four officers could go to prison for up to 35 years.

Dade County's blacks have picketed the courthouse and marched through downtown Miami with a black coffin. Says McDuffie's mother: "They beat my son like a dog." The family has filed a $5 million suit against Dade County and the accused policemen. "The facts are blatant and obvious," says Dade County's acting public safety director, Bobby Jones. "It was revolting, the most shocking damn thing I've seen in 20 years of police work."

Last week the Metro Commission, the governing body of Dade County, began responding to public outcry by taking the first step toward some reforms: psychological tests for police applicants and officers to detect signs of violence-prone personalities, plans for a community appeals board to handle brutality complaints directly, and giving the public access to some of the force's internal review files.

"The same people who beat a black or a chicano today will beat a white person tomorrow," says N.A.A.C.P. Chief Benjamin Hooks. "This is not just a black problem but a citizens' problem."

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