Greensboro Delegation to Take the Issue of Police Corruption within the

GPD to the U.S. Justice Department in Washington

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Greensboro, NC

On Thursday September 30th, 2010, at 7:00 PM, several hundred people are expected to gather at New
Light Baptist Church, 1105 Willow Road for a “Justice Send Off Rally”. A delegation of over 40
people – including clergy, students, residents of the community, and police officers – will be boarding
a chartered bus at 1:00 AM, on October 1st to make the trip to the U.S Justice Department, in
Washington D.C.

On Sunday, August 29th, 2010, over 600 people gathered at Mt. Zion Baptist Church to hear from four
police officers about their mistreatment, suspensions, and recommendations for termination because
they objected to the mistreatment of citizens or in some way opposed the subculture of corruption and
double standards within the GPD. Over 50 clergy signed a letter on that occasion to be delivered to the
U.S. Justice Department. The letter requests Justice Department intervention in a long pattern of
violations of GPD regulations and violations of the law. The delegation will be armed with more than
600 pages of grievances that document over 60 violations of GPD regulations and/or criminal laws.
While in Washington the delegation will also visit several members of the North Carolina
congressional delegation to share the same information with them.

We urged City Manager Rashad Young to delay the installation of a new police chief until more
progress was made on rooting out the subculture of corruption and double standards. Our advice was
rejected. We believe that our new Police Chief Kenneth Miller has now been placed in an almost
impossible position. He is literally surrounded by many of the people that we know have violated
police regulations and/or criminal laws.

Nevertheless, we wish Chief Miller well. We urge him, however, to proceed with caution. If Chief
Miller’s tenure is to be successful, it means that not only we but also all of Greensboro must work even
harder to remove the subculture of corruption from the GPD. We believe we can be helpful to Chief
Miller. We are grateful that he publicly expressed an openness to meet with us. We will avail
ourselves of that opportunity in the near future.

As the planned trip to the U.S. Justice Department indicates, we are fully committed to continuing our
efforts to promote a good Greensboro Police Department that treats all segments of the public with
respect and dignity and enforces the law equally. This includes using one standard for all its officers.
We must continue this struggle for three reasons:
a.) First, the subculture of corruption and double standards is still in place. All of the leaders of
this subculture are still on the police force without any acknowledgement of wrong doing. We
saw this in 1985 when police officers were found liable for wrongful death in federal
court, yet even to this day there has been no acknowledgement of wrong doing by GPD.

b.) Secondly, we do not believe that Chief Miller is capable on his own of removing this blight
from the GPD. The subculture of which we speak has survived police chiefs, city councils,
mayors and city managers. In fact, the only city manager to seriously challenge the subculture
was Mitchell Johnson, and he was fired as a result of his efforts.
 c.) Third, there has developed in Greensboro a closed circle of denial that any serious problems
exist within the GPD. We previously cited a 50% disparity in the felony conviction rate of
Latin King members compared to other Guilford County felony cases. Today, we will name
over 25 people and present more than 60 examples of the violations of GPD regulation and/or
criminal law. There now exist 39 pending EEOC law suits against GPD. All of this is brushed
aside. The moral will to seriously engage the magnitude of the problem does not appear to
exist within GPD or the establishment city leadership. In addition, the Greensboro mainline
media has chosen a path of speaking despairingly about those who stand and suffer for justice,
rather than conducting quality investigative reporting to help shed light on our true situation.
We believe this is most unfortunate.

These three factors have led us to the conclusion that we must continue to build a base of knowledge
and resistance to this pattern of police injustice in our community and seek the assistance of the U.S.
Justice Department to help solve the problem.

We have enclosed in your package a copy of a press statement that quotes portions of an audiotape of a
polygraph session, in which we believe that Interim Chief Crotts was coaching Sergeant Isom in order
to achieve a certain outcome and in which City Manager Rashad Young appears also to be implicated.
We believe the way the polygraph test was administered violated acceptable procedures for conducting
a polygraph test, including using procedures normally reserved for criminal offenses despite the fact
that this was an administrative proceeding. In addition, some officers were allowed to take calming
medications inappropriately prior to their tests, while other officers were interrogated like criminals for
more than six hours. We will play the relevant sections of the tape in a few minutes.

The audiotape of Interim Chief Crotts coaching Sergeant Isom, as well as a videotape of the actual
polygraph tests, document the unacceptable and outrageous process used to administer the polygraph
tests. We believe the existence of these tapes is the primary reasons Officer Reyes and Officer Royal
were returned to their jobs. Further, we believe the motivation for placing these two officers back on
the job is prevention of a thorough investigation of the polygraph tests and related matters, which
would expose the subculture of corruption even further. Those who administrated and supervised the
administration the polygraph tests with the intent of securing a desired and fraudulent outcome should
be held accountable for their violations of procedures in accordance with the law.

In spite of what might be said by detractors, we are convinced that we are standing for the best interest
of Greensboro and ultimately the greatness of Greensboro. If we are found to be wrong on any
particular point, we are prayerful that we will be humble and honest enough to admit it. In the spirit of
a better Police Department and a better City of Greensboro, we invite all to join with us in this pursuit
of justice for all residents of our city.

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For More Information Contact:

Rev. Nelson Johnson, Beloved Community Center (336) 230-0001
Rev. Cardes Brown, Greensboro NAACP (336) 273-5579
Father Randall J. Keeney (336) 909-0701
Ms. Cherrell Brown (336) 324-4142
Rev. Joseph Frierson, Greensboro Truth & Community Reconciliation Process (336) 601-3449