Black and Blue

After Rizzo leaves office, Mayor William Green imposes new rules limiting when police can use deadly force. Police shootings fall by two thirds between 1979 and 1982.

A police officer shoots and kills 17-year-old Green during an arrest in North Philadelphia. The shooting sets off three days of protests, including an attack on a police station. The officer is charged with murder and involuntary manslaughter, but acquitted of all charges four years later.

Abu-Jamal is convicted of murder for the 1981 shooting of a Philadephia police officer based on eyewitness testimony. Abu-Jamal, a radio journalist and former Black Panther member, maintains that he was framed by police, and his case draws international attention. His conviction is upheld by numerous appeals courts, but his death sentence is converted to life in prison.

W. Wilson Goode Jr. is elected, becoming the city’s first black mayor.

An Inquirer investigation into the police K-9 unit reveals that it is out of control, and officers permit or command dogs to attack more than 350 people over the previous 33 months, often without justification. A dozen officers are subsequently removed from the unit, but a federal grand jury does not bring charges.

A police officer shoots 45-year-old Janerette, a former pro-football player, in the back of the head, killing him. The officer later testifies he thought Janerette, who had a history of mental health issues after his football career, was trying to steal the running police car, and claimed his gun accidentally discharged during a struggle. Witnesses refuted that claim. The officer is not charged. An all-white jury finds the officer's actions justified but negligent and awards the family $188,000.

“Operation Cold Turkey” begins, a massive sweep where nearly 1,500 people are stopped, searched, and questioned. According to a news report, “None of them had been observed in an illegal transaction. The police had no warrant for any of them. In none of the cases was there reasonable suspicion, let alone probable cause, to justify the stop and the search. The only basis for their being detained was that they were at a place that was under suspicion.”

The ACLU files a class action case, which is settled in 1986, and all arrests and charges from the action are ordered dismissed and expunged.

Willie Williams becomes the city’s first Black police commissioner.

Grant, 34, dies after being stopped by two police officers in a traffic stop in West Philadelphia. Grant's family claims the officers beat him to death while he was handcuffed after Grant refuses to get out of his car. Police officials say Grant initiated the incident, before suddenly falling limp and collapsing.

The city medical examiner rules Grant died of "cocaine intoxication," although he did suffer four blows to the forehead that "did play some role in his death." The FBI and the District Attorney's Office investigate, but neither officer is charged.

Eight police officers fire more than 90 shots at 54-year-old Matthews, known in his West Philadelphia neighborhood as "Window Washing Charlie." Police respond to a report that Matthews is intoxicated and has a gun; they say he fires at police, but his gun was not loaded. One officer is arrested for Matthews’ death. He is acquitted of manslaughter. The city pays almost a million dollars to settle a wrongful-death suit in the case.

Mayor Ed Rendell uses an executive order to create the Police Advisory Commission.pdf), made up of civilians to look into complaints of police abuse, after the city pays more than $10 million to settle police misconduct cases in five years. Between 1994 and 1996, the PAC receives 256 complaints about police conduct; 77% are from Black or Latino people.

The FOP tries to block the commission’s work. In 1995, the FOP sues to disband the commission, and try to block investigations “We’re going to direct our people not to cooperate with them. They’re going to have to get through me to get to my troops,” the FOP president says. The commission is also threatened by a state bill that would make civilian oversight boards illegal.

A grand jury indicts a group of officers from the 39th Police District on charges they spent at least three years shaking down people in predominantly Black North Philadelphia, “beating, robbing, lying and planting phony evidence.” The group falsified search and arrest warrants, presented false testimony in court, and framed criminal defendants, until they are brought down by FBI investigators. They plead guilty.

The officers are found to have violated the rights of hundreds of mostly Black defendants. As a result of the case, hundreds of convictions are overturned the city pays millions of dollars in damages. The NAACP files a major civil rights suit against the city, and fights for comprehensive reforms on excessive force, racial bias, and corruption. Mayor Rendell settles the case, implements new reforms and increases oversight.

An investigation of Internal Affairs complaints from 1989-1995 finds that most go nowhere, and when an investigation does side with the complainant, penalties are rarely harsh. And many officers who are fired are quietly reinstated. The investigation finds that, in the past 28 months alone, the city has paid out $20 million to resolve cases against at least 225 officers.

In 1998, In his first major act as police commissioner, John F. Timoney restructures the city’s Internal Affairs unit, in an effort to better handle police misconduct.

A police officer shoots 18-year-old unarmed Dawson in the head during a traffic stop in North Philadelphia. The officer is fired, but never stands trial because two judges dismiss manslaughter charges.

Seven years after his death, the Rizzo statue goes up across from City Hall. It causes controversy even before it is installed. In 2017, the city agrees to remove it in 2021.

Ten Philadelphia police officers beat and kick Jones, a Black man who is suspected of carjacking. He is struck 59 times by officers, and a news helicopter films the beating. A grand jury later finds the police behavior legal and no charges are brought against any officers.

An investigation in The Inquirer exposes the practice of police giving suspects what’s called a “nickel ride,” named after an old term for a cheap ride at an amusement park. In the police version, a person is handcuffed in the back of a police van but not put in a seatbelt, and the police drive roughly so the person is tossed around and injured.

The city pays more than $2 million to people injured from this treatment and promises reforms. But, in 2014, the city settles a new case alleging the same mistreatment and pays $490,000 to settle that case.

Police fatally shoot 22 people, the highest number in 32 years.

Yvonne Young calls the police to help get her 15-year-old son into rehab. But they shoot and kill Timbers inside his Crescentville home. Police claim that Timbers charged at the officers with a clothing iron; Young says her son is only pacing with the iron when he is shot and killed.

Nutter, who is Black, is elected mayor, after campaigning on a promise to enact a widespread stop-and-frisk policy to combat crime. The policy becomes the subject of a 2010 class action case that alleges it targets Black and Latino people without cause and is unconstitutional.

Isaac is inside an East Germantown rowhouse when a police officer fires 11 gunshots into the building after a suspect runs inside. Isaac, an innocent bystander, is shot five times and dies a week later. Three other people who are inside, including a 9-year-old boy, are also wounded. An investigation and lawsuit follows, but the officer is cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in the case.

Pennsylvania’s state prison system population hits its peak, 51,000, six times the 1980 count. Half of the inmates are Black, though Black people make up only 11% of the population across the state. As of 2020, the prison population has fallen 17% from that peak, though the percentage of Black people in prisons is still 46%.

Police fire 62 shots into a car in North Philadelphia, killing Moses, who is 24, a passenger, and unarmed. The city pays $2.5 million to settle a suit brought by Moses’ family.

Police shoot 37-year-old Moore, who is unarmed, in Southwest Philadelphia while he is inside his in-laws’ home. Police say they fire after Moore makes a threatening movement, which Moore denies, and says that the officer shot without warning, and without identifying himself as a police officer. The city later pays Moore $2.5 million to resolve a lawsuit. The officer who shot him is not charged.