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We STILL Cant Breathe: Justice for Dontay Ivy!

November 1, 2015

An Open Letter to Mayor Kathy Sheehan, D.A. David Soares, Chief of Police Brendan Cox, Members

of the Common Council, and members of our Capital District communities, from Capital Area Against

Mass Incarceration (CAAMI)

Shortly after midnight on April 2, 2015, Donald Dontay Ivy died after being unconstitutionally

stopped, violently assaulted and tasered by Albany police officers.

On October 28, 2015, Albany County District Attorney David Soares announced that a Grand Jury had

decided not to indict the three officers involved in Ivys death. In a letter Soares wrote to Albany Mayor

Kathy Sheehan describing the results of his investigation into the incident which he referred to as a

scuffle Soares did not share any specifics of the testimony or evidence obtained by or presented to

the grand jury. Given that District Attorneys are almost always able to obtain indictments from Grand

Juries, it seems likely that D.A. Soares did not seriously attempt to obtain an indictment.

Soares letter was a whitewash, accepting the police account at face value and barely mentioning a need

to review police department training andpolicies except for recommending more cameras. In a joint

press conference with Soares, Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox said the three officers had not violated

any policy and this was not a case of racial profiling.

Another Black person is dead at the hands of white police officers, and no one did anything wrong.

Dontay Ivy left his house to check his account at the local ATM for his benefit funds. Finding they were

not yet available, he was on his way home when he was accosted by Albany police officers.

D.A. Soares spends a lot of space in his report detailing his offices unsuccessful attempts to findnon-police witnesses and useful video or camera images for what happened next. Most of the

information he presents comes from the police officers themselves. But the officers own account

presents a horrifying and unashamed -- picture of a violent police assault on an innocent unarmed man

who was minding his own business and presented no threat to anyone. It is not clear why any additional

information would be needed to indict these officers -- and the policies, training, departmental culture,

and societal racism that led to Dontay Ivys death.

As described in the Soares letter, the officers presented their account of ridiculous hunches (he looked

suspicious because he was wearing a puff jacket with his hands in the sleeves and the temperature was

not that cold at 26 degrees) and wildly escalating police violence as if it was normal and acceptable

policing policy and practice which apparently it is, since both the D.A. and the Police Chief found

nothing wrong with it.

The officers were not looking for a suspect no crime had been committed. The police account

establishes that the officers violated Mr. Ivys rights from the moment they accosted him. They had no

reasonable, articulable suspicion Mr. Ivy had been, was, or was about to be engaged in criminal activity,

the constitutional requirement for a police stop to be lawful. When asked to show his hands to prove

he was not concealing a gun in the sleeve Mr. Ivy complied. At that point the officers, with zero

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grounds for suspicion of anything, changed their theory: if he was not concealing a gun, he must be

concealing drugs. No racial profiling?

At each stage of the confrontation, the officers used the fear they created as an excuse to escalate to

more violence. With no grounds for suspicion, they started a pat search, and when Dontay moved his

hands, they tried to put handcuffs on him, and when he resisted the handcuffs not a crime, since he

was not under arrest they assaulted him, attempted to throw him to the ground, and tasered him. Thenhe began to run (also not a crime) with three officers chasing and repeatedly tasering him. Finally the

officers threw him to the ground face down, beat him with batons, tasered him some more, and cuffed

his hands behind his back. Mr. Ivy still had done absolutely nothing illegal or threatening and was not

under arrest. The officers there were five of them now -- describe him being disruptive screaming,

flailing, and arching his back so they continued to beat and taser him, and decided to shackle his feet.

After he was shackled, they said, he finally calmed down, and shortly afterward they rolled him over.

Dontay Ivy was dead.

The coroner said Dontay died of a stress-induced heart attack brought on by the confrontation, with

tasering a contributing, but not the only, factor. The D.A. found an expert from out of state to say thatdeath is not a reasonably foreseeable result of tasering (although it has killed at least 800 people, not

counting police cover-ups). Dontays underlying heart condition and mental illness were said to be

contributing factors, and perhaps they were but you would not have to be mentally ill to panic in that

situation.

In his letter to Mayor Sheehan, Mr. Soares says it is time for healing to begin. CAAMI says there can be

no healing without justice.

Dontay Ivy is the tip of the iceberg: if this is the treatment meted out to a mentally ill, unthreatening,

non-suspect, what treatment must be standard for a person of color suspected of a crime, or bold enough

to challenge an abusive officer?

We are outraged that our community is being asked to accept the death of an innocent Black man by a

violent police attack as normal and justified. If no part of the system did anything wrong, no one is

accountable, and no major changes need to happen, we can all just sit back and wait for the next death of

the next Dontay Ivy which is sure to come.

Our community refuses to sit still and wait for another Black death at the hands of police. CAAMI does

not accept Dontay Ivys death, the non-indictment of killer police officers, and the excuses of Mr.

Soares and Chief Cox which guarantee that nothing will change and more Dontays will be killed.

CAAMI demands the firing of the officers involved in Dontays death, the resignation of District

Attorney Soares, an end to the use of Tasers by Albany police, and the disarming of the APD. We want

no more Dontays, no more abuse, no more over-policing, no more mass incarceration, no more youth in

adult prisons, no more racially-targeted policies which endanger rather than protect our communities.

We have held demonstrations, protests, teach-ins, sit-ins, and die-ins to insist that Black Lives Matter

here in the Capital District as they do everywhere. We will not stop until the policies, practices, and

culture that led to Dontay Ivys death are eradicated forever.