Let's start out by saying that back in 2005, I did everything I could to get District Attorney David Soares elected in Albany, NY. He was challenging the incumbent, a key cog of the legendary Albany political machine, and started out as a heavy underdog. Alas, when you are part of the machine, sometimes you are called upon to do some unsavory things in your official capacity. In this case, the incumbent DA struck a sweat-heart deal with a rapist who happened to be Chief Counsel to (the now indicted) Sheldon Silver, then the Speaker of the NYS Assembly and probably the most powerful man in the state.
DA Soares has now been in office for a decade, and while his election victory did not mark the beginning of a new era that many of us hoped for, I do believe he's brought about desirable incremental change. Like any politician, his supporters, like me, invested a lot of hope in him, and many of those hopes have not been realized. But compared to what we had before? No contest.
But none of that changed the sting of this:
ALBANY, NY – District Attorney P. David Soares today announced that an Albany County Grand Jury cleared Albany Police Officers of any criminal wrongdoing in the death of Donald “Dontay” Ivy.
The Grand Jury declined to indict Officer Joshua Sears, Officer Charles Skinkle, Officer Michael Mahany, and Officer Mathew Haker for their conduct during the incident with Donald “Dontay” Ivy in the early morning hours of April 2, 2015.
“The members of the Grand Jury considered all of the evidence presented to them and ultimately determined that the officers involved in this matter were not criminally responsible for the death of Mr. Ivy,” commented DA Soares.
As usual, the Times Union (Specifically reporter Brendan J. Lyons) brings us the most thorough coverage.
Lyons sets the scene:
In the confines of his mental illness, Donald Ivy Jr. preferred walking from his Arbor Hill apartment to a nearby corner store after midnight, when there was less chance of encountering strangers or anyone talking to him.
On the night he died last April, Ivy, who was known as Dontay, was following his regular routine. But it was unusually cold when Ivy, 39, set out for the two-block walk to the store where he often went to buy cigarettes or candy just before it closed. His disability funds usually hit his bank account around midnight, and Ivy would visit an ATM off Clinton Avenue to check his balance and withdraw a little money.
We'll learn more about Dontay in a bit. Yes, he had a mental illness. But that had nothing to do with this, and by any meaningful measure of a man, Dontay was a quiet hero. But like I said, we'll get to that in a bit. For now, back to what happened last April.
Officer Joshua Sears, a six-year veteran of the department, was in the patrol car that drove up to Ivy. Officer Charles Skinkle, who had been on the force less than nine months, was riding with Sears. They were part of a special unit tasked with roaming the city's roughest neighborhoods to stop gun violence before it happened.
"They're out there trying to make sure, proactively, that we do not have any gunfire and that's what they were doing that night," Chief Brendan J. Cox said. "In hindsight, Dontay was not involved in any kind of gunplay."
"In hindsight"? Uhm, no. In any kind of sight. Dontay was walking, on a cold night, the two blocks between his home and a store. Gunplay? Where does anyone even come up with that?
Ivy, who was black, pulled his sleeves over his hands to keep warm when he walked home from the store that night carrying a pack of Twizzlers.
The white officers who confronted him were curious that his hands were hidden from view and also stated that there was something unusual about his gait, although it's unclear what they meant.
There was no crime unfolding and Ivy did not fit the description of anyone wanted for questioning.
"Ivy, who was black [...]"
Oh. I think I see now where they came up with their gunplay hypothesis.
But honest to god, this is exactly what is so disappointing.
The police, by citing suspicion of gunplay and a funny walk and inability to see hands on a cold night... That's all it takes to justify jacking up a black man who wanted nothing more complicated than to satisfy a late-night sweet tooth. That's all it takes to discriminate based on race and cast aside any pretense of respect for the 4th Amendment and what most white Americans accept as the traditional right to be left the fuck alone when you aren't doing anything wrong.
The cops asked for ID and back-up arrived. Yes, more cops arrived to harass a black man that wanted some Twizzlers. Because you know... Blackness. What other reason could there possibly be? Donte provided his ID and...
One of the officers asked Ivy if he'd ever had any trouble with the police. Ivy told the officers he had not, according to information police gave to Ivy's family members during their investigation of the incident.
The officers took Ivy's identification and ran a computer check from their patrol car. It revealed that more than eight years ago city police responded to a domestic argument involving Ivy and Susan Bartlett, who gave birth to their son and lived with Ivy for more than six years after they met in college.
At that point, according to accounts of law enforcement officials and Staton, the officers determined that Ivy had lied to them.
They allegedly accused him of being untruthful and began to pat him down. Still, they had no basis to arrest or detain Ivy.
More than eight years ago, the police visited his house. To referee an argument. Donte wasn't arrested. Never had to go to court. In short, he didn't get in trouble. But that's not the way the cops saw things... For some reason, cops decided Donte was a liar. Oh whatever could that reason be? White cops, black man... Hmmmm... Help me with this; it's on the tip of my tongue... Oh - got it... I think it's because Blackness.
As the officers searched Ivy for weapons, they claim he became agitated when they moved in front of him to search his clothing. Cox, who became police chief after Ivy's death, said the officers stated that Ivy lunged at them. Sears fired a Taser at Ivy but only one of the two electrically charged prongs struck him. The officers could have let Ivy run away, but they gave chase on foot as Ivy ran north toward his residence less than two blocks away.
Officers "claim he became agitated"... At least that claim would be plausible under most circumstances. Hell, if I was walking in his Donte's shoes, my thoughts are probably something like this: "Goddamit!! I'm just trying to buy a pack of fucking Twizzlers and I've got to deal with this bunch of punk-ass cops harassing me? I can't go for a two-block stroll without this shit? I can't walk to a fucking store and back home without the mother-fucking police jerking me around, calling me a liar, making me stand in the fucking cold just so they can fuck with me?"
But that's me as a white man. If I'm black, I'm probably thinking all those things plus wondering how these circumstances are any different from a time earlier in our history when Black people were entirely subject to the whims of some racist white authority.
But as we'll see... I doubt very much that's what Donte was thinking.
Before I move on though, I don't want to ignore the cops claim that Donte lunged at them... That's a fucking lie, and everyone knows it. If Donte had lunged at them, the three cops would have subdued him and perhaps beat the crap out of him. He never would have had a chance to run.
"It was after the first tase that Donald began to run," Staton said. "We could clearly see the three officers chasing him and firing the Taser while he's running ... there were sparks of light. Then when they actually tackled him you can see them still tasing him while he's on the ground."
Staton said police initially told the family members the officers used a Taser only once. Later, he said, they informed the family a Taser was deployed seven times and was "active" — meaning it may have connected with its target — in five of those instances.
Ivy was handcuffed behind his back and lying on the ground when police said he began to suffer a fatal heart attack. He was only a few yards from the residence he shared with his sister, Aneisha Johnson, who was unaware of what was unfolding outside.
According to police, the officers removed Ivy's handcuffs and began to perform CPR. An autopsy later showed that Ivy had a pre-existing heart condition that may have contributed to his death. His blood had traces of the anti-psychotic drug he took to control his mental illness, but no alcohol or other narcotics.
If Ivy lived, it's unclear whether the police could have charged him with anything. There was no allegation that he tried to injure the officers; running from the police is not a crime.
This is a huge problem we see again and again: Only the living are capable to saying what occurred. Here, it's all the white cops, huddling behind their "blue wall" that file the police reports, testify to the grand jury, etc. Cops
claim they removed the cuffs and performed CPR, but why should we believe them?
The very same cops lied when claiming they only fired their tasers once. The incontrovertible truth is that they fired 7 times, connected at least 5 times, and at least some of those 50,000 volt jolts were delivered after Donte had been tackled to the ground.
Oh, and yeah... At no point did Donte do anything unlawful. He did nothing for which the police could have arrested him.
So who was Donte Ivy?
Here's more from Lyons' report:
[Ivy had] schizophrenia, and an autopsy would later show the powerful drugs were in his system when he died. [in other words, he was controlling his condition the best he could, notwithstanding the burdensome side-effects he loathed]
He was diagnosed with the disease when he was a teenager. He was also an honor student and high school star athlete who, his family said, had avoided the drugs and alcohol that afflicted so many of his peers.
[Because of his mental illness, Donte] preferred walking from his Arbor Hill apartment to a nearby corner store after midnight, when there was less chance of encountering strangers or anyone talking to him.
Susan Bartlett, who fell in love with Ivy while they were both students at Virginia State University in 1998, gave birth to their son while they were attending school. They moved in together, off-campus, and began raising their son, Isaiah, until Ivy graduated in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in sociology.
"He was a quiet, kindhearted, mild-mannered individual," Bartlett said. "Those were the things that stuck out and I liked about him."
After she became pregnant, Bartlett said, she noticed unusual behavior on Ivy's part, including paranoia, and soon learned he was prescribed medication for mental illness. She said that while he was on medication he functioned well.
She said Ivy had a strong work ethic and landed an internship as a dispatcher in a local police department near their college. But the medication made him lethargic and climbing out of bed some days became extremely difficult.
"He was very determined and ambitious," Bartlett said. "But it was a constant battle for him to stay on his medication because they were counterproductive. If it was a choice between working and meds, he always chose work."
But the medications continued to make him lethargic. He started skipping doses to be able to get to work, but then his mental illness symptoms would increase, including paranoia.
"His only fault was having a mental-health issue that robbed him of his life and his dream," Bartlett said.
"Those were the beginning days of his paranoia," Staton said. "He didn't drink alcohol and didn't do drugs. He ended up in the hospital. He was very cautious around people. He was very careful with his food. He wouldn't let anybody fix a plate for him. He was very, very paranoid and very watchful of everyone around him."
Bartlett said that Ivy still maintained an arms-length relationship with their 16-year-old son, Isaiah. She said her relationship with Ivy fell apart nine years ago when his mental illness became a factor in their ability to live together and raise their son. After the breakup, she said, Ivy helped support Isaiah and visited him occasionally.
"He definitely tried to contribute to Isaiah financially," Bartlett said. "Due to his disability, it just robbed him of everything that he could be to his family, to society, to himself. It just robbed him."
The world lost an angel. Racist cops killed him. And now they've gotten away with it.
Now here's the rub, and my major beef with DA Soares.
Police reports were falsified, at least with regards to the deployment of the lasers. Falsification of government documents is a crime. If they can't be charged for manslaughter, at least convict them of the lesser crimes that would allow you to remove them from the force. As proven liars, these are not the kinds of cops you want to have to rely on as witnesses in criminal cases, right?
4:07 PM PT: New information has come to light since Lyons' reporting. The seven tases all came from the same taser. Because the tasers record their own activity, no additional police reporting was required or provided regarding the use of the taser. Unfortunately in this case, the only witnesses to Donte's homicide were the three officers on the scene. The neighborhood was canvassed for witnesses; none came forward. DA Soares has some good ideas about lessons, and already there have been changes made to Albany's taser policy.