Albuquerque Police Misconduct Lawyer

What To Do If Your Civil Rights are Violated

Video Transcript:

Shannon Kennedy: 

No is above the law, and no one is below the law, and that is a unifying principle that I really believe transcends politics.

Rob Rosenthal: 

If you're the victim of police misconduct, what are your rights and how do you get help? Well, we're gonna get the answers to those questions and more right now, because that's what we're going to Ask the Lawyer on this episode. Hi, again, everybody. I'm Rob Rosenthal with askthelawyers.com, and my guest is New Mexico attorney Shannon Kennedy. Right at the outset, I wanna remind you, if you'd like to ask Shannon questions about your situation, just go to askthelawyers.com, click the button at the top that says, Ask a Lawyer, and it'll walk you through the process right there, or you can call the phone number that you'll see on the screen during our conversation. Shannon it's good to see you again, thank you for making some time to answer our questions.

Shannon Kennedy: 

Good to see you.

Rob Rosenthal: 

So listen, how big of a problem is police misconduct in New Mexico? And what are some of the more common issues you've seen?

Shannon Kennedy: 

Well, New Mexico, sadly long has led the country in statistics of wrongful death arising from excessive force by police officers. Not too long ago, I think beginning in 2014, the Department of Justice began investigating the city of Albuquerque Police Department for its culture of excessive force and aggression. And they started supervising, and there was a consent decree and a systemic change in the city of Albuquerque Police Department to try to stop excessive use of force, police shootings that resulted in wrongful death of people who were primarily suffering mental health crisis.

Rob Rosenthal: 

So what is it that you and your law firm do to try and help these people who are victims of who, or civil rights have been violated by police?

Shannon Kennedy: 

Well, we work with the families and survivors of those that have lost loved ones to try to hold individuals and institutions accountable for the use of excessive force. Pursuant to the United States Constitution, we all have a right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. And when an officer grabs a person's body and uses force to take their life, that is a violation of the United States Constitution. And so what we do is we investigate and hold accountable those who abuse their power. We also do civil rights cases on behalf of people who have been unfortunately sexually exploited by police officers. And that is under the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, when an officer violates one's bodily integrity by using their position of authority to extort sex.

Rob Rosenthal: 

In these cases, I'm sure you seek monetary damages, but are there other results, other outcomes, other changes you'd like to see result from these kind of cases?

Shannon Kennedy: 

Absolutely. What we need to change is leadership in the field. There's been a lot of training about Grant V Connor and the standards of how to be objectively and reasonable when you're a police officer, and how to de-escalate situations involving people who are suffering from mental health crisis. Part of the work we have done in New Mexico with the survivors of families of who have survived and who are suffering, such grief of the loss of their loved ones is pass legislation to mandate training for police officers in what's called CIT, crisis intervention training. Crisis Intervention Training teaches officers to identify when someone is in a mental health crisis and trying not to criminalise that crisis. For example, in New Mexico, they've changed the way scenes develop by dispatching to the scene social workers and people with training in treating people with mental health disabilities as opposed to criminalising those mental health disabilities by slapping handcuffs on the person who's in a mental health crisis.

Rob Rosenthal: 

And it's obviously, especially the last couple of years, the topic of police misconduct has been highly politicised. Is this a political thing for you and the victims that you represent?

Shannon Kennedy: 

I wouldn't call it a political thing, I think it transcends politics. I don't think there is a person of any political stripe who wants to see police officers have too much force in the United States of America. I think one thing that joins our country together is that no matter whether you're blue or red, you do not wanna see the government restricting people's liberty and seizing people's body and property without due process. So I believe the Constitution is a unifying, a document that brings Americans together. And so in a sense, I believe that transcends politics. I believe that we have a tradition in this country of protesting abuse of power, and we've seen that in the streets with the people that came out to protest the murder of George Floyd. And certainly before George Floyd, there were people in the streets of the city of Albuquerque protesting the death of a homeless man named James Matthew Boyd. And we had the privilege of representing that family and going on that journey to try to make the streets of Albuquerque safer for everybody. And the motto is, "No one is above the law, and no one is below the law." And that is a unifying principle that I really believe transcends politics.

Rob Rosenthal: 

Really interesting conversation. Thank you so much, Shannon for making some time to help us out today. I appreciate it. That's gonna do it for this episode of Ask the Lawyer. My guest has been New Mexico attorney, Shannon Kennedy. Don't forget if you wanna ask Shannon questions about your situation, go to askthelawyers.com. There's a button at the top of the screen that says, Ask a Lawyer. You click right there, and it'll walk you through the process. Thanks for watching, I'm Rob Rosenthal with Ask the Lawyers.

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