PUNCH FIRST - ASK QUESTIONS LATER?

Another black eye for the Racine Police Department

A Racine resident who severely injured his right eye at the hands-or
fists-of the local Police Department has filed a complaint insisting that
an officer used excessive force by punching him as he stood defenseless and
compliant with his hands in the air.

After being approached by plain-clothes Racine officers in an unmarked
squad car in mid-November, Bilal Gilleylen says he feared robbery or worse.
And that fear prompted Gilleylen to run from his pursuers, who he says
didn't immediately identify themselves as officers.

Gilleylen says he stopped running when a uniformed officer finally exited
an unmarked squad car that was chasing him and yelled, "Stop! Police!"

"So I stop, put my hands in the air and turned around to see him still
running at me," Gilleylen says in an interview from the Racine County jail.
"At this point, I'm thinking he's going to tackle me, but instead, he
hauled off and punched me in the eye. Then slams me to the ground and hits
me in the nose."

Gilleylen asked the officer why he was being hit, to which Officer John
Finnigan allegedly replied, "That's what you get for running from the police!"

Gilleylen's eye-swollen shut for days after the Nov. 18 incident, requiring
hospital treatment-remains bruised more than a month later. A search for
weapons and drugs at the scene produced nothing.

Gilleylen's attorney, Public Defender Nathan Opland-Dobs, says he's heard
of similar excessive-force incidents in Racine, but "this is the most
blatant one I've run into."

"We have court systems set up to hand out punishment, and when things like
this happen, police officers bypass that system and become the judge and
jury themselves," Opland-Dobs explains. "When things like this happen, word
spreads. And the next time you're on a dark city street and the police are
going to pull you over, I think there's more incentive to run."

Gilleylen's Dec. 6 formal complaint is under investigation by the
department's Office of Professional Standards.

Including Gilleylen's, a total of 13 excessive force complaints were filed
against Racine police officers last year, according to new figures obtained
by Shepherd Express. In 2001, there were 10 such complaints-which at the
time was a six-year high.

The department also has come under fire for a Nov. 2 "rave" bust in which
more than 400 haunted-house-benefit patrons were issued $968 tickets for
being "patrons of a disorderly house"-after only three people were arrested
for drug possession.

Gilleylen's Charges

According to a criminal complaint against Gilleylen in the wake of his
arrest, he "unlawfully and knowingly" obstructed an officer by fleeing. The
complaint also asserts that another officer immediately identified himself
when Gilleylen was talking to someone in a car before the chase.

The police version of the altercation with Gilleylen, however, sheds little
light on the actions of arresting Officer Finnigan that night-only that
another officer observed Finnigan "decentralize the defendant." As of press
time, the department had not responded to requests for Finnigan's official
incident report.

Gilleylen has pleaded not guilty to the obstruction charge and will appear
in court this week. If convicted, he could face prison time and have his
parole revoked.

The Cops' Response

While he can't comment on the ongoing Gilleylen investigation, department
Public Information Officer William Macemon says, "The last thing we want to
do is go out hurting people."

But, he continues, "In some cases, people will do whatever they need to do
to get away, and then we've got to do what we're authorized to do."

Macemon adds that Racine officers are heavily trained in the state-approved
Defense And Arrest Tactics (DAAT) as recruits and must also complete an
additional eight hours of DAAT training each year.

The goal during any officer-citizen altercation is to end it quickly and
not have a "drawn-out fight," says Macemon. And in order to restrain
suspects, the DAAT training allows officers to use force "one step above"
that being used against them.

The area where Gilleylen was arrested, Macemon adds, "is one of our
neighborhoods where we do, unfortunately, have some drug activity."

Macemon does acknowledge that, generally, abuse at the hands of police is a
problem-but not in Racine, he says, regardless of the number of excessive
force complaints against the department.