"One Hood" members met with Bill Peduto on Friday morning September 29th at his office in the City/County building. We were concerned that no elected official nor spokesman for the Police department had made a public statement in regards to the case of Pamela Lawton and her children being detained by Police Officer Eric Tatusko who according to Mrs. Lawton and several documented witnesses; pointed his weapon at Mrs. Lawton's 7 year old daughter Joshelyn and threatened to "Blow her brains out" during a traffic stop in the Shadyside section of Pittsburgh on August 26th, 2006.
"This happened in my district and I'm trying to find out what happened,
I don't know all the facts, but I think that people need to know what's going on. I will be a conduit to all concerned individuals from different communities. It doesn't help anyone for the city to be torn apart or divided because people don't have enough information." - Bill Peduto
Mr. Peduto said that he had spoken to Ex-Police Chief Costa (who just resigned). Mr. Costa said that the Police had started an internal investigation into the matter. Mr.Peduto said that he would also speak to the new acting Police Chief Paul J. Donaldson about the investigation and advised us to reach out to the new acting Chief as well and meet with as many elected City/County representatives as we could.
We made a few suggestions to Mr. Peduto of productive ways of creating more accountability from the Police department to the community:
1. Drop all charges against Pamela Lawton.
2. Suspend Officer Tatusko without pay until investigation.
3. Cultural Sensitivity training for all officers who serve the public in our communities.
4. Better training on de-escalating problems.
5. Give the Civilian police review board more power.
6. Video cameras in police cars.
7. Work with community based organizations to deal with drug situations, crime.
8. Re-establish Community orientated police.
We will continue to be dilligent and keep the pressure on to insure that Pamela Lawton and her daughters receive justice.
In other related Pittsburgh Police news:
According to The Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Allegheny County Sheriff Pete DeFazio confirmed that he was retiring on Oct. 31. The Sheriff's dept. has been under federal investigation for corruption since 2002 resulting in the convictions of Mr. DeFazio's former Chief Deputy Dennis Skosnik and 2 other top Officers for bribery, tampering with a witness, mail fraud, making false statements and money laundering.
Paradise Gray
"One Hood"
Putting the Neighbor Back into "The Hood"
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