Brutality Suit

The ongoing battle between the Providence Police Department (PPD) and the Rake, a student publication at Brown University, over access to police brutality records may be entering a new phase.

Although the Rhode Island Supreme Court ordered the police department to open its record to the "collective" publication last November after a heated 18-month battle, collective member Mark Toney (Brown '82) says that because of a $528.48 "preparation charge" levied on the documents by the Department, the Rake is still far from uncovering the "widespread police abuse we feel is happening daily in Providence."

Consequently, the Rake is once again considering further legal action--this time to force the PPD to lower its lee.

And while PPD personnel director Donald Lawton says the fee charge is assessed as a "standard practice" to any group wishing to obtain police records, the Rake charges stonewalling.

"They are hiding information because they want to obstruct the public's right to know because they don't want to have to operate under the rules that are set," says Rake member Liz Moore (Brown '83).

The Rake first requested the brutality records in 1950. --The Brown Daily Herald