II. HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES COMMITTED BY THE HAITIAN NATIONAL POLICE

The Haitian National Police have committed serious abuses since their initial deployment in July 1995, including extrajudicial executions and beatings during arrests and interrogations. Police agents, both in the regular HNP service and in special units, killed at least forty-six civilians and wounded at least fifty more between July 1995 and November 1996.1 Most of these killings have occurred in the Port-au-Prince area. On March 6, 1996, in the Port-au-Prince shantytown of Cité Soleil, the HNP summarily killed at least six men. Police killed five people in another incident on November 4, 1996, in Port-au-Prince, two of whom may have been extrajudicially executed.

Some HNP agents and officers have demonstrated an alarming tendency to adopt the abusive practices of Haiti's past security forces. Yet these abuses did not appear to be systematically ordered by police authorities. Police violence reflects insufficient training, inadequate leadership, inexperience, and lack of equipment. In some cases, deadly force appears to have been used in legitimate self-defense. The following discussion provides an illustrative but not comprehensive account of human rights abuses committed by Haiti's new national police force.

Summary Executions and Attempted Murders

HNP agents deliberately executed at least fifteen civilians in shooting and beating incidents. In several other instances, victims survived apparent police attempts to kill them.

Cité Soleil, a Port-au-Prince slum with a population of about 300,000, has been the scene of about 25 percent of the documented killings by police agents. The most egregious abuses occurred on March 6, 1996, when the HNP committed at least six summary executions, as well as attempted summary executions and other acts of police brutality. At this writing, the police had not released any results of their investigation of this incident. The Haitian courts have not prosecuted a single police agent or officer for participation in the March 6 abuses.

Police violence in the area began on March 4, 1996, when the HNP responded to a demonstration at the National Port Authority (Autorité Portuaire Nationale, APN) in Port-au-Prince. One of the demonstrators, Eliphète Monval, reportedly was shot and killed during the demonstration by an HNP agent after he slapped the agent. Members ofthe HNP's Ministerial Security Corps (Corps de Securité Ministerielle, CSM) arrested nine demonstrators and took them to CSM's headquarters at the former military airport.2 Only eight detainees were transferred later to the Pétionville police station. The corpse of the ninth detainee, Jimmy Poteau, was found on March 5 near the National Theatre at Portail Léogâne with a bullet hole in his chest, the apparent victim of an extrajudicial execution.3

On the morning of March 6, when local residents found out that Jimmy Poteau had died after being detained at CSM headquarters, a crowd gathered to protest and to demand the release of the other eight detainees. The crowd erected barricades across Route Nationale Numéro 1 and, according to MICIVIH, used a broken bottle to attack a police officer who was passing by. At least one emergency call went out on police radios, from an undetermined source.

Several uniformed and plainclothes police units responded, including agents from the Delmas, Port-au-Prince, and Pétionville police stations and some one hundred members of the Ministerial Security Corps. Several hours of pandemonium ensued, with minimal coordination between police units. Police reportedly roared through the streets in pickups, firing weapons as terrified residents fled for cover.4 Shooting victims and other witnesses stated that many police were searching for members of a purported "Red Army" (Armée Rouge).5 Witnesses and shooting victims implicated police in numerous incidents that left at least ten dead and more than fifteen wounded by gunfire or beatings.

* Police agents reportedly seized Frenel Louis from his home and killed him. His sister stated that police entered the neighborhood in several vehicles and conducted house-to-house searches, forcing residents to lie on their floors. She and her children were forced onto the floor of her patio, from which she could see her brother's home. She watched as police entered his home, then took her brother outside and shot him twice. When the police left the area, she ran into the street, where a man helped her lift her brother into a wheelbarrow. She carried him about one hundred meters and then ran home to get a pillow for his head. When she returned, witnesses told her that the police had reappeared and, noting that her brother was still alive, shot him twice in the head. She said, "They destroyed his head, his face was gone."6

* Walson Marco was killed in the Cité Boston area of Cité Soleil. He was part of a youth group protesting the death of Jimmy Poteau. His sister stated that she discovered his body with two bullet holes in his chest, and wounds in his head, arm, and foot. She spoke to a witness who reportedly saw a police woman fire a first shot into Marco's foot, after which two male agents shot him in the body and head. Marco's sister left the area brieflyto get a vehicle to pick up her brother's body. She said that when she returned, she saw police in the area and ten or eleven other corpses in the street, including one she recognized one as a man named "Salomon."7

* Twenty-year-old "Marcus" alleged that on March 6 police beat him and attempted to kill him in an area of Cité Soleil known as Cité Norway. He stated that the police came to his home at about 11:00 a.m., asked him to come outside, and then fired a shot into the house, almost hitting a resident. Outside, he saw heavily armed, uniformed police in two vehicles, holding holding two other young men from his neighborhood. The police reportedly asked him about the Red Army, but he said that he did not know of such a group. He alleged that the police beat him and the two detainees. The police then pointed their weapons at him, told him to run, and shot him in the hip. He said: "They came towards me when I fell, and I think they wanted to kill me, but I got up and started to run. I was on one side of the canal and then they shot at me from the other side of the canal." He fled into nearby alleys and later sought medical attention.8 His chest was deeply scarred and there was a bullet wound on his hip.

The HNP has attempted and committed other extrajudicial executions since the force's establishment:

* On December 11, 1995, an off-duty HNP agent traveling on a public bus disputed the fare and shot the driver, wounding him seriously. The agent reportedly was arrested for attempted murder, but then released on January 10, 1996, when he reached an out-of-court settlement in a civil suit paying the victim compensation.9

* On January 17, 1996, for reasons which remain unclear, an HNP agent reportedly shot Wilson Pierre, a thirty-five-year-old employee of the Delmas city hall, at close range through the back. Pierre, a resident of Cité Soleil, stated that he was listening to music on earphones as he walked to a community water tank. He stated:

When I was hit, I dropped my tape player. At the same time, a policeman grabbed my back. The agent ordered me to pick up my radio but I couldn't. I was doubled over with pain from being shot. As I tried to lean over, I looked over my shoulder and I saw his face and then he ran. He had on the police uniform with a bulletproof vest. He was very close to me when he shot me.10

* HNP agents beat one detainee to death and attempted to kill three others held in the Carrefour police station on the night of June 6 to 7, 1996. In August 1996, the HNP inspector general's office took disciplinary action against HNP agents Rony Dupuis and Marc-André Elien. On October 11, 1996, Dupuis, Elien, and a third agent, Junior Auriel, were fired and their cases forwarded to the judicial authorities. They were jailed pending trial.11

* Between June 20 and 24, 1996, police killed four detainees at the police station in Croix-des-Bouquets, a town near Port-au-Prince. HNP agents tortured Moïse François to death and severely beat Fedner Descollines and then threw him in a latrine, where he was later found dead. Two other detainees were also killed, one shot to death. The HNP inspector general's office issued a public statement acknowledging police responsibility for the deaths and announcing an investigation of eighteen officers for their possible participation.12 According to the inspector general, two agents were fired and are in jail pending trial at this writing.13

* In December 1996, the HNP director, Pierre Denizé, ordered the arrest of Eddy Arbouet, reportedly an unofficial member of the presidential security unit and a former U.S. soldier, as a suspect in the killings of two opposition politicians on August 20, 1996.14 Pastor Antoine Leroy and Jacques Florival were, respectively, a leader and member of the Mobilization for National Development (Mobilisation pour le Développement National). Denizé's call for Arbouet's arrest followed U.S. accusations that the presidential guard was responsible for the killings. The leader of the unit, the second in command, and seven additional members also were implicated in the killing.15

* The HNP killed five men on November 4, 1996.16 One of the dead was found handcuffed while another had been shot at close range in the head, raising concerns that the HNP may have extrajudicially executed two of the five men. Police claimed that the killings occurred in a "shoot-out" between HNP agents and individuals in a pickup containing weapons. Yet no HNP agent was wounded in the incident and only one vehicle suffered minor damage from one bullet. The incident began when an HNP patrol car attempted to stop a vehicle on the evening of November 4. The pickup truck fled on Route Delmas, a major Port-au-Prince road, as HNP pursued and radioed for backup. Other HNP vehicles cut off the truck, bringing a total of up to fifty police to the scene. The HNP claim that the men in the truck, at least one of whom reportedly was wearing an HNP uniform, opened fire and that police returned fire, killing five of the suspects.17 Police allege that seven others, including two wounded, escaped. The HNP seized a significant number of weapons from the pickup truck, reportedly including ammunition for automatic weapons and mortars. At this writing, the police had not released public information identifying the dead and wounded, nor had the HNP announced the opening of an investigation into the incident.

* On the night of November 11, 1996 in Anse à Galets on the island of La Gonâve, HNP agents shot and killed Venerable Setil Christel. Christel was killed while police were conducting an illegal arrest of another individual. The arrest was illegal under Haitian law since it occurred after 6:00 p.m.18

Excessive Use of Force Resulting in Death or Serious Injury

HNP agents have used their weapons in circumstances where lethal force was unjustified or disproportionate, particularly in crowd control situations where stray bullets pose an obvious danger. Police also committed several killings with an excessive use of force while carrying out arrests or searches. Police used excessive force in the following cases:

* An HNP agent killed a seven-year-old school girl, Vania Termidor, in Cité Soleil on November 25, 1995. Witnesses reported that an agent on a motorcycle motioned for a nearby vehicle to stop, but the driver did not do so. As the girl and her twelve-year-old uncle passed nearby, the policeman reportedly drew his gun and fired the weapon, hitting the girl in the back of the head. Witnesses alleged that the agent then turned to the fallen child, kicked her in the head, and called her "garbage."19 With an angry crowd gathering, the HNP agent allegedly climbed on his motorcycle and sped away while firing his weapon in the air. Following this incident, a crowd ransacked the Cité Soleil police station. The HNP inspector general said he could not find the file from his predecessor's investigation of this case, but he had not reopened an investigation as of June 1996.20

* On January 16, 1996, a group of workers went to the Haitian-American Sugar Company (HASCO) in Port-au-Prince to demand their paychecks. HASCO security guards fired at the crowd and called the police for assistance. A large contingent of HNP agents arrived and attempted to disperse the crowd, which refused to leave. Police fired on the crowd and killed twenty-four-year-old Martha Jean-Charles and a six-month-old baby. Two police agents were wounded in the incident.21

* In January 1996, a crowd protesting electricity shortages barricaded the Route Nationale Numéro 1 at L'Éstère, a town near Gonaïves, blocking the road for three days. Local HNP monitored the demonstration without incident for two days, but on January 10, the arrival of a police unit from Gonaïves apparently sparked a conflict. Reportedly, members of the Gonaïves unit began firing their weapons in response to rock-throwing demonstrators. The police shot and killed a nine-year-old girl, Eva Pierre, with a stray bullet, and wounded two other protesters.22 Members of the local HNP unit reportedly identified the Gonaïves agents who were responsible for the incident. The L'Éstère justice of the peace arrested these police agents, who were held overnight in the Gonaïves jail. Fellow HNP agents released the detainees the next morning. We are not aware of any further investigation or disciplinary action in this case.

* On February 21, 1996, several armed HNP agents accompanied by local residents, many of whom carried rocks and ropes, entered Quai Brillant in the area of Grande Rivière du Nord in the northern department. The police apparently were responding to a political dispute between local authorities and an opposition community organization. HNP agent Ernst Garçon shot Wilfred Cherfils through the left thigh, Marcelus Roland in the knee, and twelve-year-old Wilner Joseph in the back of the leg. Another agent, Nonez François, used his rifle to beat Wesley Deshommes in the mid-section and testicles.23 HNP agent Garçon allegedly impeded bystanders from assisting the wounded. Shooting victims stated that they were too frightened of local authorities to make a complaint.24

* In Port-au-Prince on February 27, 1996, police broke up a demonstration of schoolchildren, some reportedly as young as ten years old, using truncheons and firing into the air.25 One child was reportedly injured in the hand by a bullet.

* On March 2, 1996, in Carrefour, a municipality bordering Port-au-Prince, police killed an unidentified individual after several youths seriously wounded an HNP agent at the Carrefour Reception Center (Centre d'Acceuil). The reception center was said to be the hang-out of an armed gang. When police reinforcements arrived, they opened fire, killing an individual they claimed was trying to escape over a wall. However, blood traces found at the site indicated that the victim was killed in an interior corridor.26

The HNP repeatedly employed excessive force during the March 6 disturbances in Cité Soleil, as the following cases show.

* A forty-five-year-old photographer, Christol Bruno, alleged that the HNP shot him through the closed door of his home in the Deuxième Cité of Cité Soleil on March 6, 1996. He stated that around noon, four white police pickups arrived in his neighborhood, with about five uniformed agents in each, most armed with .38 revolvers or twelve-gauge shotguns. He watched as HNP agents fired on four demonstrators building a barricade and then went to his home. Shortly afterwards, police tried to open his locked door. Moments later, he heard a loud noise and realized that he had been shot in the chin. Opening his door, he saw uniformed, armed police officers outside who reportedly apologized for shooting him and blamed "vagabonds" for creating a disturbance.27 The police and UNMIH troops took him to a hospital but did not pay for his treatment. The bullet remains visible in Bruno's chin.

* Maxim Destin, a twenty-year-old student, was walking from his home in Cité Soleil Nine to a public toilet at about noon on March 6, 1996, when he saw a white, four-door police pickup truck carrying at least eight armed,uniformed police agents, some with rifles. He alleged that the police fired from the moving vehicle as they passed, wounding him in the hip. He reportedly saw police shoot another man in the leg.28

* Nineteen-year-old "Victor" of the Cité Boston sector of Cité Soleil, was returning from school at about 3:00 p.m. on March 6, 1996, when he saw three police agents. He stated that one was in uniform and two in plainclothes and that each carried a handgun and a heavier weapon. They stopped him, pointed their guns at him, and asked if he was in the Red Army. He stated that he was too frightened to speak and began to run. The police agents allegedly shot him in the buttocks as he ran.29

* On March 10, 1996, Lescelie Jean-Baptiste was shot and wounded by an HNP agent in the Marché Premier Cité in Cité Soleil. Jean-Baptiste, a fifty-two-year-old market vendor, had gone to sell fruits and vegetables in the early afternoon. Seven or eight police agents with their weapons drawn reportedly entered the narrow, crowded market looking for a suspect. One agent fired, wounding Jean-Baptiste in the upper arm. She stated that the police took her to the General Hospital, but did not assist with the cost of her treatment.30

* On July 3, 1996, in Mandou, near Anse d'Hainault in the Grande Anse department, HNP agent Calixte Saint-Clermont shot and wounded Mercilia Dorius in the groin. HNP authorities arrested Saint-Clermont and the inspector general's office issued a public statement regarding the case on July 5.31 On September 30, the inspector general announced that he had fired Saint-Clermont and forwarded his case to judicial authorities.32

Torture and Beatings During Arrest, Detention, and Interrogation

Haitian National Police leadership and individual officers acknowledged a growing practice of beatings during interrogation, resulting in the deaths (detailed above) of at least five detainees in June 1996.33 MICIVIH also documented an alarming increase in the abuse of detainees, with eighty-six cases reported in the first five months in 1996, thirty-five of which occurred in Port-au-Prince.34 HNP agents treated individuals with excessive force during arrest and beat them in police lock-ups. Many individuals alleged that, during interrogations, police punched and kicked them or hit them with pistol butts, stun-guns, batons, or plastic piping. MICIVIH also received several complaints that police at the central Port-au-Prince station shocked detainees with electric currents. Police apparently targeted "individuals suspected of being members of armed gangs, of having killed police officers, or of having participated in armed robberies."35 MICIVIH reported that the detainees' complaints of abuse in Port-au-Princedeclined in the second half of 1996, but the human rights mission did receive complaints from some detainees, including former soldiers, alleging that police had threatened and beaten them as they were arrested or interrogated.36

In a troubling response, the commanding officer of the Jacmel police station, Inspector Jean-Gabriel François, said that beating prisoners was a necessary police practice since "these people are criminals."37 Serious beating and torture cases have been documented in the region under François's command. His view echoed those of some police in Port-au-Prince, who justified beatings in cases where detainees had been carrying weapons or were "known" to be armed and violent robbers.38

In addition to the beating deaths detailed above, HNP are responsible for the following cases of beatings and torture:

* On February 21, 1996, a group of HNP agents and armed civilians arrested Jean-Marie Alexandre in his home in Grande Rivière du Nord. HNP agent Nonez François and other HNP agents allegedly beat Alexandre in the police station, injuring his right eye and left shoulder. The police held him for three days, two of which he spent handcuffed, and did not permit him to receive prompt medical attention.39

* HNP agents allegedly arrested Jean Pierre Santilus without a warrant on March 19, 1996, accused him of theft, and held him at the Jacmel police station. For five consecutive days, three agents allegedly beat Santilus on the chest, back, and buttocks during interrogation sessions. His complaint to the local investigating judge did not result in any action against the HNP agents.40

* Another detainee in the Jacmel prison, Paul Wilfrid Bonet, also alleged that HNP agents arrested him without a warrant on March 19, 1996, and then beat him at the police station. Several agents reportedly made him lie down, handcuffed him, and watched while three other HNP agents beat him on the face and chest. He complained to the local investigating judge, who allegedly spoke to the accused police officers and then dropped the case.41

* On June 10, 1996, HNP agents acting without arrest warrants detained and tortured several residents of Bainet, in the region of Jacmel, including Renald Brutus, Daniel Coreau, and Joyeux L'Homme Lièvre.42 Although the police lacked a search warrant, they searched Brutus's home for drugs, which they did not find. Once at the localpolice station, Brutus allegedly was kicked and beaten with a stick on the head, legs, buttocks, arms, and back. According to the victim, an HNP agent named Alexandre and Alexandre's brother, who was not an agent, joined in the attack. On of the assailants fired a gun next to Brutus's ear and left him tied to a tree in the sun for over an hour. The HNP agents continued the beating despite one agent's protests. Brutus and other detainees allegedly also witnessed police beating Coreau and Lièvre, who had been arrested earlier.

When Renald Brutus's sixty-year-old father, Pierre Brutus, went to visit his son at the police station on June 10, the HNP also arrested him. The ranking HNP agent in Bainet, Guenel Joseph, along with three other agents, reportedly beat Pierre Brutus with a stick on the back and legs and then handcuffed him to a ladder, leaving him hanging for over half an hour. The police beat and interrogated Renald and Pierre Brutus again the next day. The police allegedly put guns in the mouths of two other detainees and urged them to make statements implicating Renald Brutus in drug trafficking. On June 12, 1996, CivPol officers arrived in Bainet and transported Renald Brutus, Coreau, and Lièvre to Jacmel. HNP agent Guenol Joseph reportedly threatened to kill Brutus if he told CivPol about the beatings. Joseph later denied beating prisoners but admitted that no drugs were found in the house search and said that the HNP had "invited" the detainees to come to the police station to give statements.43

* Genet Pierre alleged that a group of HNP agents beat him on a public bus between Jacmel and Port-au-Prince on June 4, 1996. Pierre stated that he was bringing medicine to a family member in the capital when the substance spilled on the bus and emitted a strong odor. He reported that about eight out-of-uniform police agents became angry at the smell and began beating him with their hands, batons, and revolvers. The police then allegedly searched his bag, seized a cap gun he had bought for his nephew, arrested him, and brought him to the Jacmel police station. Later, CivPol officers reportedly took him to a local hospital for treatment of his injuries.44

Additional Police Misconduct and Lack of Transparency in Police Operations

Police have conducted warrantless searches, particularly in the context of disarmament efforts, and carried out search and arrest operations between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., contravening a constitutional prohibition on such actions during those hours.45 Some police carry rifles, Uzis, Galils, M16s, and other automatic weapons in violation of a Haitian law limiting police to side-arms. The police apparently obtained these heavier weapons from the IPSF or in disarmament searches. The police leadership has presented a bill to parliament that would permit special police units, such as an Anti-Gang or Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit, to carry heavier weapons in specific circumstances. The Haitian Parliament had taken no action on this bill as of this writing.

During the first year of their deployment, HNP agents frequently failed to wear their uniforms and identification tags, and almost no police cars were clearly marked or bore police license plates.46 Some police vehicles also had tinted windows, hampering identification of police agents. Greater transparency would enhance police accountability.

The HNP has improved police transparency, at least in the Port-au-Prince area, where most police cars are marked and HNP agents usually wear their uniforms. Nonetheless, the current HNP identification badge is difficultto read, making it harder to identify and hold individual agents accountable for abuses. The proliferation of false National Intelligence Service (Service d'Intelligence Nationale, SIN, a disbanded intelligence unit formerly under the Interior Ministry known for serious human rights abuses) badges, highlighted the potential for abuse of police identification cards.

Killings of Police Officers

Between March and August 1996, unknown attackers killed eight police officers; two other agents died in apparent confrontations with fellow HNP agents. There were marked similarities in the eight killings: all of the officers were killed in Port-au-Prince, while off duty and in civilian clothes. In the majority of the cases, the victims were traveling between work and home when attacked. In addition to the killings, senior police and security officials, including the Justice Ministry's Secretary of State for Security Robert Manuel, HNP Director General Denizé, and HNP Inspector General Joseph have received repeated death threats.

The first HNP agent killed was Marie Christine Jeune, who reportedly was raped, shot, and then strangled in March 1996. Her body was found on March 19. She had participated in a highly publicized January 19, 1996 meeting between the police and individuals identifying themselves as the "Red Army" in Cité Soleil. President Aristide moderated the meeting, in which Jeune publicly criticized the effort to negotiate with armed bands.

HNP agent Bismarc Milcent was shot dead with a .38 caliber pistol in a tap-tap (public bus) on his way to work on April 27. He recently had been transferred to Port-au-Prince from St. Marc, a port town to the north, where he had taken part in a drug raid leading to the arrest of two SIN members.

While the murders of Jeune and Milcent may have been related to their work, the precise motives in other cases have not been identified. On April 28, Philistin Désir, who was stationed at Carrefour, near Port-au-Prince, was killed with a .38 caliber pistol while waiting for a tap-tap in the Bolosse district of Port-au-Prince. Several days later, on May 2, four individuals shot and killed Jean Leonard Conseillant, who was stationed at Pétionville, while he was walking in Bolosse. Berthony Chéry was killed on May 15 in the Cité Boston area of Cité Soleil. Stationed at Desdunes in the Artibonite Valley, he was traveling home to Port-au-Prince with his brother, who was also a policeman. Both men were attacked as they got off a bus. Berthony Chéry's brother shot and wounded one of the assailants. On May 27, shortly after asking whether Désir Valcourt was a policeman, a fellow passenger on a tap-tap shot and killed him. Valcourt had been stationed at Delmas 33. Jean-Victor Serrat, a member of the CSM, was killed as he was getting off a tap-tap in the Bourdon district of Port-au-Prince on June 18. Garry Lazare was killed on August 12 in Croix-des-Bouquets, a town just outside Port-au-Prince, as he was driving to work. Another policeman in the car was wounded.

In addition to these killings by unknown gunmen, two policemen have been killed by other policemen. Two HNP agents killed Germain Chilare, a member of the CSM, on June 6, 1996. Chilare allegedly had drawn his gun on a civilian and failed to drop it or identify himself as a police agent when confronted by the two HNP, who then opened fire. Serge Achille, a member of the Anti-Gang Unit based in downtown Port-au-Prince, was killed on July 1, 1996, reportedly by an HNP agent.

In response to the murders of police agents, the HNP and CivPol organized a joint investigative task force. The HNP also offered a reward of 30,000 gourdes (about US$2,000) for information leading to arrests. The task force has made little progress.

Several theories have been advanced to explain the killings. Police officers and others believe that some were assassinations by gangs and drug traffickers to avenge effective police work. Another theory attributes some of the killings to factional rivalries within the force. Observers note that there have been repeated incidents and non-lethal confrontations between academy-trained HNP and former military from the IPSF, as well as with agents from the now-disbanded SIN and police officers trained in Regina, Canada. Furthermore, investigations by the joint task forcehave been hampered by a "parallel investigation" being conducted by the Anti-Gang Unit of the HNP (composed entirely of former members of the military). According to the CivPol officer coordinating the task force in June 1996, the Anti-Gang Unit obtained evidence and interviewed witnesses prior to the task force, and prohibited task force access to these materials and witnesses.47

President Préval denounced the killings as an attempt to destabilize democracy in Haiti, an attitude that was shared by many among the Haitian public, U.N. officials, and government officials, including senior police commanders. HNP Director General Denizé believed there was a concerted campaign by anti-democratic elements to prevent the professionalization of the police and create animosity between the police and the public.48

Many Haitians questioned the HNP's ability to maintain security if the police themselves were the targets of attacks. Following the killings, police agents openly expressed concern for their own safety, particularly when they were off duty and commuting to work. Unfortunately, HNP ill-treatment of detainees markedly increased following the first police killings, with suspects in police killings and armed gang members the prime targets. Police justified these abuses by referring to the killings. The police also invoked violence against the force as demonstrating a need for HNP authorization to carry heavier weapons.