Reese

A jury convicted appellants of federal civil rights crimes stemming from their actions as Oakland Housing Authority police officers. Their appeals raise a number of difficult questions, among them certain matters of first impression. We are required to decide what the government must prove to convict a law enforcement officer of depriving an individual of his federal constitutional right to be free of excessive force during detention or arrest. We also must decide whether crimi *874 nal liability may be imposed on a commanding police officer who fails to prevent the use of excessive force by officers under his command.

I

The Oakland Housing Authority (the “OHA”) is a municipal agency that provides housing to low income residents in Oakland, California. 1 The Oakland Housing Authority Police Department (the “OHAPD”) provides security and police services to the residents of OHA properties. Prior to the events with which we are here concerned, the OHAPD consisted of some two dozen officers, including one chief, three sergeants, and one corporal.

Among the properties administered by the OHA were large public housing developments plagued by high levels of drug activity, much of it…

concurring:

I write separately to indicate that I do not join in Part II as it is background only, and I concur in the judgment reached in Part IV because Broussard was a supervising officer who willfully permitted subordinate officers in his presence to assault a person in his custody, and took no steps to stop the assault, in violation of the well established right of persons detained by or in the custody of law enforcement officers to be free from harm at their hands.