Have some questions for Americans

[noway12]

The following video documents a case of alleged police brutality perpertrated by the Pensylvania State Troopers against Robert Leone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5eOknaXgYU

I am not from America but, it was my understanding that the FBI investigates Civil Rights violations. Does anyone know why the FBI isn't investigating this? I have tried to find out myself but there is very little information available. I even thought about contacting the FBI to ask them, but I don't think they would be very pleased to have foreigners contacting them and asking questions.

To be clear, this is not a rhetorical question. I actually want to know from a legal standpoint why the FBI is not involved. I would have thought that it was a simple case of the parents making a complaint to the FBI.

Obviously I am not as familiar with United States law enforcement as an American would be.

If anyone is able to shed some light on this, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks.

[Langy]

The FBI gets involved in cases of federal crimes - things like kidnapping across a state border, a murderer who kills in multiple states, etc. Local crimes typically aren't within the FBI's jurisdiction. They can still work on those local crimes, but only if the jurisdiction in question specifically asks them to do so.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that the FBI investigates civil rights violations; they can, when it's something that violates a federal law, but they aren't necessarily the people with primary jurisdiction. Instead, this is probably a case for the Pennsylvania State Troopers' internal affairs division.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

The FBI is a law enforcement agency; it's not involved in this sort of thing afaik. However, the Department of Justice can and does conduct lawsuits if and when it believes federal law or the constitution is being violated. For example, the City of Seattle and the DOJ have been involved in intense negotiations the past few months over a pattern of unconstitutional use of force by the Seattle Police Department. The stick being used by the DOJ is a lawsuit and court-compelled compliance.

The Department of Justice has a specific sub-agency devoted to enforcing civil rights law, the Civil Rights Division. It was notoriously eviscerated under the Bush Administration; I'm unsure how it has faired under the Obama Admin. Some quick googling seems to reveal it has been bringing cases again.

[coldspyderSLS]

If you want a update of civil rights violation for current and past cases in the U.S about this topic, go to http://www.Settlement and Lawyers.com. It's where I cite much of my legal research in my current law classes, hope this helps.