San Diego

The director of a New York-based black attorneys’ group said Friday that his organization would work with a committee of as yet unnamed San Diego residents to “actively monitor” the San Diego Police Department and bring legal action against officers it determines are guilty of misconduct or who are “participants in organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan.”

Gerald Horne, director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, announced the formation of the committee, together with Marva Mohr-Davis, president of the attorney group’s San Diego chapter, and Thomas Penn, father of Sagon Penn, the Southeast San Diego resident accused of slaying a city policeman and wounding a second officer and a civilian ride-along in a shooting incident in March. Penn and his supporters have said he was a victim of police brutality and acted in self-defense.

Following tense meetings between police and residents of Southeast San Diego, the City Council formed a police review commission, but Horne said it has been a “window-dressing approach to a serious local and national problem.” Horne said there is “mounting concern” that officers throughout the county are involved with the KKK, but did not elaborate.