Tony LaRussa, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review—The head of the Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP yesterday said the organization is unified with other black organizations that are calling for the firing and prosecution of three Pittsburgh police officers they say beat a Homewood teenager.

“The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is outraged over news of the FBI’s decision not to prosecute the three police officers,” said M. Gayle Moss, the organization’s president, during a news conference in the offices of a Hill District nonprofit organization.

“Emotions of the city would not be so high if this was not such an injustice,” she said. “There should be some level of accountability for the savage beating.”

On Friday, more than 100 people attended a protest outside the City-County Building, Downtown, calling for the termination of officers Richard Ewing, Michael Saldutte and David Sisak, who were accused by Jordan Miles of beating him on Jan. 12, 2010.

The officers, who are white, said the injuries suffered by Miles, who is black, occurred when he ran from them and resisted arrest.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh last week announced that an investigation by the Department of Justice and the FBI yielded insufficient evidence to charge the officers on the federal level.

A civil lawsuit filed by Miles against the city and the officers is in the pretrial stage.

The news conference was aimed at “reinforcing” the message Pittsburgh’s black leadership is trying to send to local political and law enforcement officials, said Tim Stevens, chairman of the Black Political Empowerment Project, or B-PEP.

“The mayor (Luke Ravenstahl) has called for the need for healing to begin in our city,” Stevens said. “But how can we even attempt to begin healing when the incident involving Jordan Miles is such an open wound?”

In a sign of unity, Moss and Stevens were joined at the news conference by Esther Bush, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, and Brandi Fisher, who chairs the Alliance for Police Accountability.

Fisher said that for justice to be served, the three officers would have to be dismissed from the force and Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. would have to prosecute the officers.

Zappala has said he is continuing to review the case before determining whether criminal charges are warranted.

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