The Sins of the Chicago Police Laid Bare

[smilesammich 10,727]

that is just wrong jacque. now i'm going to be hearing "ooh-wah-ah-ah-ah" on loop in my head all day. bringing up disturbed in any setting is criminal. off with your head.

[ExPatty 502]

All police departments need to answer to a separate agency probably from the federal government that is tasked to do nothing but investigate poor police behavior. They cannot police themselves, this is proven.

The sense of injustice and grievance that pervades the black community — among the poor, the middle class and the affluent — is borne out by the police data. African-Americans, who make up only one-third of the city’s population, made up nearly three-quarters of the people who were shot by police officers between 2008 and 2015, compared with 14 percent for Hispanics and 8 percent for whites. When police officers fired their tasers, African-Americans were targeted 76 percent of the time, compared with 13 percent for Hispanics and 8 percent for whites.

But since blacks are also more likely to kill each other and commit acts of violence based on their percentage of the population (FBI data, don't cry about it or make excuses), what is the proper statistic of police violence after adjusting for this? I am sure cops are acting unfairly but this stat certainly doesn't even begin to give enough info to know by what degree.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

52% of serial killers are white men but white men are not murdered on the streets by police. Quoting crime stats about black men is just a deflection. Even criminals have rights and people have the right to not be profiled, harassed and killed because of their race.

[Ban Hammer 13,722]

52% of serial killers are white men but white men are not murdered on the streets by police.

false

Edited April 15, 2016 by charles!

[Janelle2002 3,865]

false

Please post the stats on who's murdered the most by the police?

[Ban Hammer 13,722]

Please post the stats on who's murdered the most by the police?

that's not the statement you made. quit moving the lily pads around.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

that's not the statement you made. quit moving the lily pads around.

What's this? Princess and the frog?

Well that's what I meant. Now that you know what I meant, is it false?

[Ban Hammer 13,722]

What's this? Princess and the frog?

Well that's what I meant. Now that you know what I meant, is it false?

what you meant and what you wrote are two different things.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

what you meant and what you wrote are two different things.

........

[Sousuke 1,214]

More white people are killed by police than Blacks FYI.

Based on that data, Mr. Moskos reported that roughly 49 percent of those killed by officers from May 2013 to April 2015 were white, while 30 percent were black. He also found that 19 percent were Hispanic and 2 percent were Asian and other races.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/21/police-kill-more-whites-than-blacks-but-minority-d/?page=all

Edited April 15, 2016 by Sousuke

[Janelle2002 3,865]

African Americans are 3.5 times more likely to be killed by the police, if you adjust for percentage of population

[Sousuke 1,214]

African Americans are 3.5 times more likely to be killed by the police, if you adjust for percentage of population

Thats fine, but you adjust for crime rates by race you'll see it flattens out.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Thats fine, but you adjust for crime rates by race you'll see it flattens out.

Which means, let's say 13,000 out of 44 million commit a crime. So you think 43,987,000 should suffer because of something someone is doing that they don't even know? So innocent kids playing atty the play ground or a man looking at an unloaded gun in a store should be shot?

Help me, maybe I'm missing your point

[Jacque67 7,328]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/us/chicago-police-dept-plagued-by-systemic-racism-task-force-finds.html

The actual report.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

.

C.P.D.s own data gives validity to the widely held belief the police have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color, the task force wrote. Stopped without justification, verbally and physically abused, and in some instances arrested, and then detained without counsel that is what we heard about over and over again.

The report reinforces complaints made for decades by African-American residents who have said they were unfairly singled out by officers without justification on a regular basis, then ignored when they raised complaints.

It comes at a pivotal moment for the nations second-largest municipal police force, which is being criticized by residents and is under scrutiny from the Justice Department. And, coming from Mr. Emanuels own appointees, the findings intensify pressure on him and other Chicago leaders to make substantive, swift changes.

The report makes more than 100 specific recommendations for change, and task force members called on the mayor and the City Council to take action. After formally receiving the report, Mr. Emanuel had no immediate public reaction.

The task force amassed data that shows the extent to which African-Americans appear to have been disproportionately focused on by the police. In a city where whites, blacks and Hispanics each make up about one-third of the population, 74 percent of the 404 people shot by the Chicago police between 2008 and 2015 were black, the report said. Black people were the subjects in 72 percent of the thousands of investigative street stops that did not lead to arrests during the summer of 2014.

Three out of every four people on whom Chicago police officers tried to use Taser guns between 2012 and 2015 were black. And black drivers made up 46 percent of police traffic stops in 2013.

Eddie Johnson, left, shook hands on Wednesday with Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago after being sworn in as the new police superintendent.

JOSHUA LOTT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The communitys lack of trust in C.P.D. is justified, according to the report, a draft summary of which was first reported in The Chicago Tribune on Tuesday afternoon. There is substantial evidence that people of color particularly African-Americans have had disproportionately negative experiences with the police over an extended period of time.

The stinging findings come at a particularly volatile time here, as violent crimes have increased this year and as police morale is reported to have sunk. Murders are up 62 percent this year compared with a year ago, Chicago police statistics show, and shootings have increased by 78 percent.

Public pressure has remained intense. Just this week, after an officer fatally shot a black 16-year-old who the police said was armed, protesters took to the streets.

The task force was given its assignment late last year, after the release of a graphic dashcam video showing a white Chicago police officer, Jason Van #######, fatally shooting a black teenager, Laquan McDonald, along a Chicago street. Widespread protests followed, and Mr. Emanuel fired the citys police superintendent. He was officially replaced on Wednesday by the mayors choice, Eddie Johnson, a longtime Chicago officer who is black, grew up in a public housing project, and lives on the citys South Side.

In picking Mr. Johnson, Mr. Emanuel sidestepped a city requirement that he select a superintendent from finalists chosen by a police board, and the City Council unanimously approved the choice on Wednesday.

The task force members were racially diverse, with professional backgrounds in social work, law and government. Lori Lightfoot, the president of the Chicago Police Board, an oversight group, was chairwoman, and the panel was advised by Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor, who spent part of his childhood in Chicago.

What we heard from people all across the city is they felt like they didnt even have a claim to the geography in front of their house, on their street, or in their neighborhoods, Ms. Lightfoot said, as she presented the report at a downtown library. She acknowledged high rates of violence in some of those communities, but said that did not excuse abuses of power by the police, and that officers must be trained to fight crime while also respecting residents rights.

The panel described the citys delays in releasing the Laquan McDonald video and officials false descriptions of what had happened in the days immediately after that shooting as a tipping point for long-simmering anger. But the linkage between racism and C.P.D. had not bubbled up only after the McDonald video was made public, it said. Rather, Mr. McDonalds death gave voice to years of unfair treatment, distrust within minority communities, and to the deaths of numerous men and women of color whose lives came to an end solely because of an encounter with C.P.D., the report said.

The task force heard over and over again from a range of voices, particularly from African-Americans, that some C.P.D. officers are racist, have no respect for the lives and experiences of people of color and approach every encounter with people of color as if the person, regardless of age, gender or circumstance, is a criminal, the report said, adding later, These encounters leave an indelible mark.

Even if there was no arrest, it said, there is a lasting, negative effect.

The report also condemned aspects of the citys contracts with police unions, calling for changes to clauses that they said make it easy for officers to lie in official reports, ban anonymous citizen complaints and prevent the department from rewarding officers who turn in rule-breaking colleagues. The contracts, the task force concluded, have essentially turned the code of silence into official policy. The president of the union that represents rank-and-file officers did not immediately respond to interview requests.

The report calls for dissolving the Independent Police Review Authority, which is charged with overseeing the most serious claims of police misconduct. The task force concluded that the authority has failed to investigate a large segment of its cases, rarely carries out meaningful discipline, and is perceived as favoring the police. It recommended that it be replaced with a fully transparent and accountable civilian police investigative agency.

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The report also calls for an expansion of the citys body cam program; a unit assigned to handle issues around mental health crises; and a new deputy chief at the department in charge of diversity and inclusion. It also recommended putting in place a citywide reconciliation process in which the superintendent would publicly acknowledge the departments history of racial disparity and discrimination and make a public commitment to change.

The recommendations and the report drew praise for their candor, but some here remained doubtful about whether it would really bring widespread change.

The strong diagnoses must be followed by action by the mayor, the City Council and the Police Department, said Karen Sheley, police practices director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. Corrective measures those outlined by the task force and others must be fashioned in a way that they cannot be reversed.

Charlene A. Carruthers, national director of Black Youth Project 100, a Chicago-based activist organization, said that she had not yet reviewed the report, but that she considered the task force yet another example of the mayors office and those in power in the city of Chicago making decisions on behalf of the community.

Ms. Carruthers said increased civilian oversight and changes to police union contracts two task force recommendations were urgently needed. But, she added, I do not have confidence that the task force or the mayors office will take bold enough steps.

On Wednesday, before the report was released, Mr. Emanuel said that his general attitude was to be open to look at everything they say. He met with members of his task force late in the day, but did not comment on the report afterward.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Emanuel had said he wanted to work through the issues.

I dont really think you need a task force to know that we have racism in America, we have racism in Illinois, or that theres racism that exists in the city of Chicago and obviously could be in our department, he said.

He added: The question is: What are we going to do to confront it and make the changes in not only personnel but in policies to reflect, I think, the values that make up the diversity of our city?

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