“”“The city’s new police chief said the department welcomed “a fresh set of eyes””""
really? If that department was as fucked up as the article claims any set of eyes should have seen it.
I wonder how long it will be before Rahm gets around to getting briefed on the report. Might be a while.
the Task Force on Police Accountability recommended replacing the “badly broken” independent review authority that currently investigates misconduct with a "new and fully transparent and accountable Civilian Police Investigative Agency.
This should be the case for every city. And every state should have a totally independent prosecutor’s office to investigate and prosecute crimes involving police.
Officers, for example, can wait 24 hours before providing a statement after a shooting, given them enough time to get their stories straight with fellow officers. And not only are anonymous complaints prohibited, the task force found that accused officers must be given the names of people who filed complaints.
You’ve got to be kidding me?! Of course, you can’t find officers to report bad cops, they would be literally risking their lives to do so because they or their loved ones could face serious retribution.
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 said.
This isn’t something for which Chicago has any sort of monopoly. It happens everywhere. Somebody gets arrested for some completely bullshit offense, usually because the cop feels disrespected in some way, then the person potentially loses everything waiting in jail for a prosecutor who was always going to throw it out anyway.
“Reform is possible if there is a will and a commitment,” according to the draft summary. That change, it said, must start with an acknowledgement of Chicago policing’s “sad history.”
Agreed. This is all pointless and waste of time if the city, department, and ranking officers aren’t all on the same page and ready to accept that there are very serious problems in the department and that those problems must be handled swiftly and mercilessly. Those ranking officers who are unwilling or unable to address problems within their ranks need to be demoted, retired, or fired.
Sadly, I am not surprised by a single thing in this report. And I doubt too many minority residents of Chicago would be surprised by any of these findings either. Still, it can be helpful when an “official” source like this finally acknowledges the severity of the situation. As far as the new Chief of Police, I wish him well of course – but sweet jeebus on a pogo stick – he’s sure got a monumental task in front of him!
and water is wet…yawn…let a jury decide your fate, not a puerco with a gun and an axe to grind from high-school
“…74 percent of the hundreds of people shot by officers in recent years were African-Americans, even though blacks account for 33 percent of the city’s population.” I fully believe there is institutional racism in Chicago (and I’m glad for the report), but this 74% compared to 33% data-point isn’t necessarily meaningful. It might be, but it might not be… depends on what % of the crimes are committed by the different groups, since the police are dealing with crime, generally, when their guns come out. …imo