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Interim Chicago Police Superintendent John Escalante (L) listens as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel addresses changes in training and procedures that will take place at the Chicago police department in the wake of recent shootings on December 30, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. The changes were being announced following the deaths of a 19-year-old college student Quintonio LeGrier and his 55-year-old neighbor Bettie Jones following a domestic disturbance call on December 26. Police claim Jones was killed by accident when officer were shooting at LeGrier who was wielding a metal baseball bat.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
A Chicago task force found that the Chicago police department has a history of using excessive force against minorities, perpetuates a code of silence and has “no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color,” according to a report viewed by the Associated Press.
The panel, chaired by Lori Lightfoot, was established by Mayor Rahm Emanuel after an outcry over police shootings, found that distrust by blacks and Latinos against the police force is justified after data concluded that the department does little to discipline officers who violate procedure and what should be considered normal police encounters often turn deadly.
According to AP, “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.”
The report, which was conducted of a four-month period and included hundreds of interviews, cited a history of police misconduct dating back to the 1960’s and the killing of famed Black Panther Fred Hampton. The report also noted the allegations of torture from 1970 to 1990 and the highly contested stop-and-frisk practices in the early 2000s, AP reports.
“Reform is possible if there is a will and a commitment,” the report said, AP reports. “But change must start with an acknowledgement of Chicago policing’s ‘sad history.'”
The task force report also noted that police unions have “essentially turned the code of silence into official policy” citing one such contractual bylaw stating that officers can wait 24 hours before providing a statement after a police shooting, presumably giving officers enough time to work through a unified re-telling of the incident.
The contract also prohibits any officer from filing an anonymous complaint against another officer. Not only is the officer required to list their name but the officer listed in the complaint is notified of who has filed the grievance against them.
Union President Sgt. Jim Ade told AP that the union contracts “provide due process in disciplinary procedures, nothing more.” Ade added that the idea that the officers’ contracts make it easier for them to lie is “ridiculous.”
Mayor Emanuel declined to speak with AP bout specifics in the report, noting that he had not been briefed on the findings and had yet to read the full report.
“The pain and the anger and the frustration that people across this city have articulated to us…is something that has to be understood, has to be respected,” Lightfoot said during a news conference, AP reports. “It has to be embraced if we are ever to move forward.”
Read more at the Associated Press.
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