Chicago Police officers have been routinely picking up gang members and driving them around while asking for information about gangs or guns. If the people the police are questioning refuse to answer, officers will drop them off in dangerous areas or rival gang territory in an effort to "coerce information" about criminal activity, crime, or guns. Officers will either leave the person there or show the gang member to rival members, putting that person's life in jeopardy by suggesting he has provided information to the police. The practice has been an open secret going on as far back as the early 1990s. The Department of Justice uncovered this information as part of a sweeping federal investigation into the Chicago Police Department.
In one example; a "video [shown above] captures CPD officers standing around a marked CPD vehicle with the back doors wide open and a young male detained in the rear," according to the report. "Officers permit a crowd of male youths [in rival gang territory] to surround the car and shout at the adolescent. The crowd can be seen flashing hand gestures that look like gang signs and threatening the cowering teenager in the backseat."
The video showed there was no purpose for the cops to allow the young boy to be threatened. The video was first published in 2011, and a lawsuit stemming from the incident was settled by city officials for $33,000, records show. The officers involved - Susana La Casa and Luis Contreras - were fired by the Chicago Police Board in 2013, but neither of them were criminally charged with wrongdoing.
"A young black man told us that when he was 12 or 13 years old, he and his friends were picked up by CPD officers, dropped off in rival territory, and told to walk home," according to the federal report. "Another black teen told us that his brother was picked up in one location, dropped off in another location known for rival gangs, and told: 'Better get to running.'"
The 13-month investigation was sparked by the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald. It found that the Chicago Police Department uses unlawful arrests and detentions or improper intimidation tactics to coerce information; they also engage in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force which violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
According to the report, the practice "significantly jeopardizes CPD's relationship with the community," and " erode community trust and undermine the work of CPD and the community to rid the City of violent crime."
According to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, those civil right violations are due to the Chicago Police Department's "severely deficient" training procedures, a lack of oversight and misuse of data that has led to an erosion of officer morale.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel agreed Friday to negotiate a legally binding agreement — known as a consent decree — to ensure that reforms are implemented under the authority of a federal judge. Emanuel has said misconduct by officers will not be tolerated.
Source: kollegekidd.com
