Read on Twitter
Mock lynchings, electroshock, suffocation, beatings and burning. These were the tactics employed by white Chicago police detectives on black suspects for years. And for years, the system protected it, and cops covered up for each other. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/15/chicago-bad-cop-police-reform-318955
A direct line can be drawn between long ignored torture of black suspects in Chicago and the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald.
Cops reflexively covered for their own—even when they’ve done wrong. Politicians did little unless faced with incontrovertible evidence.
Cops reflexively covered for their own—even when they’ve done wrong. Politicians did little unless faced with incontrovertible evidence.
“Videos really changed everything,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tells me.
What we've seen play out in the George Floyd protests in the last few weeks is a disparity in how police report major incidents and what video shows.
What we've seen play out in the George Floyd protests in the last few weeks is a disparity in how police report major incidents and what video shows.
Lightfoot, who headed the police oversight task force, pushed for a change that's in place now.
-Video and audio of big incidents are made public
-Initial police reports of those incidents also made public
-Video and audio of big incidents are made public
-Initial police reports of those incidents also made public
“I wanted officers to understand, that if they lied in those initial police reports and there was video and audiotape that contradicted their statements, that there were going to be consequences," Lightfoot told me.
Something else Pols now say they want to end:
– Police Cmdr.Jon Burge was fired for torturing black suspects.
– A pattern of torture was well-documented.
– He was convicted and served time.
He kept his $4k-a-month public pension until the day he died.
– Police Cmdr.Jon Burge was fired for torturing black suspects.
– A pattern of torture was well-documented.
– He was convicted and served time.
He kept his $4k-a-month public pension until the day he died.
One victim's retelling of Chicago police torture made him weep 32 years later: “They pulled my pants and shorts down took an electric cattle prod … turned it on and stuck me on my genitals ... I had never in my life experienced that kind of pain.”
Bobby Rush tells me of the bad cops protected by the FOP: “They have eviscerated the trust between the Chicago police department and the citizens in the black community.”
