A Chicago police officer has been arrested on multiple charges after he was caught raping a mentally ill man who was chained to a hospital bed.
The post Cop Arrested for Raping a Mentally Ill Man Who Was Chained to a Hospital Bed appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
A city filed a lawsuit against the family of a 19-year-old man who was shot and killed by police, after the bullets fired at him killed a bystander.
A group of teens secretly recorded a cop as he harassed them for no reason — explaining that he"d stopped them "Because they"re white."
Moments ago, Chicago police officer Marco Proano was sentenced for dumping 16 rounds into a car occupied by six unarmed teens who posed no threat.
By John Mauldin from Mauldin economics
This time is different are the four most dangerous words any economist or money manager can utter. We learn new things and invent new technologies. Players come and go. But in the big picture, this time is usually not fundamentally different, because fallible humans are still in charge. (Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart wrote an important book called This Time Is Different on the 260-odd times that governments have defaulted on their debts; and on each occasion, up until the moment of collapse, investors kept telling themselves “This time is different.” It never was.)
Nevertheless, I uttered those four words in last week’s letter. I stand by them, too. In the next 20 years, we’re going to see changes that humanity has never seen before, and in some cases never even imagined, and we’re going to have to change. I truly believe this. We have unleashed economic and technological forces we can observe but not entirely control.
I will defend this bold claim at greater length in my forthcoming book, The Age of Transformation.
Today we will zero in on one of those forces, which last week I called “the bubble in government promises,” which I think is arguably the biggest bubble in human history. Elected officials at all levels have promised workers they will receive pension benefits without taking the hard steps necessary to deliver on those promises. This situation will end badly and hurt many people. Unfortunately, massive snafus like this rarely hurt the politicians who made those overly optimistic promises, often years ago.
Earlier this year I called the pension mess “The Crisis We Can’t Muddle Through.” Reflecting since then, I think I was too optimistic. Simply waiting for the floodwaters to drop down to muddle-through depth won’t be enough. We face an entire new ocean, deeper and wider than we can ever cross unaided.
Storms from Nowhere?
This year marks the first time on record that two Category 4 hurricanes have struck the US mainland in the same year. Worse, Harvey and Irma landed directly on some of our most valuable and vulnerable coastal areas. So now, in addition to all the problems that existed a month ago, the US economy has to absorb cleanup and rebuilding costs for large parts of Texas and Florida, as well as our Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands territories.
Now then, people who live in coastal areas know full well that hurricanes happen – they know the risk, just not which hurricane season might launch a devastating storm in their direction. In a note to me about Harvey, fellow Rice University graduate Gary Haubold (1980) noted just how flawed the city’s assumptions actually were regarding what constitutes adequate preparedness. He cited this excerpt from a recent Los Angeles Times article:
The storm was unprecedented, but the city has been deceiving itself for decades about its vulnerability to flooding, said Robert Bea, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and UC Berkeley emeritus civil engineering professor who has studied hurricane risks along the Gulf Coast.
The city’s flood system is supposed to protect the public from a 100-year storm, but Bea calls that “a 100-year lie” because it is based on a rainfall total of 13 inches in 24 hours.
“That has happened more than eight times in the last 27 years,” Bea said. “It is wrong on two counts. It isn’t accurate about the past risk and it doesn’t reflect what will happen in the next 100 years.” (Source)
Anybody who lives in Houston can tell you that 13 inches in 24 hours is not all that unusual. But how do Robert Bea’s points apply to today’s topic, public pensions? Both pension plan shortfalls and hurricanes are known risks for which state and local governments must prepare. And in both instances, too much optimism and too little preparation ultimately have devastating results.
Admittedly, public pension liabilities don’t come out of nowhere the way hurricanes seem to – we know exactly where they will strike. In many cases, we know approximately when they’ll strike, too. Yet we still let our elected officials make impossible-to-fulfill promises on our behalf. The rest of us are not so different from those who built beach homes and didn’t buy hurricane or storm surge insurance. We just face a different kind of storm.
Worse, we let our government officials use predictions about future returns that are every bit as unrealistic as calling a 13-inch rain in Houston a 100-year event. And while some of us have called pension officials out, they just keep telling lies – and probably will until we reach the breaking point.
Puerto Rico is a good example. The Commonwealth was already in deep debt before Irma blew in – $123 billion worth of it. There’s simply no way the island can repay such a massive debt. Creditors can fight in the courts, but in the end you can’t squeeze money out of plantains or pineapples. Not enough money, anyway. Now add Irma damages, and the creditors have even less hope of recovering their principal, let alone interest.
Puerto Rico is presently in a new form of bankruptcy that Congress authorized last year. Court proceedings will probably drag on for years, but the final outcome isn’t in doubt. Creditors will get some scraps – at best perhaps $0.30 on the dollar, my sources say – and then move on. We’re going to find out how strong those credit insurance guarantees really are.
“That’s just Puerto Rico,” you may say if you’re a US citizen in one of the 50 states. Be very careful. Your state is probably not so much better off. In 10 years, your state may well be in the same place where Puerto Rico is now. I’d say the odds are better than even.
Are your elected leaders doing anything about this huge issue, or even talking about it? Probably not.
As it stands now, states can’t declare bankruptcy in federal courts. Letting them do so would raises thorny constitutional issues. So maybe we’ll have to call it something else, but it’s going to end the same way. Your state’s public-sector retirees will not get what they were promised, and they won’t take the outcome kindly.
Blood from Turnips
Public sector bankruptcy, up to and including state-level bankruptcy, is fundamentally different from corporate bankruptcy in ways that many people haven’t considered. The pension crisis will likely expose those differences as deadly to creditors and retirees.
Say a corporation goes bankrupt. A court will take all its assets and decide how to divvy them up. The assets are easy to identify: buildings, land, intellectual property, cash, etc. The parties may argue over their value, but everyone knows what the assets are. They won’t walk away.
Not so in a public bankruptcy. The primary asset of a city, county, or state is future tax revenue from households and businesses within its boundaries. The taxpayers can walk away. Even without moving, they can bypass sales taxes by shopping elsewhere. If property taxes are too high, they can sell and move. When they take a loss on the sale, the new owner will have established a property value that yields the city far less revenue than it used to receive.
Cities and states don’t have the ability to shed their pension liabilities. They are stuck with them, even as population and property values change.
We may soon see an example of this in Houston. Here in Texas, our property taxes are very high because we have no income tax. Your tax is a percentage of your home’s taxable value. So people argue to appraisal boards that their homes are falling apart and not worth anything like the appraised value. (Then they argue the opposite when it’s time to sell the home.)
About 200 entities in Harris County can charge taxes. That includes governments from Houston to Baytown to Hedwig Village, plus 20 independent school districts.
There’s a hospital district, port authority, several college districts, the flood control district, a multitude of utility districts, and the Harris County Department of Education. Some homes may fall within 10 or more jurisdictions.
What about those thousands of flooded homes in and around Houston; how much are they worth? Right now, I’d say their value is zero in many cases. Maybe they will have some value if it’s possible to rebuild, but at the very least they ought to receive a sharp discount from the tax collector this year.
Considering how many destroyed or unlivable properties there are all over South Texas, I suspect cities and counties will lose billions in revenue even as their expenses rise. That’s a small version of what I expect as city and state pension systems all over the US finally face reality.
Here in Dallas I pay about 2.7% in property taxes. When I bought my home over four years ago, I checked our local pension and was told we were 100% funded. I even mentioned in my letter that I was rather surprised. Turns out they lied. Now, realistic assessments suggest they will have to double the municipal tax rate (yes, I said double) to be able to fund fire and police pension funds. Not a terribly popular thing to do. At some point, look for taxpayers to desert the most-indebted cities and states. Then what? I don’t know. Every solution I can imagine is ugly.
Promises from Air
Most public pension plans are not fully funded. Earlier this year in “Disappearing Pensions” I shared this chart from my good friend Danielle DiMartino Booth:
Total unfunded liabilities in state and local pensions have roughly quintupled in the last decade. You read that right – not doubled, tripled or quadrupled: quintupled. That’s nice when it happens on a slot machine, not so nice when it’s money you owe.
You will also notice in the chart that much of that change happened in 2008. Why was that? That’s when the Fed took interest rates down to nearly zero, meaning it suddenly took more cash to fund future payments. Also, some strapped localities conserved cash by promising public workers more generous pension benefits in lieu of pay raises.
According to a 2014 Pew study, only 15 states follow policies that have funded at least 100% of their pension needs. And that estimate is based on the aggressive assumptions of pension funds that they will get their predicted rate of returns (the “discount rate”).
Kentucky, for instance, has unfunded pension liabilities of $40 billion or more. This month the state budget director notified local governments that pension costs could jump 50-60% next year. That’s due to a proposed reduction in the system’s assumed rate of return from 7.5% to 6.25% – a step in the right direction but not nearly enough.
Think about this as an investor. Do you know a way to guarantee yourself even 6.25% average annual returns for the next 10–20 years? Of you don’t. Yes, some strategies have a good shot at doing it, but there’s no guarantee.
And if you believe Jeremy Grantham’s seven-year forecasts (I do: His 2009 growth forecast was spot on), then those pension funds have very little hope of getting their average 7% predicted rate of return, at least for the next seven years.
Now, here is the truth about pension liabilities. Let’s assume you have $1 billion in funding today. If you assume a 7% compound return – about the average for most pension funds – then that means in 30 years that $1 million will have grown to $8 billion (approximately). Now, what if it’s a 4% return? Using the Rule of 72, the $1 billion grows to around $3.5 billion, or less than half the future assets in 30 years if you assume 7%.
Remember that every dollar that is not funded today means that somewhere between four dollars and eight dollars will not be there in 30 years when somebody who is on a pension is expecting to get it. Worse, without proper funding, as the fund starts going negative, the funding ratio actually gets worse, sending it into a death spiral. The only way to bring it out of the spiral is with huge cuts to other needed services or with massive tax cuts to pension benefits.
The State of Kentucky’s unusually frank report regarding the state’s public pension liability sums up that state’s plight in one chart:
The news for Kentucky retirees is quite dire, especially considering what returns on investments are realistically likely to be. But there’s a make or break point somewhere. What if pension plans must either hit that 6% average annual return for 2018–2028 or declare bankruptcy and lose it all?
That’s a much greater problem, and it’s a rough equivalent of what state pension trustees have to do. Failing to generate the target returns doesn’t reduce the liability. It just means taxpayers must make up the difference.
But wait, it gets worse. The graph we showed earlier stated that unfunded pension liabilities for state and local governments was $2 trillion. But that assumes an average 7% compound return. What if we assume 4% compound returns? Now the admitted unfunded pension liability is $4 trillion. But what if we have a recession and the stock market goes down by the past average of more than 40%? Now you have an unfunded liability in the range of $7–8 trillion.
We throw the words a trillion dollars around, not realizing how much that actually is. Combined state and local revenues for the US total around $2.6 trillion. Following the next recession (whenever that is), the unfunded pension liabilities for state and local governments will be roughly three times the revenue they are collecting today, and that’s before a recession reduces their revenues. Can you see the taxpayer stuck between a rock and a hard place? Two immovable objects meeting? The math just doesn’t work.
Pension trustees don’t face personal liability. They’re literally playing with someone else’s money. Some try very hard to be realistic and cautious. Others don’t. But even the most diligent can’t control when the next recession comes, or when the stock market will crash, leaving a gaping hole in their assets while liabilities keep right on rising.
I have had meetings with trustees of various government pensions. Many of them want to assume a more realistic discount rate, but the politicians in their state literally refuse to allow them to assume a reasonable discount rate, because owning up to reality would require them to increase their current pension funding dramatically. So they kick the can down the road.
Intentionally or not, state and local officials all over the US made pension promises that future officials can’t possibly keep. Many will be out of office when the bill comes due, protected from liability by sovereign immunity.
We are starting to see cities filing for bankruptcy. That small ripple will be a tsunami within 7–10 years.
But wait, it gets still worse. (Do you see a trend here?) Many state and local governments have actually 100% funded their pension plans. Some states and local governments have even overfunded them – assuming they get their projected returns. What that really means is that the unfunded liabilities are more concentrated, and they show up in unlikely places. You think Texas is doing well? Look at some of our cities and weep. Look, too, at other seemingly semi-prosperous cities all over the country. Do you think the suburbs of Dallas will want to see their taxes increased to help out the city? If you do, I may have a bridge to sell you – unless you would rather have oceanfront properties in Arizona.
This issue is going to set neighbor against neighbor and retirees against taxpayers. It will become one of the most heated battles of my lifetime. It will make the Trump-Clinton campaigns look like a school kids’ tiddlywinks smackdown.
I was heavily involved in politics at both the national and local levels in the 80s and 90s and much of the 2000s. Trust me, local politics is far nastier and more vicious. And there is nothing more local than police and firefighters and teachers seeing their pensions cut because the money isn’t there. Tax increases of up to 100% are going to become commonplace. But even these new revenues won’t be enough… because we will be acting with too little, too late.
This is the core problem. Our political system gives some people incentives to make unrealistic promises while also absolving them of liability for doing so. It also places the costs of those must-break promises on innocent parties, i.e. the retirees who did their jobs and rightly expect the compensation they were told they would receive.
So at its heart the pension crisis is really not a financial problem. It’s a moral and ethical problem of making and breaking promises that profoundly impact people’s lives. Our culture puts a high value on integrity: doing what you said you would do.
We take a job because the compensation package includes x, y and z. Then someone says no, we can’t give you z, so quit and go elsewhere.
The pension problem is going to get worse as more and more retirees get stuck with broken promises, and as taxpayers get handed higher and higher bills. These are irreconcilable demands in many cases. It’s not possible to keep contradictory promises.
What’s the endgame? I think much of the US will end up like Puerto Rico. But the hardship map will be more random than you can possibly imagine. Some sort of authority – whether bankruptcy courts or something else – will have to seize pension assets and figure out who gets hurt and how much. Some courts in some states will require taxes to go up. But courts don’t have taxing authority, so they can only require cities to pay, but with what money and from whom?
In many states we literally don’t have the laws and courts in place with authority to deal with this. And just try passing a law that allows for states or cities to file bankruptcy in order to get out of their pension obligations.
The struggle will get ugly, and innocent people on both sides will be hurt. We hear stories about retired police chiefs and teachers with lifetime six-digit pensions and so on. Those aberrations (if you look at the national salary picture) are a problem, but the more distressing cases are the firefighters, teachers, police officers, or humble civil servants who served the public for decades, never making much money but looking forward to a somewhat comfortable retirement. How do you tell these people that they can’t have a livable pension? We will see many human tragedies.
On the other side will be homeowners and small business owners, already struggling in a changing economy and then being told their taxes will double. This may actually happen in Dallas; and if it does, we won’t be alone for long.
The website Pension Tsunami posts scores of articles, written all across America, about pension problems. We find out today that in places like New York and Chicago and Cook County, pension funds have more retirees collecting than workers paying into the fund. There are more retired cops in New York and Chicago than there are working cops. And the numbers of retirees just keep growing. On an individual basis, it is smart for the Chicago police officer to retire as early possible, locking in benefits, go on to another job that offers more retirement benefits, and round out a career by working at least three years at a private job that qualifies the officer for Social Security. Many police and fire pensions are based on the last three years of income; so in the last three years before they retire, these diligent public servants work enormous amounts of overtime, increasing their annual pay and thus their final pension payouts.
As I’ve said, this is the crisis we can’t muddle through. While the federal government (and I realize this is economic heresy) can print money if it has to, state and local governments can’t print. They actually have to tax to pay their bills. It’s the law. It’s also an arrangement with real potential to cause political and social upheaval that Americans have not seen in decades. The storm is only beginning. Think Hurricane Harvey on steroids, but all over America. Of all the intractable economic problems I see in the future (and I have a vivid imagination), this is the most daunting.
Chicago, IL — On Monday, Chicago police officer Marco Proano told a jury that when he fired 16 shots into a car full of unarmed teenagers, that was not threatening him, he was just doing his job. However, the dashcam video was so ‘gruesome’ that a jury did not agree. Proano just became the exception to the rule by actually getting convicted for his crimes.
As the Chicago Tribune reports, in an unprecedented verdict, the jury deliberated about four hours before convicting Proano of two felony counts of using excessive force in violating the victims’ civil rights. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count but likely will get far less because he has no prior criminal history.
What’s more, even though this officer’s sentencing isn’t until Nov. 20, federal prosecutors said they will seek to detain Proano as he is a danger to the community.
In spite of the endless torrent of officer-involved shootings coming from Chicago—many of which are caught on video—Proano is the first Chicago cop to be convicted in federal court stemming from an on-duty shooting in recent history.
The family of Laquan McDonald, who was gunned down as he ran away by Officer Jason Van Dyke, is likely encouraged by this ruling as it could pave the way to hold the man accoutnable who murdered their son.
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Naturally, the Fraternal Order of Police took to expressing their disappointment with the verdict and attempted to pain Proano as a victim of public scrutiny.
“The pressure on the police is making the job extremely difficult,” FOP President Kevin Graham said in the statement. “It seems that the criminal elements in our society are not accountable in our justice system, while the police face an intense scrutiny for every split-second decision they make.”
READ MORE: Innocent Family Sues After Police Tried to Kill Their Dog, But Shot Their 10yo Son Instead
Given the fact that Proano is the first cop to be convicted in memory, Graham’s claim of scrutiny for Chicago cops is laughable.
As TFTP reported in 2015, the deeply troubling police dash cam video was kept from the public by the city of Chicago which showed Proano fire into a car occupied by six unarmed teenagers. Police did not want the public to see this video, and after you watch it, you will know why.
After the shooting, city lawyers successfully convinced a federal judge to put the video under a protective order, which prevented parties to the lawsuit from releasing it publicly. However, after watching the video, Retired Cook County Judge Andrew Berman was so disturbed by what he saw that he leaked it to The Chicago Reporter. Neither Berman nor the Reporter were subject to the order.
“I’ve seen lots of gruesome, grisly crimes,” said. Berman. “But this is disturbing on a whole different level.”
In March of 2015, the teens won a federal lawsuit against the city and three police officers, using the video as the center of their case.
In the video, Proano shoots into a moving car of six unarmed teenagers. Two of the teenagers were shot – one in the shoulder and the other in the left hip and right heel, according to court documents.
CPD’s policy prohibits officers from firing at moving vehicles that are not a threat. The teens in the car posed zero threat to Proano, who jumped out of his cruiser and immediately unloaded his weapon into multiple unarmed teenagers.
READ MORE: Detroit Cop Arrested for Drive-by Shooting Aimed at a Woman in a Wheelchair
After the shooting police discovered that the car was stolen. However, the teen was found not guilty because prosecutors were unable to prove he knew the car was stolen. Even if they had stolen this vehicle, the actions of Officer Proano would not have been justified.
For nearly two years—because he and his cronies hid the video—Proano was never disciplined and remained an active member of the Chicago Police Department. Thanks to a judge with a conscience, however, all that has changed.
Below is the video you were never supposed to see.
Chicago, IL — It took police less than 60 seconds to yank 20-year-old Corey Williams out of his car and place him in handcuffs, all for failing to use his turn signal, and having a burned out license plate light. Those are the reasons why Chicago police said they had probable cause to pull him over. But Williams’ subsequent arrest for “resisting arrest” and the interactions the officers had with onlookers is the subject of a more serious discussion about police use of force and harassment of the African American community under a police state.
Williams stopped to fill up his gas tank but ended up face down on the ground in handcuffs. While, arguably, no laws were supposedly broken, Williams claimed he was racially profiled so officers could search his vehicle for guns or drugs.
So after they pulled me over, they were trying to find something, like, ‘OK, maybe this is the reason we pulled him over.’
From the body camera footage worn by one of the officers, it appears Williams was in a state of shock when he was confronted by Chicago police at the Southend gas station. “Are you serious?” he kept repeating, all the while cooperating with police.
He lowered the window as instructed, took out his keys, and must have presumed the police wanted him to step out of the vehicle. He moved to exit the vehicle and was immediately reprimanded by the police officer who, of course, demanded 100 percent compliance with his orders.
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After still appearing to be in a state of shock, Williams took one step backward and it was enough for police to justify violently taking him to the ground and placing him in handcuffs. The young man stated his arm was dislocated and later told the Chicago Tribune it was, instead, fractured as a result of the violent handling by police.
READ MORE: VIDEO: Cop Kills Unarmed Teen Because He Mistook Fellow Cop"s Gunfire as the Teen"s
The Tribune interviewed Williams who said:
I literally hadn’t broken any, like, life-endangering laws, anything that’s really serious…I’m just thinking to myself, ‘Are they really treating me like this over a light on a car?’
While police apologists will likely contend the officers were just doing their jobs, and they have to deal with the general public “at their worst,” day in and day out, others see Williams’ treatment as a form of social injustice. In other words, many feel the same kind of treatment is not directed at white motorists with the same frequency as towards black drivers.
David Klinger is a professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri. He told the Tribune no crime was committed in the interaction with Williams but added the officers missed an opportunity to establish trust with the community. For example, when the officers were warrantlessly searching Williams’ car looking for drugs or guns, they treated a bystander very harshly. Some might say they spoke to her as if she were not human. Klinger stated:
That person is a person that you can either win to your side or you can piss off…(Officers) need to figure out that the audience to their public encounters are people that are curious and they don’t see everything. And you have an opportunity to explain things to people.
Ultimately, police officers are accountable to the community in which they are sworn to protect and serve. But as TFTP has reported, few police departments ever face any real punitive actions for how they interact with those who pay their salaries.
READ MORE: HUGE VICTORY! Federal Court Bans Govt from Prosecuting Medical Pot Users and Growers
Adding insult to injury, the officer who arrested Williams approached him while he was chained to a jail chair. He pretended to care about Williams’ mental health, and in seemingly a condescending way, show his concern. Police often bring up mental health issues so they can further investigate someone, possibly drawing blood or urine samples via catheter against someone’s will, using their own bodily fluids against them in a court of law.
Williams’ charges were all dropped, and he filed a complaint against the officers and the department. He’ll likely sue the officers for having violated his civil rights. But there are many lessons to be learned from examining his nightmarish encounter with officers who could have easily ticket him and let him go on his way.
Know your rights. Some states have laws which state someone must identify themselves at a traffic stop. Other states have no such laws. As Phillip Turner demonstrates, drivers do not need to roll down their windows. Doing so only gives the officers quick access to the door locks so they can open the door to gain entry.
As TFTP reported recently, Turner barely cracks his windows during traffic stops, allowing passage only for his driver’s license, registration, and insurance information. He also does not answer police officers’ questions in which they try and bait a driver into giving up more information than is necessary to be ticketed. Remaining silent is the best option.
Turner knows it’s just a game police play to gain entry into one’s vehicle, to search for things, and as TFTP recently reported, possibly plant evidence on someone. After evidence is collected, one’s car can be towed and possibly confiscated in civil asset forfeiture schemes. Arrests generate hundreds if not thousands in court costs. Don’t be a victim. Know your rights and beat them at their own game. Keep in mind Williams’ encounter with police should have ended with a citation only.
READ MORE: "My Deputies Don"t Do Narcan": Sheriff Promises to Let Opioid Addicts Die
One month ago, President Trump vowed to "send in the Feds" after Chicago"s murder rate continued to track roughly in-line with 2016, the most violent year for the city in nearly two decades.
Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017
Alas, with the month of July now over, the "Feds" don"t seem to be helping.
With 77 people killed in July alone, murders are up 4% year-over-year despite the federal assistance. Moreover, those killed as the result of gun violence is up 9%.
Meanwhile, the month of July also recorded one of the city"s most violent Fourth of July holidays in history, with more than 100 people shot over the four-day weekend. That"s compared to 66 people shot over the holiday in 2016.
According to Chicago police, there have been 417 murders in the city so far this year on a total of 2,202 shootings.
Data Source: HeyJackAss!
As NBC points out, the soaring violence in 2017 comes despite the fact that 5,000 guns have been taken off the streets and gun arrests are up 30% YoY.
Chicago police reported last month that they have removed more than 5,000 guns this year off Chicago streets. The department has also rolled out several initiatives this year, including a high-tech ballistics van that was sent as part of the partnership with the ATF. That same partnership also sent 20 permanent ATF agents to the city, along with federal prosecutors, with the purpose of "prioritizing prosecutions to reduce gun violence, and working with our law enforcement partners to stop the lawlessness.”
"One of the things that I think people miss about this whole violence reduction is the fact that CPD - we’ve recovered over 5,000 guns this year, we’re up 30 percent in overall gun arrests - but the communities being affected, I don’t think they recognize the power that they have in the communities, their voices, to reduce this gun violence," Johnson said.
Not surprisingly, the majority of the violence remains concentrated in a few South and West side neighborhoods.
And, with 7 months of 2017 officially in the record books, here is how Chicago"s 2017 murders are stacking up against recent years.
Of course, it"s not just Chicago where violent crime is surging as the Midwestern neighbors of Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cleveland have also experienced a 68%, 18% and 33% increase in murders, respectively, compared to 2014.
The police do not care about keeping you safe. If they did, they wouldn’t put innocent people in danger every day by driving unmarked cars, behaving unprofessionally, and performing no-knock raids. All these things make it quite easy to impersonate an officer in order to commit a crime.
People know their lives are literally in jeopardy if they disobey even the most minor order from a police officer. Innocent people are no exception, and simply questioning an officer, or asserting one’s rights has gotten people beaten, arrested, and even killed.
Because of this environment created by an overbearing oppressive police state, a perfect opportunity has opened up for criminals to easily exploit their victim’s fear of police. Criminals simply need to pose as police, and any resistance on the part of their victims melts away.
Posing as Cops to Commit Crimes
It’s not just for big heists like in the movie The Town that criminals dress as police to commit crimes. It actually happens terrifyingly often.
The practice is so common in Miami-Dade that the police have a special task force to investigate instances of criminals impersonating officers. A family in Miami-Dade earlier this year suffered a home invasion after they opened their door to three men in police uniforms.
Last year in Tampa a 28-year old woman was pulled over by a fake officer and raped.
In April thieves in Tuscon dressed as police to invade a home. In May three suspects still on the loose did the same in Honolulu.
A Los Angeles man was convicted last week of fondling two women while posing as an officer and attempting to force another to take her clothes off while pretending to be a detective investigating counterfeit money.
In early June a man and a woman were arrested for dressing as federal agents and attempting to break into an apartment in Fresno California.
In Cleveland Ohio, a man was recently arrested and charged for handcuffing children on many different occasions in what appears to be a fake “scared straight” operation. The man was not a police officer, but wearing a gun and vest convinced school and court officials that he was an officer.
Even police have been fooled by fake officers, including a 14-year-old boy who simply walked into a Chicago police station and showed up for roll call.
Officers handed him a radio and told him to ride along with a female officer. The teenager even helped make an arrest.
“After four or five hours, she asks, ‘Who is this guy?’ ” recalled Jody P. Weis, who was the Chicago police superintendent at the time. “He’s in a uniform, he has a goofy badge, he doesn’t have a weapon and he’s a high school kid. It was so embarrassing.” (The embarrassment did not end there for Mr. Weis, who said he had recommended against punishing the teenager in juvenile court because no harm had been done. Three months later, the boy was arrested and charged with stealing a car.
Impersonating officers is not uncommon as you can see. This blind obedience to officers has caused women to be sexually assaulted, and homes to be invaded. But it is not just the fake cops you have to worry about.
Actual Police Commit Crimes Too
Real police commit crimes too, which is all the more reason not to place some members of society above fellow citizens.
If a police officer engages an innocent person, that person must essentially ask permission to walk away from the encounter. The fact that police demand unquestioning obedience, and act violently enraged if their authority is challenged only helps criminals get away with their crimes while posing as police officers.
But this same bullying extralegal behavior is used by police to commit crimes. Last year a Texas officer sexually assaulted a female driver, and a Honolulu officer was accused of raping a 14-year-old girl.
Unfortunately, rape and sexual assault by police officers appear to be extremely common. And even when the case is “resolved” with a conviction of the officer, the sentence is a miscarriage of justice.
One woman was offered a ride home by an officer after an incident had been resolved without any arrests.
She said she didn’t consent, but didn’t resist or say no because she was scared for her life.
“If I would’ve fought him back, yes, he would’ve murdered me. He would’ve took my life and I have kids,” she said.
The officer ended up being convicted and sentenced to one year in prison.
61% of all victims of police crimes are women. In San Diego, patrol officers working alone at night committed a number of sexual assaults against women they pulled over.
…of all the officers arrested, for offenses ranging from murder to drunken driving, only 54 percent were fired, and 37.5 percent arrested for domestic violence lost their jobs.
The study also found that roughly two-thirds of all the arrests were made by an agency that didn’t employ the officer…
Police also invade homes. An 80-year-old-man was shot to death by police after they broke into his home in a no-knock raid. They had obtained a search warrant with the only evidence being that they smelled chemicals associated with making meth. Hearing a home invasion, the elderly man picked up a pistol and was shot to death in his bed without firing a shot. No meth was found. The officers were not charged with the murder and were found to have acted appropriately.
This highlights how the drug war, no knock raids, and militarized police also contribute to the problems faced when trying to protect your life from thugs in real or fake uniforms.
But sometimes cops don’t even get a trumped up warrant before murdering innocent civilians.
One man was murdered by police when he took his legally owned firearm with him to open the door after a loud knock late at night. The officer did not identify himself, but seeing a gun, shot the man to death. For some reason, the officer was not charged, and the court prevented the man’s family from suing him, citing qualified immunity. They said it was not clear that the officer had committed any crime in murdering the homeowner.
The problem with police committing crimes is so voluminous that we can only scratch the surface here. But one thing is for sure, you have almost as much reason to fear becoming the victim of a crime from a real uniformed officer as from someone posing as an officer.
Solution
Indiana passed a law in 2012 that allows citizens to shoot an officer who illegally enters their home. It is unclear why this law was needed since it is illegal for anyone to invade a home, whether they are a cop or not. Having to codify something so obvious shows just how far the government will go to protect their criminal officers. Still, at least Indiana offered some legal cover to citizens forced to protect themselves from police.
Of course, most government solutions simply double down on the divide; prosecute impersonating an officer harder, and simply make it illegal to buy a badge or police uniform. Maybe while they are at it, they should ban Dodge Chargers for civilians, and prohibit civilians from wearing matching shirt and pants in any blues, blacks, or tans.
As usual, the solution from the government is to make more things illegal and punish pre-crimes like owning objects that might someday be used in a crime. Never does the problem come from the government’s end! It is always the damn civilians getting in the way of our brave heroes!
But the reality of the situation is that it doesn’t matter how many police-like tools and clothing they make illegal, or how hard they punish people who dress up as cops for Halloween. There is a divide between the police and the average citizen, and only by holding police accountable for their actions will the dangers of fake police be mitigated.
The only reason criminals have such success with this tactic is the population’s blind unquestioning obedience to police, beat into them over the course of years by bullies in blue who ignore the law to assert their will. It’s not the uniform, it is that we cannot tell the difference between the behavior of cops and criminals because they act in strikingly similar ways.
The solution is to stop giving police extra rights and privileges. It doesn’t make any sense that they are held to a lower standard for criminal activity than the rest of the population when they have more responsibility than most to behave appropriately. Any crime committed by an officer should be punished two-fold based on his position of trust and power over civilians, yet all too often they are not punished for their crimes.
A criminal is a criminal, whether his uniform and badge are fake or real. Civilians shouldn’t have to wait to find out if the officer is real, and they shouldn’t have to lay down and allow a real officer to have their way with them, with the only redress being later court action if they are alive to pursue it. This especially because people can be legally barred from pursuing civil action. Also, many police will not be charged or convicted of their crimes, or will receive ridiculously lenient sentences.
The two reasons people should not have to fear using such deadly force against home-invading cops is because A) if they are real police they are behaving criminally and everyone has the right to defend themselves from a criminal, and B) they might not be real cops at all, and everyone has the right to defend themselves from a criminal.
Not having to stop and wonder if this is a real police officer and wonder if you will be going to prison for decades simply for defending yourself makes you much safer and able to defend yourself and your loved ones.
If police are not given extra rights, there will be no reason to impersonate them.
Englewood, IL — In the land of the free, if you are in possession of an arbitrary substance deemed illegal by the state, police will claim the legal authority to kidnap, cage, beat, and/or kill you. This scenario plays out like a broken record in towns across America, every minute of every day. Despite police force and violence proving to be an utter failure at preventing and deterring drug use, the state, like a deranged maniac, continues to wage this futile war on drugs.
A wise person once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If we are to hold this definition true, the state needs to see a doctor — and soon.
The most recent instance of this insanity comes from Englewood, Illinois in which police found a man with some pills people take that make them feel good, ecstasy. For being in possession of those pills, police claimed the legal right to assault and kidnap Mr. Jermain Milan. And, as the dramatic cell phone footage shows, assault and kidnap him they did.
Despite the state’s vicious war on drugs, over 17 million Americans have reported using ecstasy. Despite this massive number of users proving the ineffective nature of using police force to prevent drug use, police will still ruin your life over it. Sadly, that’s exactly what they did with Jermain Milan.
“[Jermaine] was minding his own business and they just came at him, you know?” Juwahn, Milan’s brother, told NBC Chicago.
According to NBC Chicago, family members shared the video, which they said was taken around 7:30 p.m. on Monday in the city’s West Englewood neighborhood. In the video, 34-year-old Jermaine Milan can be seen on the ground with a white plainclothes police officer straddling him. The officer repeatedly strikes Milan in the head while yelling, “Spit it out.” It is not quite clear what “it” is, according to the news station.
READ MORE: Autistic 6th Grader Assaulted by School Cop, Now He is a Convicted Felon
During the video, you can hear an officer telling Milan, “I’ll kill you.” After this threat, the cop begins smashing the 34-year-old father of two’s face in for not complying with his kidnappers fast enough.
After the police department and the union became aware of the video, two statements were issued by the respective groups.
“We became aware of the video documenting plain clothes officers attempting to arrest a noncompliant offender after a suspected narcotics transaction last night,” the department said in a statement. “An investigation into the incident has been opened and the matter will be referred to the Independent Police Review Authority for a thorough review of the facts and circumstances of the incident.”
While the department has to pay lip service to the community by claiming some type of investigation will take place, the FOP does not. And, their remarks paint a far clearer image of what the department thinks versus what they said.
“We believe the officers were clearly in compliance with general orders and the use of force policy… The officers did a good job,” said Kevin Graham, president of the FOP.
To summarize the ‘good job’ of these officers, let’s recap what happened from an entirely objective point of view — omitting the claim of morality by police to tell people what they can and can’t put in their own bodies.
Jermain Milan had a few pills of a substance people take to escape reality. These pills are not nearly as dangerous as completely legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco, yet police insist of locking people in cages for them.
READ MORE: Video of Cop Curb-Stomping Handcuffed Man Shows Why People are Scared of Police
Milan was minding his own business, had not harmed anyone, and may have just been trying to raise a few dollars for his family, or, perhaps, he wanted to escape reality for a while. Either way, there was no victim — until police showed up — and created one.
When police arrived, they assaulted this father of two, who had harmed no one. Because this father did not want to be kidnapped, he didn’t immediately comply with his kidnappers, so, his kidnappers began beating him.
Because he did not comply, his kidnappers then charged him with obstruction of justice and aggravated assault — all stemming from being in possession of a controlled substance.
Milan is a father of two whose children will now grow up without a dad because police took him away and are holding him in a cage.
There is no moral ground for the war on drugs. Legality does not equal morality — and society is slowly but surely coming to this conclusion.
As for the police, they can end this right now by joining those officers who’ve already figured this out and refuse to enforce the drug war any longer. It is unnecessary, ineffective, barbarian, and it has failed — miserably. It is also responsible for so much of the divide between the police and the policed in America today.
Jermaine’s brother sums up this sentiment in the statement below.
“I don’t like the police no more—at all,” Juwahn said. “They’re wrong for that.”
One of the men had been arrested 12 times for violent crimes, all before turning 20. He’d also been charged with illegal gun possession. Two others each had been arrested eight times for violent crimes and caught three times with guns. Another man had been busted three times for illegal guns, racked up four arrests for violent offenses and been shot twice.
“We have 1,400 individuals that drive this gun violence in this city,” police Supt. Eddie Johnson said in August, assuring the public his department was keeping tabs on the people on its closely guarded “Strategic Subject List.” “We’ve gotten very good at predicting who will be the perpetrators or victims of gun violence.”
Yet the list is far broader and more extensive than Johnson and other police officials have suggested. It includes more than 398,000 entries — encompassing everyone who has been arrested and fingerprinted in Chicago since 2013.
Nearly half of the people at the top of the list have never been arrested for illegal gun possession. About 13 percent have never been charged with any violent crime. And 20 of the 153 people deemed most at risk to be involved in violent crime, as victim or shooter, have never been arrested either for guns or violence.
That’s according to a version of the list that the police department released to the Chicago Sun-Times after a lengthy legal dispute.
The police concluded the people who hadn’t been arrested for guns or violence were at great risk to commit a violent crime or become the victim of one — and, as a result, should be watched closely — because they:
• Had been shot or assaulted.
• Had been identified by the police as a gang member.
• Or recently were arrested for any crime, even a nonviolent offense.
The police say the list helps them determine which people they need to target for warnings or offers of help.
Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
It is hard to believe that Baltimore was once one of the greatest cities in the entire world. Unlike nearby Washington D.C., Baltimore is a blue collar city that is home to some of the hardest working people in America. When I was in high school, my brother and I were huge fans of the Baltimore Orioles, and once in a while our parents would drive us from our home in Virginia all the way up to Baltimore to see them play. As an adult, I spent a number of years living near D.C., and I would take frequent trips up to Baltimore.
To say that the city is in a state of decline would be a major understatement. Everywhere you look there are abandoned buildings and homes, and as you drive through some of the worst areas you can actually see drug addicts just lying in the streets. Just like so many other communities all over this country, decades of liberal policies have taken a brutal toll, and now the city is just a rotting, decaying shell of the glorious metropolis that it once was.
There are some sections of Baltimore that you simply do not go into once the sun goes down. And actually it isn’t a very good idea to go into those areas during the day either. The crime in the city has gotten so bad that authorities have actually formally requested help from the federal government…
According to The Baltimore Sun Newspaper, the city has logged in 118 homicides today with the projection of >400 murders for year’s end. It’s so bad here that Baltimore’s Mayor has asked the Federal Government for help in attempt to regain control. Even the police union sounds the alarm of an officer shortage leading to decrease in patrols. All of this is occurring as the Baltimore population declines, nearing a 100-year low, U.S. Census says.
Through the end of April, Baltimore was on pace for the highest murder rate in the history of the city.
Yes, you read that correctly.
The primary factor fueling all of this violence is an opioid epidemic that is completely and totally out of control…
The opioid epidemic is the quiet killer that has been leaving a trail of bodies on the streets of Baltimore.
“The individuals that are putting these drugs on our street, they’re killing people on our street,” said deputy commissioner Dean Palmere of the Baltimore Police Department.
Drug overdoses is expected to have killed 2,000 people statewide in 2016 and more than 800 in Baltimore alone.
“There are more people dying from overdose here in Baltimore City, than there are dying of homicide,” said Baltimore City health commissioner Dr. Leana Wen in February.
That last paragraph amazed me when I first read it.
Even though Baltimore is on pace for the highest murder rate in the city’s history, more people are actually dying from drug overdoses.
And now police in the city are warning of a new opioid that is reportedly “100 times more potent than heroin”. It is called Carfentanyl, and it can kill people almost instantly.
I would like to share with you a short YouTube film put out by Alastair Williamson just a few days ago entitled “The Baltimore Experience”. No matter how much I write, I could never communicate the devastation in the city quite like this little video does…
Did you see the part near the end where Williamson stops to offer a bottle of water to a man that is just lying in the street?
Hopefully that particular man is not on anything, but it is quite common to see people lying around like zombies in cities where an opioid epidemic is raging. These are very cruel drugs, and they will utterly consume you if you allow them to.
The more drugs that come in, the worse the violence gets, and within the past 24 hours we have seen four more senseless murders in Baltimore…
Two men were shot and killed Tuesday morning in west Baltimore, police said. Officers responded at 5:52 a.m. to the shooting on the 2800 block of Lanvale Street.
Police said officers found the victims in and around a vehicle. Both had been shot in the head and were declared dead at the scene, police said.
A 35-year-old man was fatally shot Monday evening in southeast Baltimore, police said.
The victim, identified as Charles Gatuthu, 35, was shot in the head and body at about 7:45 p.m. in the 6100 block of Boston Street. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital, where he died.
A 25-year-old was shot and killed Monday afternoon in west Baltimore, police said.
Of course Baltimore is far from alone. On Monday, I wrote about how Chicago is becoming a gang-infested wasteland, and on Tuesday we got news of Chicago’s 200th homicide so far in 2017.
And an official bulletin went out to all members of the Chicago police on Monday warning them about the “high-powered weapons” that gangs are now using to kill people…
Chicago police issued a bulletin Monday warning its officers about gangs armed with high-powered weapons, after three people were shot to death over the weekend – including two attending a memorial for the earlier victim.
Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the three people who were killed in the shootings Sunday were all members of the same street gang.
Sometimes it is hard to believe that this is still America.
The precious people that are getting hooked on these drugs and that are committing these murders were once innocent little boys and girls. Somewhere along the way they were led down the wrong path, and this is happening on a massive scale all over the nation.
So what should we do?
What we need are some real solutions. We need to restore the principles and the values that this nation was founded upon, and we need people that are willing to step forward and take this nation in a different direction. In times of great darkness, light is needed the most, and at this moment in our history we are in desperate need of some lights.
During his early days on the force, 30-year-old, rookie Chicago police officer, Scott Tracz, was described by colleagues as an "upbeat" cop who had always dreamed of becoming a police officer to help people in his city. That is, until he sat in a black sports car outside his girlfriend"s suburban house late last year, put his gun to his head and took his own life. Per Reuters:
Tracz had long dreamed of becoming a police officer to help others. But working in the violence-stricken Chicago Lawn district, he came face to face with the city"s violent crime. The area accounted for 58 of the city"s more than 760 murders last year, as well as 228 shootings.
"He would say, "You can never imagine what the human race is capable of doing," then he would just put his head down," said his cousin Maciaszek, 46.
Unfortunately, stories just like the one of Scott Tracz are becoming all too common on the Chicago police force as officers deal with the psychological side effects of having to go to work every single day in Chicago"s "war zone."
"Chicago is a war zone," said Alexa James, the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Chicago. "They (officers) are seeing the worst day of everybody’s life every day."
"Suicide is killing officers, alcohol is killing officers, at a far greater rate than ambushes, but there is not the same sense of urgency around this issue," said Christy Lopez, a former Justice Department official who led the Chicago federal probe.
Chicago police"s suicide rate was 29.4 per 100,000 department members between 2013 and 2015, the report said, citing police union figures. The department disagreed in the report, putting the rate at 22.7 suicides per 100,000 members. Both estimates were higher than the national average of 18.1 law enforcement suicides per 100,000.
As we"ve noted many times in the past, Chicago"s homicide rate in 2016 soared to levels not seen since the mid-90s when gang wars plagued the streets of cities all around the nation (charts via HeyJackAss!).
And, things aren"t getting any better so far in 2017...
...particularly in the city"s South and West side neighborhoods.
To add insult to injury, because of Chicago"s onerous gun laws that permanently prohibit anyone who has been involuntarily committed for in-patient mental health treatment from carrying a gun, a requirement for cops, the folks working for the Chicago PD generally refuse mental health services out of fear of losing their job.
Some officers believe that seeking counseling will result in the loss of their Firearm Owner Identification Card, a requirement to carry a firearm under state law, according to current and former officers, as well as health officials. That view is mistaken, say Justice Department officials.
Still, "If someone thinks I have talked to EAP they think I’m unstable, so I’m not going to call," said one veteran officer, who asked not to be identified.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in February the department"s past approach to mental health was wrong. In a report issued in March, the department said it would review mental wellness support services.
"Law enforcement historically has been seen as a very macho profession," Johnson said at a public forum about police reform. "To say you needed help was seen as a sign of weakness and we were wrong for looking at it that way, we were simply wrong."
But hey, at least the Obama administration sought to help Chicago Police officers by dropping a DOJ study, one week prior to departing the White House, effectively labeling their department as nothing more than a bunch of racist, hate-mongering bullies who routinely resort to the use of "deadly force" in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.
Just over a month ago we wrote about the Obama administration"s parting middle finger to the Chicago police force after the Department of Justice, led by then Attorney General Loretta Lynch, released what appeared to us to be a politically motivated report accusing the CPD of a "pattern of racial discrimination" and "unconstitutional use of force." And while the DOJ"s 164-page report was heavy on accusations and innuendo, it was mysteriously lacking on scientific facts to support their highly controversial claims. Here"s how we summarized the DOJ"s findings:
With one week left in office, Obama"s Department of Justice has released a report effectively labeling the Chicago police department as nothing more than a bunch of racist, hate-mongering bullies who routinely resort to the use of "deadly force" in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.
Justice Department Finds a Pattern of Civil Rights Violations by the Chicago Police Department ? https://t.co/600C0xV3yX
— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) January 13, 2017
And while our characterization is probably somewhat more colorful than Attorney General Leretta Lynch would like, that Chicago Police are "racist" and "brutal" will nonetheless undoubtedly be the key takeaways from the press release and supporting documents posted earlier to the DOJ website.
That said, Trump"s new Attorney General Jeff Sessions wasted precious little time dismissing the Obama administration"s crusade against law enforcement departments across the country saying the DOJ"s findings in Chicago were "pretty anecdotal and not so scientifically based." Per The Hill:
Sessions said the findings in the report were "pretty anecdotal and not so scientifically based,” though he also said that he had read summaries rather than the full documents.
"You have 800,000 police in America. Imagine a city of 800,000 people," Sessions said. "There"s going to be some crime in it, some people are going to make errors."
Sessions, who has enjoyed broad support from the police community and is widely viewed as a law-and-order style attorney general, said that, rather spending time and money suing police departments around the country, his Department of Justice would focus on how best to work with local police forces to combat the recent surge in violent crime in cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee and Memphis. Per The Hill:
However, Sessions warned that there are clear warning signs — “like the first gusts of wind before a summer storm” — that the nation is at a tipping point and that the trend is about to reverse.
The attorney general said those trends continued into the first half of 2016, with the number of violent crimes up more than 5 percent year-over-year and the murder rates in 27 of the nation’s 35 larges cities — Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee and Memphis among — skyrocketing.
“These numbers should trouble all of us,” Sessions said. “My worry is that this is not a ‘blip’ or an anomaly, but the start of a dangerous new trend that could reverse the hard-won gains of the past four decades — gains that made America a safer and more prosperous place.”
“While we can hope for the best, those of us charged with protecting public safety can’t afford to be complacent or take for granted the achievements of recent years, because when crime rates move in the wrong direction, they can move quickly,” he continued. “So we need to act decisively at all levels – federal, state and local — to reverse this rise in violent crime and keep our citizens safe. This will be a top priority of the Department of Justice during my time as Attorney General.”
Meanwhile, Sessions blasted Eric Holder for creating an environment where police as a whole were targeted and "maligned" for the inappropriate behavior of a "few bad actors" resulting in a reluctance of officers to actually do their jobs for fear of being the next victim of a viral video.
“They tell us that in this age of viral videos and targeted killings of police, many of our men and women in law enforcement are becoming more cautious,” Sessions said. “They’re more reluctant to get out of their squad cars and do the hard but necessary work of up-close policing that builds trust and prevents violent crime.”
The attorney general said that, under former attorney general Eric Holder’s Justice Department, “law enforcement as a whole has been unfairly maligned and blamed for the unacceptable deeds of a few bad actors.”
“Our officers, deputies and troopers believe the political leadership of this country abandoned them,” Sessions said. “Their morale has suffered. And last year, amid this intense public scrutiny and criticism, the number of police officers killed in the line of duty increased 10 percent over the year before.”
Sessions vowed to work more closely with local law enforcement groups so they would know “they have our steadfast support.”
“For the federal government, that means this: rather than dictating to local police how to do their jobs – or spending scarce federal resources to sue them in court – we should use our money, research and expertise to help them figure out what is happening and determine the best ways to fight crime,” Sessions said. “We should strengthen partnerships between federal and state and local officers. And we should encourage proactive policing that ensures our police and citizens are communicating and working well together.”
Looks like Chicago"s violent gangs just got their first "shot across the bow" from America"s new attorney general.
CHICAGO (CN) – A black man shot fives times by Chicago police officers after he angered them by calling 911 sued the city for excessive force, claiming the officers weren’t disciplined until months after a police oversight board found his shooting unjustified.
On Feb. 7, 2015, Antwon D. Golatte was stopped on the South Side by Chicago police for a traffic violation. Three other police officers – Jaime Gaeta, Harry Matheos and Matt Dercola – soon arrived on the scene, court records show.
Golatte, a black man, says he called 911 as soon as he saw them, because he recognized the three as the officers who stopped him two days earlier. In that stop, the officers allegedly dumped his pizza on the ground and made him stand barefoot in the snow while they searched his car.
Unhappy with Golatte’s call, the officers began swearing and pointing their guns at him, according to the complaint filed Friday in Chicago federal court.
“Plaintiff lowered his driver’s side window in an attempt to communicate with defendant officers, to no avail,” the complaint states. “Defendant Gaeta then stood on the running board [of] plaintiff’s car, grabbed the inside of plaintiff’s driver side window, pulled, and shattered the glass.”
The officers then opened fire, shooting him five times and barely missing his vital organs, according to the lawsuit. Golatte says he still has bullet shards in his body that doctors were unable to remove.
Golatte was charged with aggravated assault on the four police officers with a motor vehicle, charges he claims were trumped up to justify the shooting.
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Three days after the shooting, the Chicago Police Department updated its policy on use of deadly force, prohibiting officers from shooting at moving vehicles if no other weapons were being used against them.
Golatte was acquitted of the accused crimes at trial. The Independent Police Review Authority also found in July that the officers used deadly force without justification.
Nevertheless, “upon information and belief, the City of Chicago and Chicago Police Department failed to adequately investigate the shooting of plaintiff or impose any discipline on any of the defendant officers until December 2016, almost two years after the unlawful shooting,” the complaint claims.
The Chicago Police Department has come under intense scrutiny since December 2015 when the release of police dashcam video showed the fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald by a white officer. The video sparked protests and the resignation of Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
A Police Accountability Task Force created by Mayor Rahm Emanuel after the McDonald video went public found that the city’s Independent Police Review Authority, charged with investigating police misconduct, is only nominally independent and almost always finds in favor of the officers – although not in Golatte’s case. Forty percent of the complaints it received were not even investigated over the last five years.
The investigation also found that, although Chicago’s population is evenly split between blacks, whites and Hispanics, 74 percent of police shootings between 2008 and 2015 involved blacks, and black drivers were four times as likely to be searched by police after being stopped, even though contraband was found twice as often on white drivers.
READ MORE: Police Now “Armed For War” Against Returning Veterans
Last month, the U.S. Justice Department released a scathing report finding that major problems with the police department’s training and accountability are to blame for civil rights violations and the erosion of public trust.
The city and the Justice Department reached an agreement in principle to work together toward a consent decree that will addressing deficiencies found in the government’s investigation.
Golatte is represented by Danielle A. Pinkston. He seeks punitive damages for claims of excessive force, malicious prosecution and conspiracy.
The city did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment.
Submitted by Joseph Jankowski via Planet Free Will
Chicago is starting the year 2017 much like it did 2016: plagued with violence.
The number of shootings in the month of January nearly duplicated the tally from the start of last year, which was the bloodiest year in Chicago in more than two decades.
According to Chicago police, January ended with 51 murders, one more than last year. Per HeyJackAss!, here is how the daily murder totals trended over the past month:
From ABC 7 Chicago:
Police recorded 51 murders across the city last month, one more than January 2016, the department said. Although, the department said in a release last year that 51 people were murdered in Chicago in January 2016
Three police districts on the city’s South and West sides – the Englewood, Harrison and Austin districts – accounted for about half of the city’s murders last month.
Police counted 234 shooting incidents – eight fewer than in January 2016 – with 299 victims, an increase of eight compared to the same period last year.
The Deering District, which was one of the city’s top three districts for murders in 2016, saw a 50 percent reduction in murders last month compared to January 2016, police said. The department said 59 of the city’s 77 neighborhoods either remained flat or saw a reduction in murders last month compared to last January.
Officers recovered more than 600 guns last month, an increase of more than 60 percent over January 2016, police said. The department also noted that gun arrests overall have more than doubled compared to January 2016.
At a meeting with members of the African American community on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said that if Chicago officials don’t take steps to curb the violence, "we’re going to solve the problem for them.”
“Because we’re going to have to do something… What’s happening in Chicago should not be happening in this country,” Trump said.
Trump called the violence in Chicago “totally out of control.”
Darrell Scott, an Ohio pastor who campaigned for Trump and who was present at the Wednesday meeting, said that he was talking to members of “top gangs” in Chicago who wanted to sit down and discuss how to lower the body count inside the city. Per CBS Chicago 2:
“They reached out to me, because they’re associating me with you. They respect you. They believe in what you’re doing, and they want to have a sit-down about lowering that body count. So in a couple weeks, I’m going into Chicago,” Scott said. “I said we’ve got to lower that body count. We don’t want to talk about anything else; get that body count down, and they agreed that the principals that can do it – these are guys straight from the streets, no politicians, straight street guys – but they’re going to commit that if they lower that body count, we’ll come in and we’ll do some social programs.”
“It’s a great idea,” Trump said about a possible meeting involving gang leaders and social programs.
On January 24, President Trump tweeted that if Chicago is unable to stop the “horrible carnage” going on, he would be willing to “send in the feds.”
If Chicago doesn"t fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
Chicago saw a huge surge in violence in 2016: 762 murders, 3,550 shooting incidents, and 4,331 shooting victims, according to police.
