Month: May 2018

An old (2016) but still important study on Chicago and civil forfeiture, who it benefits (cops and prosecutors) and who it harms (including people who committed no crimes):

Since 2009, the year CPD began keeping electronic records of its forfeiture accounts, the department has brought in nearly $72 million in cash and assets through civil forfeiture, keeping nearly $47 million for itself and sending on almost $18 million to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and almost $7.2 million to the Illinois State Police, according to our analysis of CPD records.

The Chicago Police Board orders two officers be fired for making false statements in their reports and under oath:

The officers “knowingly and intentionally falsified official police reports and lied under oath at a criminal trial,” the board said in its 8-0 decision. “Had their testimony been believed, it is likely that Mr. Vasquez would have been convicted of one or more crimes. It is difficult to overstate the harm this would have caused.”

Article quotes ex-cop as defining the ‘code of silence’ as coordinated lying.

Spalding said Johnson and other top police officials ought to do two things. First, she said, they should keep acknowledging “that a code of silence does exist and that they’re not going to tolerate it anymore.”

Claims of aggressive policing after AFT agent shot in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood:

More than two dozen people outlined claims of intimidation, harassment and mistreatment by officers as they try to find the attacker. The group said while they feel for law enforcement, gunfire in the neighborhood happens on a daily basis and they don’t see a similar police response.

For more: http://wgntv.com/2018/05/05/manhunt-continues-after-atf-agent-shot-in-head-back-of-the-yards-residents-call-police-response-too-aggressive/

“ ‘This is a city with a history of sending people out to record protesters. Now imagine doing it with facial recognition technology,’ says Ed Yohnka of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.”

https://chicago.suntimes.com/?post_type=cst_article&p=1075643

 

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said he has no reason to strip police powers from 10 officers that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office said it will no longer call as witnesses in criminal cases due to “concerns about their credibility.”

https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/top-cop-10-officers-banned-as-witnesses-remain-fit-for-police-powers/f861c69c-e15f-4766-abc8-a7419255ae9b

Another Burge era torture case makes the news

A salty, old-school Chicago cop, Kill, who worked for a time under disgraced former Cmdr. Jon Burge, didn’t back down during testimony in January 2016 from the techniques he used to obtain convictions he says in more than 90 percent of his murder cases. Kill has also defended his repeated use of the N-word while questioning black suspects.