This week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel ofChicago sacrificed police SuperintendentGarry McCarthy in order to save himself,as anger raged about the killing of LaquanMcDonald in what read to many as a politicallymotivated effort to cover up video of thatkilling.
As John Kass of the Chicago Tribune put itregarding the firing of McCarthy: “City Hallprotects the Queen Bee to keep the honeyflowing. It isn’t personal. It’s business.”But that whole hive is ablaze. Emanuelmay not be able to save himself. Everythingabout the killing of McDonald over 400 daysago, including the slithering about of Chicagoofficials in their efforts to suppress video of hismurder, stinks to high heaven. There is the $5million settlement with the family, the timingof that settlement, the strenuous efforts to keepthe tape from public view, the long delay incharging the officer who did the shooting.
It all makes one ask: How much is the life of ateenager worth? To what length would officialsgo to bury visual evidence that he had been shotdown in the street like a dog? Are officials sodesperately afraid of losing their jobs that theywould conceal details about the loss of a boy’slife?Professor Bernard E. Harcourt of Columbiaargued this week in a New York Times Op-Ed that many of the city leaders had a motiveto cover up the shooting: “Mayor Emanuelwas fighting for re-election in a tight race.
Superintendent McCarthy wanted to keephis job.” Furthermore, the Cook Countyprosecutor, Anita Alvarez, “needed the goodwill of the police union for her coming reelectioncampaign and probably wished toshield the police officers who bring her casesand testify in court.”But as Harcourt noted: “None of that altersthe fact that these actions have impeded thecriminal justice system and, in the process,Chicago’s leaders allowed a first-degree murdersuspect, now incarcerated pending bail, toremain free for over a year on the city’s payroll.”But more than having people in power losetheir jobs, someone has to take a long, hardlook at Chicago’s police review process, whichI would posit, if it were functioning properly,would have had some bearing on this caseand on many before it. It has to be determinedwhether the system is indeed broken, so thatthere will be fewer McDonalds in the future.
The N.A.A.C.P. issued a statement this weekcalling for a “Justice Department Review of allChicago police oversight agencies,” and tried todetail the scope of the problem:“A 2008 study by a University of Chicago lawprofessor found more than 10,000 complaintswere filed against officers from 2002 to 2004alone — more than any city in the country.
Only 19 of the 10,000 complaints resulted insignificant disciplinary action, and complaintswere dismissed without interviewing theofficer in 85 percent of cases.”The statement continued:“The Independent Police Review Authority,(IPRA) was created to be an independentagency that investigates police shootings andmisconduct cases. Currently, this process isn’ttruly independent because cases are sent backto Chicago Police Department to approve.
The process needs to provide IPRA with trueindependent authority with referral rights to anindependent prosecutor.”To fully understand the depths of the problemon a human level, take the July findings bythe Chicago public radio station WBEZ. Thestation reported at the time:“A Chicago investigator who determinedthat several civilian shootings by police officerswere unjustified was fired after resisting ordersto reverse those findings, according to internalrecords of his agency obtained by WBEZ.”The fired investigator was Lorenzo Davis,himself a former police commander who hadserved in the Chicago Police Departmentfor 23 years and held a law degree. His firingwas announced to staff by Scott M. Ando,who had been promoted by Emanuel to chiefadministrator of the city’s Independent PoliceReview Authority.
As WBEZ reported:“Davis’s termination came less than twoweeks after top IPRA officials, evaluatingDavis’s job performance, accused him of ‘aclear bias against the police’ and called him ‘theonly supervisor at IPRA who resists makingrequested changes as directed by managementin order to reflect the correct finding withrespect to O.I.S.,’ as officer-involved shootingsare known in the agency.”According to the station:“Davis says he helped investigate more thana dozen shootings by police at the agency. Hesays his superiors had no objections when histeam recommended exonerating officers. Theobjections came, he says, after each finding thata shooting was unjustified. He says there weresix of those cases.”Davis told the station, “I did not like thedirection the Police Department had taken.” Hecontinued, “It appeared that officers were doingwhatever they wanted to do. The discipline wasno longer there.”Something is amiss in the Windy City.
Police officers “doing whatever they wantedto do” with no worry about repercussionsor accountability? That is the very nature ofcorruption and abuse of power. The federalgovernment will have no choice but to step in ifit cares at all about public confidence in the localofficials in America’s third largest city.
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CHARLES M. BLOW>
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