NYT: Chicago’s Racist Cops and Racist Courts

[forummm]

Must read article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/opinion/chicagos-racist-cops-and-racist-courts.html

References this report:
https://chicagopatf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/PATF_Final_Report_4_13_16-1.pdf

It's a first-hand account from someone who worked in a prosecutor's office about the open racism she witnessed among the cops, prosecutors, and judges.

The officers...would dutifully teach me how the justice system really worked, how black men really were “dogs,” and how judges and prosecutors who focused on due process “nonsense” were “liberals” who were throwing away “their” cases.

Prosecutors and judges often participated in this culture. They spoke in overtly racist ways in court, mocked defendant’s black-sounding names or used bastardized Ebonics to imitate the voices of defendants, families and victims.

A judge talking about widespread fabricated police reports:

He said to watch for a string of cases where officers would reproduce the same police report detailing how drugs would “fall out” of defendants’ pockets as they “fled on foot” — common phrases used by police officers. The judge said that a “certain” neighborhood (which was code for black and Latino) had an epidemic of “holey” pockets.

Police perjury:

Twenty of the 27 judges I interviewed said that police perjury occurred, six did not directly respond, and only one said that it did not occur.

This type of corrupt behavior is consistent with witness accounts, including statements from former cops in other big cities too.

[mrpercentage]

Your local law enforcement is only as good as the pool of people they are pulled from. This doesn't say anything about cops, judges, or lawyers. It has everything to do with Chicago. End of report

[forummm]

Your local law enforcement is only as good as the pool of people they are pulled from. This doesn't say anything about cops, judges, or lawyers. It has everything to do with Chicago. End of report

People, including former cops in those cities, have said similar things about Baltimore, NYC, LA, SF, etc, as well as many smaller towns (Ferguson, etc). It's not just a Chicago thing.

I strongly recommend The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. It's an eye-opening book by a Stanford Law professor about the judicial system. Absolutely a must read.