Murderers in Uniform Walk Away Scot-Free

The Chicago Police Department is home to some of the nastiest goons this side of the extended Soprano family. Don't take my word for it — read this recent New York Times piece on the report by a University of Chicago research team that describes the city as a place where

rogue police officers abuse victims without fear of punishment, and the lack of accountability has tainted the entire department, resulting in a loss of public confidence.

Today, from the Chicago Tribune, further reminders of how the Windy City's finest dispense instant street justice with near-total impunity:

On a summer night in 2003, two patrol cars pulled over a driver in front of his South Side [Chicago] home for running a stop sign. Thinking police had chased the car earlier that night, four officers drew their guns and ordered the driver out. The man's mother screamed from the sidewalk: "He can't walk! He's paralyzed! He can't get out of the car!" When one officer thought the driver raised a gun, he opened fire, shooting the driver five times before reloading and shooting him once more.

Eight hours later, as Cornelius Ware, a 20-year-old paraplegic who drove by pushing the pedals with a wooden cane, lay gravely wounded in the hospital, police supervisors cleared the officer of any wrongdoing. They didn't check the direction of the bullets. They didn't interview all the witnesses, two of whom said they saw Ware's hands raised in surrender. And they didn't wait for the autopsy report, which showed two of the bullets struck him in the back of his hands.

An exception, surely?  Forget it, says the Tribune, whose reporters spent the better part of a year scrutinizing police shootings going back a decade. The paper's conclusion:

Far from an egregious exception, the Chicago Police Department's handling of the Ware case fits a pattern of officials rushing to clear officers who shoot civilians, an eight-month Tribune investigation found. The inquiry, which reviewed available records for more than 200 police shooting cases over the last decade, found that these cursory police investigations create a separate standard of justice and fuel the fear among some citizens that officers can shoot people with impunity.

So why are the checks on cops with a Dirty Harry complex so feeble? Why is there a different standard of justice for guys with a badge? It has to be because the people who investigate police shootings are themselves law enforcement officers, all too often steeped in a corrosive us-versus-them culture and, to varying degrees, susceptible to the questionable mores of the thin blue line.

Especially since almost anyone can become a police officer (really, that's not far from the truth), we should be able to find civilians who are more than qualified enough to serve on local police oversight boards. I'm talking about regular, fair-minded people with the wherewithal to ask tough questions when needed (and demand answers), and whose best judgment will determine whether a cop involved in a controversial shooting will be indicted.

Now that would truly be 'community policing.' Where do we sign up?

Comments

[benpal]

There seems to be a hole in the legal system. Police officers should be tried the same way any citizien is tried, by a civil tribunal. And there should be higher instances that can be appealed to if the lower echelons fail to comply.

[greg]

imagine, a profession where you can legally beat people up, incarcerate them, and ultimately shoot them if you fee it necessary seems to draw some less-than-desirable characters.

Next I'll be hearing that neurotic work-aholics are going into the medical field!

[Peter]

There are a lot of interesting comments to this article. Here's one of the most striking from someone who claims to be a police officer:

"To all of the Lincoln Park liberals, suburbanite scum, filthy animals, why do you hate the police? I believe that NO ONE should be able to criticize the police. They are risking their lives everyday to make the city safer. And this is how you thank them? The authors of this article make me sick. Really sick. I hope you liberal pokes go to hell!!! I really do. BTW, if you want to criticize the police, then don't. If you want to support us, then please do so."

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/chicago-tribune/TE11F4T0S3GU6QCEJ/p16

It's scary if this person really has a gun and some authority.

[George Arndt]

As the old saying goes "if the police protect us from the criminals, who's going to protect us from the police."

Have these guys thought of signing up with Blackwater, I'm sure they would fit in fine...

[Hermes Ten]

Police risk their lives? Really? In what country? Not this one. Cop doesn't even rank in the top 10 of dangerous jobs in America.