There are approximately 6931 police officers in Chicago and all of them had more than one allegation of misconduct between 2011 and 2015. Yes…the situation is that bad. What is more ridiculous is that an allegation can either be filed by a resident of Chicago, or, another officer. And we ask why there’s such little convictions of police officers involved in illegal killings…which officer is going to send his colleagues into the can?
For example, Officer Jason Van D*** has been accused of shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times. Ask yourself this: what prompts one human being to shoot another 16 times when they are not even armed? As if that’s not bad enough, the officer had 4 other allegations facing him!
Our only hope is, something is happening…
Of the 6931 officers, 469 officers were penalized at least once. The complaints were investigated by the Independent Police Review Authority and/or Police Department. The discipline included suspension for less than a week or a reprimand.
But the hope is a little bit too little…
The complaints from the public included poor filing of paperwork to more serious cases of using excessive force on the people they are required to protect. There were 2001 officers who had not less than one case of excessive force between 2011 and 2015.
And they can be lenient to themselves…
Of the 2001 officers, a whopping 1846 of them were not disciplined and then guess what the excuse was – there was just too much work to let go even a single policeman.
Far too many cases go unnoticed…
You see the reason Chicago PD has gained notoriety is officers such as Jason Van D*** who had a whopping 20 cases of allegations in his 14 years of service. The last 3 allegations were for use of excessive force while one was for racist slur. In all the cases of complaints, he denied wrongdoing and was therefore not disciplined. One would think that there would be an independent investigation, but no! The Chicago PD’s manpower was already “overstretched”.
Oh…and Van D*** is not alone!
There are an additional 647 officers whose allegations were more than Van D***’s 20 but they were never penalized too. When the complaint was lodged, it was either not upheld or the complainant did not sign the affidavit fearing of being targeted by the officers.
They even have discrimination among their ranks!
More than 50% of the complaints were lodged against white police officers, yet the said white officers represented just 36% of those punished compared to 41% of the black officers punished.
The case of complaints being subjected to race…
Of all the complaints filed by Chicagoans, 61 percent were lodged by African Americans. Of the complaints lodged by African Americans, only 25% led to one officer being disciplined.
Now contrast this with…
Of all the complaints filed by Chicagoans, 21 percent of them were lodged by white Americans. Of the total complaints lodged by White Americans, 58% of them led to disciplining of an officer.
Indeed, complaints mean nothing!
Misconduct by Chicago Police will continue to thrive as long as nobody gives serious consideration to the above statistics and does something about it. Everybody wants to feel protected, but how are they going to see the police as the protectors if a simple complaint cannot be handled professionally?