By Curtis Black
Hundreds of activists gathered last Thursday to mark the second anniversary of the death of Laquan McDonald.McDonald’s death precipitated the first murder indictment of a Chicago police officer for an on-duty shooting in memory; a probe of the Chicago Police Department by the U.S. Department of Justice; an apology from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and an admission from him of the existence of a code of silence in CPD; the resignation of then-Supt. Garry McCarthy and the defeat of State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez in the March primary; a scathing report from the mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force emphasizing racial bias in policing here; and passage of an ordinance strengthening the city’s police accountability system.
(YouTube/Sun-Times)How well that new system functions remains to be seen. Other unanswered questions: whether CPD’s policy of firing officers who give false reports is consistently enforced, and how high the investigation into the coverup of McDonald’s shooting is taken. While rank-and-file officers who filed false reports are under investigation by a grand jury, for over a year top officials at CPD and the city maintained a false narrative about the shooting. That narrative was clearly contradicted by the dashcam video that was finally released – following an extended court battle – last November.And while many are asking whether there is any support for reform efforts among police officers, it’s worth recalling that it was an anonymous CPD whistleblower who first alerted the Invisible Institute of the existence of the video. Without that individual, none of the debate, protest, and progress of the last few months would have been possible.
Perjury
Three local police officers, two from Chicago and one from Glenview, pleaded not guilty last week after being re-indicted for perjury, official misconduct, and obstruction of justice. In September prosecutors dropped charges against the officers when defense attorneys showed they were relying on an outdated version of the state’s perjury law.
In a story broken by the Chicago Tribune two years ago, three officers from Chicago and two from Glenview gave accounts of a traffic stop and search that conflicted with dashcam video. One Chicago officer involved in the incident pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor obstruction of justice.
Earlier this year, after a Tribune investigation into other officers whose testimony has been ruled false, the Cook County State’s Attorney began issuing disclosure notices in cases where those officers were witnesses. The Trib had reported that officers are rarely punished for giving false testimony.
Surveillance
The Chicago Police Department used controversial surveillance technology to locate cellphones involved in more than a dozen murder, kidnapping, and drug conspiracy cases – but not to spy on protestors, according to documents released recently.
The privacy activist who went to court to force the release of the records told the Chicago Sun-Times he doesn’t believe the city turned over all its records. “It’s a suspiciously low number for a city the size of Chicago,” said Freddy Martinez of Lucy Parson Labs.
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Martinez sued the city in 2014, first forcing an admission that the devices called Stingrays were used for surveillance by CPD. First purchased by CPD in 2008, the devices monitor cellphone data, and do not require judicial oversight.
That will change next year when a new state law goes into effect requiring court approval for use of cellular tracking systems, and requiring police to delete information they obtain from “non-target” phones.
Meanwhile, CPD told the Tribune that it has used a local company called Geofeedia to monitor social media posts at large sporting events and at “First Amendment-protected events.”
The ACLU reported earlier this month that police in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., used Geofeedia to track Black Lives Matter protests, linking it with government’s “long history of spying on activists in an effort to dampen dissent.” Following the report, Facebook and Instagram limited Geofeedia’s access to its user posts.
The Intercept has reported that a venture capital firm controlled by the CIA invested in Geofeedia and other startups offering social media mining and monitoring services.
Tracking CPD’s Use of Force Guidelines
With four weeks remaining in the Chicago Police Department‘s public comment period for its new Use of Force guidelines, City Bureau and the Invisible Institute have teamed up to produce a detailed public tool tracking the draft. The Use of Force Tracker translates the Use of Force document via annotations from City Bureau reporters and Documenters collecting information from media reports, legal documents, national best practices and research studies.
From now until November 19, the two independent journalism groups will collect comments, ideas and experiences from the public using the Tracker, while providing context around the directives contained in the guidelines.
Add your own comments to the Tracker using Genius (no download required).
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