At Issue: This Week’s Round-up
BY CURTIS BLACK
Emanuel meets with Sessions
Mayor Rahm Emanuel met on Valentine’s Day with Attorney General Jeff Sessions but did not discuss prospects for a consent decree to provide court oversight for recommendations from the Justice Department’s recent investigation of the Chicago Police Department.
Emanuel said he urged Sessions to assign more federal law enforcement agents to Chicago; invest in CPD’s growing use of surveillance technology; and fund mentoring, summer jobs and after school programs.
He said Justice Department officials would meet with local officials this week to discuss following up on the investigation. Emanuel has signed an agreement in principle to negotiate a consent decree, but Sessions has been critical of that approach.
Progressive Caucus calls for a plan
The City Council’s Progressive Caucus called on Emanuel to articulate his plan to implement police reforms recommended by DOJ.
They outlined a range of issues including creating a Community Oversight Board, improving training, and updating a new discipline matrix that was criticized in the Department of Justice report. And they requested an update on contract negotiations with unions representing police officers and command staff, seeking assurances that changes called for by “experts and community stakeholders” are prioritized.
“If the goal is to build public trust in the police department and criminal justice system at large, we can’t allow this reform process to be move forward in a disorganized, piecemeal way,” said Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th Ward). “Clarity and real leadership are needed in addressing this long-running crisis.”
Amtrak officer charged
Amtrak officer LaRoyce Tankson was charged with first-degree murder in the Feb. 8 shooting death of Chad Robertson outside Union Station.
It’s the second time State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has charged a police officer with murder in the three months since she took office.
Tankson’s attorney said he fired in self-defense after seeing Robertson “gesture” as if he had a gun. No witnesses reported seeing that “gesture,” prosecutors said. Robertson ran when he was stopped for suspicion of possession of marijuana and was about 75 away when he was shot.
Chicago police said Robertson was shot in the shoulder. An autopsy showed he was shot in the back, and he was quadriplegic during the week before he died. According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family, doctors were unable to remove a bullet lodged near Robertson’s spine.
The 25-year-old construction worker from Minnesota was a father of two.
The shooting was captured on video, which Amtrak has refused to release, citing the pending investigation.
Charges dropped
The Cook County State’s Attorney dropped all charges against four men who confessed as teenagers to participating in a double murder in 1995.
Lawyers for the four “credited the decision to a sweeping change in approach to potential wrongful convictions” under Kim Foxx, the new state’s attorney, the Chicago Tribune reported.
In 2013 the Illinois Appellate Court ordered an evidentiary hearing for Charles Johnson, ruling that new fingerprint evidence would likely lead to his acquittal. Prosecutors under then-State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez threw out convictions for Johnson and co-defendant Larod Styles but said they planned to retry the two.
Johnson and Styles were freed last year on bond. A third co-defendant, Troshawn McCoy, who was petitioning for a new trial, is expected to be released shortly. A fourth, Lashawn Ezell, was convicted of armed robbery and completed a 20-year sentence.
Johnson’s lawyers argued he signed a confession after being told it was a routine document that would lead to his release.
Stemming the flow of guns
Murder rates are much higher in cities and states with more guns, and Chicagoans are far more likely to be shot and killed than residents of other large cities, according to Ellen Alberding, president of the Joyce Foundation. New York and Los Angeles, for example, “have stemmed the flow of illegal guns,” while in Chicago, little progress on this problem has been made, she writes in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Alberding identifies two major sources of guns in Chicago. Unregulated gun stores in Illinois provide many of the guns recovered here, often through straw purchases in which guns are legally purchased and quickly resold. Alberding cites research indicating Illinois could significantly reduce intrastate gun trafficking by implementing “strong gun dealer regulations and oversight, including licensing and regular inspections.”
Sixty percent of guns used in crimes originate in states with weaker gun laws, especially Indiana and Wisconsin, where guns are sold at gun shows without background checks. Few federal prosecutions target gun cases here, in part because weak federal laws do not directly criminalize gun trafficking. But there are fewer federal prosecutions in Chicago than in other cities.
The Sun-Times editorial board points out that while 11,000 state residents had their Firearm Owners’ Identification Cards last year — because they’ve been charged with a felony, convicted of domestic violence, become addicted to drugs or been a patient in a mental health facility — the State Police largely ignores a law requiring that they track their guns. State Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield) is drafting legislation that would require police to follow up when FOID cards are revoked.
Officer fired
The Police Board voted unanimously on Feb. 16 to fire Officer Francisco Perez for an off-duty shooting incident that occurred more than five years ago. “The case marked the first time since its inception in 2007 that the Independent Police Review Authority…recommended that a Chicago police officer be dismissed for a shooting,” the Tribune reported. IPRA recommended Perez’s firing in June 2015, and then-Supt. Garry McCarthy endorsed the recommendation.
Lawsuit: Leaks at IPRA
A Chicago officer whose former boyfriend was dating an IPRA investigator has sued the investigator, charging that she helped track the officer and provided advice on filing complaints to harm the officer’s career.
It’s the second lawsuit alleging leaks by IPRA personnel. Lt. Glenn Evans, who was acquitted last year of criminal charges that he shoved a gun down a suspect’s throat, has accused an investigator of leaking to the media results of a test that found Evans’ DNA on the gun.
No discipline for domestic violence
Roughly nine out of ten allegations of domestic violence against Chicago police officers by their spouses or children result in no disciplinary action, an investigation by ABC 7 found. Domestic violence allegations against officers average over 300 a year.
