Today’s must-read
Friday, Oct 7, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From Crain’s…
When the Emanuel administration reached a $2 million settlement in May in a whistleblower case brought by two Chicago police officers, the deal was widely seen as a way for the mayor to avoid the embarrassment of testifying about the Police Department’s code of silence, Jamie Kalven writes for the Intercept, an investigative journalism website.
What the administration really avoided was a public airing of evidence that, in the words of a federal judge, “purports to show extraordinarily serious retaliatory misconduct by officers at nearly all levels of the CPD hierarchy.”
Kalven tells the story of one of those officers, Shannon Spalding, in a four-part, 20,000-word series. The individual defendants in the case denied the allegations of Spalding and Daniel Echeverria. As part of the settlement, the city also did not admit any wrongdoing.
Spend some time today or over the weekend and read this story.
- Lincoln Parker - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 9:45 am:
Amazing investigative work by The Intercept. Really shows you how important good journalism and investigative reporting is to society.
As David Simon showed in The Wire, the system protects itself at all costs.
- Keyrock - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 9:56 am:
The code of silence has many causes. But a major cause of the CPD version is that the CPD remains an unreconstructed Chicago political organization. Supervisors are promoted and assigned on clout. Those who cross the line into outright criminal conduct are confident that supervisors will ensure that no scandals come out on their watch. It may not be as bad as the days when Hanhardt was the outfit guy at the top of the department, but the culture hasn’t really changed.
The Department hasn’t had an outsider chief with the actual power to manage since O. W. Wilson. And it won’t until there is enough political pressure for a mayor to put in managers who actually manage, and who promote, train, and assign supervisors who will enforce policy.
All of that is on top of the racial and community relations problems this Department has had for a century.
- Honeybear - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 10:06 am:
It is profoundly disturbing to be exposed to the rot at the core of our criminal justice system. That’s not to say there aren’t wonderful officers. But we must confront ourselves and learn why we are consistently turning our back on injustice and allowing these things to happen. I believe it’s no someone elses problem. It’s all our problem. To quote Alinsky “it is in our self-interest to recognize that we are our brother’s keepers”. I would up that by saying more of us need to be doing something about that. What that “something” is I don’t know.
- Biker - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 10:09 am:
Totally worth the read.
- wordslinger - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 10:28 am:
Somehow Jamie Kalven can break all the deep-dig cop stories while alleged “big-time” Chicago media traffic in “personality conflicts” and take dictation at press conferences.
Same thing happens all the time with the schools and the “Catalyst.”
Priorities and hustle, revealed.
- Ebenezer - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 10:34 am:
Wow.
Long and varied string of banned words.
Maybe its time to fire everyone and start from scratch.
- crazybleedingheart - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 11:15 am:
“Most of them are heroes.”
“Only 2 were willing to expose a sprawling criminal enterprise.”
One of these things is not like the other. Long past time to admit as much.
- My button is broke... - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 11:27 am:
I think this article is a great answer to the question posed yesterday, where are the cops that are ready for reform?
- Matt Vernau - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 11:41 am:
Who guards the guardians? It can not be elected politicians. Human nature is what it is. The bad guys and the goods guys have always had a lot in common. Both like risk, recognition and we all like easy money else you could not sell a lottery ticket. The Earp brothers facing the Clanton gang were much more like the thugs who controlled the gambling, booze and whores against the rowdies who deliberately robbed and stole cattle. It is manageable but ethics takes lots of work and lots of sunshine and lots of confession.
- Payback - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 11:47 am:
I read up to part three of this article and I found it interesting that the whistleblowers were essentially threatened by command staff, in that they were told that their lives would be in danger “out on the street.” In other words, no backup in dangerous situations.
When Frank Serpico was shot, it was the other officers failure to act that caused him harm, not only their overt act of sending him up into the drug building to knock on the door.
This article articulates the fact that police officers who expose crimes committed by other police will be subject to retaliation, and that police bureaucracies seek to protect themselves at all costs. They are incapable of “reforming” themselves.
The solution is for the legislature to make it a crime for police to fail to report criminal conduct by other police. I suggest making such crime a felony. Police criminals will usually commit a misdemeanor since they may still keep their pensions if found guilty. The citizens of Illinois are waiting, it is 2016 now after all.
- NorthsideNoMore - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 11:51 am:
Great insght… Rich Thanks for posting ….would have never seen an article like this otherwise.
- Ghost - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:18 pm:
the blue wall
- PublicServant - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 1:43 pm:
Oh man! I don’t know what to say. I’m shocked. Is this just going to be buried, or will DOJ finally take up the investigation, and resolve it?
Payback, that’s a great idea. And throw McCarthy in jail for looking the other way too.
The bosses that retired should lose their pensions, and new jobs, and be thrown in jail.