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Politicians playing politics with the CPD
Apparently, Chicago police officers are rac- ists and “have no regard for the sanctity of life” when it comes to people of color. I was shocked. I am sure that police officers who have spent their entire careers serving the most vulnerable minority members of our communities were stunned, as well.
As we all know by now, these were the con- clusions of the report authored by the Chica-
go Police Accountability Task Force. I would charac- terize them as accusations rather than conclusions.
I became aware of their allegations after reading
some of the various news stories summarizing the findings. I have not read, nor do I plan on read-
ing the full report. To be clear, I was not surprised
that the Task Force found that the CPD discriminated against minorities and used excessive force against them.
I was born and raised in Chicago and am well versed in political theatre. The tail was wagging the dog. The conclusion was drawn and given to the Task Force before it conducted any investigation. Task Force was nothing more than window-dressing. The Mayor told them, “This
will be your finding; now go out and conduct an investi- gation that supports my – ahem – your finding.”
I was shocked by the tone of the report, not the conclu- sion. Alleging that someone is a racist is a horrible accu- sation and should not be considered lightly. Alleging the entire Department is racist is obscene. What evidence had the Task Force discovered to justify the branding of thou- sands of men and women as racists? Certainly, Task Force
DANIEL HERBERT
FOP
Legal Rep t
must have discovered substantial evidence to support such a grave accusation. On the contrary, the in- vestigation showed nothing, other than baseless conclusions and misleading statistics. Mission
accomplished. The Task Force was a sham.
The Mayor created the Task Force after the pub- lic outcry over the Laquan McDonald shooting. To no surprise, the Task Force failed to mention the Mayor’s role in the events that transpired after the shoot- ing. He hid the video of the shooting from the public for months while he was engaged in a bitter re-election campaign. Burying the video helped the Mayor win his
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