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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 20 June 2018

Lawsuit: Chicago police falsely ID thousands as gang members

By MICHAEL TARM states. In some cases, li- the city, police Superinten-
AP Legal Affairs Writer cense-reading devices flag dent Eddie Johnson and
CHICAGO (AP) — Civil rights cars registered to someone several officers as defen-
group filed a lawsuit Tues- in the gang database, in- dants, saying they violated
day alleging that the Chi- creasing the odds of the the constitutional rights
cago Police Department car being stopped. of people falsely listed as
relies on an error-plagued The lawsuit was filed on gang members. It calls for a
database that names up behalf of Chicagoans for court order halting the way
to 195,000 people as gang an End to the Gang Data- the database is compiled
members, including many base, several other groups and a process for getting a
who have never been in a and four individual plain- name removed from it.
gang. tiffs. It questions the overall The city's legal department
Many people were errone- accuracy of the database, declined to comment
ously listed in the database noting it contains many about the lawsuit. Police
simply because of a tat- obvious mistakes, includ- spokesman Anthony Gug-
too, social media post or ing the names of two sup- lielmi said in statement that
address, according to the posed gang members although he couldn't speak Antonio Gutierrez speaks during a protest announcing a federal
federal lawsuit from North- who are listed as being 132 directly to the lawsuit, "the class-action lawsuit filed against the city by several community
western University's MacAr- years old. validity and reliability" of groups, alleging that officers, given "unlimited" discretion to add
thur Justice Center and One plaintiff, Donta Lu- such data was important. individuals to the department's massive gang database, often
other groups. Those listed cas, was falsely named a He said the department falsely label people as gang members "based solely on their
as gang members have a Gangster Disciple based has been working on "a re- race and neighborhood," Tuesday, June 19, 2018, at City Hall
in Chicago.
harder time landing jobs, on tattoo on his ankle that vised database order" and Associated Press
are more likely to be de- officers saw when they ar- that proposed policies will
nied bond after arrests and rested him in 2012 for a be announced soon. lawsuit contends. ed, the lawsuit says, noting
are often targets of harass- bowling alley fight. Lucas The number of people of- There's a racial element, the database names just
ment by police or immigra- says officers never told him ficially designated as gang too. 23 people as members of
tion officers, it contends. they suspected he was a members in Chicago, Of the more than 128,000 white supremacist organi-
The way police manage gang member and never which has a population of adults in Chicago's gang zations.
the database is "arbitrary, said they would register him about 2.7 million, dwarfs database, 70 percent are Police have confirmed
discriminatory" and "over- as one. He couldn't get a the numbers in gang da- black, 25 percent are La- there are now more than
inclusive," and it gives beat concealed-carry permit he tabases kept by other U.S. tino and less than 5 per- 128,000 adults in the gang
officers "unlimited discre- needed in 2016 for a secu- cities. The database for cent are white. That means database. It hasn't con-
tion" to falsely label people rity job because he was in New York City, which has around 11 percent of Chi- firmed how many juveniles
gang members "based the database. a population about three cago's black population is are included, though the
solely on their race and The lawsuit, which seeks times larger than Chicago, named in the database. lawsuit estimates it's be-
neighborhood," the lawsuit class-action status, names lists just 17,500 names, the But whites are undercount- tween of 28,000 to 68,000.q