January 10, 2018 The Skanner Page 9
Chicago
cont’d from pg 8
259 reviewed cases, the individ-
ual who was shot had access to a
gun. This does not mean that these
shootings were unavoidable, but it
does suggest that many were prob-
ably not as clearly unnecessary as
“
These police-
civilian
encounters
began as traffic
stops for minor
violations
McDonald’s.
So, what if anything can be done
about “good apples” who shoot?
Better training, many say. There
can be little argument that better
training is desirable. Some po-
lice shootings in Chicago have oc-
curred because officers were phys-
ically dragged along after having
reached into running vehicles.
Some involved officers firing from
moving vehicles, or at moving ve-
hicles. Such practices are unnec-
essarily dangerous and could be
readily avoided if officers were
better trained to avoid them.
And of course, there is “deesca-
lation,” a buzz word in public dis-
cussion of police reform. Deesca-
lation techniques are supposed to
help officers defuse or withdraw
from potentially violent incidents
without jeopardizing anyone’s
safety. There is nothing wrong
with providing officers with more
of this training. But, the emphasis
on individual officer training is
shortsighted.
Both discipline and training fo-
cus on how individual officers
manage critical incidents. That
overlooks an important question.
How is it that an officer finds him-
self squared off with a potentially
armed individual? To answer that
requires thinking critically about
departmental choices in particu-
lar neighborhoods, not just indi-
vidual officers’ choices in particu-
lar cases.
It’s Where You Live
The likelihood of getting shot by
the police is much higher in some
Chicago neighborhoods than in
others. Of the 259 police shootings
that the IPRA has released infor-
mation about, nearly 90 percent
occurred in minority neighbor-
hoods. That goes a long way in ex-
plaining why 80 percent of police
shooting victims were Black in a
city that is only one-third Black.
The police department and oth-
ers might point out that the likeli-
hood of getting shot by anyone is
much higher in poor Black neigh-
borhoods than, say, middle-class
white ones. Incidences of violent
crime tend to be much higher in
poor, minority neighborhoods.
That would seem to explain why
police shootings are also higher in
those neighborhoods.
Not so fast. The connection be-
tween neighborhood violence
and police shootings would make
sense if shooting victims consisted
exclusively of persons who were
suspected of violent crime.
But in nearly a quarter of the
259 IPRA incidents, it was the po-
lice who stirred the pot. These po-
lice-civilian encounters began as
traffic stops for minor violations,
because someone made a “furtive
movement,” or just looked suspi-
cious. Many of these stops were
likely of the “stop and frisk” vari-
ety that have been controversial in
New York City, Chicago, and other
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Census
cities. The shootings that occur
in the course of these kinds of en-
counters follow a general pattern.
One of the stopped civilians flees
and the police give chase. During
or immediately after the chase,
officers shoot in response to a per-
ceived gun threat.
Even if one believes the officers’
version of an encounter’s final mo-
ments when a suspect’s threaten-
ing behavior prompted the police
to shoot, we should ask whether
the initial stop should have oc-
curred at all. And, even if the an-
swer to that question is “yes,” we
should ask whether a foot chase
was justified, given the harmless-
ness of the misconduct that precip-
itated the initial stop.
My review also revealed that
plainclothes officers were respon-
sible for nearly 40 percent of
on-duty shootings. There is evi-
dence from other departments that
such officers are, per capita, re-
sponsible for more shootings than
uniformed officers. This may be
because more aggressive officers
are drawn to such assignments.
It also seems possible that people
have a hard time distinguishing
these officers from civilians who
mean harm — particularly when
plainclothes officers break into an
ongoing fight or melee.
Police departments and policy-
makers must critically examine
the relationships between police
shootings and stop-and-frisk,
plainclothes policing and other en-
forcement tactics. Doing so will af-
ford insights into how to improve
police-community relations in
poor, minority neighborhoods. If
this is truly reformers’ goal, more
aggressive discipline and better
training should be components of
the agenda, not the whole of it.
This article was originally pub-
lished on The Conversation.
cont’d from pg 7
zenship question on the
once-a-decade census
would allow the agen-
cy to better enforce
Section 2 of the Voting
Rights Act, which bars
the dilution of voting
power of a minority
group through redis-
tricting.
“To fully enforce
those
requirements,
the Department needs
a reliable calculation of
the citizen voting-age
population in localities
where voting rights vi-
olations are alleged or
suspected,” the letter
states. The letter asks
that the Census Bureau
“reinstate” the ques-
tion.
Census Bureau
Gathers Citizenship
Data in Other Surveys
The full census, how-
ever, hasn’t included
questions about cit-
izenship since 1950.
The Census Bureau has
gathered such data in
other surveys.
The bureau switched
the method of those
surveys after the 2000
census.
Today, it conducts the
American Communi-
ty Survey every year,
which includes ques-
tions about citizenship,
along with many other
questions.
The survey covers a
sample of residents of
the United States. Ex-
perts said the Justice
Department’s
letter
was misleading.
And they questioned
the Justice Depart-
ment’s explanation in
the letter, noting that
the American Commu-
nity Survey produces
data on citizenship that
has been used in Sec-
tion 2 cases.
“You could always
have better data but
it seems like a strange
concern because no
one in the communities
who are most affected
have been raising this
concern,” said Michael
Li, senior counsel at the
Brennan Center’s De-
mocracy Program.
Do you have informa-
tion about the Trump
administration and the
census? Contact Justin
at justin@propublica.
org or via Signal at 774-
826-6240.
We must accept finite
disappointment, but never lose
infinite hope.
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.