The [Thursday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Federal officials announced on Wednesday that a sweeping settlement had been reached to reform the Newark Police Department after a three-year investigation uncovered a pattern of unconstitutional practices, including improper searches and stops and excessive use of force,” the New York Times reports.
“The proposed reforms, which must be approved by a judge, include putting cameras on officers and in police vehicles, increasing training, and revamping department policies on the use of force and search-and-seizure practices.
“The agreement also calls for the installation of a monitor to oversee the department’s compliance with the terms of the settlement and the creation of a civilian oversight committee, which the city, New Jersey’s largest, has already taken steps toward putting into place.”

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The three-year investigation seems far larger in scope than what the U.S. Department of Justice has planned here; let’s hope not. Rahm Emanuel’s hiring of Eddie Johnson as police chief only underscores how unremittingly unreformed the Chicago Police Department remains and is likely to remain for the foreseeable future. The mayor’s unwillingness to do what must be done makes it even more crucial that the feds get this right.
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“Under the settlement, the [Newark] Police Department will remain under federal oversight until it is in compliance for two consecutive years.”
The Chicago Police Department should get at least as much guidance.
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“Justice Department investigators waded through thousands of reports on police stops and use of force, mostly complaints from between 2006 and 2011, when Garry McCarthy was chief of the Newark police department. McCarthy left Newark in 2011 to become police superintendent in Chicago, where he served until Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired him last December over police abuse problems,” the Atlantic notes.
(Memo to Atlantic: That’s objectively not why Rahm fired McCarthy; he clearly made a political sacrifice.)
“The DOJ investigation found that roughly three-fourths of pedestrian stops by Newark police were done with no stated legal basis.”
Sounds familiar. From an ACLU report issued last March:

[T]he Chicago Police Department has a current practice of unlawfully using stop-and-frisk:

• Although officers are required to write down the reason for stops, in nearly half of the stops we reviewed, officers either gave an unlawful reason for the stop or failed to provide enough information to justify the stop.
• Stop and frisk is disproportionately concentrated in the black community. Black Chicagoans were subjected to 72% of all stops, yet constitute just 32% of the city’s population. And, even in majority white police districts, minorities were stopped disproportionately to the number of minority people living in those districts.
• Chicago stops a shocking number of people. Last summer, there were more than 250,000 stops that did not lead to an arrest. Comparing stops to population, Chicagoans were stopped more than four times as often as New Yorkers at the height of New York City’s stop-and-frisk practice.

In the face of a systemic abuse of this law enforcement practice, Chicago refuses to keep adequate data about its officers’ stops. Officers do not identify stops that result in an arrest or ordinance violation, and they do not keep any data on when they frisk someone. This failure to record data makes it impossible for police supervisors, or the public, to identify bad practices and make policy changes to address them.

The ACLU and CPD have since come to an agreement on keeping data about the stops. As a result, the number of stops has dropped dramatically amid complaints by cops about the paperwork (since modified) and an “objective” media with built-in assumptions that defy the point – as well as the actual research on stop-and-frisk’s effectiveness.
Or, to put it another way:

you say that like it’s a bad thing https://t.co/BpJRFgJCh0 pic.twitter.com/tUHBuJQVyj

— sam leo stecklow (@samstecky) March 21, 2016

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And yet, one of Eddie Johnson’s top tasks – handed to him by Rahm Emanuel – is to get those street stops moving again.
Help us, DOJ, you’re our only hope.
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Obama Breaking Promise, Says Pardons Attorney
Geez, get in line. Fill in the blank: “Obama Breaks Promise To _____.”
Has any president even come close to breaking as many promises as this one?
Anyway, here’s the story:
“Two years ago, President Obama unveiled an initiative to give early release to potentially thousands of federal prisoners serving long sentences for low-level drug crimes.
“The initiative has barely made a dent, and a resignation letter from the president’s recently departed Pardon Attorney lays out at least one reason why.”
You’ll have to click through for the rest.
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Why So Many Baseball Experts Whiff On Predictions
Hint: Free agent signings are overrated.
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BeachBook

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TweetWood
A sampling.
Dold’s best friend. They both live in LaGrange.

McCormick named to head up Tribune editorial board https://t.co/OLBBFFpW3O

— Ray Long (@RayLong) March 31, 2016

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Tribune photographer @AnthonySouffle attacked, threatened, harassed by @adidas workers during Loop ad shoot https://t.co/VCaGq9GwOu

— Kurt Gessler (@kurtgessler) March 30, 2016

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The Beachwood Tip Line: Your only hope.

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Posted on March 31, 2016