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Chicago residents: don't worry, the city will protect you
From a University of Illinois study, "Crime, Corruption, and Cover-ups:"
"An analysis of five decades of news reports reveals that since 1960, at least 300 Chicago
Police officers have been convicted of serious crimes, such as drug dealing, beatings of civilians,
destroying evidence, protecting mobsters, theft and murder.
Moreover, the listing of police convicted of crimes undoubtedly underestimates the
problem of corruption in the Chicago Police Department (CPD). The list does not include
undetected and unreported illegal activity, serious misconduct resulting in internal disciplinary
action, and officers who retire rather than face charges.
Our analysis of police corruption in Chicago yields four major findings.
First, corruption has long persisted within the CPD and continues to be a serious
problem. There have been 103 convictions of Chicago police since the beginning of 2000."
. . . . . .
"In the 1980s, police corruption again became front-page news. In 1982, ten officers in the
Marquette police district were among the first Chicago police officers to be convicted of drug–
related corruption charges. “The Marquette 10" arrests were followed by Operation Greylord, a
federal investigation into the Cook County court system that swept up several corrupt police
officers along with numerous judges, court bailiffs and attorneys. In the 1980s and 1990s, Joseph
Miedzianowski, a member of the department’s Gang Crimes Unit, ran a drug operation with
several gangs.
The conviction of CPD Chief of Detectives and Assistant Police Superintendent Edward
Hanhardt in 2001 for using secret police information to direct a mob-connected jewelry theft ring
showed that organized crime could still reach into the CPD even in the 21st Century. The
drug/gang connection continued into the current decade. In 2007, the U.S. Attorney’s arrested of
Keith Herrera and Jerome Finnegan of the Special Operations Squad for corruption and
attempted murder."
Comments
Another "water is wet" report.
The problem with all these studies that document the extent of the problem is that nothing ever comes of it. There might be public outrage immediately afterwards, but between a "Blue Ribbon Study Commission" being appointed, with a report, to include recommendations, in 12+ months, other news events, and the mere necessity of getting through the day, the whole issue gets pushed to the back burner and then forgotten.
What Upton Sinclair did in a few chapters of "The Jungle" probably can never be repeated now, thanks to the level of desensitization brought about by 24/7 live news reporting, which is a shame because it will take a visceral response such as followed the publication of Sinclair's novel to clean up the CPD mess, which is far and away smaller and less offensive that the meatpacking business ever was.
I would like to be proved wrong. I really would. But I apparently have too much faith in my fellow inhabitants of this country.
stay safe.
Posted by: skidmark at January 23, 2013 09:03 AM
It is just part of our ever corrupt and expanding system. For now we just have to live with it.
Posted by: 475okh at January 23, 2013 09:58 AM
RE: 475okh says "...ever corrupt and expanding system..." Indeed; that system is intensifyingly crowded City-Statism (Civilization,) as both Jefferson and modern anthropology observes. State society is tolerable only when away from the multitude. • "Civilization originates in conquest abroad and repression at home." ~Stanley Diamond, In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization, p. 1, first sentence • "When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe." ~Thomas Jefferson, December 23, 1790 to Martha Jefferson Randolph
Posted by: Ivy Mike at January 23, 2013 01:09 PM
Would to see the conviction rates for officers compared to conviction rates for carry permit holders(for some other state) over the same timeframe.
Posted by: Anon at January 23, 2013 10:27 PM