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Black and blue in Chicago
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“I see the police as a bunch of folks who are trained to abuse us,” one young African American tells Salim Muwakkil. “All they do is harass you.”
Muwakkil looks at relations between Chicago police and black youth in Black and Blue in Chicago, a new installment of his series on “The Other Chicago” in In These Times.
There’s a long history of distrust, and things don’t seem to be getting better.
Muwakkil examines starkly disproportionate rates of arrests and killings of African American youth by Chicago police, low rates of sanctions for abusive officers, and the declining proportion of African Americans on the police force.
Will a new strategy by new leadership – a shift from paramilitary-style units to more beat cops – make a difference? Maybe.
“Reassigning officers to beats where they get to know the communities is a good thing, if they come in with the right attitude,” says one veteran observer. “But if they come in indignant because they were reassigned from more favorable posts, then it will just compound the problem.”
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