McCarthy left Newark police a mess, too
When he took the job as police superintendent in Chicago in 2011, Garry McCarthy left behind a department in Newark that faced many of the same type of problems that now plague the Chicago Police...
View ArticleWhat you missed: Commander acquitted and the role of police video
There is plenty of news still swirling around the issues of police shootings, allegations of abuse, and how they are investigated, including mayoral apologies and the launching of a federal probe. Even...
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A Tale of Two Cities
Arash Azizzada | niXerKG / FlickrProtesters in Baltimore took to the streets after the death of Freddie Gray (left). In Chicago, people gathered to protest the death of Laquan McDonald by police...
View ArticlePolice shootings not all equal; but politics clouds reviews in each
No doubt that the police shootings in Ferguson, Missouri; Cleveland, Ohio; and Chicago all have very different facts. But one thing that seems the same: In each, the prosecutors are faced not just with...
View ArticleIn-depth reporting in a new era
If you missed it, we recommended in #injusticereads a powerful article detailing the difficulty of rape prosecutions, centered around the wrongful conviction of a young woman who was criminally...
View Article“You try to get help and you lose a loved one”
Police responding to domestic disturbance shoot and kill young man, 19, and a 55-year old woman who lived on the first floor of the flat. Asked the mother of the young man, who was suffering mental...
View ArticleChicago struggling to respond to too many split-second bad decisions
Thirty days of desk duty for any officers involved in shootings. Random spot-checks of dashboard cameras. A police superintendent who acknowledges the tragedy of a 55-year old mother of five who was...
View ArticleCan’t we be more like Iceland?
Here are some lessons we are learning the hard way: There are too many instances of police shootings. The Washington Post has been keeping count: Almost 1,000 this year, and counting. Forty-one...
View ArticleFeds seldom make cops answer for police brutality
U.S. attorneys across the country charge law enforcement officers in civil rights cases about 42 times a year, declining to prosecute more than nine in every 10 cases referred to prosecutors by the...
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Beat, shoot or abuse someone? No jail for Chicago cops
For a Chicago police officer to be held to account for using excessive force, the violence must be egregious and the evidence overwhelming. More than three times each day, on average, the Independent...
View Article“Spotlight” shines light on journalism that used to be common
It wasn’t so long ago, in the days after Watergate, when news organizations large and small threw dollars at big investigative projects that, truth be told, never really made economic sense. Having...
View ArticleNot all sub-circuit judges are Oliver Wendell Holmes
Richard Cooke may not have longstanding ties to the 6th Cook County judicial sub-circuit on Chicago’s North Side, but no matter. As the Sun-Times noted, after spending $67,000 to local politicians, he...
View ArticleNew reasons, same result: Obstacles to minority vote
By now all the voters for the Arizona primary last week have cast their ballots, no matter how long the lines at polling places. But the image of lines that stretched for hours lingers. And while local...
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Prisons overcrowded, but no hurry to release those who don’t belong
Two recent cases in the news have us pondering again how the criminal justice system works. First came the case of John McCullough, who remains in prison facing hearings even though the State’s...
View ArticleInjustice Watch names key staffers, expansion continuing
Time for a little news about ourselves. First, we’re thrilled to say two veteran journalists have joined our staff. Larry Green has joined us in Chicago as a senior reporter. Injustice Watch is just...
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One public official shines the spotlight; another seeks to keep public in dark
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (left) and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart We are struck by the contrast between the release of video by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office of abuse of prisoners —...
View ArticleA bleak but fascinating picture: “The Chicago way.”
Soon after Bettye Jones was shot to death by police last December — an innocent bystander who opened the front door as police responded to call from a West Side apartment — gang members kicked in the...
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Meet Injustice Watch’s 2016 summer interns
Injustice Watch is pleased to announce a partnership under which programs through the University of Chicago will fund four interns to take part in our summer internship program. The Harris School of...
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Injustice Watch bolsters reporting staff
Injustice Watch is happy to announce the hiring of Jeanne Kuang, who joins the reporting team after she receives a bachelor’s degree in June from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University....
View ArticleFinally cleared, years after judge first ruled her guilt was dubious
Sexual assault charges were finally dropped against a Michigan woman last week, more than six years after the judge who presided over her 2002 trial declared a “significant probability” that she was...
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