Shows
Chicago Justice PodcastGood JournalismThere is at times some good journalism that makes way through the it bleeds it leads dribble that comes out everyday all day in the Chicago media. In today's show we talk about 2 fine examples of good journalism from WBEZ and the Chicago Tribune. These two examples are not the investigative journalism that we would usually feature but they come from the unlikely source of more traditional beat journalism. I usually reserve the content produced by beat repporters for scorn because how shallow and propagandist the coverage usually is; however, today we have two shinny examples of good journalism produced...
2022-03-1633 minChicago Justice PodcastLife After the GunshotOn today's show we feature a interview with Dr. Joseph Richardson who is the Joel and Kim Feller Professor and MPower Professor of African-American Studies and Anthropology at the University of Maryland and the Executive Producer of the Life After the Gunshot.
We discuss this incredible platform that Dr. Richardson created to launch a discussion about what life is like after the gunshot. This platform provides a space to humanize the victims of urban violence and learn about what it is like to be a victim of a gunshot and what your life is like after the gunshot. You learn...
2022-03-0955 minChicago Justice PodcastJournalistic and Political MalpracticeIn today’s episode, we cover a few examples of both journalistic and political malpractice in Chicago. There is little doubt that the Chicago media routinely generates proof of malpractice when covering the Chicago Police Department. Not to be undone, politicians throughout Illinois make sure to keep up their malpractice numbers on an almost daily basis. This unfortunately forces residents of the city and the state to put up with an unrelenting storm of malpractice.
The first journalistic act of malpractice that we dive into is the Chicago Sun-Times’ coverage of the episode involving the traffic stop of the niece of C...
2022-03-0231 minChicago Justice PodcastOfficer James Hunt Finally Off the StreetOn this episode we discuss recent developments in the ongoing misconduct saga of Chicago Police Officer James Hunt. You will remember him from a viral video where he tells a group of black males that he "kills mother fuckers". The video of Hunt saying this and then getting out of his patrol car to continue harassing the men went viral as the video was being uploaded live to the internet. Hunt must have realized that at some point in the interaction that he had screwed up because he falsely arrested the individual who was recording him. Hunt's actions that day...
2022-02-1630 minChicago Justice PodcastProf Todd Clear on America’s Response to Gun ViolenceIn this episode we feature an interview with Prof. Todd Clear from the School of Criminal justice at Rutgers University. Clear is one of the top voices in criminology as his resume includes stints as a Distinguished Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, president of The American Society of Criminology, The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and The Association of Doctoral Programs in Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Our discussion with Clear focuses on the uptick in gun violence in many cities around the country and how there are many warning signs that America may take steps backwards in...
2022-02-0944 minChicago Justice PodcastPod: Discussion on New CJP Report on CPD TransparencyOn today's show we feature a discussion with Katherine Large who authored CJP's new report on the transparency of Chicago Police Department and police accountability system data. Large is a 3rd year student at the University of Chicago and former CJP intern. The report she authored is titled "Transparency and Accountability of the CPD: 1980-2021" which takes an in-depth look at the data available about police accountability in Chicago and then analyzes that data to present a true picture of just how impotent the police accountability has been over the last 40 years.
It is of no surprise to anyone paying...
2022-02-0249 minChicago Justice PodcastTalking NYPD Surveillance Capabilities with Albert Fox ChanOur guest today is Albert Fox Chan who is the founder and Executive Director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP). The organization fights to end discriminatory surveillance by the New York Police Department and police departments across the country.
According to Chan STOP was set up as an abolition focused organization because they don't believe domestic police departments have earned the right to be allowed to use the wide ranging surveillance technologies. Domestic policing in American has a long history of inappropriately using force against minority communities and according to Chan these same agencies regularly use these surveillance technologies...
2022-01-2650 minChicago Justice Podcast15th Ward Alderperson Lopez on Crime and ViolenceAlderperson Raymond Lopez, 15th ward, is a frequent critic of Mayor Lightfoot's policies and certainly her appointment of David Brown to the position of Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. Alderperson Lopez is regularly on Twitter unleashing board side attacks against almost every policy that Superintendent Brown has announced since arriving. Unfortunately for everyone Alderperson Lopez unleashes his criticisms on Fox News shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and The Sean Hannity Show frequently. One can only wonder why a local Chicago Democractic politician would be drawn to the news channel a much as Alderperson Lopez is giving the channel's history...
2022-01-1956 minChicago Justice Podcast32nd Ward Alderperson Waguespack on Chicago Park District ScandalChicago Alderperson Scott Waguespack, 32nd Ward, joins the pod today to discuss the absolute abhorrent sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape scandal at the Chicago Park District. A scandal driven the the public consciousness by the stellar reporting by WBEZ's Dan Mihalopoulos. What is clear from Mihalopoulos' reporting is that the Park District leadership throughout the ranks is a very incestual affair that when challenged will close ranks to protect their own in the very Chicago style we are all way too familiar with. They did this for many years if not decades at the cost of the safety of t...
2022-01-1246 minChicago Justice PodcastShotSpotter is a Probable Cause GeneratorOn today's show we discuss the gunshot detection system ShotSpotter with Alejandro Ruizesesparza from the Cancel ShotSpotter Coalition and Jonathan Manes, an attorney in the MacArthur Justice Center’s Illinois Office. Our discussion focuses on why activists and communities are rising up to confront the Chicago Police Department on their use of ShotSpotter.
The scary truth about ShotSpotter is that the technology has never been independently validated so really the only evidence that the technology is reliable is from the company itself and from police departments that use the technology. It is pretty clear that both the company ShotSpotter and the...
2022-01-0650 minChicago Justice PodcastChicago Justice Podcast Season 2 IntroThe first episode of season 2 of the Chicago Justice Podcast drops on Wednesday Jan 5th. The first episode will feature Jonathan Manes and Alejandro Ruizesesparza from the LucyPparsons Lab. We will be discussing a gun shot identification system called ShotSpotter, now it works or doesn't work, and the Chicago Police Department secretly extending the contract with ShotSpotter months ahead of the current contract ending and without any public discussion about the validity of the technology.
Other guests that will be featured in season two:
32nd Scott Waguespack discussing the Chicago Park District sexual harrassment, sexual assault, and rape scandal
Jonathan...
2022-01-0304 minChicago Justice PodcastConversation with Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell JrToday on the Chicago Justice Podcast we sit down for a conversation with Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell, Jr. to discuss the state of the administration of justice in Chicago and Cook County. Mitchell Jr.'s office employees over 650 staff and handles around 100,000 criminal cases, including both misdemeanor and felony, per year.
Mitchell Jr. unsurprisingly is a strong supporter of bail reform and a strong critic of both Superintendent Brown's and Mayor Lightfoot's attempts to point fingers at bail reform and its supporters for the increases in crime Chicago has experienced since the onset of the pandemic. There is...
2021-12-0926 minChicago Justice PodcastCatanzara Resigns Before Being FiredFraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara has officially resigned from the Chicago Police Department after his recent hearing in front of the Chicago Police Board demonstrated he was going to fired. Despite this being extremely good news as Chicago is much better off without this man having the authority and power police officers enjoy the city is not yet rid of the man as he retains his position within the FOP. As we read the FOP guidelines he is able to complete his term in office but is unable to run for re-election as you have to be a...
2021-11-1924 minChicago Justice PodcastChicago Contrarian Hates Chicago and FactsChicago Contrarian is nothing more than a platform for extremist views that have been growing in Chicago and around the country for decades. In this episode we take a look at a couple recent posts that provide insight in to the mind set of the insurrectionists on January 6th. The posts from Chicago Contrarian also provide insight in to minds of far too many Chicago police officers.
The first post we look at from Chicago Contrarian is a post authored by Second City Cop an alt right blog that folded mysteriously shortly after the insurrection and then appeared posting to...
2021-11-1233 minChicago Justice PodcastPro Cop Media on Full DisplayThe pro cop media bias in Chicago was on full display when the media failed to report appropriately on a domestic violence incident involving two police officers that resulted in one officer shooting and killing her husband. The media instead writes headlines and stories about how the two officers were involved in an altercation or argument that resulted in a struggle over one of the officer's guns.
There is no way the pro cop media would have been so standoffish in their headlines if the two people involved in the incident were not cops. This of course is weird considering...
2021-11-0533 minChicago Justice PodcastLightfoot Flip Flops on Young Case TransparencyMayor Lori Lightfoot flip flops on here commitment for full transparency in the Anjanette Young case despite making such a commitment publicly.
Lightfoot has received a report from the Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety that contains the results of their investigation of the case. An investigation that was stymied from the beginning by Lightfoot's arranging for an external investigation of the handling of the Young case as well as the actions of the Law Department and her office from the law firm of Jones Day. Lightfoot external investigation made the records and statements collected inaccessible to DPSIG under bogus...
2021-11-0225 minChicago Justice PodcastHorrible OpEd by Republicans Jim Durkin and John CurranRepublicans House Leader Jim Durkin and State Senator John Curran authored a horrific OpEd in the Chicago Tribune calling for a return to the good old days of law and order Cook County style.
You remember when people like Richard Daley and Dick Devine were doing their level best to wrongfully convict people as long as it served their political interests. When the Cook County State's attorney's Office worked like an extension of the Chicago Police Department and never questioned their abusive and corrupt actions.
The truth is Durkin and Curran are yearning for a time that never existed. The...
2021-10-3132 minChicago Justice PodcastSuperintendent Brown Tried to Prevent Firing of Bad CopSuperintendent David Brown tried to prevent the city from moving forward with the firing of Sgt. William Spyker but ultimately a single Chicago Police Board member decided to allow the case against Spyker to move forward. Why did Brown do this? We don't really know because the Chicago media allows Brown to make all these decisions without really having to explain them.
Spyker was caught on video from his body camera trying to suppress a complaint against one of his officers in exchange for not arresting the complainant for allegedly corrupting a crime scene and obstruction of justice. This very...
2021-10-2631 minChicago Justice PodcastDemocrats fold on Defunding PoliceDemocrats around the country are folding like cheap suits when it comes to defunding the police as mayors across the country move to restore funding for police departments or like in Chicago raising their budgets. As usual an increase in crime has the Democrats running for cover as if the protests of last summer after the murder of George Floyd never occurred.
This ridiculous move by the Democrats is exactly why we are in the position we are in currently. The protests in 2020 are directly linked to public policy decisions from 5, 10, and even 20 years ago. You cannot starve communities and e...
2021-10-2230 minChicago Justice PodcastTribune Editorial Board on Sanctity of the Male BodyThe Chicago Tribune's editorial board has never been a bastion of progressive ideas centered on uplifting Chicago's under-served communities. Instead the editorial board has been a home for criticism of non-strongman candidates that they believe cannot control an incredibly corrupt city government not realizing the entire time the strong-man leaders backed by the editorial board are the main drivers of corruption within city government.
Today we discuss a horrific editorial recently published by the editorial board trying to spread blame for the vaccine issues with the Fraternal Order of Police's membership. While Mayor Lightfoot has proven to manage a highly i...
2021-10-2027 minChicago Justice PodcastDeborah Witzburg Extended InterviewToday's we sit down with Deborah Witzburg, the Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety. We discuss her report from June 2020 titled "Review of the CPD Management and production of records" and her recent follow up report that looks in to what if any of the recommendations within the report the Chicago Police Department has started implement. The latest report is titled "Follow-up: Review of the CPD Management and production of records"
Both the initial report and this follow report from Witzburg document a police department that is a very complex organization whose internal processes regarding data collect and record retention a...
2021-10-1831 minChicago Justice PodcastRidiculous Chicago FOP COVID StanceThe Chicago Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and their President John Catanzara are driving a bus filled with their membership right off the COVID cliff with their ridiculous stance on the city's vaccine mandate.
Only the in the minds of the alt right cult that has taken over the FOP could anyone believe that vaccine mandates are anything new in America. The FOP leadership has had to at one time or another go to school in American at which time their parents had to disclose to the School, mostly run by the local government, the vaccine status of their children...
2021-10-1531 minChicago Justice PodcastBusiness Community Refuses to Give up TIF GriftCrain's editorial jumped onboard hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin's propaganda train to help him steer attention from the biggest grift in the city that also has the most detrimental impact on communities - Chicago's tax increment financing program.
This pro-business cult for some reason have absolutely no problem with the city using taxpayer funds to subsidize corporations. This is traditional Chicago grift on steroids as corporations whose sole purposes it to make money have found a source of endless money to subsidize their efforts in TIFs. Mayor after mayor after mayor have used this grift to steal money from taxpayers...
2021-10-1400 minChicago Justice PodcastFBI Pays a Visit to NYPD Union OfficeThe Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the offices and home of the outspoken President of the New York Police Department's Sergeants Benevolent Association Ed Mullins last week. While the motivation for the raid was not known immediately it has now been reported that the FBI raid is tied to a wide ranging investigation centering on Mullins financial dealings.
In the wake of the FBI raid the SBA Board of Directors asked for and received Mullins resignation. The SBA also announced that they will not be funding Mullins defense if and when the investigation leads to charges. Mullins remains a...
2021-10-1100 minChicago Justice PodcastDeep Dive in to LAPD Social Media SurveillanceSocial media surveillance by police departments like the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is growing steadily. In a poll conducted by the International Association of Police in 2017 70% of responding police departments said they were actively using social media to conduct surveillance and for operational awareness.
In January of 2020 the Brennan Center for Justice filed open records requests with four police agencies seeking records related to how the agencies use social media. In today's show we sit down with Rachel Levinson-Waldman to discuss the Brennan Center's findings specifically as they pertain to the LAPD. The LAPD uses advanced software platforms to...
2021-10-0900 minChicago Justice PodcastFacts Elusive For Brown and Lightfoot in Austin ShootoutFacts all to often get in the way of political agendas, the exploitation of violence for political again, and just plain opportunism. Unfortunately in Chicago we have all of these in spades. The continual finger pointing and scapegoating by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Superintendent Brown regarding violence in Chicago and who is responsible is horrific. They just cannot help themselves but do it every time they are questioned about violence in Chicago and they are routinely refuted by the facts in short order.
Brown and Lightfoot have a true villain that is responsible for the increases is violence in urban...
2021-10-0700 minChicago Justice PodcastSome Context on Sept. Homicide NumbersIf you are watching the news in Chicago you cannot help but be inundated with reporting on the September's homicide numbers that are provided without the needed context to help Chicagoans makes sense of what is really going on and how it compares to previous year. The main context needed is that while we are still in the middle of a worldwide pandemic you cannot compare year to year crime numbers in a reliable and valid way. The pandemic is a unique once in a hundred year event that is an unprecedented in its ability to add devastating stress across...
2021-10-0400 minChicago Justice PodcastCDC Finally Moves to Fund Gun ResearchThe Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have finally moved to increase funding for research in to gun violence and the impact it has on the lives of individuals and the vibrancy of our communities. The funding of this research has been blocked for years not by the CDC but by corrupt legislators who are worried that the results of the research will spur much needed regulation of guns in America. Over 100 people per day are killed by guns in America either through suicide, accidents, or crimes and despite all of this the gun lobby in Washington including the National Rifle...
2021-10-0133 minChicago Justice PodcastFormer FOP Conspiracy Theorist on WGN RadioOn today's show we examine a recent interview from WGN Radio's Bob Sirott where he interviews a former spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police Martin Preib who has a long history of endorsing wild conspiracy theories. Preib is know for his strong support for conspiracy theories ranging from their being a massive left wing conspiracy between the media in Chicago and civil rights lawyers to free convicted murders and now an updated version that Black Lives Matter is super well funded and is entirely set up to push an anti-police agenda.
Preib's close relationship with conspiracy theories is widely k...
2021-09-2900 minChicago Justice PodcastFOP’s Catanzara Too Toxic for Local 2On today’s show we discuss how Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzata may finally be reaping what he sowed with all of his extremist rhetoric and horrific social media posting history. In a recent YouTube post Catanzara informs the FOP’s membership that while he attempted to recruit the Local 2 President Jim Tracy to sit down with the FOP and other police unions with the Mayor’s office to discuss the vaccine mandate (a mandate Catanzara compared to the Nazi gassing people during Word War II). Apparently Tracy decided he did not want to be associated with Catanz...
2021-09-2700 minChicago Justice PodcastFOP’s Catanzara Too Toxic for Local 2On today's show we discuss how Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzata may finally be reaping what he sowed with all of his extremist rhetoric and horrific social media posting history. In a recent YouTube post Catanzara informs the FOP's membership that while he attempted to recruit the Local 2 President Jim Tracy to sit down with the FOP and other police unions with the Mayor's office to discuss the vaccine mandate (a mandate Catanzara compared to the Nazi gassing people during Word War II). Apparently Tracy decided he did not want to be associated with Catanzara and his rhetoric...
2021-09-2700 min
Chicago Justice PodcastFOP’s Catanzara Too Toxic for Local 2On today’s show we discuss how Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzata may finally be reaping what he sowed with all of his extremist rhetoric and horrific social media posting history. In a recent YouTube post Catanzara informs the FOP’s membership that while he attempted to recruit the Local 2 President Jim Tracy to sit down with the FOP and other police unions with the Mayor’s office to discuss the vaccine mandate (a mandate Catanzara compared to the Nazi gassing people during Word War II). Apparently Tracy decided he did not want to be associated with Catanz...
2021-09-2729 minChicago Justice PodcastProbation for Convicted Ex-Cop Elkins Appropriate?On today's show our main segment we cover the sentence of probation that 47 year-old former Chicago police officer Erik Elkins received as part of plea agreement. Elkins was arrested for his role in a bar fight and charged with several felony counts. In the end the Cook County State's Attorney's Office and Elkins reached a plea agreement that includes Elkins pleading guilty to 2 misdemeanor counts for which he received sentence of probation, 40 hours of community service, and he agreed to a ban from being employed as a law enforcement officer.
Here is some context about the former Chicago police officer's...
2021-09-2530 minChicago Justice PodcastStreet Interventions by Alderperson James Cappleman46th Ward Alderperson James Cappleman, elected in 2011, routinely walks the ward and intervenes in public disorder. Now, Cappleman's interventions go beyond just telling people they should stop doing what they are doing to physically intervening in the event. This weekend one of those street interventions led Cappleman to physically try to throughout a table some men were using to place their drinks on (in the public way of course) and attempt o throw it out. Their reaction was exactly what everyone except Cappleman thought it would be, it got physical.
CJP abhors physical violence from anyone and we are very so...
2021-09-2300 minChicago Justice PodcastSusan Lee & All the Unasked QuestionsA recent NBC 5 Chicago interview of former Deputy Mayor Susan Lee is just another demonstration of the short comings of the Chicago media to hold powerful people's feet to the fire. The interview by reporter Chris Hush was a total softball fest where Hush failed to ask a single meaningful question about the time Lee spent in the Mayor's office. Lee is now working for Chicago CRED an organization that does violence prevention work. We featured Chicago CRED in a past episode of our show & podcast which you can find here.
Lee came to Chicago to help build the community...
2021-09-2100 minChicago Justice PodcastCPD Detective Reynaldo Guevara Costs City Another $20 MillionThe misconduct of former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara just cost the city another $20.5 million in a settlement of the wrongful conviction case of Jose Montanez and Armando Serrano who were convicted of a 1993 murder of Rodrigo Vargas but later exonerated.
Over the last several years activists and civil rights lawyers have started to chip away that the horrific history of Detective Reynaldo Guevara during his time with the CPD. to her credit Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has had people within her office look in to the accusations against Guevara which has led her office to embrace the o...
2021-09-1800 minChicago Justice PodcastChicago Twitter Hates Kim Foxx and FactsFew politicians in Chicago attract such levels of hatred and misogyny as does Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx. Foxx was elected in a direct response to the murder and coverup of Laquan McDonald. While the McDonald case was definitely the catalyst for the wave of protests that forced out Chicago Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy, Chief Administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority Scott Ando, and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez this case was just one of hundreds that came before that under-served communities throughout Chicago were upset about. Of course, the white north side of Chicago was not...
2021-09-1637 minChicago Justice PodcastDr. Olsen: Real Facts on Gun Possession Prosecutions in IllinoisToday on our show we feature an interview with Dr. Dave Olsen who is the Co-director of the Center for Criminal Justice Research, Policy and Practice and a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Loyola University Chicago. Today we discuss a research brief he published in July of this y ear titled "Arrests in Illinois for Illegal Possession of a Firearm, Examining the Characteristics and Trends in Arrests for Illegal Possession of a Firearm Within the Context of Crime Involving Guns."
Olsen's research lays bear the propaganda that the Illinois General Assembly uses through the naming...
2021-09-1500 minChicago Justice PodcastDeborah Witzburg Interview on ShotSpotterToday's show features our discussion with Deborah Witzburg who is the Deputy Public Safety Inspector General in the Office of the Inspector General for the City of Chicago. Witzburg recently published a report analyzing internal Chicago Police Department data and data from the Office of Emergency Management & Communications with one basic goal - to determine if there is demonstrable operational benefit to the CPD from their use of ShotSpotter.
ShotSpotter is an autistic gun shot identification technology that places speakers throughout a location that supposedly identify the sound of gun shots and get that information to police well before calls...
2021-09-0932 minChicago Justice PodcastSupt. Brown’s Hidden Suspension – PodcastOn this episode we sit down with Lauren Cole to discuss her two recent reports about Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown's hidden suspension for lying in internal misconduct investigation during his time in Dallas. The suspension was actually for providing false information to a responding officer and then that officer's superiors during the follow investigation regarding action taken by Brown and his partner during a chase of a stolen car that resulted in two accidents. Brown gave these false statements when he knew there was eyewitness testimony to the events that occurred that had to contradict his untruthful recount...
2021-09-0233 minChicago Justice PodcastFOP President Catanzara Nazi ComparisonChicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara responded to Mayor Lightfoot's announcement of a vaccine mandate for all city employees in the worst way imaginable. He compared the mandate by the Mayor to the atrocities carried out by the Nazis in Germany during World War II. Catanzara has a history of opening his mouth and saying the absolute wrong thing. A great example of this is when he stated on video that he didn't see anything wrong with what happened at the US Capital on Jan. 6th and that he understands why people would be mad about a stolen...
2021-09-0132 minChicago Justice PodcastJennifer Vollen-Katz InterviewIn today's show we sit down with Jennifer Vollen-Katz who is the Executive Director of the John Howard Association. We discuss issues around the accountability and transparency of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Vollen-Katz was the perfect person to have this conversation with as she leads the only privately run agency that regularly has staff and volunteers monitoring IDOC facilities from inside the facilities.
It is pretty clear from both CJP;s experiences and from the work of Vollen-Katz that IDOC does not really have an interest in being transparent. The Larry Earvin case is a prime example of why...
2021-08-0553 minChicago Justice PodcastBGA’s David Greising on Chicago Lacking a Crime PlanThe Better Government Association's David Greising sits down with the Chicago Justice Show to discuss a recent post he authored on the BGA's website. Greising's post was titled "Finger Pointing Isn't a Crime-Fighting Plan, Mayor". The post gets a lot of things right about how the Mayor and Superintendent David Brown seem to be more interested in pointing fingers to deflect blame than coming up with a coherent plan to combat Chicago's ongoing issues with violence.
Greising calls out the Mayor appropriately for having her "whole of government" apporach to violence that sounded good in the media when it was...
2021-08-0354 minChicago Justice PodcastSharon Fairly on Routing Out Proud Boy CopsToday we speak with Sharon Fairly, former Chief Administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority and Citizen Office of Police Accountability, about what if any possibilities exist to use the police accountability system in Chicago to separate white supremacists cops from the Chicago Police Department.
In all the hoopla around the outing officer Robert Baker as allegedly having ties to the white supremacists organization the Proud Boys the reality about what the CPD or the police accountability system can do to remove this officer from the department has been lost. Fairly is the perfect person to discuss the realities given...
2021-07-2753 minChicago Justice PodcastGang Members Outnumber Cops in ChicagoAccording to a recent Fox 32 report that cited Geraldo Rivera gang members in Chicago outnumber police officers by a ratio of 10-1. You can tell this was a very serious report as it cited one of the most respected journalists in the country with a specialization of looking for long lost vaults. Rivera supposedly was actually citing statistics on gang members in Chicago that he heard from Mayor Lightfoot and Superintendent David Brown.
This report is proof of why it is so important for elected leaders and criminal justice officials to make sure the are citing only verifiable statistics. Now...
2021-07-2459 minChicago Justice PodcastCommunity Commission PassesAfter five years of pushing from activists and communities of color the community commission has finally passed the City Council. Its passing has been hailed by many on the left as the transformative reform that Chicago has been waiting for many years. The commission is now at least the 6th transformative police accountability reform that has come to Chicago since 1960 when the Chicago Police Board was created to allow O. W. Wilson to run the Chicago Police Department.
Despite campaigning on passing the commission in her first hundred days in office it has actually taken Mayor Lightfoot almost 800 days to...
2021-07-2257 minChicago Justice PodcastMayor Lightfoot’s Snitch FundMayor Lightfoot established a fund to incentivize people from the community to come forward and provide tips on people that possess guns illegally. At initial blush the fund doesn't seem like the horrific program it is but once you spend some time thinking about it you understand that the fund is ripe for abuse from the community and most likely will just result in a huge spike in minority contact with the police. Many of which could be instigated by rivals in the community seeking revenge and not to serve the intended purposes of taking guns off the street.
This...
2021-07-2054 minChicago Justice PodcastCatanzara: A 23 Year History of MisconductChicago police officer John Catanzara has a history with the police accountability system in Chicago that is exhibit number one in why the system is broken. The failure of the system to remove him from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) has allowed Catanzara to ride a Trumpian movement within the Fraternal Order of Police and win election to be their president. It is like the membership of the FOP was proud to vote for someone that quite literally could be one of the worst officers within the CPD.
Catanzara in his 23 years with the CPD managed to rack up 50 complaints...
2021-07-1555 minChicago Justice PodcastTribune Editorial Board Offers Families Empty ConcernThe Chicago Tribune Editorial Board authored what can only be described as an extremest editorial where they call for everyone to support Chicago's families by offering them nothing but condemnation and "constructive nudges" to instill discipline in their kids. Obviously, Chicago's gun violence issues has nothing to do with the structural issues in Chicago's finances or justice system and has everything to do with poor parenting.
Structural issues like the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program that shifted almost $1 billion from the City of Chicago's general revenue fund to a special off the books account for the Mayor to spend however...
2021-07-1356 minChicago Justice PodcastFoxx & Mitchell on Chicago TonightCook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx and Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell appeared on Chicago Tonight to discuss the never ending dis-information coming from Mayor Lightfoot and Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown about the impact of bail reform on gun violence in Chicago.
A few weeks before this appearance Foxx and her office held a webinar for journalists in Chicago to learn about how to use the data Foxx and her office office release to get more insight in to gun violence arrests and how bail reform is affecting violence rates in Chicago since it was implemented in 2017. During...
2021-07-1056 minChicago Justice PodcastVallas on Justice Issues – Part 2Today's main segment we feature part two of our interview with extremely frequent social media poster and former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools Paul Vallas. Vallas does not keep his opinions to himself. He is also a very public supporter of the police and the Fraternal Order of the Police (FOP) so much so despite his trying to spin his efforts regarding his participation in ongoing union negotiations between the city and the FOP as working for both sides. His son is a police officer, he definitely prefers one side to the other.
In part 2 with Vallas we focus...
2021-07-0854 minChicago Justice PodcastPaul Vallas on Justice Issues – Part 1Paul Vallas, former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, is a very frequent poster to social media and all too often those posts cover issues of crime and justice. Vallas also is volunteering his time to help the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) in their negotiations with the city over their latest contract terms. It is an odd choice for Vallas given his absolute hatred for education related unions.
Vallas can speak intelligently about education and fiscal policy matters related to the city because of his experience in government but all too often his comments related to justice issues only...
2021-07-0656 minChicago Justice PodcastNew Direction for Circuit Court Clerk?A new direction for the Office of the Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk would be most welcomed. The Office is an public body few people know exists and rarely pay attention to unless they somehow end up involved in the court system. For 20 years the office has been run in the most incompetent and corrupt way possible by the former Clerk Dorothy Brown; however, last November voters elected a new person to the office, former State Senator Iris Martinez. However fleeting this moment is, it certainly is an opportunity to change the direction of the office and...
2021-07-0156 minChicago Justice PodcastCPD’s Broken Grievance SystemThe Chicago Police Department's broken grievance system has allowed abusive officers to either greatly reduce their exposure to discipline and in some case completely remove it form their records. The rules governing the system are outlined in the contracts between the CPD and the various unions that represent the sworn officers within the CPD.
CJP was informed many years ago by a high level source within the Independent Police Review Authority that the system is so broke that most officers automatically grieve their cases and that the CPD loses in arbitration so much that the they had resorted in to...
2021-06-2958 minChicago Justice PodcastChicago Divided on Defunding PoliceUnsurprisingly residents of the City of Chicago appear to be divided on the issue of defunding the police. We know this because of a poll the MacArthur Foundation had conducted and an OpEd they published in the Chicago Tribune. It is very obvious the concept of defunding the police is very controversial so the word of the questions in the poll is vital. Despite problems with the questions there is still much to learn from this poll.
To anyone paying attention to events in Chicago for the last several decades it will not be surprising that communities of color who...
2021-06-2651 minChicago Justice PodcastDemotion vs. Promotion CPD PropagandaChicago Police Department (CPD) officials are experts at using the promotion of officers to the maximum benefit of the agency. Of course when the script if flipped and they have to announce a demotion of a high ranking commander their lips are sealed even though their is a vital public interest in knowing why the official was demoted.
The current practice within the CPD to not comment on demotions only provides fuel to drive the rumor mill about why the demotion occurred. In this most recent case the CPD's 1st District Commander Jacob Alderden was demoted by Supt. David Brown...
2021-06-2455 minChicago Justice PodcastCity Moving to Throw Out Anjanette Young CaseThe city has moved to get the court to throw out the civil suit by Anjanette Young despite public promises by the Mayor to resolve the matter quickly. This move by the city is about trying to leverage a better bargaining position with Young in the settlement negotiations as well as trying to avoid exposure for past and future bad raids by the Chicago Police Department (CPD).
The little reported context to this story is that the first case filed by Young was tossed out by the court so it might now be that far fetched that the City could...
2021-06-2255 minChicago Justice PodcastWhat Will Public Safety Committee Do?The Public Safety Committee of the Chicago City Council has an opportunity to both demonstrate its independence from the Mayor and deliver a really meaningful opportunity for oversight of the Chicago Police Department (CPD). The Committee can as do something they have only really done over the last 20 years which is use the authority of the oversight committee to try to stop the abuse and misconduct with the CPD.
Our report on 20 years of agenda items from the Committee proves without a shadow of a doubt that this Committee has virtually nothing to restrain the CPD and oversee the police...
2021-06-1841 minChicago Justice PodcastOur Kids Becoming ExtinctThe "Our Kids Becoming Extinct" headline I am sure was great for attracting clicks but it is a massive dis-service to the very communities the kids discussed in the headline are coming from. This headline serves only to drive fear about out of control violence and push reactionary police and public policy to get the headline out of the news.
As the article itself states juveniles victims of gun violence are on part with previous years it is just that since the onset of the world wide pandemic shootings overall in Chicago, and every other major city, are up. So...
2021-06-1757 minChicago Justice PodcastReport on Public Safety CommitteeOur report on the agenda of the Chicago City Council Committee on Public Safety reveals damning truths about just how useless this committee has been on the topics of policing and police accountability over the last 20 years. This incredibly comprehensive report looked at 489 agenda items of 186 meetings over 20 years from 2000 through July 2020.
Our report leaves the members of this committee no room to wiggle out responsibility for their lack of interest in regulating the one department in the City of Chicago that is costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year in settlements and judgments for misconduct each year...
2021-06-1553 minChicago Justice PodcastSupt. Brown Promises More ResourcesThe promise of more resources for districts made by Chicago Police Superintendent Superintendent David Brown is pure politics as he attempts to combat criticism from union officials and the media about his creation of roving citywide units that have "stolen" resources from local districts.
The most craven part of this effort is Brown knows that even his citywide units are going to fail at their mission just like they would if those resources were left in the district. The union and the media's comments about district resources stem from a false belief that the police play a far greater role...
2021-06-1452 minChicago Justice PodcastLightfoot Flip Flop on Burge TortureDespite the fact that President of the Police Accountability Task Force Lightfoot and Candidate Lightfoot acknowledging the crimes committed by former Police Commander Jon Burge and his colleagues within the Chicago Police Department, Mayor Lightfoot’s Department of Law is arguing that many of his crimes never occurred. This of course flies in the face of the City Council acknowledging these crimes and paying many of the victims for their suffering.
This is part of a significant pattern as the actions of Mayor Lightfoot's administration vary greatly from the rhetoric she previously used to garner public attention. CJP has experienced th...
2021-06-0652 minChicago Justice PodcastMayor Lightfoot’s Summer Violence PlanThe Mayor's summer violence program is unique is that is does address violence a little differently than past mayors but it is not unique in how it is not part of a long-term solution for communities.
What differentiates Mayor Lightfoot's summer violence plan is that is seems to be data driven to laser focus on 15 Chicago Police Department beats with the most violence. This is truly unique as previous mayors have always taken more generalized approaches. So koudos to Mayor Lightfoot for using data to help her create the violence plan. The big problem is her plan like all the...
2021-06-0353 minChicago Justice PodcastRecent email hack shows Mayor Lightfoot is failing at her jobThe recent email hack in the Mayor’s office was released to the public and has shown that Lightfoot is failing at her job. We have learned that Mayor Lightfoot does not seem to be on the citizens’ side.
Lightfoot has repeatedly released misleading and outright false information to keep the citizens of Chicago in the dark about the true circumstances surrounding the Mayor’s office, the Chicago Police Department (CPD), and other city offices. The first major offense is that Lightfoot created a subpar police oversight proposal after months of promising to create her own oversight proposal, although she had a...
2021-05-271h 02Chicago Justice PodcastDoctored information from CPD rampant in Mary Mitchell columnDoctored information from CPD is rampant in Mary Mitchell’s recent column. The Sun-Times is no stranger to biased information. And Mary Mitchell is no stranger to biased writing either. Mary Mitchell, a columnist for the Sun-Times, has been writing columns condemning the CPD for decades. Mitchell has written columns criticizing their lack of due diligence and police practices.
Additionally, Mary Mitchell’s column is full of doctored information that the CPD has released to the public to improve its own reputation. Her column is complete with baseless facts and misleading information that serves to confuse readers about what the CPD...
2021-05-2048 minChicago Justice PodcastAlderman Martin Discusses Community CommissionOn today's show comes from a March 10th conversation we had with 47th Ward Alderman Matt Martin to discuss the status of the community commission for police oversight. At the time of our discussion Mayor Lightfoot had pulled out of negotiations withe the two groups pushing their individual versions of the commission and instead announced publicly that she would introduce her own version of the community commission ordinance. The Mayor has yet to unveil any new version of the community commission ordinance.
Since early 2016 a diverse set of community groups have come together to line up in support of two...
2021-05-1546 minChicago Justice PodcastCPD Secret Drone ProgramA secret purchase of a drone by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) with full knowledge of Mayor Lightfoot and her administration raises all kinds of privacy concerns around 1st amendment activities. It also raises concerns for just how much the Mayor cares about community input in to the massive expansion of police surveillance capabilities at the same time both the city and country are in the midst of the largest unrest in decades stemming from a murder of a black man by a white police officer.
Justice agencies always exploit rare events to expand their ability to surveil the public...
2021-05-131h 04Chicago Justice PodcastRep. Ford on Critical Race Theory AcademyToday we sit down with Illinois State Representative La Shawn K Ford, 8th District, to discuss his proposal to create a critical race theory academy for police to attend and learn about how race impacts policing and the administration of justice.
Going through this academy would be mandatory for any individuals seeking to become a police officer before the state could certify any new officer. Also, it would be mandatory continuing education for current officers so in theory all police officers within the State of Illinois would have to go through this academy within some period of time after the...
2021-05-1159 minChicago Justice PodcastCOPA Head Sydney Roberts ResignsSydney Roberts, Chief Administrator of the Citizen Office of Police Accountability, (COPA), resigns her position effective Friday, May 14th. Her exist is one in a line of justice related positions that individuals seems to be fleeing from in the Lightfoot administration.
CJP was not supportive of the appointment of Roberts to the position back in 2018 when then Mayor Rham Emanuel picked Roberts to lead COPA. Her background in the Secretary of State Police certainly did not seem like it was adequate experience to come and run an agency that would try to hold accountable a police department so fraught with...
2021-05-081h 07Chicago Justice PodcastTribune Article on New Foot Pursuit PolicyThe Chicago Tribune published an article with a headline that makes you think they have a scoop on the new foot pursuit policy from the Chicago Police Department (CPD). What the Tribune delivers can best be labeled as notes from a possible brainstorming session about what might be included in a new policy someday. The Tribune cannot confirm anything in the document they obtained is in the current draft of the policy.
fsddsfCJP has covered both the Adam Toledo and the Anthony Alvarez shootings on our show. These two shootings are the impetus behind the CPD accelerating the revamp of...
2021-05-0654 minChicago Justice PodcastAlvarez Shooting Video ReleasedThe videos collected in the Anthony Alvarez shooting was released late last week with by the Citizen Office of Police Accountability (COPA). One of those videos was from a home security camera outside the house where the shooting occurred. From the video is seems like Alvarez never did anything that could be construed as threatening towards the officer.
The video shows Alvarez fleeing from the officer on foot, falling down, and then continuing to run before the officer shoots him multiple times. From what we can see on the video we cannot think of any legitimate reasons for the officer...
2021-05-0448 minChicago Justice PodcastMurder Chicago Didn’t Want to SolveThe murder of a west side black politician in the early 1960s is one that the city just didn't want to solve according to our guest today on the Chicago Justice Show, Mick Dumke from ProPublica Illinois. We discuss his latest piece titled "The Murder Chicago Didn't Want to Solve".
According to Dumke Lewis was the first black alderman elected on the west side of Chicago. The 24th ward then and now encompasses large swaths of the North Lawndale community. As blacks starting to move to this west side community the Daley political machine knew they had to at least...
2021-05-031h 01Chicago Justice PodcastFormer Congressman Attempts to Stay RelevantFormer Congressman Luis Gutierrez recently held a press conference to lash out at Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx for failing to review the body camera video in the Adam Toledo case before one of her prosecutors offered a proffer in court stating that Adam had a gun in his had at the very moment he was shot.
As I cover in the show there is certainly something wrong with this demand. It reeks of exceptionalism and the fact that it would acceptable for Foxx to allow a prosecutor to do their job without oversight in ordinary cases because it...
2021-04-2959 minChicago Justice PodcastRape Kit Transparency Town HallThe processing of a rape kit seems like it has always been a problem in Chicago and Illinois. For as far back as we can remember the Illinois State Police Crime Lab has had some sort of backlog in processing rape kits to determine if there is biological evidence that could be used to match to profiles in the DNA database. There has also been, and may still exist, a problem with local police departments submitting kits for testing.
Read CJP's Data Brief titled "Rape Kit Backlog - What We Do and Don’t Know" here.
These problems exacerbate an al...
2021-04-281h 07Chicago Justice PodcastCommunity Commission on Public SafetyThe Community Commission on Public Safety (Commission) is one of the campaign promises that Mayor Lightfoot just has not been able to deliver on and seems to do nothing but take wrong step after wrong step trying to implement this legislation. Recently, the Mayor announced she was walking away from the negotiating table with the various community and reforms groups behind the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) and the Citizen Police Accountability Council (CPAC) versions of the Commission and she would be submitting her own version in to City Council.
On today's show we play part 1 of our interview...
2021-04-131h 03Chicago Justice PodcastClerk Martinez’s Transparency Flip FlopCook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Iris Martinez pulled what was always expected and flip flopped here campaign pledge to make her office be responsive to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Instead Martinez backed an Illinois Senate bill to make the office responsive to what is called the local records act.
The Clerk's office was created under the Illinois Court's Act and thus it is deemed to be exempt from FOIA. The hitch is that under the Illinois Court's Act court records are deemed open as the court hearings unless sealed by a judge. The Clerk's office...
2021-04-1146 minChicago Justice PodcastFOP President’s Baseless Claims on Adam Toledo ShootingThe Fraternal order of Police (FOP) has long be known be a force working against reform even when it is in the best interests of their membership. They are also known for backing up a single officer no matter the long-term consequences for the organization and its membership. The Adam Toledo case may turn out to be just another example of this.
FOP President John Catanzara now does these videos that he posts every Friday to the FOP YouTube channel called the Friday Update. This week our first segment focuses on the most recently posted video from Friday 4/2 where he...
2021-04-0855 minChicago Justice PodcastExploring CPD’s Response to George Floyd ProtestsThe Chicago Police Department's (CPD) response to the George Floyd protests turn out to be chaotic, unorganized, and under prepared. This comes from a review of the CPD"s response from a report recently released by the Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety (DPSIG), Deborah Witzburg.
Floyd was murdered on a Monday and despite spreading protests around the country and open source intelligence (social media) CPD Superintendent Brown and other officials within the CPD failed to realize the scale of the protests and unrest Chicago would experience during the upcoming weekend and over the next several weeks.
The Minneapolis police's...
2021-03-311h 00Chicago Justice PodcastCovering George Floyd ProtestsOn today's show we discuss covering the George Floyd protests from the streets with a former Marine that brings with him a unique perspective on the freedoms being exercised by protestors and what it meant to him to be one of the people that put his life on the line to fight for those rights.
Our conversation is framed both from what our guest reported during the protests and some of findings of a report recently released by the Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety on the Chicago Police Department's (CPD) handling of the protests. It is pretty remarkable how...
2021-03-211h 00Chicago Justice PodcastPolicing Reforms in HB 3653In this episode we dive in the the reforms found in HB 3653 passed by the Illinois General Assembly in mid January. Specifically we focus on the front end reforms or those reforms that mostly deal with policing that are found in HB 3653.
For those unaware this nearly 800 page bill is what is considered an omnibus bill. This means it is made up of many different bills up together to passed as really as a package. Many if not most of the reforms found in bills like this have been introduced on their own or as part of smaller packages and...
2021-03-171h 01Chicago Justice PodcastImpact on Incarceration and Sentencing from HB 3653The impact on sentencing and incarceration from the recently passed omnibus bill HB 3653 in very significant. We discuss many of the these specific reforms on today's show. Our guest is Jobi Cates, Founder and Executive Director of Restore Justice Illinois.
This large bill is packed with reforms. It is far from everything the state legislature could have done to reform the criminal justice system or just the incarceration system we have in Illinois but on many fronts this bill equals a few good steps in the direction we need to go.
On today's show we focus exclusively on the back...
2021-03-131h 03Chicago Justice PodcastAchieving Gun Violence ReductionsUnderstanding the impact of the intersection of the multiple problems that communities are facing on the south and west sides is not something that politicians and the media in Chicago have been very good at. The media has a systemic issue with allowing local alderman off the hook for their votes on financial issues that contribute to creating the conditions in these communities that drive crime.
On today's show we talk with three organizations that are doing the long-term work on the streets in these communities that have a chance of really making a difference. Sadly, until the mayor and...
2021-03-041h 16Chicago Justice PodcastDouble Dose of Bad SpielmanIn today’s show we discuss two really bad articles from Fran Spielman and the propaganda coming from Superintendent David Brown’s YouTube series.
Spielman is known through our Chicago as a reporter that is seeking nothing but sensational headlines and salacious quotes that can make headlines. We discuss two recent articles from her covering Alderman Beale’s cop house idea and carjackings. Neither article is good and clearly demonstrates she is all about featuring quotes rather than digging in and doing the legwork necessary to really inform the public on these topics. In short, it is typical Spielman.
We also d...
2021-02-2700 minChicago Justice PodcastBail Reform – An Empirical Analysis of ImpactBail reform is a very hot topic in Cook County despite the fact that there have been very few facts driving the discussion.
Bail was created to assure that people show up for court proceedings after being charged with a crime. The thought was that forcing people to put up a some of cash would make sure they show up for court. If they did show up for their court hearings despite the outcome of the proceedings they would receive the money they put up back.
It is pretty easy to discern that is system was discriminatory against the poor...
2021-02-2000 minChicago Justice PodcastSexual Violence in ChicagoSexual violence in Chicago is a significantly under-covered crime in Chicago and is only really covered if the media can exploit and sensationalize the event.
Today we chat with Executive Director Erin Walton and Director of Programs and Policy Sarah Layden from Resilience. Our discussion covers defining what exactly is sexual violence, how often it occurs, and the Chicago/Cook County justice system’s response.
Despite how the Chicago media covers these crimes most sexual violence perpetrators are known to the survivor. This reality is proven both in what advocates from agencies like resilience see everyday in their work supporting su...
2021-02-1400 minChicago Justice PodcastAffidavit Overrule in CPD Disciplinary InvestigationsThe affidavit override rule function within the police accountability system should have been a very powerful tool to help leaders bring in real accountability. A recent report released by the Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety (DPSIG) documents that the power was rarely if ever used for many years despite evidence being contained in investigative files that would have supported the application of this power.
From 2004 until the moment the Governor signs HB 3653 in to law it has been a requirement in Chicago for anyone, who is not a police officer, who wants to file a complaint against a Chicago...
2021-01-1800 minChicago Justice PodcastToo Little, Too Late?Too little effort from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) is going in to responding to sex crimes in Chicago according to a new report from the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE).
Today we sit down with Madeline Behr, Policy Manager, at CAASE to discuss a report she authored titled "Too Little, Too Late? The CPD's Response to Sex Crimes".
The report contained some startling statistics to back up CAASE's claims that the CPD is doing far too little to respond to sex crimes. Here are couple of those statistics:
80-90% of sexual harm reports to the CPD over the...
2020-12-1558 minChicago Justice PodcastGAPA - What is This Ordinance All About?The Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) is an association of multiple community based organizations working together on issues of police accountability in Chicago. The group came together after the release video showing the murder of Laquan McDonald by Jason Van Dyke.
GAPA's main focus has been the creation of a community commission that would provide communities with a vehicle for a direct role in overseeing practices and polices of the Chicago Police Department (CPD).
Read an OpEd I wrote on this issue in Crain's Chicago Business here.
In the summer of 2017 as Mayor Emanuel was working with other justice...
2020-12-0759 minChicago Justice PodcastCOPA Compliance with Video Release PolicyAn audit of the Citizen's Office of Police Accountability's (COPA) compliance with the City of Chicago's video release policy shows systemic failures in the police accountability system in Chicago that lead to COPA failing to live up to the office's obligations under this policy.
The policy was put in to place in the wake of the release of the video showing the murder of Laquan McDonald by Chicago Police Office Jason Van Dyke. The video was withheld by the Emanuel administration to help Rahm Emanuel win re-election.
Until this time the City of Chicago had no policy in place to...
2020-11-2659 minChicago Justice PodcastTelling Stories About Crime is HardCovering issues of crime and violence is very hard but that is no excuse for not doing it better. So says our guest this week on the Chicago Justice Show Jason Cherkis. Cherkis is seasoned reporter who started out working for weekly paper in Washington, DC covering these very issues.
Through be told reporters at daily papers and local TV stations have never really covered crime and violence responsibly. The pressure of daily deadlines forces them in to a position where they are forced to churn out content to feed the beast. Unfortunately, crime and violence stories are often very...
2020-10-3055 minChicago Justice PodcastCoverage of Kim Foxx & Justice Issues OverallThe coverage of justice issues in Chicago overall has and continues to be a huge problem for the Chicago media. The hyper-concentration on gun violence and the daily tally of shootings has taken center stage across the various mediums for which Chicagoans can consume news.
The legacy outlets also have to compete with agenda driven political operations that camouflaging themselves as media operations pushing constant theme of violence being out of control to stir fear and stoke racial tensions with little concern for justice.
This combination has a very real impact on the ability of policymakers and criminal justice officials...
2020-09-2342 minChicago Justice PodcastSharon Fairley on Police Reform in ChicagoThis episode features a discussion with Sharon Fairley who is a professor from practice at the University of Chicago Law School a, former federal prosecutor, and the former chief administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA).
We discuss Sharon's recent commentary published by the Chicago Tribune titled "Commentary: Police reform steps that must be taken immediately". Over the hour we will take a deep dive in to her recommendations for police reform while also discussing Mayor Lightfoot's proposals for police reform.
Towards the end of the interview we do engage in a...
2020-07-121h 05Chicago Justice PodcastDisaggregating Police FunctionDisaggregating the various functions of modern police agencies provides us the basis to start to reimagine how we might go about building better systems of layered responses to the social problems we have for too long left at the feet of policing agencies in American.
Today’s episode features our Facebook Live conversation with Professor Barry Friedman from New York University Law School and the Policing Project. Professor Friedman was just appointed as a special advisor to New York Attorney General James’ investigation of police actions responding to demonstrations.
Professor Friedman’s research paper with the same title as this podcas...
2020-06-2152 minChicago Justice PodcastAbuse of Media Covering ProtestsIn today’s episode we discuss the abuse suffered by credentialed media at the hands of local police forces. While police actions responding to protests have always been called in to question the ferociousness behind the abuse by municipal police departments across the county to local and national news outlets sure seemed different this time around.
Today CJP Executive Director Tracy Siska and Beachwood Reporter Founder and Editor Steve Rhodes discuss these issues around the police abuse of the media.
In the protests that spread nationwide in response to the murder of George Floyd at th...
2020-06-1300 minChicago Justice PodcastAbuse of Media Covering ProtestsIn today's episode we discuss the abuse suffered by credentialed media at the hands of local police forces. While police actions responding to protests have always been called in to question the ferociousness behind the abuse by municipal police departments across the county to local and national news outlets sure seemed different this time around.
Today CJP Executive Director Tracy Siska and Beachwood Reporter Founder and Editor Steve Rhodes discuss these issues around the police abuse of the media.
In the protests that spread nationwide in response to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police Office...
2020-06-1343 minChicago Justice PodcastAbuse of Media Covering Protests
In today’s episode we discuss the abuse suffered by credentialed media at the hands of local police forces. While police actions responding to protests have always been called in to question the ferociousness behind the abuse by municipal police departments across the county to local and national news outlets sure seemed different this time around.
Today CJP Executive Director Tracy Siska and Beachwood Reporter Founder and Editor Steve Rhodes discuss these issues around the police abuse of the media.
In the protests that spread nationwide in response to the murder of George Floyd at...
2020-06-1343 minChicago Justice PodcastCoordinated CPD Media StrategyOn May 15th several mainstream media outlets each published their own interview with CPD Superintendent David Brown in what can only be the result of a coordinated media strategy from the Department.
When you review what was published by the various outlets they each make readers / viewers believe the interview was obtained through their labors rather than unwittingly, or knowingly and not caring, falling prey to a coordinated media strategy from within the Department.
This is a premiere what we hope will be a weekly addition to our podcast analyzing media coverage of crime and justice issues in Chicago. Our...
2020-05-2942 minChicago Justice PodcastChicago’s Million Dollar BlocksChicago's Million Dollar Blocks is an amazing website that details over a five year period how much money the State of Illinois spends on incarcerating people per block in Chicago.
In this episode we feature an interview with researcher and author Dr. Dan Cooper from the Metropolitan Planning Council, who together with his colleague Dr. Ryan Lugalia-Hollon and the technologists at Datamade, created a fascinating website that details the horrific amount of money we spend on our failing justice system.
The public is largely ignorant of the vast amounts of money spent every year on our criminal justice system. The...
2020-05-1756 minChicago Justice PodcastIDOC & Their Response to COVID-19The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and their response to the COVID-19 pandemic is the subject of today's episode. We feature excerpts from a Facebook Live interview we did with Jobi Cates, Founder and Executive Director of Reform Justice Illinois (RJI).
RJI was originally created to work on issues solely focused on juvenile lifers, or people sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes committed as youth. But when confronted with intersection of many bad policies RJI expended their mission to address a multitude of policy issues related to criminal justice.
IDOC has reputation dating back many years of maintaining horrible data...
2020-05-0428 minChicago Justice PodcastPOD: Media Coverage of the Selection of David BrownIn this episode we discuss the media coverage of the process used to select former Dallas Police Chief David Brown as the nominee for the permanent Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.
Our guest today is Beachwood Reporter Founder and Editor Steve Rhodes. On this episode we discuss the media coverage of the search conducted by the Chicago Police Board for potential candidates for the job, the process by which the Chicago Police Board narrowed that list to 3 candidates and how Mayor Lightfoot came to select David Brown.
Sadly the media coverage has been lacking the detailed reviewof Brown's history i...
2020-04-2000 min