Attorney General Lynch to Launch Pattern or Practice Investigation of Chicago Police Department

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:

Well, if what the NAACP Legal Defense Fund says is true, there will be a thorough investigation of police practices and abuses coming to the Chicago Police Department.

In a communique received from the Legal Defense Fund, the investigation was precipitated by the cruel manner in which 17 year old Laquan McDonald was gunned down, and the lies told by several police officers to cover up the heinous act, despite the fact that camera footage told an entirely different story!! 

With so much evidence on camera, one wonders what the motivation would be for blatantly lying - not only to protect ones self, but to cover up for officers who were clearly in violation  the law; guilty of murder, and had no sign or remorse whatsoever.  Perhaps, in addition to a pattern of egregious police brutality, there is also internal intimidation leveled against officers who might ordinarily come forward, but don't for fear of their lives, or the lives of their family members.

Chicago  is a tough town, to say the least.  Their police, the gangs, the politicians, even their activists, are not to be taken lightly.  Perhaps that's the reason the gang activities have continued unabated over the past 8 years.  They were terrible before President Obama - remember Cabrini Green? - and they're still out of control.  Likewise, the police department has been known to allegedly turn a blind eye to certain criminal activities, if the price is right; and lean on others if not.  But people are getting fed up with waiting for the locals to reign in their so- called law enforcement officers.  It's also a known fact, that when law enforcement runs the town, humanity goes out the window.  Chicago, and other cities, appear to be heading in that direction.  

The fact that the Chicago PD had the audacity to lie about the circumstances of McDonald's death shows that they either think they are the law; they are above the law, or that they can beat the rap and defeat any attempt to prove any violation of either civil or human rights.  Corruption has reigned so long in the "toddling town" it will be interesting to see what shakes out, and what crawls from under those rocks as they begin to probe the underbelly of Alfonse Capone's favorite haunt.

I enclosed a copy of the statement from the LDF for your information, as well as to show those among us, who are naysayers, that our venerable veteran organizations are still on top of and in front of things that affect us as Black people.   We are all in this together, each organization taking one part of Leviathan can bring own its total eradication.

Kudos to the NAACP LDF; to the brothers and sisters who are keeping the pressure on, to Loretta Lynch and the Department of Justice, and to those of us citizens who aren't going to take it any more. 

Stay Blessed &

ECLECTICALLY BLACK

Gloria 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Statement on Department of Justice's Civil Rights Probe of the Chicago Police Department 

Contact: Nyasha Laing nlaing@naacpldf.org, 212-965-2235, 646-630-5364
New York, New York –The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) supports the Justice Department's decision to open a civil rights 'pattern or practice' investigation of the Chicago Police Department to determine whether the department has engaged in unlawful policing practices.  "The police-involved shooting death of 17-year old Laquan McDonald and the notorious Chicago police torture cases are clear signs of a troubled police department," said Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of LDF. "We are particularly gratified that the Department of Justice will focus part of its investigation on accountability within the Chicago Police Department,” said Ifill. “Given the number of officers on the scene of the Laquan McDonald killing and the willingness of some officers to corroborate a false account of how the teenager was killed, it is clear that accountability systems within the Chicago Police Department are broken. This cannot continue.”
A graphic video of a Chicago police officer shooting McDonald multiple times shows the teen moving away from the officers.  This contradicts reports by officers on the scene that McDonald moved toward the officers with a knife when he was shot.
Police ‘cover ups’ or the ‘blue wall of silence’ have existed for decades in Chicago. It was so entrenched that state elected officials established the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission in 2009 to investigate and address the wrongful convictions of persons who were tortured by police and forced to confess to crimes they did not commit under the watch of former police chief Jon Burge. Reports estimate that about 192 persons, primarily African-American men, were tortured by Chicago police officers in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
“This type of police violence and abuse against civilians is what motivated Congress to give the Justice Department the authority to conduct ‘pattern or practice’ investigations,” said Janai Nelson, Associate Director-Counsel of LDF. “It is our hope that the Justice Department will consider charges under all federal civil and criminal statutes applicable to the actions of the Chicago Police Department.” However, this investigation does not relieve the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office from the obligation to pursue state obstruction of justice or other charges against any officers who made false statements or otherwise interfered with the investigation of the killing of Laquan McDonald. Given the failure of the state’s attorney to pursue these charges more than a year after Mr. McDonald’s death, we call for an independent special prosecutor to pursue this investigation.
LDF has successfully supported calls for a federal civil rights probe of the Baltimore Police Department, and eagerly awaits the Justice Department’s response to its request for a similar probe in North Charleston, South Carolina following the highly publicized death of Walter Scott, who was shot in the back by a North Charleston police officer.
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About The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) 
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is not a part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) although LDF was founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. Since 1957, LDF has been a completely separate organization.  Please refer to us in media attributions as the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund or LDF. 

I'm also attaching the following video - hope you can access it  Click on the word "video" below:

Wesley Etheridge's video.

5,072,784 Views

Wesley EtheridgeFollow

February 13

Please watch and share this video. We should all know about this story.

NOW THAT YOU KNOW, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Stay Blessed 
Gloria  

Mother of Tamir Rice, 12 Year Old who was gunned down by cops is in a homeless shelter

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:

I know you heard me from one side of the US to the other when I read this headline about Tamir Rice's mom being homeless! I was furious!  First her son is murdered by a lumox - or ersatz policeman who doesn't know the difference between a toy gun and a real gun; and is stupid enough to think that a 12 year old child would be walking around with an assault weapon that he feels "threatened" and kills him.  Now, adding insult to egregious injury, this poor sister is in a homeless shelter?

WHAT????
 

And for those of you who are asking, yes, I'm definitely yelling! 

This news report on Tamir's Mom being homeless is absolutely awful.  I'm sure it's all over facebook, but I want to know specifically what the  National Action Network and all our other Black leadership organizations are doing to help.  I want to know if the Black churches, women's and civic organizations have lost their complete and total minds to allow this woman to come to such a horrible state of affairs.

This is more than just an traumatic turn of events for her, it's an embarrassment to Black people everywhere - it shows lack of caring and concern, insensitivity for a sister in need.  

The news reports that she cannot live in the place where her son was gunned down like a dog by a depraved policeman - I think anyone can readily understand that.  The vision of seeing your child murdered in cold blood, and then having to continuously live in the crime scene is untenable.  
Now that we've paraded this woman and the horror of her son's death throughout the media, on TV, radio, meetings, courtrooms -- we need to think of the aftermath - the way forward - how she is to live from day to day; and where she's going to live.  To far too many of us  now she is like yesterday's news - cast off to the side to fend for herself.  What the Sam Hill is wrong with us as a people - as people who claim to have soul, feelings, heart, compassion - what are we doing?

Therapy, such as post traumatic stress counseling to help her deal with those emotions should also be part of our rescue mission, along with a lot of warm hugs, listening to her pain, some commiserating, and some guidance - preferrably from Black professional, and the ministers who have counseling capacity.

We might not be able to do everything, but we can each do something - and we'd better be about doing something in her behalf right now.  This has to be dealt with in a loving, compassionate way - this sister may actually be in a walking state of shock - she may be trying to figure out what her next step is in a world that suddenly seems to have turned its back on her.

I know there's a home, an apartment, a vacant unit she can live in while she gets her bearings and gets back on her feet. There are thousands of people in the Cleveland area "warehousing" homes and apartments, waiting for the property values to rise, while a human being (several human beings, actually) have no place decent to live.  I know someone somewhere has a part or full time job  opportunity, or some form of income for that lady in Cleveland - even if it's just public assistance.  There is absolutely no way she should end up on the streets and no one do anything to help her. It's unconsciounable!!!  

Adding insult to even further injury is the fact that her son has not been buried - but is being held in some sort of crime scene limbo because they don't want to disturb the evidence.  

WTF!!!!
What kind of whacky weed are they smoking?  What's in the water they're drinking? Are they all boneheads like Boehner? Who does that kind of crazy ish?  Are the police and forensics stuck on stupid?  Makes you wonder - are they trying to torture this woman because she stood up to them.  If by now they haven't done their investigation, there should be malpractice and dereliction of justice suits flying all over the place.  And for those of you who are from Ohio, who live in Cleveland, I challenge you to reach out to and help this sister.  In the meantime, perhaps we need to contact our new Attorney General, Loretta Lynch,  and have have the police department and forensics investigated to determine if there is any foul play .

I'm the unconventional Black person - or at least I think I am - I come from a town where no one was allowed to go homeless for very long.  I can remember when my mom used to help people who were going through it by helping them stay in their homes. She would say it doesn't benefit anybody for a person to be forced onto the street - people come before things and money. 

I'm putting out my prayers for her and for the souls of Black people  - the brothers and sisters of Cleveland, OH - Brother Don King, a Cleveland Native - we have to surround her mentally, physically & spiritually with our love - NOW!

It's one of the reasons I say that we have to stand for ourselves, and for each other.  We have to own and build our own communities as well -  back each other up...when we can't help each other but we can make a lot of noise blaming others for our plight, it's all just a lot of hooey;  it' like spitting in the wind - all the so call militant words and words of protest mean nothing if we can't and don't build and resurrect while we're marching and praying.

We have to walk our talk - or just shut up and let them run over us.  Samaria Rice needs our help folks.  NOW THAT YOU KNOW, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? 

Stay Blessed & 
ECLECTICALLY BLACK 
Gloria 

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Tamir Rice’s mother is now homeless

The mother of a 12 year old who was gunned down by Cleveland cops says she is now living in a homeless shelter.  Tamir Rice was fatally shot by police within two seconds of arriving on the scene. Rice was carrying a toy airsoft gun when he was fatally shot by officer Timothy Loehmann.

According to a lawsuit brought by the Rice family, the boy’s mother, Samaria Rice, moved out of her home because she couldn’t bear living near where her son was killed.

“Samaria Rice, Rice’s mother, has since been forced to move into a homeless shelter because she could no longer live next door to the killing field of her son,” the motion read. Mother of 12 Year Old Who Was Gunned Down While Playing With Toy Gun Now Lives in Homeless Shelter  Dan Williams, a spokesman for the Cleveland mayor’s office, said in a statement that the mayor was unaware of Rice’s situation.

“We had not heard from her asking for any assistance on that, if she is looking for that we can certainly try to provide help for her,”  Williams said.  

The documents also reveal that Tamir Rice hasn’t been buried for fear that evidence will be destroyed.

“Plaintiffs are incurring expense daily and are unsure if they can finally rest Tamir Rice due to the pending investigation,” the motion reads, according to the Washington Post.  “A stay would exacerbate this expense and emotional distress.”


“It is so sad that the face of police brutality in America is going to be the 12-year-old face of Tamir Rice,” said attorney Benjamin Crump during a Monday press conference.  He continued, adding that “after five months and counting, no one has been charged, no one has been held accountable for the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.”




 

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