Morgan case adds to legacy of
CPD violence in black communities
Echoes of brutal past Chicago
Police Department injustices against African American men reverberate across
centuries and generations as black ex-Chicago cop Howard Morgan fights for his
freedom after surviving a violent attempt by four white CPD officers to end his
life seven years ago.
Currently undergoing
processing at the Statesville Correctional Center in Joliet, Morgan has begun
actively serving a 40-year sentence imposed April 5, following his conviction
in a second trial of attempting to murder the men who shot him 28 times at a
North Lawndale neighborhood street corner. A Burlington Northern Sante Fe
Railroad patrolman and 21-year law enforcement veteran when he was shot, Morgan
had been acquitted in the first trial in 2007 of firing a weapon during the
Feb. 21, 2005 incident at 19th and S. Lawndale, a fact not allowed into the
record during the second trial. His case has now begun its trek through the
formal appeals process.
And notwithstanding his
conviction, the 21st Century shooting, survival and trial of Morgan mirror the
dynamics of the 1969 raid by Chicago police that killed Black Panther Chairman
Fred Hampton on the West Side as it expose a bloodline connection to one of the
Windy City’s bloodiest and most notorious 20th Century abuses of police power
. “That is interesting; that
is something that needs to be known,” said Rosalind Morgan, upon learning that
Assistant State’s Attorney Dan Groth Jr., who prosecuted her husband in both
trials, is the namesake son of Sergeant Daniel R. Groth Sr., leader of the
squad of CPD raiders who killed Hampton and fellow Panther Mark Clark in a
deadly onslaught of nearly 100 rounds of gunfire 42 years ago.
“That just confirms for me
that police brutality and injustice when it comes to African Americans are a
fact of the character of the Chicago Police Department,” she added. “It’s
amazing that it’s in their bloodline.”
Rosalind Morgan has also
begun an online petition drive at www.howardmorganchange.org
to assist her husband’s bid to eventually be transferred to the Dixon
Correctional Center to better facilitate the treatment of the health issues
related to his shooting. “The entire world should be watching this appeal,” she
said.
In a case eerily reminiscent,
or perhaps tellingly of a routine, the 2005 shooting and subsequent charging of
Morgan with attempting to murder his assailants bears a striking resemblance to
the pattern of procedure employed by police and prosecutors here in the
killings of Hampton and Clark in a hail of gunfire in 1969. In that infamous
incident, according to online newspaper archives, CPD Sergeant Daniel R. Groth
Sr. led a squad of 14 CPD cops from the Cook County state’s attorney office on
an early morning raid and assault on Hampton, Clark and seven other Panthers
sleeping at 2337 W. Monroe St. on that Dec. 4th, the year after the riots that
roiled the city in the wake of the April 4th assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.
Daniel R. Groth Jr., who
joined the Cook County State’s Attorney Office following his graduation from
John Marshall Law School in 1994, became an Eagle Scout that year, according to
his online bio. The elder Groth passed away in May of 2005, according to
published reports, three months after Morgan was gunned down.
Like Morgan, the seven
survivors in 1969 were charged with attempted murder of police officers,
despite no evidence of their having fired a shot. Like Morgan’s family has, the
survivors also sued the city. And after each encounter, the officers involved were
awarded medals and citations of valor
But unlike in Morgan’s case
so far, however, police misconduct at various levels was exposed after the 1969
assault. Charges against the Panthers were dropped and the city, Cook County
and the U.S. government settled the lawsuit for nearly $2 million.
Daniel R. Groth Jr. confirmed
his progeny as Sgt. Groth’s son for this report prior to deferring further
comment to arrangements to be made with the news affairs department of the
State’s Attorney’s Office. Subsequent calls and messages left at the department
have not yet received response.
That 20 years after the
videotaped Rodney King beating forced racially motivated police brutality onto
the national consciousness, the City of Chicago Police Department appears to continue
rewarding violence against black suspects as a defensible aspect of its law
enforcement strategy is unsurprising, according to Randolph Stone, Morgan’s
defense attorney. “I would say that over the years, not only in Chicago but in
other urban areas, the relationship between the police department and law
enforcement in general, and African American communities has been—unfortunate
in a lot of respects,” said Stone, who cites nearly forty issues of contention
in appealing the Morgan verdict and sentence.
The history of brutality and
excessive force against blacks by Chicago police is “pretty well known” Stone
said. “Even as far back as the reports that were issued after the riots in the
sixties the history (of police violence against blacks) has been documented.”
Stone, 66, added the fact
that Chicago cops continue to bring a violent and abusive approach to policing
black neighborhoods reflect a decision to ignore lessons learned from the
Hampton and other episodes of brutality that has cost the city millions of
dollars in lawsuit judgments and settlements. Many of the reports in the
aftermath of the turmoil of the sixties “indicated what needed to be done” to
decrease the violence, he said.
“The implementation of those
solutions, however, has not been as forthcoming. As a result, I think Howard
Morgan has not gotten the best of the justice system in this case.”
Stone added the
constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy alone “should have
precluded” the second trial