Wrongful Arrest, Brutality Lawsuit Deluge Tarnishes Chicago Police NATO
Glow
While Chicago
Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy is basking in the glow of the
"professionalism" and "restraint," demonstrated by his
officers during the recent NATO summit, away from the television cameras of the
international news media that reputation for "professionalism" and
"restraint" is taking a beating.
Last week, the
Chicago City Council squeezed taxpayers for $12 million to settle two
wrongful arrest lawsuits thanks to police misbehavior, described as
"idiotic" by an appellate court, over police mishandling of a March
20, 2003 anti-Iraq War protest.
Chicago is paying
$12 million-plus $3.5 million in previous legal costs-to settle the suits,
including a federal class-action suit by 900 people arrested during the 2003
protest. All charges against the protesters were dropped.
Has the Chicago
Police Department learned anything about wrongful arrests since its 2003
mishandling of the 2003 protest that is costing Chicago taxpayers more than $15
million?
The short answer
is: no.
While the city
council was busy voting to hand over sacks of Chicago taxpayer money, the
Chicago Police Department was being hit last week with three more wrongful
arrest and brutality lawsuits that were quietly filed in Chicago federal court.
Those suits came on the heels of two other wrongful arrest and brutality
federal lawsuits filed in April and May.
That's five
wrongful arrest and brutality federal lawsuits filed against 19 Chicago Police
officers in the last 60 days.
Chicago Police
officers named in the suits, for example, arrested Chicago residents involved
in routine traffic stops for possession of "controlled substances" --
such as a wife's clearly marked GNC
vitamins on March 12, 2012 or a mother's prescription blood pressure medication on May 5,
2011.
Chicago police
arrested witnesses for photographing an
auto accident in which a Chicago Police captain, Kevin Navorro, allegedly
driving an SUV in the wrong lane hit a motorcyclist on August 30, 2011.
Chicago police
allegedly brutalized a bystander, Horace Howard, who
witnessed an arrest in Chicago's Lakeview Neighborhood on June 15, 2010 for
voicing an unwelcome comment about the incident. The comment resulted in an
alleged kick in the groin by officer A. Torres, and landed Howard in the
Advocate Masonic Emergency Room with two chipped teeth, lacerations about the
head, 13 stitches, and a dislocated hip.
Chicago police allegedly brutalized
a driver who allegedly disobeyed a turn signal on January 21, 2012. That the
driver, Lenere Smith, had his left arm in a sling from rotator cuff surgery 10
days earlier won him no forbearance.
The officer,
Daniel Smith, with gun drawn, allegedly wrenched Smith's injured arm from the
sling, threw him to the ground, and tried to handcuff the alleged turn signal
violator on the behind his back despite screams of pain and pleas. No matter.
Failing to force both arms into cuffs behind the victim's back, the officer
finally relented and cuffed him in front of his body. A second officer stood
by.
You can't make up
this stuff.
Do you know these
five recent lawsuits, which were ignored by the Chicago media, share with the
2003 anti-Iraq War protest wrongful arrest lawsuit?
For those who were
actually charged, the charges were dropped. Once Cook County judges got a whiff
of the "evidence" in court, they dismissed the charges.
But the problems
for Chicago taxpayers are yet to come. These five fresh federal lawsuits
against Chicago Police officers will likely lead to a batch of Chicago
taxpayer-funded bailouts of boorish and brutish Chicago police behavior.
Superintendent McCarthy,
good job on the NATO summit.
Now get to work
managing your cops when the TV cameras are absent.