Change creeps along. But consequences are swift.
That certainly will be the case when it comes to the reforms recommended by the Police Accountability Task Force. While city officials and aldermen ponder politics, lawyers are going to be moving full speed ahead.
The family of Pierre Loury, 16, filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday. The teen was fatally shot by police during a foot chase on April 11. Lawyers used the scathing task force report to make their case that police acted unjustly.
“The Chicago ‘police have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color,’ ” the lawsuit alleges, quoting language in the report.
The lawsuit, filed by Loury’s mother, Tambrasha Hudson, alleges a police officer, identified only as John Doe, shot the teenager “without cause or provocation” as Loury began to climb over the fence.
OPINION
After the fatal shooting, Deputy Police Supt. John J. Escalante gave a superficial account that was similar to the account a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police would give in these situations, saying Loury was a “documented” gang member and a gun was found at the scene.
A law enforcement source also told the Sun-Times the teen was “carrying a gun that fell from his waistband,” and that he “picked up the gun after he landed on the other side of the fence.”
Despite the fallout over the Laquan McDonald shooting, the identities of police officers involved in fatal shootings are still being shielded while the case is under investigation.
In this instance, the suit alleges the police officers “conspired to prepare false, misleading, and incomplete official reports” and gave “false, incomplete and misleading versions of the events to their superiors and to the public.”
“The narrative that police [give] in the situation isn’t necessarily the truth,” said Andrew M. Stroth, one of the lawyers representing the family.
A spokesman for the city’s law department said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.
The lawsuit cites statistics from the task force report showing that of the 404 police shootings between 2008 and 2015, 74 percent of the victims were African-American, 14 percent were Hispanic and 8 percent were white.
“We filed the lawsuit because of the unreasonable and lethal and deadly force that police continue to use against young black men in Chicago and across this country,” Stroth said.
“The unconstitutional policies and practices of the Chicago Police Department result in the unjustified deaths of people of color, including Pierre,” the lawsuit alleges.
Obviously, this filing is not unexpected.
Since 2004, Chicago has spent $642 million on police-related legal claims, according to a recent report by the “The Nation.”
As noted by the Police Accountability Task Force, this is a storm that will not soon pass.
Karen Winters, Loury’s aunt, said Wednesday the teen’s family is just trying to grieve and to bring about change.
“We know who he was and what he meant to us and we are overwhelmed and traumatized,” she said.
“But at the same time, we know this is not exclusive to us. We know it will happen again, if not in Chicago, in New York or Atlanta. But if this case can make some precedent and do something to change something, that is our goal right now as a family,” she said.
Everyone wants change.
But too few of us want to do anything different.
