The Chicago Police Department has a deep-rooted history of systematic racism, a report released Wednesday by the city’s Police Accountability Task Force found. According to the report, the police department has “no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color.”
Four overarching findings the report details as how the city got to this point are racism, the CPD believing “the ends justify the means” for their actions, failing to make accountability a core value and a significant underinvestment in human capital.
Chicago’s population is 31.7 percent white, 32.9 percent Black, 28.9 percent Latino and 5.5 percent Asian. However, the report found that the city’s police officers shoot Black residents at significantly disproportionate rates. Between 2008 and 2015, of all people injured or killed in police-related shootings, 74 percent were Black, 14 percent were Hispanic, 8 percent were white and less than 1 percent were Asian. The report found almost identical numbers when it came to statistics regarding the use of Tasers.
