WASHINGTON, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – A year-long federal
investigation into the Chicago police force has identified a
pattern of abuse and excessive force, especially in predominantly
black and Hispanic neighborhoods, Attorney General Loretta
Lynch said Friday.
“The Department of Justice has concluded that there is
reasonable cause to believe that the Chicago police department
engages in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force in
violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution,” Lynch
told a news conference in the city.
The use of unreasonable force “falls heaviest on
predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods,” the Justice
Department said in a statement accompanying the release of
a 164-page report.
The report, coming as one of the last official acts
of President Barack Obama’s Justice Department, largely confirmed
the complaints many blacks and Latinos have made for years in
Chicago — that they are disproportionately the targets of
police abuse.
Chicago, the third-largest US city, has faced a
surging problem with violence in recent years.
Some 750 homicides took place there last year alone,
a 10-year high, and more than 3,500 shootings. In its
investigation, the department examined more than 170
officer-involved shootings in recent years.
The probe was opened in December 2015, prompted by the
highly publicized shooting death of a black adolescent, Laquan
McDonald, by a white police officer as McDonald was walking in
the middle of a street.