Structural Problems

Although we think the author gave Larritorious too much credit, this is a decent takedown of the entire "consent decree" process by the Contrarian:

• In the bizarro world that is Chicago, the public debate over “use of force” has been turned completely upside down.

  In any rational society, the focus of government — and the concern of the public — would be on the people actually committing violence. The goal would be simple: Stop the criminals.

  But in Chicago, the obsession is different. Here, the scrutiny falls not on those who pull the trigger, swing the fist, or terrorize neighborhoods — but on the police officers trying to stop them.

  That’s not a coincidence. It’s the result of years of political pressure, ideological activism, and, most importantly, the federal consent decree that now governs how the Chicago Police Department operates.

The article correctly points out:

• The deeper problem is structural.

  The Chicago Police Department operates under a federal consent decree — a sweeping set of mandates that governs everything from training to reporting to officer conduct.

  On paper, it’s about reform.

  In practice, it has become an exercise in bureaucratic second-guessing.

  The monitoring team reports that CPD has achieved preliminary compliance with 97 percent of the decree’s requirements — but full compliance in only 26 percent.

  Translation: The rules keep expanding, the goalposts keep moving, and the scrutiny never ends.

  Meanwhile, officers are forced to make split-second decisions in dangerous situations, knowing that those decisions will later be dissected in slow motion by lawyers, monitors, and bureaucrats who weren’t there.

  That’s not how you encourage proactive policing.

  That’s how you discourage it.

Scarecrow policing. Disengagement. "Stay fetal." We've covered it here for years. We aren't hopeful that the message spreads in a timely manner, but every voice added helps the cause.

Go read it all.