Obama era consent decree led to increased gun crime in Chicago

Washington Times:
The Trump administration will try to scuttle the deal Chicago reached to set new limits on the city’s police powers, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday, adding that the consent decree reached under the Obama administration would leave residents more vulnerable to crime.

The Justice Department will file a statement of interest this week asking a judge to reject the consent decree, marking another escalation of the battle between President Trump and Chicago, hometown of former President Barack Obama and a hotbed of anti-Trump resistance.

The new agreement, which Chicago reached with the Illinois attorney general’s office, would limit how and when officers could use force, require more training, supervision and transparency, and create an independent monitor to judge whether city police are living up to the deal.

Mr. Sessions said the city was ill-served by a consent agreement reached in 2015 by Chicago and the American Civil Liberties Union. Under that deal, the city agreed to end street-level enforcement tactics such as stop-and-frisk. The attorney general said that led to a surge in gun-fueled homicides.

“It is imperative that the city not repeat the mistakes of the past — the safety of Chicago depends on it,” Mr. Sessions said. “Accordingly, at the end of this week, the Justice Department will file a statement of interest opposing the proposed consent decree. It is critical that Chicago get this right.”

A spokesman for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the consent decree has public safety benefits and included input from the public and police officers.
...
Martin Prieb, a spokesman for the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, said the Obama administration investigation and subsequent lawsuit were more about politics than public safety.

“The DOJ under Obama was unfair and politicized against our police department,” Mr. Prieb said. “We feel the conclusions of the investigation were not legitimate because it was a ludicrous investigation that began with the conclusions already drawn to push more control over the police department.”

He welcomed Mr. Sessions’ efforts to thwart the consent decree.
...
To stop the kind of crime that plagues Chicago requires a strong police presence on the streets.  They should dramatically increase the force to space ration in neighborhoods where the worst of the shootings are happening and stop and frisk could be an important element in deterring the current murder spree.   The city officials who imposed the current consent decreed defended it as reducing crime, but the facts are they still have an attrocious murder rate.

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