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Chicago sues Trump administration over sanctuary city plan

FILE PHOTO - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel listens to remarks at a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. on December 7, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo

By Julia Jacobs

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chicago on Monday sued to prevent the Trump administration from enforcing new policies that would withhold money from so-called sanctuary cities that deny U.S. immigration officials access to local jails.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, said the federal policies force the nation’s third largest city to choose between its constitutional rights and funding for law enforcement.

“These new conditions also fly in the face of longstanding City policy that promotes cooperation between local law enforcement and immigrant communities,” the lawsuit said.

The policies also include a requirement that local law enforcement agencies give federal authorities 48 hours notice before releasing anyone wanted for immigration violations.

Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel said on Sunday that the city would sue, escalating a pushback against an immigration crackdown launched by Republican President Donald Trump’s administration.

“We are bringing this legal challenge because the rhetoric, the threats from this administration embodied in these new conditions imposed on unrelated public safety grants funds are breeding a culture and climate of fear,” Emanuel’s senior legal adviser, Corporation Counsel Ed Siskel, said on Monday.The conditions from the Justice Department apply to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants, which provide money to hundreds of cities. Chicago is expected to receive $3.2 million this year for purchasing equipment.

Siskel said the city will follow the initial complaint with a motion for a preliminary injunction to halt the government’s imposition of the new conditions.

The city will request a decision from the judge before the Sept. 5 deadline to apply for the Byrne grant, Siskel said.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Monday that Chicago officials have shown an “open hostility” to enforcing laws designed to reduce crime and protect law enforcement.

He added that more Chicagoans were murdered last year than residents of Los Angeles and New York combined, and that Chicago needed to reverse a “culture of lawlessness.”

“This administration will not simply give away grant dollars to city governments that proudly violate the rule of law and protect criminal aliens at the expense of public safety,” Sessions said in a statement.

The lawsuit is the first to challenge the Justice Department over the Byrne program but is not the first legal attack on the administration’s sanctuary city policies.

Emanuel said on Sunday that the lawsuit would prevent the administration from setting a precedent that could be used to target other funding.

Sanctuary cities in general offer illegal immigrants safe harbor by declining to use municipal resources to enforce federal immigration laws. Dozens of local governments and cities, including New York and San Francisco, are part of the sanctuary movement. “Sanctuary city” is not an official designation.

The lawsuit came nearly two weeks after Sessions said the Justice Department would bar cities from the Byrne program unless they allowed immigration authorities unlimited access to local jails and give the 48 hours pre-release notice.

Chicago and its high murder rate have been frequently criticized by Trump, and cracking down on illegal immigration was a theme of his 2016 presidential campaign.

(Reporting by Mark Weinraub and Julia Jacobs; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

As shootings soar, Chicago police use technology to predict crime

A Chicago police officer attends a news conference announcing the department's plan to hire nearly 1,000 new police officers in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. on September 21, 2016.

By Timothy Mclaughlin

CHICAGO (Reuters) – In a control room at a police headquarters on Chicago’s South Side, officers scan digital maps on big screens to see where a computer algorithm predicts crime will happen next.

Thrust into a national debate over violent crime and the use of force by officers, police in the third-largest U.S. city are using technology to try to rein in a surging murder rate.

And while commanders recognize the new tools can only ever be part of the solution, the number of shootings in the 7th District from January through July fell 39 percent compared with the same period last year. The number of murders dropped by 33 percent to 34. Citywide, the number of murders is up 3 percent at 402.

Three other districts where the technology is fully operational have also seen between 15 percent and 29 percent fewer shootings, and 9 percent to 18 percent fewer homicides, according to the department’s data.

“The community is starting to see real change in regards to violence,” said Kenneth Johnson, the 7th District commander.

Cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Denver, Tacoma, Washington, and Lincoln, Nebraska have tested the same or similar technologies.

The techniques being used in Chicago’s 7th District’s control room, one of six such centers opened since January as part of a roughly $6 million experiment, are aimed at complimenting traditional police work and are part of a broader effort to overhaul the force of some 12,500 officers.”We are not saying we can predict where the next shooting is going to occur,” said Jonathan Lewin, chief of the Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Technical Services. “These are just tools. They are not going to replace (officers).”

The department’s efforts come after a Justice Department investigation published in January found officers engaged in racial discrimination and routinely violated residents’ civil rights.

That probe followed street protests triggered by the late 2015 release of a video showing a white police officer fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald a year earlier.

Some critics of the department fear the technology could prove a distraction from confronting what they say are the underlying issues driving violence in the city of 2.7 million.

“Real answers are hard,” said Andrew Ferguson, a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia who has written a book on police technology. “They involve better education, better economic opportunity, dealing with poverty and mental illness.”

‘KILLING FIELDS’

Chicago’s recent rash of shootings – 101 people were shot over the Independence Day weekend alone – prompted President Donald Trump to bemoan the response of city leaders to the bloodshed, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to describe some of its areas as “killing fields.”

One of the technologies being used in the 7th District is HunchLab, a predictive policing program made by Philadelphia-based company Azavea. It combines crime data with factors including the location of local businesses, the weather and socioeconomic information to forecast where crime might occur. The results help officers decide how to deploy resources.

Another is the Strategic Subject’s List, a database of individuals likely to be involved in shootings that was developed by the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Police are tight-lipped about how it is compiled, saying only that the algorithm looks at eight factors including gang affiliation and prior drug arrests to assign people a number between 0 and 500. A higher number reflects higher risk.

They are also using the gunfire detection system made by ShotSpotter Inc which uses sensors to locate the source of gunshots. Police officials declined, however, to say how many such devices were installed in the 7th District.

“We can’t give away the kitchen sink and tell them all of our secrets,” district commander Johnson said.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin; Editing by Ben Klayman and Lisa Shumaker)

College professor, second man sought in fatal Chicago stabbing

By Ian Simpson

(Reuters) – A nationwide manhunt was under way for a Northwestern University professor and an employee of Britain’s Oxford University who are accused in a fatal stabbing in Chicago last week, police said on Thursday.

Wyndham Lathem, 42, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Northwestern, and Andrew Warren, 56, who works at Oxford, are both at large, but Chicago police said the authorities have some idea where they might be.

“We strongly encourage Professor Lathem and Mr. Warren to do the right thing and turn themselves into any police department,” the statement said.

Officers who responded to a call last Thursday found a 30-year-old man in central Chicago with several cuts to his body, police said. The man was pronounced dead at the scene and has not been officially identified.

The police have not given a motive for the slaying or what relationship the man may have had with Lathem and Warren.

Police have restricted Lathem’s passport and Warren’s visa, and arrest warrants were out for them. Federal officials are aiding in the case and a national alert has been sent to law enforcement agencies, it said.

Northwestern said that Lathem, a faculty member since 2007, had been placed on administrative leave and banned from the Chicago-area school.

“There is no indication of any risk to the Northwestern community from this individual at this time,” it said in a statement.

Warren is a senior treasury assistant at Somerville College, part of the Oxford University network, the college said in a statement.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson)

Chicago sugary drink tax to take effect next week after ruling

By Julia Jacobs

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A sweetened beverage tax will take effect in Chicago on Wednesday after an Illinois judge threw out a lawsuit by retailers that argued the measure was vague and unlawful.

Cook County, which includes Chicago and surrounding suburbs, joins a growing number of localities across the United States that have adopted measures to cut consumption of sugary drinks for health reasons, including Seattle and San Francisco.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Kubasiak decided in the county’s favor on Friday, about a month after he had halted implementation of the penny-per-ounce tax in response to the lawsuit by the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

“We believed all along that our ordinance was carefully drafted and met pertinent constitutional tests,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said in a statement released after the ruling.

The retailers had argued the tax was unlawful because it exempted custom-made sweetened beverages, such as coffee drinks made in a cafe, and only taxed pre-made beverages, such as sodas, sports drinks and flavored water.

In his order on Friday, Kubasiak agreed with the county that there was a significant distinction between taxing the two types of sugary beverages.

County attorneys had also argued that taxing custom-made beverages would put an excessive administrative burden on the county, and that taxing widely available pre-made beverages would be more effective in improving public health.

Preckwinkle said in the statement that the county, which passed the tax in November, lost at least $17 million in revenue in the weeks in which the measure was delayed.

Kubasiak said in his order that he was aware of the county’s “budgetary turmoil” as a result of the revenue loss but that it did not factor in to his decision making. “The Court is not party to the County’s budget matters and is not moved by its public airing of those matters,” he said.

In response to the plaintiffs’ claims that the technology needed to collect the tax would not be ready for quick implementation, Preckwinkle said the retailers should have been prepared to collect the tax a month ago.

David Ruskin, an attorney for the retailers’ association, said the plaintiffs are considering an appeal.

“We are disappointed with today’s ruling,” Rob Karr, president of IRMA, told reporters. “I can only imagine the outrage felt by consumers.”

(Editing by Patrick Enright and Matthew Lewis)

Chicago policemen plead not guilty to cover-up in shooting of black teen

By Chris Kenning and Suzannah Gonzales

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Three current and former Chicago police officers pleaded not guilty on Monday to felony charges of conspiring to cover up the fatal shooting of an African-American teenager by a white officer, a killing that sparked days of protests.

Detective David March and Officers Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney were each charged last month with conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice.

The men entered their pleas at their arraignment in a packed Chicago courtroom before Circuit Judge Diane Gordon Cannon. The next hearing is Aug. 29.

The indictments arose from the 2014 incident in which Laquan McDonald, 17, was shot 16 times by Officer Jason Van Dyke. Video footage of the incident showed he was shot as he walked away from police while holding a pocket knife.

March, Walsh and Gaffney, who were on the scene the night of the shooting, are alleged to have conspired to conceal the facts of McDonald’s killing to protect their fellow officer from criminal investigation and prosecution, according to prosecutors.

A police dash-cam video of the shooting, released more than a year after the incident, led to days of protests and thrust Chicago into a national debate over the use of excessive force by police against minorities. The indictment said the officers created false reports on the killing of McDonald.

Walsh and March are no longer with the force. Gaffney was suspended without pay, Chicago police representatives said. All three men are white.

Tom Breen, Walsh’s lawyer, told reporters that his client would be acquitted. The judge set bond at $50,000 and released the men on the their own recognizance.

Van Dyke, accused of murder in the McDonald shooting, pleaded not guilty in 2015. In March, he pleaded not guilty to 16 new counts of aggravated battery. No trial date has been set.

The cases come after Chicago police in May finalized stricter limits on when officers can use firearms and other force, the latest attempt to reform a department roiled by misconduct and criticism in the wake of McDonald’s death.

Last month, members of Black Lives Matter and other groups sued the city to force federal court oversight of those reforms.

“Until people, particularly police officers that do wrong, are held accountable and arrested and put in jail, until that happens there will be no trust among the community and law enforcement,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, an activist who was at the hearing.

(Editing by Frank McGurty and Matthew Lewis)

More than 100 shot in Chicago during long Fourth of July weekend

FILE PHOTO: Some of the guns seized over the last week are seen on display at the Chicago Police Department in Chicago, Illinois, United States, August 31, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo

By Chris Kenning

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A total of 101 people were shot in Chicago over an unusually violent Fourth of July weekend, leaving at least 14 dead, according to police and local media, as the city continues to grapple with gun crime.

Police officials counted 71 shooting incidents and 14 murders between 6 p.m. CDT on Friday and early Wednesday, according to data provided by police spokesman Frank Giancamilli on Wednesday.

The Chicago Tribune newspaper tallied the total number of victims shot in those incidents at 101 between Friday afternoon and early Wednesday. Police could not immediately provide the number of victims shot.

Gangs were a major source of the violence, Chicago Police First Deputy Superintendent Kevin Navarro said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Chicago police deployed 1,300 additional officers to patrol during the Fourth of July weekend, and had arrested 58 people on drug and gun charges ahead of the holiday in hopes of tamping down violence.

The number of shootings, which police said surged during a six-hour period on Monday night, was higher than in 2013, the last time the Fourth of July weekend spanned four days, when 74 people were shot, according to the Tribune.

The weekend brought the total number of people shot in Chicago this year above 1,800, below the 2,035 recorded at this time last year when violence spiked sharply, the Tribune reported.

The violence came less than a week after President Donald Trump tweeted that gun crime in Chicago had reached “epidemic proportions” and that he would be “sending in Federal help.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions later clarified that federal assistance for the city of 2.7 million will come in the form of the Chicago Crime Gun Strike Force, a collaboration between the police and the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Chicago’s ongoing struggles with violence come amid an effort to reform its police department after a federal investigation found officers routinely violated citizens’ civil rights and used excessive force and racially discriminatory conduct.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, an activist who heads a large African-American Catholic church in Chicago, said in an interview on Wednesday that more needs to be done to address underlying causes of violence such as unemployment, foreclosures, poverty and neighborhood blight.

“And people ask why I am flying the American flag upside down,” he wrote on Facebook. “We are safer in Iraq.”

(Reporting by Chris Kenning; Editing by Patrick Enright and Lisa Shumaker)

Trump says he is sending federal help to fight Chicago crime

FILE PHOTO - Chicago police officer investigate a crime scene of a gunshot victim in Chicago, Illinois, United States, July 5, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Young

By Timothy Mclaughlin and Doina Chiacu

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Friday he was sending federal help to fight crime in Chicago that has reached “epidemic” proportions.

The government is sending federal agents to Chicago and plans to prosecute firearms cases aggressively, Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Fox News when asked about Trump’s statement about the plan in an early-morning Twitter post.

“Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The president has regularly singled out Chicago’s violent crime problem and in January decried the high crime rate in the third-most populous U.S. city as “carnage.”

In 2016, the number of murders in Chicago exceeded 760, a jump of nearly 60 percent, and was more than New York and Los Angeles combined. There were more than 4,300 shooting victims in the city last year, according to police.

The number of murders, shootings and shooting victims have all decreased slightly this year in the city of 2.7 million. There have been 320 murders, down from 322 over the same period last year. There have been 1,703 shooting victims, down from 1,935, according to police figures.

Sessions said the anti-crime policies in Chicago have not worked and police “have been demoralized in many ways.”

The federal assistance will come in the form of the Chicago Crime Gun Strike Force, a collaboration between the police and the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

The group, including police officers, federal agents and intelligence analysts, will work to impede the flow of illegal guns throughout Chicago and target repeat gun offenders.

“The Trump Administration will not let the bloodshed go on; we cannot accept these levels of violence,” Sessions said in a statement on Friday afternoon. The group became operational on June 1, Sessions said.

It will “significantly help our police officers stem the flow of illegal guns and create a culture of accountability” for the gangs that drive violence in the city, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a statement.

On Monday, the Chicago police announced that the ATF’s mobile ballistics lab had arrived in the city to help process shooting scenes.

“Six months ago we made it clear that we would welcome additional federal support, and six months later we appreciate the 20 new ATF agents that are now arriving,” Adam Collins, a spokesman for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said.

“But the progress CPD (Chicago Police Department) has made this year has happened without any of the new resources from the federal government we requested.”

Chicago is also in the midst of reforming its police department after a federal investigation found officers routinely violated the civil rights of people, citing excessive force and racially discriminatory conduct.

Joseph Ferguson, the city’s inspector general, called on Chicago officials to agree to a consent decree to oversee changes to the department at a committee meeting on Tuesday – splitting with the mayor, who has said a court-enforced settlement is not necessary for reform.

In response to questions about Ferguson’s comments, Emanuel told reporters on Wednesday that the Justice Department has “walked away” from doing consent decrees, and so the city has sought a different strategy.

“There are multiple roads that allow you to make sure you make the changes and reform,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Julia Jacobs in Chicago; Editing by JS Benkoe and Matthew Lewis)

Black Lives Matter sues for court oversight of Chicago police reforms

FILE PHOTO: Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson arrives at a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on September 21, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo

By Chris Kenning

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Members of Black Lives Matter and other groups sued the city of Chicago on Wednesday, seeking to force federal court oversight of reforms to the police department, which has been accused of using excessive force against minorities.

The lawsuit, filed by civil rights attorneys in the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois, came after Mayor Rahm Emanuel backed off a pledge to let a federal judge oversee reforms.

The lawsuit asks the court to ensure reforms will halt what it described as the ongoing use of excessive force, physical harassment and targeting of minority youth and a reliance on overly aggressive tactics by Chicago police.

“Chicago has proven time and time again that it is incapable of ending its own regime of terror, brutality and discriminatory policing,” the lawsuit said. “Absent federal court supervision, nothing will improve.”

In January, a federal investigation found Chicago police routinely violated the civil rights of people, citing excessive force and racially discriminatory conduct.

That followed protests sparked by the fall 2015 release of video showing a white police officer fatally shooting black teen Laquan McDonald a year earlier.

After the probe’s findings were released, Emanuel committed to a consent decree, a court-ordered reform agreement.

Earlier this month, he said Chicago was discussing an agreement with the Justice Department that would include an independent monitor instead of court oversight.

In an interview with Reuters, Emanuel said a consent decree with the Justice Department is not an option because Attorney General Jeff Sessions does not favor them to impose reform.

Chicago has pushed ahead with reforms including enacting new rules on use of force, provided two-thirds of the Chicago police force with body cameras and is hiring 1,000 new officers, Emanuel said.

Emanuel indicated he still has questions about the role of any outside monitor. “If you have an outside monitor, what are their authorities and their abilities?” he asked.

Edward Siskel, the city’s top lawyer, said on Wednesday that the larger need for reform was npt in question.

But the shift away from using court oversight drew criticism from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and activist groups. A plaintiffs’ attorney in Wednesday’s lawsuit said the city could enter a court-decree with the plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs include six individuals along with groups including Black Lives Matter Chicago and Blocks Together.

Kevin Graham, president of Chicago’s police union, in a statement objected to the lawsuit’s characterization of the department and said his offers are doing a phenomenal job in extremely dangerous circumstances.

(Additional reporting by David Greising; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Lisa Shumaker)

Chicago school system plans to borrow up to $389 million

FILE PHOTO: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks during the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade Investment Luncheon Program in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on December 17, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Nelles/File Photo

By Dave McKinney

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chicago’s cash-strapped public school system plans to seek up to $389 million in short-term loans to avoid closing schools early for the summer and to make required pension payments next month, the mayor’s office said on Friday.

The fix will be secured through short-term financing against $467 million in delayed block grant funding by Illinois’ fiscally paralyzed state government, which has not passed a full-year operating budget in 23 months.

Escalating pension payments have led to drained reserves, debt dependency and junk bond ratings for Chicago Public Schools.

The planned borrowing follows Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto in December of legislation that would have funneled $215 million in state funds to the nation’s third-largest school system to help it make a required $721 million pension payment next month.

A school-funding overhaul that would direct more money to Chicago’s schools passed the Illinois Senate this week but drew immediate criticism from Rauner’s education chief, casting serious doubts on the measure’s long-term prospects.

Absent any movement in the state legislature on school funding, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel described the borrowing plans as a short-term bridge.

“While we work with state lawmakers on long-term solutions to Illinois’ education funding challenges, in the short-term, (we) are doing what is necessary to keep our students in the classroom and on the path to a brighter future,” Emanuel said in a statement.

Terms of the borrowing were not immediately known. The Emanuel-appointed Chicago school board expects to vote on the new borrowing authority at its May 24 meeting.

The grant money upon which the borrowing will be secured is part of $1.1 billion in state payments Illinois owes to more than 400 school systems. The state has been unable to distribute those grant payments because of the unrelenting budget stalemate.

The mayor’s office said CPS expects to receive its allotment of state grant funds in “coming months.” But Abdon Pallasch, a spokesman for Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, said on Friday his office has no idea when the money will be disbursed.

Rauner’s office did not have an immediate reaction to CPS’s new borrowing.

(Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)

Chicago police finalize tighter ‘use of force’ rules

By Chris Kenning

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chicago Police on Wednesday finalized stricter limits on when officers can use firearms and other force, the latest attempt to reform a department roiled by misconduct and criticism in the wake of a high-profile 2014 shooting of a black teen by a white officer.

Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the use-of-force policy changes spell out more clearly when it is considered reasonable and necessary, and include new prohibitions on force that is discriminatory or employed as punishment.

Changes also bar officers from shooting at a fleeing suspect unless the person presents an imminent threat, and require officers to use de-escalation techniques. The definition of deadly force was expanded to include chokeholds and striking a subject’s head with an impact weapon.

Experts said the changes, the first to Chicago’s policies since 2002, marks a shift in thinking about force already adopted in cities such as Seattle and Baltimore.

“This policy at the end of the day will save lives and the careers of officers,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Police Executive Research Forum.

Finalized after months of discussion and revisions, the new rules – which also affect use of Tasers, chemical spray and canines – will start in autumn, after officer training. Johnson said they are meant to address police safety and civil rights concerns.

“I know there will be some who think these policies are too restrictive for officers to do their jobs, and some will think it will not be restrictive enough,” he told a news conference.

Some advocates for reform called it a victory and said it could help rebuild public trust. But Kevin Graham, president of Chicago’s police union, disputed in a statement that excessive force was a widespread problem or that policies needed updating.

The tightened rules come as Mayor Rahm Emanuel attempts to reform the police department.

The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into Chicago Police Department practices in the wake of the 2014 incident in which black teenager Laquan McDonald was shot to death by a white officer. A video of the shooting, released in 2015, sparked days of protests.

It was one of many high-profile incidents that thrust Chicago and other U.S. cities into a national debate over the use of excessive force by police against minorities.

In January, the federal investigation found that Chicago police routinely violated the civil rights of people and cited excessive force, including cases of officers shooting at fleeing suspects and using Tasers on children. It also found racially discriminatory conduct and a “code of silence” to thwart investigations into police misconduct.

Police said the new rules apply a more restrictive justification for deadly force than required by state law.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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