This timely item from the Chicago Tribune...
The ACLU of Illinois filed a federal lawsuit recently alleging the city's police reform efforts have neglected deep-seated issues on how officers are trained to handle people with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities.
Sounding a familar tone already alleged in other pending litigation, the 53-page suit filed in U.S. District Court alleged the Chicago Police department has a decades-long record of mistreating minority citizens, with blacks and Hispanics disproportionately affected by shootings and other police violence.
The suit alleged the brutality was "magnified for people with disabilities ." Nationally, an estimated 33 percent to 50 percent of those killed by police have a disability, with approximately 25 percent of people killed having a mental illness, the suit alleged. The problem also extends to police use of non-lethal force, including wit Tasers, the ACLU contended.
The suit seeks a permanent injunction to block the city from continuing what it calls its current policies and practices "of using unlawful force against black and Latino people and individuals with disabilities." It also seeks to have all court costs covered by taxpayers.
Since last year, the department has been requiring officers to undergo mandatory training for de-escalation and crisis intervention, skills that would be useful for dealing with people with disabilities.
The wide-ranging revamp of training on mental health issues was announced in early 2016 after the fatal shootings of 19-year-old college student Quintonio LeGrier and neighbor Bettie Jones outside their home on Christmas 2015. Officer Robert Rialmo said he opened fire after LeGrier- whose father has said he was mentally disturbed- swung a baseball bat at him. Jones, 55, was fatally wounded by mistake as she stood behind the teen in the breezeway.
Two 911 dispatchers were suspended without pay after the incident for failing to send police to the residence when an obviously distraught LeGrier called for help, saying someone was threatening his life.
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by both LeGrier's father and relatives of Jones is pending in Cook County Circuit Court. In an unusual counter suit, Rialmo has also alleged he was not adequately trained by the Police Department to handle people suffering a mental health disturbance.
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