Craig Futterman: "Black Folks Have Borne a Disproportionate Share of [Police] Abuse"

Justice Department's Split Decision a Diplomatic Response to Ferguson

Despite calling it “searing,” the Justice Department report on the Ferguson police was a diplomatic response to the tragic incidents that unfolded last summer in Ferguson, Missouri.

[...]

University of Chicago Professor Craig Futterman, founder of the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, said this policing issue doesn’t just relate to Ferguson.

“We don’t have to go outside of our own backyard . . . to see that black folks are being treated differently and less than by police than whites,” Futterman said.

“African-Americans are stopped, searched and arrested far more frequently than whites. Seventy-five percent of the people shot by police in Chicago over the last decade were black people,” he said.

“Just like Ferguson, there is a deep distrust between police and members of the black community, and that relates as much to the lack of transparency and accountability as it does to unequal treatment. It starts with acknowledging the reality that black folks have been and continue to be treated differently by police than whites.”

Read more at Chicago Sun-Times