Friends,

Bond v. Utreras, the federal civil rights case
described in "Kicking the Pigeon," has been settled. The parties came to an agreement last
December; and the terms of the settlement were
approved by the Chicago City Council on March 12. On March 20, the parties executed the final
documents.

Resolution of the Bond case also brings to an end the City's effort to compel me to surrender my notes regarding twenty-four named individuals
"and/or any allegations of misconduct by any police officer" at the Stateway Gardens public housing development. Prior to the agreement to
settle, the City had appealed Magistrate Judge Keys' ruling in my favor to Judge Lefkow. With the settlement, that issue is now moot.

Another issue, though, remains alive. On March 15, I filed a motion to intervene in the Bond case to challenge the protective order under which
certain documents produced by the City in the course of the litigation are withheld from the public. These include a list of Chicago police
officers who have been repeatedly charged with official misconduct, documents that reveal how the CPD addresses or fails to address misconduct charges, and the complaint files of the individual officer defendants.

The argument for making public these documents rests on first principles. The motion to intervene states:

"Police officers are public officials. In the lives of many, they are the most important public officials. (This is especially true in
communities such as Stateway Gardens where the police are the primary representatives of civic authority.) We entrust them with great powers--the power to arrest and detain, to use force and, under certain circumstances, to
kill--and we allow them considerable discretion in the performance of their duties. In our democracy it is axiomatic that public officials in whom we vest substantial power must be subject to public scrutiny. This core principle applies every bit as much to the police officer on the street as it does to the high government official."

The City has until April 3 [CIMC correction: the date is changed to April 13] to respond to the motion. I will have until April 10 [CIMC correction: the date is changed to April 20] to reply. Judge Lefkow will then rule.

Among the exhibits attached to the motion is an
exchange between Deputy Superintendent Debra Kirby, the head of the Internal Affairs Division,
and myself. On January 1, I published an op-ed piece in the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES on Mayor Daley's Commission on Police Integrity. I argued that nearly a decade after the Mayor welcomed the 1997 report of this commission as "an excellent blueprint for change," its principal recommendations have still not been implemented. On January 9, Deputy Superintendent Kirby
responded in a letter to the SUN-TIMES. On the contrary, she argued, many of the commission's recommendations "have been fully implemented." I replied, in turn, on THE VIEW FROM THE GROUND. (The full exchange is available on THE VIEW.)

At issue in this exchange is a critically important question. Again, I quote from the motion to intervene:

"There is no longer any question that Commander Jon Burge and officers under him tortured African-American suspects to coerce confessions
during the period 1973 to 1991. These abuses have been established by the City, the federal judiciary, and most recently, the Report of the Special State's Attorney. . . Mayor Daley has described them as 'a shameful episode in our history'. . . The question now being intensely debated is whether the underlying systemic conditions that allowed Burge and his men
to operate with impunity for nearly two decades remain in place."

In light of the "shameful" history of police torture, subsequent scandals, and the recommendations of the 1997 commission, has
the City made the necessary reforms, as the Mayor and Superintendent have repeatedly claimed? Or do systemic conditions remain in place that allow officer with criminal tendencies to operate with impunity? The documents at issue would shed light on that issue.

Related links:

Motion to intervene:
viewfromtheground.com/wp-content/media/petition/petition-to-intervene.pdf

Exchange with Dept. Supt. Kirby:
www.viewfromtheground.com/archive/2007/03/exchange-with-kirby.html

Kicking the Pigeon:
www.viewfromtheground.com/wp-content/media/ktp/kicking_the_pigeon.pdf

Take care,

Jamie