Will Chicago Become the Next Baltimore?

The city of Baltimore was going up in smoke last week due to the untimely death of Freddie Gray. Hundreds of people are taking to the streets like never before to speak up against the use of excessive force. We wish the good people of Baltimore the best of health and prosperity. However, there is an underlined message behind all of the police involved killings that nobody is willing to expose. George Kelling's Broken Window Theory and the David Kennedy Approach are two of the main reasons why police implement specific strategies in the African American community.

For example, Freddie Gray lived in a designated high crime area which gives the police the authority to arrest people for looking suspicious. The Broken Window Theory dictates that you should lock people up for jay walking or spitting on the streets. This could deter some people from committing higher level crimes. Professor David Kennedy's Approach has been implemented in Chicago without any true success to date. As a matter of fact, homicides are up in Chicago by twenty three percent. Chicago Police Officer Dante Servin was acquitted for the shooting death of Rekia Boyd an unarmed African American female and the police also refuse to release the shooting death video of Laquan McDonald.

This is only the beginning in Chicago because Superintendent McCarthy has authorized more than 250,000 illegal stop and frisk searches in the African American community.

Superintendent McCarthy backed up off duty police officer Dante Servin by saying that he hit the right target. This could be taken as a cold-hearted statement or just ignorance by a high level police official. That's why Chicago could become the next Baltimore. If Chicago city leaders due not pay attention to the warning signs coming out of Baltimore and Ferguson then we could be headed in the wrong direction soon. Thousands of community residents have been holding back their true sentiments regarding police misconduct and the issue continues to build momentum everyday. This article is not intended to promote or hype people up to break the law, but the time has come to make sweeping changes in police policies nationwide. Hopefully, this message will not fall on deaf ears. How many more lives have to be taken before real changes occur? People of color have been victims of police brutality for many decades and there appears to be no end in sight. Is police brutality a learned behavior or just plain disregard for the law? Do Black Lives Really Matter?

If the current police officials cannot get a handle on the problem with police policies in the African American community, then we must push to hire new leaders that understand how to work in the African American community. This will be the only way to help establish trust and transparency with the police and communities of color.

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