CHICAGO – The Chicago Police Department has set up far more roadside sobriety checkpoints in minority communities in recent years than it has in predominantly white communities, a Chicago Tribune investigation has found.
Out of 152 roadside sobriety checks, 127 – or 84 percent – were in black or Hispanic police districts between February 2010 and June 2014, the most recent period with complete data, the newspaper reported. At the same time, fewer than 4 percent of the DUI checkpoints were in majority-white police districts, even though those areas accounted for 25 percent of the city’s alcohol-related crashes during at least part of that time period.
The newspaper said its review found some of the districts with the most checkpoints had relatively few alcohol-related accidents. The stepped-up enforcement in minority areas led some to wonder if officers are using DUI checkpoints as a pretext to stop people in certain neighborhoods and look for other criminal activity.
“They pull (drivers) over under the guise of DUI, but they’re running them for warrants, making sure their paperwork is in order,” defense attorney Donald Ramsell told the Tribune.
Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com
http://www.nwherald.com/...
This will be a very quick diary, just wanted to get the word out. The Chicago Tribune article (http://www.chicagotribune.com/...) is behind a paywall, but I encourage anyone with access to read it. The Tribune's study focused on several predominantly white and black neighborhoods across the city. For example, they found that white Jefferson Park had the most DUI incidents but no DUI checkpoints. While majority minority Austin had very few DUI incidents but a large number of DUI checkpoints.
Democratic Representative Danny Davis had this to say:
“While we need to be trying to detect the use of alcohol while driving, the results show something else ... patterns and practices of setups, stings, overreaction and discrimination,” he told the newspaper.
Rep. Davis is correct. If the DUI checkpoints were only about public safety, then they would target the areas of the city with the highest number of DUIs. But they are not. The police are once again abusing the "keep us safe" mentality, and targeting vulnerable minorities, feeling free to intimidate, assault and terrorize.
This has nothing to do with public safety. It has everything to do with the war on drugs, asset forfeiture, and the racism that runs rampant through our police forces. DUI checkpoints are another abusive police power that needs to be taken away.