The discussion around police misconduct and abuse tends to zero in on the cost to human life and dignity. But as certain segments of the civilian population struggle, seemingly, to empathize with the message of movements like Black Lives Matter, maybe a new approach is needed to argue for fundamental police reform.

Even if you are not a minority or have never even had an interaction with the police, you’re probably a taxpayer — and while you might never endure the hit of an officer’s baton, you will certainly feel the hit of police abuse in your wallet.

Police misconduct comes at a hefty cost in the most literal sense of the word. The non-profit journalistic investigation group Better Government Association recently took a look at the financial toll Chicago Police Department officers’ misconduct takes on the city’s taxpayers.

Their findings? In just 2014 and 2015, the city government had to spend $106 million for costs related to police misconduct (legal fees and lawsuit settlements, among other things). Almost $642 million was spent in the decade between 2004 and 2015. Based on the Chicago Police Department’s approximately 12,000 officers, that amounts to nearly $53,000 an officer.

According to Chicago Tribune, 124 Chicago officers were named in one-third of misconduct-related settlements since 2009. Though they represent a relatively small group of officers who repeatedly engage in misconduct — in absolute numbers, it’s still a large group that has been allowed to keep their uniform despite clear patterns of behavior. That’s a problem. Can you think of any other job where you can repeatedly cost your employer thousands, even millions of dollars, without being fired?

Where does the money come to cover all this misconduct, anyway? It comes from taxpayers, of course, who prop up law enforcement and municipal government budgets. As the Wall Street Journal reports, police departments all across the country have been seeing increasingly more of their budgets headed toward misconduct-related expenses. In 2014, the 10 largest police departments in the country paid $248.7 million in such costs.

With local governments in the United States so often finding themselves in dire fiscal straights, it seems ludicrous to permit police departments to hemorrhage such large sums of money, year to year. Why do these organizations keep around these so-called “bad apple” cops? The likely answer can be found in the fraternal, “good ‘ol boys’ club” nature of law enforcement; a highly costly and dysfunctional way to operate a group of gun-wielding public servants.

As cellphone-recorded footage of police abuse becomes commonplace alongside the adoption of officers’ dashboard and body-worn cameras, it seems practically inevitable that most police departments of any size will see misconduct allegations continue to rise.

That’s where the Department of Justice comes in. This week they have announced intentions to begin a collaborative review of the San Francisco Police Department following controversy around the death of Mario Woods. This follows on the heels of two “pattern of practice” probes being done of Chicago and Baltimore’s police forces.

It’s a good start, but only a start nonetheless. If Attorney General Loretta Lynch plans to set herself apart from her predecessor, then she needs have the Justice Department investigate dozens, if not hundreds, of police departments around the country. More importantly, however, Lynch must do so with a heavy hand and the understanding that in some cases drastic personnel restructuring may be necessary.

Audio calls released Monday revealed that just minutes before Chicago police fatally shot neighbors Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones, LeGrier called 911 three times, requesting help from police.

“Can you please send the police?” LeGrier asked.

“To where?” the dispatcher asked.

“4710 W. Erie,” LeGrier replied.

“What’s wrong?” the dispatcher requested.

“I have an emergency,” LeGrier said.

That was LeGrier asking police to come to his home on the day after Christmas. The dispatcher hung up on LeGrier during one of the calls when he said his life was being threatened.

It wasn’t until Quintonio’s father, Antonio LeGrier, requested police that dispatch sent an officer.
“He’s got a baseball bat in his hand,” Antonio LeGrier said.

“How old is he?” the dispatcher asked.

“19,” LeGrier said.

“Has he been drinking?” the dispatcher asked.

“Not to my knowledge,” LeGrier replied.

“What’s your name, sir?” the dispatcher asked.

“Antonio LeGrier,” LeGrier said.

“OK. Watch for the police,” the dispatcher replied.

When police arrived, Quintonio, a Northern Illinois University student, answered the door wielding a baseball bat and was shot by police along with Bettie Jones, who was the downstairs neighbor. Police have declared her death an accident.

Wrongful-death lawsuits have already been filed against the city, and the dispatcher is still employed but facing disciplinary action. Now, outraged residents are saying Chicago’s emergency response system is greater cause for concern.

About 200 protesters gathered outside the Chicago Patrolmen’s Federal Credit Union on Saturday, their breath visible in the cold air as they chanted, their fists pounding with each cry.

They were determined to shut down Saturday morning’s business for the credit union, across the street from the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, Chicago’s police union. For nearly two hours, Black Youth Project 100 Chicago Chapter members, dressed in black T-shirts with the words “Fund Black Futures” written across them, linked their arms together to form a barricade around the bank’s front desk, stopping workers from conducting business.

“The FOP’s advocacy of CPD has helped perpetuate cycles of criminalization that especially plagues low-income black communities,” BYP 100 member Jennifer Pagán said. “These politicians, that these organizations and institutions, like the FOP, would rather police us, kill us, lock us up, than meet demands of better housing, mental health clinics, fully funded neighborhood public schools and jobs programs with fair wages for all of us.”

Protesters succeeded in closing the credit union for regular business, but they had done so because they believed they were “shutting down a privately owned bank that the FOP is housed in,” Pagan said during the protest. The union, however, is housed in a building across the street.

The protesters said they had an additional mission: To reconfirm the values of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Monday’s federal holiday honoring him comes at a tumultuous time for Chicago’s race relations, as city officials deal with the aftermath of the Laquan McDonald police shooting scandal and work to change a long-standing policy of keeping video evidence in police shootings under wraps.

The march on the Near West Side was intended to bring awareness about King’s belief that political equality can’t be achieved without social and economic equality. Protesters called for black workers’ rights, open housing for blacks, the revitalization of black communities and viable jobs.

Protester Gabe Frankel, of the Ravenswood neighborhood, said marching the day after the anniversary of King’s birthday was meaningful, particularly after this week’s release of surveillance video from the January 2013 police shooting of 17-year-old Cedrick Chatman.

“It’s time to step back and reflect to see if we’re meeting the pillars of (King’s) goals,” he said. “I think we’re failing miserably.”

In addition to protesting police brutality, dozens of activists joined the march to advocate for workers’ rights, asking for people of all education and experience to have access to parental leave, paid sick leave, the right to unionize without retaliation and protections against discrimination based on race, gender, past drug offenses or incarceration.

Kejioun Johnson, a McDonald’s employee living in the Roseland neighborhood, said black communities won’t be stabilized until black workers begin receiving fair and equal treatment.

“Low income, low-wage jobs and race (at Chicago’s fast-food restaurants) are one and the same,” he said. “Organizations like McDonald’s suck our community dry. Today, we’re here to reclaim history and continue fighting for our communities.”

Upon being hired for a job, Joseph Wilkerson, who is black, said he’s on the receiving of “hands-end judgment” from co-workers, who set their expectations for him based on his race.

“Black people are more likely to look at a pay cut,” he said. “If there’s a budget problem, you’re the first to be cut off.”

Wilkerson said he hoped that those skeptical about protests could understand that peaceful demonstrations, such as Saturday’s, are one of the few effective ways to get a message across.

“This is the only way we organize. Otherwise, we’re separated,” he said. “This shouldn’t be thought of as a waste of time.”

Protesters blocked the entrance to the mayor’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast Friday morning as they encouraged people to boycott the gathering.

Surely this was not what the late Mayor Harold Washington envisioned when he hosted the first MLK breakfast in 1985. The event was a target for protest groups calling for the resignation of Chicago’s current Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Shouting “shame on you, shame on you,” demonstrators locked arms and taunted invited guests as they entered the hotel. At least one group of women needed a police escort.

About a dozen intruders pushed their way inside past security to board the escalator to the second floor lobby. Chaos followed as protesters trying to enter the breakfast alongside invited guests were threatened with arrest.

“How dare you say you’ve had enough. We’ve had enough!” one protester said.

“Mayor Emanuel caters to the elite class. He will only invite people who support what he does which is closing 54 schools, police misconduct, suppressing evidence, covering up murders,” said Rev. Gregory Livingston, Coalition for a New Chicago.

“I don’t have a problem with Rahm Emanuel. Rahm Emanuel made a mistake, he’s trying to work it out and we’re working with him to work it out,” said Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th Ward.

Inside the ballroom, undercover protesters interrupted the program twice, shouting “”Sixteen shots! Sixteen shots and a cover-up!”

The advertised guest speaker, author Isabela Wilkerson who boycotters asked not to speak, did not appear. The crowded ballroom included many seniors, some who say they were invited within the past 24 hours.

“I did mine yesterday. Got your invitation yesterday? Yeah,” said Richard Lackey, a breakfast guest.

“This was not about me. It’s about Dr. King, his life and his life’s work,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The mayor – whose speech was not interrupted – said the event rededicated the city to Dr. King’s vision for social and economic justice.

He would not answer ABC7’s question about the keynote speaker’s no-show and did not stick around for questions about the boycotters or various protest groups.

“All of these groups are utilizing King tools, they’re utilizing King methods, to get the message out that we want justice,” said Tavis Grant, a boycott organizer.

Despite the pushing and shoving outside as well as inside the hotel, there were no arrests reported.

Some of the protesters outside the MLK breakfast also protested outside the Chicago Board of Trade Friday morning.

These demonstrators, led by the Coalition for a New Chicago, are part of the same group that disrupted holiday traffic on Black Friday and Christmas Day. They call the protest “Black Wall Street” and chose to march on Friday because it’s Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday.

Less than a dozen people took part in the demonstration outside the Chicago Board of Trade, but their message was loud. They aimed to prevent employees from entering and prevent money from trade profits from flowing in the city.

“What we want to do is to bring the pain from the inner city to downtown. Many of the folk here at the Board of Trade – where billions of dollars are transacted every day – many of them are not aware that there are people in neighborhoods outside of downtown who don’t have schools, who don’t have hospitals, who don’t have clinics, who don’t have adequate infrastructure to live humane lives,” said Rev. Gregory Livingston, Coalition for a New Chicago.

In this June 8, 2010 file photo, former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge arrives at the federal building in Chicago. The city of Chicago has paid $5.5 million in reparations to dozens of people whose claims that they were tortured by a police unit commanded by Burge decades ago were found to be credible.

The city of Chicago has paid out $5.5 million in compensation to dozens of people who claimed to have been victims of police brutality decades ago.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that all but “five or six” of the 57 people whose claims of being abused were deemed credible received $100,000. The others had received previous settlements and saw those amounts deducted from their share.

The checks have been mailed 44 years after the “first known instance” of torture by a police unit led by former commander Jon Burge and known as the “midnight crew.”

More than 100 men, most of them African-American, have accused Burge and officers under his command of shocking, suffocating and beating them into giving false confessions, some of which landed them on death row. Burge has never been criminally charged with torture, but he served a 4 ½-year sentence for lying about the torture in a civil case and was released from a halfway house last year.

“Reparations is not a necessity,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told the Sun-Times. “But it is a moral compunction and a moral reckoning to right a wrong. There is no statute of limitations on that

The Sun-Times reports that the latest award to victims is a fraction of the estimated $100 million that has beenpaid in court-ordered judgments, settlements of lawsuits and legal fees — most of it spent by the financially strapped city of Chicago and some by Cook County — over the years related to the torture scandal. The $100,000 payment most victims received Monday is a fraction of some previous settlements.

The payments mark the latest black eye for the police department in the nation’s third-largest city, which has come under withering criticism since the release in November of a video showing white police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting black 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times in 2014.

A months-long claims process for the payments included vetting by an arbitrator and by a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Kent School of Law.

The reparations were part of an ordinance the City Council passed last year that also mandated a formal apology, the construction of a memorial to the victims and the addition of the police torture to the city’s school history curriculum. It also provides psychological counseling and free tuition at some community colleges. Some of the benefits are available to victims’ children and grandchildren.

One torture victim, Darrell Cannon, said Monday that the payments were only the first step toward healing the city.

“We still have a long way to go,” he said.

Cannon was freed after 24 years in prison when a review board determined that evidence against him was tainted. The Sun-Times reported that Cannon has claimed that Burge’s officers played a game of Russian Roulette with him and shocked his genitals with a cattle prod.

Two days after Bettie Jones was shot dead by Chicago police, it remains unclear why the 55-year-old grandmother of five walked to the front door of her West Side home, the spot where she became what authorities called an “accidental” casualty of a “domestic disturbance.”

But her daughter has a theory about the one-time crossing guard. She was “just being a good citizen,” Latarsha Jones told NBC News. “Trying to help out.”

Bettie Jones, along with 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier, her upstairs neighbor, who was also killed by police on Saturday morning, have become the latest symbols in a city roiled by anger over alleged police abuse.

Latarsha Jones and two of her sisters told NBC News on Monday that the events were “shocking” and “terrifying.”

Latisha Jones said her mother was probably just opening the front door for the police Saturday morning.

“She was probably thinking, ‘I’m going to open the door, let them in,” she said. “‘They’re going to go upstairs and handle whatever’s going on. I’m going to come back, close my door and get back in my bed.'”

Instead, Latisha added, “My mom wound up getting shot.”

Chicago police have said they “confronted a combative individual” just after 4 a.m. on Saturday. Friends and neighbors told NBC affiliate WMAQ that LeGrier — a college student at Northern Illinois University who was home on break — had recently shown signs of mental illness and was threatening his father with a baseball bat. When police arrived, they shot him seven times, his mother said.

His father, Antonio LeGrier, filed a lawsuit against the city Monday alleging that LeGrier was unarmed and “never posed a danger of threat or harm.”

Their deaths came just more than a month after the release of dash-cam videothat showed Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke firing 16 shots at 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Protests erupted over the city’s handling of the killing and whether the authorities — including Mayor Rahm Emanuel — tried to cover it up.

Chicago police released a statement Saturday saying Jones was “accidentally struck and tragically killed” and Mayor Rahm Emanuel ordered the city’s Independent Police Review Authority — or IPRA — to examine the case. “I have asked that they determine the deficiencies in the current training, and determine what steps can be taken immediately to address them,” Emanuel said. “We will continue to ask tough questions of the police department, of the investigative agencies, and of ourselves, to drive the reforms the people of Chicago deserve and expect.”

The Jones family’s lawyer, Sam Adam Jr., assailed the authorities’ version of the incident, telling NBC News on Monday that “many” shell casings were found “down the street” from Jones’ home.

“That sort of activity certainly doesn’t comport with necessary and justifiable shooting when the shell casings are 15 to 20 feet away,” he said.

A Chicago police spokesman referred calls on the case to IPRA. A phone call to the authority on Monday was not immediately returned.

Protesters demand police accountability during a march on Chicago Police headquarters on Sept. 16, 1999.

(In March 1999, The Chicago Reporter published a story about the record-number of police shootings of civilians in 1998. Chicago Police officers shot 71 people that year; 15 died.  In comparison, police shot 50 people in 2014; 18 died, according to the Independent Police Review Authority. We are republishing this story because the number of officer-involved shootings in 1998 and the Chicago Police Department’s response resonate today in the wake of new concerns about police violence against civilians. — Susan Smith Richardson, editor and publisher)

Chicago police officers shot 71 people in 1998, the highest annual total in the decade, according to data from the Office of Professional Standards, the civilian arm of the Chicago Police Department that investigates police misconduct allegations. Fifteen of those people died from their wounds.

Between 1990 and 1998, police recorded 505 shootings, including 139 deaths, OPS records show. The largest number of fatalities — 21 — occurred in 1994.

Of the 139 fatalities, 115 occurred when police shot other people, including 82 black victims, 16 Latinos, 12 whites and two Asians. Police died from self-inflicted wounds in 24 cases — 16 involving suicide by white male officers.

“The greatest majority of shootings occur when an officer is put in a defensive position, defending himself or another individual,” said Patrick Camden, deputy director of news affairs for the police department. “The question should be, ‘Why has the number of citizens who decide to pull guns gone up?’”

But some shootings raise doubts, particularly about relations between blacks and police. The Feb. 4 shooting of 22-year-old Amadou Diallo, a West African immigrant, received national attention. New York City police shot at the man 41 times; no weapon was found at the scene.

“Police are out of control in the African- American communities,” said Standish E. Willis, a Chicago civil rights lawyer who represents four families involved in fatal police shootings. He recommends that an independent, community-based board review police misconduct, discipline officers and make recommendations.

“The community is inflamed by this issue,” said Nehemiah Russell, an activist against police brutality and principal of Cabrini-Green Middle College, a Near North Side alternative school at 880 N. Hudson Ave. “If these matters are not addressed in our communities, it could lead to a race riot.”

Last month, U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Chicago) asked President Bill Clinton to appoint a federal task force to investigate incidents of police brutality and misconduct. “Progress has come like an old man’s teeth — few and far between,” Davis said.

In April alone, six Chicagoans were killed by police, including four blacks in one week, according to reporters from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office:

• April 1: Gregory Beck, 17, was shot in the 5100 block of North Long Street after an officer said he fired at him.
• April 2: Ernest Hopkins, 27, was shot during a failed drugs-for-weapons police sting operation in a McDonald’s parking lot 1t 7832 S. Western Ave.
• April 3: Tyrus Ellis, 33, died after being shot by police during a car chase in which he allegedly tried to run over an officers.
• April 5: Michael Russell Hamilton, 21, was killed by police at 500 W. Oak St. Police said he refused to lay down his weapon.

Police could not provide information on the status of OPS investigations into these cases.

Illinois law permits officers to use deadly force in self-defense or to protect lives. In 1996, 15 of the 17 shooting deaths were ruled justifiable, according to the most recent data available from the FBI, which tracks crime nationwide. Ten of the 15 involved black victims, and 13 involved white police officers.

The circumstances surrounding some shootings, however, remain contentious — and fraught with political overtones. Police say 18-year-old Chad Edwards was shot by Officer Raymond Wilkes on Feb. 17, 1998, and died Feb. 21. Police say they were responding to a call of a possible burglary when Edwards, an African- American living at 6110 S. Washtenaw Ave., burst out of a closet in a neighbor’s home holding a pair of pliers. He was shot in the head.

While he was hospitalized in critical condition, police charged him with criminal trespassing and aggravated assault, court records show. OPS ruled the shooting justifiable.

But according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his mother, Tanya Edwards, her son and his girlfriend were visiting the neighbor’s house with permission when police entered unannounced. Edwards was shot when he went to the doorway to investigate the noise — unarmed and wearing no pants.

Last month, the family of Brennan King, a 21-year-old father of three who was shot by police on Nov. 27, filed a $5 million civil rights lawsuit against the city. King, a Cabrini-Green resident, had a record including aggravated assault against a police officer, mob action and drug possession, court records show.

Officer Peter Kelly shot King after chasing him into a stairwell of a Cabrini high-rise at 660 W. Division St. King “turned around with a box cutter and cut Officer Kelly multiple times,” according to the police account provided to the medical examiner.

Investigators found six used shell cartridges from Kelly’s gun near the stairwell. Willis, representing King’s family, said the box cutter explanation was fabricated and that a witness heard King begging for his life.

OPS is still investigating the case; Kelly remains on duty, Camden said.

“Brennan is really missed. He was my namesake,” said his aunt, Brenda King. “He was changing a lot. He had lost his mother, brother and was taking care of two cousins.”

By Danielle Gordon for The Chicago Reporter

Thousands of protesters in Chicago are demanding the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel over the police killing of Laquan McDonald last year, video of which was released last month. McDonald was shot 16 times by an officer while appearing to move away from him.

Last week, Emanuel fired the police chief, Garry McCarthy, who had served in that position since the beginning of Emanuel’s first term. Yesterday, Emanuel apologized for police misconduct in front of the City Council.

CBS news reports:

Emanuel addressed three main themes in his passionate speech: justice, culture and community. He also criticized the police department, which is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice, for being quick to shoot, saying the department’s “supervision and leadership,” as well as the oversight agencies, failed.

“I take responsibility for what happened because it happened on my watch. And if we’re going to fix it I want you to understand it’s my responsibility with you,” Emanuel said. “But if we’re also going to begin the healing process, the first step in that journey is my step.

The first step, of course, would be for Emanuel to resign. He didn’t. For him, the first step was a personal apology. The problems with the Chicago Police Department didn’t start with Emanuel (the city pays out an average of $1 million a week settling claims against the police), but they festered under him. Emanuel did not run for his first term advocating for police reforms and it was not a major issue in his re-election campaign.

His electoral success suggests either, a) Chicago voters at large are not as concerned by police misconduct as activists make it appear, or b) Chicago’s political system and institutions are broken and no longer responsive or particularly democratic.

If the former were true, Emanuel would probably not have felt the need to first fire McCarthy and then offer an apology. On the other hand, there’s quite a bit of evidence that Chicago’s political system is broken. The city government is rife with corruption, the “Chicago machine” is world famous. In the last sixty years, Chicago has only had two mayors that served two or more terms, Richard J. Daley, who was in office from 1955 until his death in 1976, and Richard M. Daley, who served from 1989 to 2011. In the eight years between Daleys, six people served as mayor, mostly in acting or interim capacities.

Chicago, like many major American cities facing an epidemic of police brutality and an utter lack of accountability for police misconduct, is a one-party city. That set up has a similar effect as it does in one-party countries—it stifles dissent, limits political debate, and erodes democratic institutions.

Last year, Emanuel won re-election over Chuy Garcia, who mainly ran a campaign against Emanuel’s modest efforts at returning Chicago to fiscal stability. Garcia did not make a major issue of police misconduct, and his politics suggest that he, like Emanuel, would not have done much to renegotiate police contracts in order to remove some of the systemic features that contribute to police brutality and the lack of accountability for police officers.

A resignation from Emanuel would not solve all of Chicago’s problems. But at least it would represent an acknowledgement of how severe those problems are.