Chicago Police Misconduct Hurts Homeless

Every time a police officer shoots and kills an unarmed person of color, the cost of racial injustice often results in multi-million dollar settlements with little or no accountability for many of the officers involved. More millionaires have been created as a result of official police misconduct, wrongful convictions, excessive-force cases and civil rights violations than any other time in American history. Yet, police officers involved in these cases are often cleared of all charges, regardless of public outrage.

The problem is that the criminal justice system has allowed the rights of black and brown men and women to be gradually trampled over by police officers at the expense of taxpayers and the loss of public-trust.

"Between 2012 and 2015, the city of Chicago paid $210 million in police misconduct-lawsuits, and over 23 million this year alone to help protect bad cops."

Though all the money Chicago has doled out, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city officials have failed to contribute any significant funding to help the over 140,000 homeless men, women and children who remain out in the cold. It's time city officials reevaluates the way it spends taxpayers' money, and acknowledge that the police department's money-train is a liability the city of Chicago can no longer afford to keep running.