It’s been happening since at least the 90s. But in 2017, after the shooting of Laquan McDonald, a report from the Justice Department put it in writing: officers from the Chicago Police Department were picking up Black neighborhood kids and dropping them off in rival gang territory – on purpose!
Up until that report came out, “No one believed the young people or believed us,” wrote organizer and author Mariame Kaba. The DOJ detailed the experiences of children as young as 12 or 13!
Kaba herself remembered an instance of an officer punching and profiling a boy she knew for having a picture of marijuana on his phone screen. But it didn’t just stop there.
The white officer then drove him into rival gang territory, forcing him to walk home alone! “I got jumped and almost killed,” he said. And for what?
Police reportedly did this to pressure youth into revealing information about “criminal activity.” But that intimidation tactic is a huge setback to community organizers actually working to reduce violence.
This country didn’t create police to end violence in Black communities and protect children. Because if that was the case, why would they intentionally put kids in danger of being brutalized and killed? In Chicago, and everywhere, police are a part of the violence we have to protect our children from.