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Why Will No One Help Put Away The Perpetrators?

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For the past 25 years in Chicago, an average of one child has been killed per week (Ansari, 1), but the violence does not stop with children. In 2016 alone, there were, “762 murders, 3,550 shooting incidents, and 4,331 shooting victims” (Caputo, 2). While the murder rate has remained exceedingly high over the decades, and spiked in recent years, the willingness of witnesses to provide police with information remains at an all-time low, and approximately 80% of all cases have no workable leads (Shaper, 2). Which begs the question, “Why will no one help put away the perpetrators?” Theorists, and especially the police, explain that witnesses of crimes pretend they see nothing because of the culture of “do not snitch” (Simon, Exploring). …show more content…

Citizens also believe cops do not care to protect the inner city or minorities and only serve to protect the dominant white society. In response, street culture adapted and people started taking matters into their own hands. Therefore, street rules may add to the broken relationship between community and police, but they are not the cause.
In Chicago, there is also a general lack of trust for the police caused by a history of police brutality towards citizens, especially towards African American community members. From 2010 till 2015, approximately four out of five people shot by Chicago police were African American males (Richards). One profound example of police targeting and abusing African Americans is the case of Jon Burge. Officer Burge and his slew of underlings tortured over 100 African American men from 1972 till 1991 using tactics such as ‘electric shock, mock executions, and brutal attacks on the genitals’ (Cox). “He [Burge] was sentenced to the maximum of four and a half years […] a stark contrast to his victims, many of whom received death sentences or life in prison on the basis of confessions that were tortured from them” (Taylor, 3). Burge serves as a blatant, bigoted example of why minorities feel targeted and abused by predominantly white officers and contributes to the floundering relationship between the Chicago Police and the people they ‘protect’. With such a historically negative relationship, it comes as no surprise

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