The Center Square brings us a headline story reporting on a recent study claiming disproportionate use of force by Chicago police against black residents. The study (and the story) framed it as a damning indictment of the CPD’s reform efforts under the consent decree. But let’s cut through the narrative: This so-called “study,” cooked up by academics from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Pennsylvania as part of the decree’s mandates, reeks of politically motivated junk science. It’s tied to a consent decree that originated as a political stunt during the Obama administration’s DOJ push after the Laquan McDonald case—essentially, a way for politicians to virtue-signal and seek cover amid public outcry, rather than addressing root causes.
The study’s headline-grabbing stats—73% of force incidents involving black residents, who are 29% of the population—sound alarming, but they’re classic junk results from flawed, agenda-driven methodology. It ignores the elephant in the room: Crime patterns in Chicago show black individuals disproportionately involved in violent incidents, both as victims and suspects, leading to more police contacts naturally. Data from HeyJackass.com, which tracks CPD-reported shootings in real-time, reveals that as of early 2026, 93% of shooting victims (97 out of 104) were Black, and 75% of identified assailants (6 out of 8) were black. This isn’t isolated; it’s a consistent trend, with black Chicagoans bearing the tragic brunt of intra-community violence on the South and West Sides. If police are responding to calls in high-crime areas, encounters (and potential force) will skew accordingly—not because of systemic racism, but because that’s where the 911 calls and shots-fired reports are piling up.
The researchers claim to control for factors like arrests and geography, finding a 52% higher risk of force for black suspects versus whites. But this is where the junk science shines through: Self-reported CPD data is inherently limited and potentially biased toward over-documentation in decree-monitored categories, and the statistical models (regressions, disproportionality ratios) are only as good as their assumptions. If they’re baked with progressive priors assuming bias everywhere, you get outputs that confirm the narrative. No wonder the study was commissioned under the decree’s thumb—it’s not independent science; it’s compliance theater. Politically driven “studies” like this, funded and shaped by reform mandates, aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, especially when they downplay how over-policing rhetoric might actually deter proactive policing in violent neighborhoods, exacerbating the victim toll.
ACLU’s Alexandra Block spins this as proof of over-policing and failed de-escalation, calling for a “culture shift.” But that’s code for handcuffing cops further, ignoring that rising excessive force allegations (doubling from 2022-2025) could stem from increased scrutiny and reporting requirements under the decree itself, not worsening behavior. Residents’ mistrust? Sure, but it’s bidirectional—cops face dangers in areas where violence is rampant, and simplistic disparity stats don’t capture that reality. If we want real change, focus on addressing crime drivers like gangs, gang culture, poor education and mental health issues, not endless decree bureaucracy that hasn’t budged the needle on safety. This story amplifies a biased take without balancing the crime context, turning a complex issue into anti-police fodder.
The Center Square is usually better than this.
Here’s the garbage dump over at TCS:
(The Center Square) – American Civil Liberties Union Director Alexandra Block argues a new study showing black city residents disproportionately face aggression at the hands of Chicago police much more than whites should be viewed as an indictment against the whole system.
Researchers from the University of Texas San Antonio and the University of Pennsylvania studied upwards of 8,000 incidents over a four-year period where force was used, concluding that in 73% of all such incidents it was directed at a black resident, even though they comprise just 29% of the overall population.
“What this really tells us is that the consent decree, which is the court order that is supposed to be reforming the Chicago Police Department and that required the police department to do the study, is not achieving the kind of changes on the streets of Chicago,” Block told The Center Square. “The central goal of the consent decree was to bring down force against community members and especially community members of color and that is not happening.”
Block adds much of the data uncovered essentially makes clear why the disparities exist as they do.
“We suspect that a lot of the problem is over policing,” she said. “That police are just initiating encounters with members of the community that they don’t need to; that police are responding to calls, for example, of people in a mental or behavioral health crisis where an alternative response would be better. It’s going to take a sustained, department-wide culture shift to a culture of community policing, a culture of de-escalation and not a culture of what we can get away with and claim that it’s within CPD policy.”
Over-policing?
dindus & shitholers = 95+% of homicide/shooters, suck dick