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The Chicago police department won't fix the Chicago police department.

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Yes, it would be better if police officers down in Englewood or on the West Side were polite, but they're still stopping people, still frisking people, still taking them to Homan Square, still keeping them from their lawyers and when the don't get the answers they want, working them over. If you accept that they're going to be nice to you on the street, you have to back up and say 'should they be stopping you at all?'

Civil rights attorney Flint Taylor reacts to our recent interview on Chicago's failed police reform with Simone Weichselbaum, and explains why Chicago's problems can't be fixed by nicer police interactions, but only by addressing the systematic classism and racism built into the core of American policing.

Flint's latest writing is Homan Square is Chicago's new 'House of Screams' for The Guardian.

[Flint's phone keeps hanging up throughout the interview, but stick with it because Flint makes great points here]

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Flint Taylor

Flint Taylor is a founding partner of the People’s Law Office in Chicago.

 

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