Matt Gratz, Political Fail Blog
Starting today the city of Chicago will be posting the statistics of all crimes in the past ten years as well as keep a daily updated log of crimes in the city on the internet for anyone to access for any reason. As the Emanuel administration tells Chicagoans the release is an attempt to make government more open, I see this as a way for the government to instill in you the need for them to protect you from your own neighbors.
"It's a whole new era of openness and transparency," said Brett Goldstein to the AP, the city's chief data officer and former police officer. "You determine your own analysis."
While the police see this as openness and transparency, I see this as an attempt to further the division among Americans and to create more fear that only the police and government can make go away. Transparency is needed in the way law is made, not in the amount of daily arrests made by the police. That information is already available to the public.
The data base will hold approximately 4.6 million incidents including each name and address, if there was an arrest, the police beat, city ward and case number. This will include all crimes and all criminals ranging from murderers to pot smokers.
The Mayor and police department have decided not to release the details of officer-involved shootings or some crimes that are still under investigation. The fact that any incident that may involve the wrong doing of a police officer will be omitted from the online files proves that this is not an attempt at open government, but clever propaganda designed to justify the authoritarian style of governing by Obama's former chief of staff.
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