The world turned its eyes to Seattle last week for all the wrong reasons. A week ago, police body camera audio came out in which the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild says the quiet part very loud, laughing and joking with the guild president in the aftermath of the death of a 23-year-old student killed by another officer who was racing to a 911 call. Northeastern University student Jaahnavi Kandula was walking in a Seattle crosswalk in January when Officer Kevin Dave — driving 74 mph in a 25 mph zone — hit her, throwing her more than 100 feet. Kandula was from India and was studying information systems. Officer Daniel Auderer, vice president of SPOG, accidentally left his body camera running when he was talking with union President Mike Solan after assessing whether Dave was under the influence. In recording audio, he minimizes Dave’s responsibility, erroneously saying “he’s going 50, that’s not out of control for a trained driver.” But it was Auderer’s other comments that shocked people around the world. In the recording, Auderer laughs with Solan and says, “just write a check” to make up for the loss of Kandula’s life. He then says, “Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26 anyway. She had limited value.” a lot of them are the literal spawn of Satan
The worst parts of Chicago is a very tough place to be a police officer - and to be poor and black. You cannot tell from the cut grass and the reasonably immaculate area where the shooting happened, but this happened in one of the worst parts of Chicago. The poorest parts of Chicago are usually visually appealing, and in some cases look wealthy. The reason is that the city and county spend a lot of money rebuilding housing projects, and also many of them are in areas of Chicago that used to be wealthy 80 years ago. So the Chicago Housing Authority spends a lot of money on upkeep for the houses they are renting out. I haven't seen this anywhere else in the USA. Even if Europe I don't see it as nice as in Chicago. So the point is, that the police officer's in that video knew they were in a dangerous situation. They knew there is an estimated 2 guns for every person living in that area. They know that there are drive by shootings and they know that gang culture is EXTREMELY deep suited, and that the people they need to watch out for are between 13-20 years old almost all of the time. In Chicago there is also a culture and belief that no matter what, you do not turn yourself in. That you try to run, because there are so many alleys and places to hide, that half the times or more, the police will lose track of you because the police cars are limited in an alley. On top of that, these young men are very tight with the street gang and they do not want to go to Cook County lock up (it is the worst in the US because of the gangs) and they also do not want their street gangs viewing them as cowards. So a lot of these black young men run or shoot - or are shot by the police. In this case I see several problems - in the past the officers would not have followed him into the house. They would have sealed the outside and waited him out. That white officer was brave or stupid, depending on how you look at it. He is very lucky he wasn't blasted in the face and both officers are lucky no one came downstairs and shot them both. When you have teenagers with guns, committing major crimes - you have poor outcomes. Also, to be clear, the Chicago Police Department has traditionally been full of abusive and corrupt cops that in these neighborhoods shot first and asked questions later.
