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Chicago Police Accused Of Dropping Gang Members Off In Opp Neighborhoods

Sounds like a scene from “Menace II Society,” but this is actually real life. The Chicago Police Department has been accused of dropping gang members off in dangerous rival neighborhoods in an effort to get them to talk, DNAInfo.com reports.

The Department of Justice learned the CPD took gang members into opp neighborhoods to “coerce information” about criminal activity. This news comes as the DOJ release information of their federal investigation into the CPD.

Chicago Police Officers will reportedly either leave the person there or show the gang member to rival members, jeopardizing that person’s life by suggesting he snitched to police.

Footage readily available on the YouTube shows this act in practice. Police officers open the backdoor of a vehicle where a teenage boy sits cowering in the backseat. Rival gang members crowd the vehicle and taunt the young boy at the approval of two officers on hand.

A lawsuit was later filed, and city officials settled for $33,000.

The officers involved in the incident, Susana La Casa and Luis Contreras, were later fired by the Chicago Police Board in 2013.

Residents reportedly told federal investigators that the practice has been happening for years, according to the DOJ report.

“A young black man told us that when he was 12 or 13 years old, he and his friends were picked up by CPD officers, dropped off in rival territory, and told to walk home,” according to the federal report. “Another black teen told us that his brother was picked up in one location, dropped off in another location known for rival gangs, and told: ‘Better get to running.’”

The police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in October 2014 sparked the 13-month investigation.

Read more on DNAInfo by clicking here.

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