It's hot in my city, and expectations are that the rate of violent crimes, especially shootings and murders, will go up in Chicago along with the mercury.
Following a parallel track are the rising concerns of residents alarmed not only by the danger of falling prey to criminals but by the possibility of being targeted by the city's new algorithm-based policing strategy.
Eddie Johnson, superintendent of the beleaguered Chicago Police Department, recently announced that the force will be leaning ever more heavily on a computer-generated hot list of people likely to be involved in shootings based on their arrests, prior involvement in gun violence, affiliations with gang members and other variables.
Chicagoans have reason to be wary of such a list. In April, a police accountability task force determined that the department's own data "gives validity to the widely held belief the police have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color. Stopped without justification, verbally and physically abused, and in some instances arrested, and then detained without counsel — that is what we heard about over and over again."
