One evening in 2019 over a dozen Chicago police officers bashed down the door of the wrong house and found an innocent unclothed black woman standing inside. They immediately handcuffed her but didn't bother to cover her with a blanket, choosing instead to either ignore her or gawk at her as they screamed in her face and menacingly waved their guns. The distraught woman told the cops 43 times they had the wrong house. After 20 minutes, the cops realized they had the wrong house, removed her handcuffs, and walked out broken door.
When the City of Chicago learned that CBS 2 had bodycam footage of the botched raid, they tried to stop the channel from broadcasting it. CBS 2 played the tape anyway.
Yesterday, after learning that CBS 2 had obtained the footage and was planning on airing it that night, the city of Chicago filed a motion to enjoin CBS 2 from running it, arguing it would violate the confidentiality order. The federal judge in Young's case rejected the motion on the grounds that CBS 2 was not a party to the case and not subject to the order.
CBS 2's investigation shows that the raid on Young's home was completely avoidable if Chicago police had done the bare minimum to vet the information on the search warrant. The warrant was based on a tip from a confidential informant, who had provided the wrong address for a man suspected of having an illegal gun. The suspect lived next door to Young.
The woman hired a lawyer. He said that if the cops had raided the wrong house in one of Chicago's affluent neighborhoods and found a naked white woman inside, the bodycam footage would have told a much different story.
Fortunately for the woman, city officials today voted to pay her $2.9 million. Unfortunately for the taxpayers who must shell out the money for the cops' sociopathic abuse of the victim, the officer in charge of the botched raid, Sergeant Alex Wolinski, still has his job and won't have to pay a cent. Wolinski has 11 complaints against him, including 10 Use of Force reports (more than 83% of other officers in the Chicago Police Department).
