A little a year ago, there was a tragic example of the consequences of wrongheaded transit policing in Chicago. On February, 28, 2020, the very day Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that the city would be adding 50 new officers to the Chicago Police Department’s public transportation unit in response to a recent wave of violent robberies on the CTA, officers shot Ariel Roman, 33, twice after trying to detain him for walking between ‘L’ cars, inflicting life-changing injuries.
When the two officers tried to stop Roman for this minor breach of CTA rules, he fled. Rather than letting the unarmed man go, the officers pursued him and escalated the situation, pepper spraying and tasing him before recklessly shooting up a Grand Avenue Red Line station escalator after him, which could have easily resulted in the death of a bystander. Roman, who worked as a cook, was wounded in the buttocks and abdomen. As of last August, he was still forced to use a colostomy bag. He has filed a federal lawsuit agains the city of Chicago and the two officers.