This week the City Council’s Public Safety Committee advanced Mayor Lightfoot’s nominations for three open seats on the Chicago Police Board. The mandate to fill vacancies on the city’s most powerful police accountability panel presented the mayor with a prime opportunity to consummate one of her core campaign promises to communities long besieged by abusive law enforcement practices. As a candidate, Lightfoot vowed to dismantle Chicago’s pernicious system of racialized police brutality, which had been faithfully preserved under the administrations of former mayors Rahm Emanuel and Richard M. Daley.
So it came as a stunning disappointment to local reform advocates when the mayor failed to endorse a single candidate who would offer a measure of independence or community perspective to the Chicago Police Board. Lightfoot opted instead for the retention of two of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s police board nominees, and the appointment of a high ranking operative in the Richard M. Daley administration.
The Chicago Police Board wields tremendous influence over city law enforcement, vested with the authority to nominate the police superintendent, establish department rules and oversee disciplinary action in cases of officer misconduct. However, in its capacity as appointed body, the panel has historically lacked the independence and grassroots representation required to eradicate corruption, violence and impunity within the Chicago Police Department.
Through the nomination process, the mayor and City Council implicitly bestow their staunch political loyalty to city law enforcement upon board members. As a result, the oversight commission has served as an obstruction rather than an instrument of progressive reform.
The board consistently abstains from exercising its authority to issue policy recommendations to the police department, and in reviewing incidents of officer wrongdoing, seldom pursues justice. Even in the rare cases where the police superintendent calls for disciplinary removal, the committee overwhelmingly rules in favor of the officer. In 2018, the Chicago Police Board upheld the superintendent's recommendation for termination in only 38% of the cases it considered.
Lightfoot's insider nominations stand as an endorsement of the police board status quo, and confirm a long held assertion among local reform activists: In order to advance safety, equity and justice for all Chicago neighborhoods, residents must assert direct community control over the police.
To this end, the Workers Center for Racial Justice is mobilizing voters to place a binding referendum on the 2020 ballot that would make the Chicago Police Board a directly elected representative body.
In order to achieve this, WCRJ calls upon our allies to help circulate petitions, check signatures, volunteer as a notary, and get the word out to friends and neighbors.
On August 15th, the Workers Center for Racial Justice (WCRJ) will hold the 2019 Forum for Safety and Liberation. At this annual event, WCRJ convenes local residents, community leaders and office holders for a public dialogue on how communities can create real safety by divesting from racialized policing and mass incarceration, and committing resources towards achieving a vision of equity, justice and liberation.
The 2019 Forum for Safety and Liberation will be held Thursday, August 15th from 6:00-8:00 pm at the AKArama Community Center, located at 6220 S Ingleside Ave in Chicago.
For decades, communities of color have witnessed an escalation in aggressive police occupation and mass incarceration. Rather than improving security at the local level, such tough on crime approaches have systematically undermined security and opportunity in Black neighborhoods. Moreover, this toxic investment in law enforcement and mass detention diverts public dollars away from critical services, such as childcare, schools, housing, jobs and healthcare, which would more effectively address communities’ most urgent safety needs.
At the 2019 Forum for Safety and Liberation, WCRJ will uproot the false rhetoric of law-and-order policymaking and the pernicious narrative of black criminality.Through grassroots leadership, we will reimagine what safe and free communities can look like, emancipated from police occupation and incarceration.
After you've registered, take a moment to participate in our Safety and Liberation social media campaign. We're asking community members to help reimagine what safe and free communities can look like when we divest from racialized practices of police abuse and mass incarceration, and reinvest in initiatives that promote unity, strength and opportunity for all.
Here's how you can be part of the #SafetyIs social media campaign:
1. Fill out our #SafetyIs template (or create your own) telling us what REAL safety means to you. You can download the template here.
2. Take a photo holding the completed #SafetyIs template.
It was only a matter of months ago that candidate Lori Lightfoot, in her bid to become Chicago's first Black woman mayor, offered a long sought assurance to voters of color across the city; if elected, Lightfoot vowed to dismantle Chicago’s toxic system of racialized law enforcement and promote public safety by addressing the root causes of gun violence through equitable neighborhood investment.
So it came as a rude awakening when, early this week, in a press briefing on gun violence, Mayor Lightfoot adopted a new and decidedly regressive position on community safety. Flanked by Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, the mayor drew an unsubstantiated connection between progressive criminal justice reform and an increase in neighborhood shootings. Lightfoot also called for consideration of more stringent pretrial detention policies at the county level and pointed to enhanced law enforcement and incarceration practices as a viable solution to Chicago’s growing public health crisis.
The mayor’s newly embraced, tough on crime rhetoric, while doubtlessly alarming to communities impacted by racially targeted policing and mass incarceration, is not unfamiliar to Chicagoans. In her recent statements on law enforcement, local constituents could discern echoes of Lightfoot’s predecessor and bygone target of condemnation, former mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Indeed, Lightfoot is only the latest in a long succession of Chicago mayors to adopt a law and order narrative as a means of deflecting accountability for systemic neighborhood inequities away from the failures of city government. Despite the enduring political potency of tough-on-crime posturing, draconian law enforcement tactics have failed in their purported intent to deter crime, and serve to aggravate the symptoms of racialized disinvestment that underpin disparities in neighborhood safety.
Since 2000, the Illinois legislature raised penalties for unlawful gun possession six times, and local police and prosecutors targeted their enforcement efforts on communities of color with laser precision. Aggressive policing and sentencing strategies did not result in a decrease in local gun crime. Rather, the statewide penalty enhancements propelled a threefold increase in the number of inmates incarcerated for weapons charges. The collateral impacts on economic stability in majority-Black neighborhoods have further exacerbated racialized inequality and eroded public safety.
By contrast, progressive reform of the Cook County bail system has proved to be effective in strengthening local communities. In 2017, county courts adopted policies that limit judges’ authority to subject defendants to pretrial detention based on an inability to pay a money bond. As a result, tens of thousands of Chicagoans were permitted to return to their communities while awaiting a court date, which in turn, allowed individuals to maintain employment, housing and parental rights, and improve their sentencing outcomes. According to a report released by Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans, only 0.6% of the defendants released pretrial were later charged with a violent offense.
In order to foster communities that are safe and free for all Chicagoans, it is imperative that state and local governments embrace fair, humane and strategic methods of law enforcement, including arrest diversion, restorative justice, pretrial freedom and sentencing reform. Chicago must also undertake dramatic steps to equitably invest in public programs - such as affordable housing, schools, mental health services and safety net initiatives - to counter the structural inequities that foment neighborhood crime.