Members of the public share experiences with police misconduct, stop and frisk, foot pursuit and more
Good afternoon! I’ll be live-tweeting the CPD Consent Decree Independent Monitor Hearing for @CHIdocumenters #CHIdocumenters. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m.
01:51 PM Jun 2, 2023 CDT
Consent decree fact sheet here: http://chicagopoliceconsentdecree.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Consent-Decree-Fact-Sheet-Jan-31-2019.pdf
Hearing reconvenes. Ponchita Moore from the 5th police district council is the first speaker. Ms. Moore supports the consent decree. She’s from the Roseland neighborhood. She wants the Roseland community members to be treated fairly by the police.
The next speaker is Jose Almanza. He supports the consent decree. Mr. Almanza grew up in Little Village and says that his community is constantly harassed by traffic stops and stop-and-frisk policy. He says that harassment has broken the trust between the community and the police
The next speaker is Kristen Noelle. She says that she doesn’t care for CPD. But she appreciates their help with finding her father. Her father suffers from dementia and took her car recently. He was found safely.
The next speaker is Billie House- Barksdale, Englewood resident. Her brother is David Barksdale. She says in 1963 in search of her brother CPD ransacked the family home. She says that when the police found her brother an officer knocked his teeth out.
The next speaker is Larry Dean, a community organizer. He supports the consent decree and wants the foot pursuit policy needs to be followed. He wants officers to be reprimanded and documented when they go against the foot pursuit policy.
The next speaker is Eric Wilkins from Communities United. He says that he doesn’t want his children to endure the police harassment he did. He retold stories of being handcuffed to other Black men and being thrown on the hood of hot police cars.
The next speaker is Robert McKay, a member of the 5th district police council. He supports the consent decree. He believes the police are often the escalator in interactions with Black people. He believes disinvestment in education and neighborhoods have led to high crime.
The next speaker is Regina Russell. She says that CPD’s commitment to the consent decree is nothing more than lip service. She says her son was wrongly imprisoned for murder and tortured by detectives connected to John Burge.
The next speaker is Cindy Greenwood. She supports the consent decree. She wants accountability for CPD officers who lie in their reports. She says there are at least 110 officers that falsified reports on payroll and were even promoted.
The next speaker is Joe Ferguson, the former Inspector General. He wants CPD to comply with the consent decree. IG Ferguson says the consistent cyclical turnover in city government is hampering efforts for reform.
The next speaker is Fred Hampton Jr., son of the Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. He says his first interaction with CPD is when they pointed a revolver to his mother’s stomach.
The next speaker is Olatunji Oboi Reed, a North Lawndale resident, and community activist. He says that harassment of Black and Brown residents in Chicago hasn’t made communities safer. He cites the disproportionate amount of traffic stops on the west and south side.
The next speaker is Jessica Proctor, a policy analyst from Alternatives. She retells a story about how her brother and his friends were illegally searched and harassed for driving in his mother’s luxury car.
The next speaker is Jae Rice, deputy CEO of Brave Space Alliance. They state one of their biggest programs is their funeral program. They state that based on statistics Chicago is the deadliest place for Black and brown Trans in the world.
They state that despite this alarming statistic for 20 years there has not been a case solved by CPD in these murders.
The next speaker is Stephanie Skora, COO of Brave Space Alliance. She supports the consent decree. She says that as a member of the Transgender community, she doesn’t trust the police to protect her.
The next speaker is Arewa Karen Winters, a 15th police district council member. She laments that community involvement is critical to ensure that the consent decree is complied with.
The next speaker is Terrell Barnes, a community organizer. Mr. Barnes says the goal of the consent decree should be to restore trust between the police and the community.
The next speaker is Rebecca Cook, representing the Chicago West Side Branch of the NAACP. She says that the slow walking of the consent decree policy by CPD is intentional.
The next speaker is Michael Harrington from Network 49. He says years ago while on CTA he was detained by 5 plainclothes officers. It was a mistaken identity case and never received an apology. He says us vs them mentality of CPD exacerbates the mistrust.
The next speaker is Mark Mattson. He says he was released from prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He has a certificate of innocence but if he’s pulled over that’s the first thing that pops up. He served 25 years in prison and never received an apology.
He says the prosecution and judge on his case were tied to John Burge and his detectives. He currently has a lawsuit against the CPD.
The live-stream video of the virtual public hearing has concluded. I was unable to capture the last 15 minutes of the meeting. But if you want to order transcripts of the hearing you can request them here: https://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/transcript-order-form.aspx
The CPD Consent Decree Independent Monitor Hearing ends at 4:07 p.m. This ends my coverage for @chidocumenters find more information through Josefe-Marie Verna’s notes at http://documenters.org