The City of Tallahassee has no business having any affiliation with this man. TPD’s statement that there is no relationship is contradicted by posts made by Eddie Gallagher and Stronghold SOF Solutions. TPD has not answered any follow up questions or explained how the production of their recent promotional video came about. We have no knowledge of Gallagher or Stronghold Solutions role in its creation. TPD officers have been empowered to patrol our streets without any mechanism for external investigation of their conduct. We do not need these officers to be trained in violence by a bloodthirsty war criminal. We do not need our city to be affiliated with the bigotry, racism and transphobia on display on Eddie Gallagher’s social media.

Tallahassee Community Action Committee (TCAC) condemns this horrifying partnership and is disappointed to see yet another decision by Police Chief Revell which undermines public trust. TPD made no public announcement of this collaboration, and it would likely have remained unknown to the very citizens who are subject to policing by TPD officers. We call on City Manager Reese Goad to fire Police Chief Revell, for a public apology and for increased transparency of TPD trainings and expenditures.

#DemilitarizeTPD #CommunityControlofPolice #CPACNow #CareNotCops

#TallahasseeFL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #TallahasseeCommunityActionCommitteeTCAC

Previously, Mayor Lightfoot told press that she’d asked for a direct meeting with Young, saying, “I’d like to have that conversation with her in person, and I will see whether or not my request is granted.”

According to attorney Saulter, Young sought a private meeting and public forum with Lightfoot, Police Superintendent Brown, and seven alderpeople from the Black Caucus and Progressive Caucus. After receiving pushback from the mayor’s team on the inclusion of only those alderpeople, Young and Saulter invited all 50. The forum would take place with select members of the press immediately after the private meeting, in a socially-distanced event at Progressive Baptist Church, which has a capacity of 1500 to 2000 people.

But in a December 28 meeting with city of Chicago Acting Corporation Counsel Celia Meza, Saulter was reportedly told that Lightfoot would agree to the private meeting, but not the public forum. Meza advised that Lightfoot would instead speak to the press after the meeting, addressing reporters while Young and the alderpeople stayed inside to engage in the public forum.

“To be clear, this means that the mayor declined Young’s request to meet with her in the manner that Young had requested – a manner that was best for her, her healing and transparency,” said a statement from Saulter.

No more raids: The people demand justice for Anjanette Young

In a December 17 virtual press conference, leaders of the movement against police violence demanded justice for Ms. Young, expressed the need for an entirely new accountability framework, and called for passage of the Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC).

Now, the mayor’s rejection of the public forum for transparency represents another denial of justice for Young, and a refusal to let the victims and the community dictate the terms of their own healing process. Saulter states the lawsuit against the city will proceed. The movement, too, is set to proceed with its fight for change and for CPAC.

“You have the wrong place”

Anjanette Young, a social worker of over 20 years, was wrongfully raided by Chicago police on February 21, 2019. Acting solely on an unverified tip from a confidential informant, officers rammed through Young’s door and surged into her home in search of a 23-year-old male suspect they believed to be residing there.

Young, who had just gotten out of the shower and was preparing for bed, was handcuffed and left standing completely naked in her living room as armed police swarmed through her home. Bodycam footage from nine male officers shows police refusing to adequately cover her or let her get dressed, ignoring and belittling her as she tells them at least 43 times that they have the wrong home.

The suspect they were looking for, who had no connection to Young, was nowhere to be found. He lived in a different unit in the same building, which CPD could easily have confirmed with prison authorities, because he was wearing an electronic monitoring device at the time of the raid.

Yet the injustice perpetrated against Young didn’t end there. After the raid, the city fought to keep bodycam footage out of public view, with a coverup reminiscent of that in the Laquan McDonald case.

Another coverup

Last year when Young filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the bodycam footage from the raid on her home, the Chicago Police Department denied her request. When the news station CBS 2 filed their own request for the footage, they were denied as well. It was only after Young filed a lawsuit that CPD was forced to turn over the video under orders from a federal judge.

Then, just hours before CBS 2 aired their report featuring the video, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s legal team filed an emergency motion to block the footage from the public and sought legal sanctions against Young and her attorney Keenan Saulter. A judge denied the city’s motion as the report was being broadcast.

Once the footage went public, Mayor Lightfoot at first denied having known about the case at all before the report aired. When asked why Young’s Freedom of Information Act request was denied, she falsely claimed Young had never filed one, and berated the journalist who asked the question for “reckless and irresponsible” reporting. Meanwhile, the motion for sanctions against Young and Saulter remained in place, eliciting outrage from activist leaders.

The next day, Lightfoot acknowledged she was wrong about the FOIA request, and withdrew the motion for sanctions after considerable backlash. She also admitted she had been made “generally” aware of the case over a year ago but maintained that she hadn’t seen the video and didn’t know about her legal team’s attempts to hide it or sanction Young’s attorney.

The people demand justice

In the wake of the publication of the raid footage, activists in the fight against police violence have made wide-ranging demands for reform and accountability. Many have compared the handling of the incident to that of the Laquan McDonald case, and concluded that a new mayor has not meant a new status quo.

“It’s so very similar to Laquan McDonald, and he was not the first,” said Arewa Winters, a participant in the December 17 press conference. “There are many Laquan McDonalds. Anjanette Young was not the first, there are many Anjanette Youngs. And until we get criminal charges [against cops] things will never change for us in this city.”

On behalf of the 411 Movement for Pierre Loury/Justice for Families, Women’s All Points Bulletin, Black Lives Matter-Chicago, and GoodKids MadCity, Winters read out a list of demands, including a guarantee that people can receive videos they appear in within a week of their request, mandatory charges and terminations after incorrect raids, assault charges for pointing guns at innocent civilians, policies on providing clothes to naked individuals or else the incident is deemed sexual abuse, and compensation for victims for all damages up to and including civil rights violations.

Yet the primary demand was not for more professionalized raids, but for an end to raids on personal homes altogether. Not for individual reforms, but an overhaul of the system.

The city of Chicago does not accept such change willingly. In its first year under a court-ordered federal consent decree to reform its police department, the city has missed 70% of the deadlines issued in that decree. As part of that decree, a community working group spent months drafting recommendations for changes to the department’s use-of-force policies, but CPD rejected all but five of the 155 recommended changes, and 25 of the 34 members of the working group called the process a sham.

As for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), which is tasked with handling complaints of police abuse, a report released in September that showed that COPA missed its deadline to publicly release more than 25% of videos of police violence that it is responsible for sharing.

In fact, COPA did not open an investigation into the raid on Young’s home until CBS 2 broke the story nine months later. On November 25, 2020, over a year after starting the investigation and nearly two years since the raid, COPA stated that they were still in the process of serving allegations and hadn’t even finished conducting officer interviews.

Fight for CPAC

Because neither the mayor’s office, nor COPA, nor any existing government body has delivered justice for Anjanette Young, leaders of the movement are renewing the call for an entirely new framework for combating police abuses, as evidenced in the December 17 press conference. Multiple speakers echoed the position that nothing short of community control of the police can deliver the necessary change, and that only CPAC presents a viable path to such a framework.

The Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) ordinance would establish an all-civilian, all-elected council with representatives from each police precinct. This council would have the ability to hire and fire the police superintendent, head of COPA, and members of the police board; rewrite CPD and COPA policy; investigate abuses and determine disciplinary actions; and negotiate the CPD union contract, among other powers.

“This most recent incident underlines the desperate need that we have in this city for community control of the police. We need a fully-elected democratic body that represents the people of the city of Chicago that will not engage in coverups, but will actually ensure that police officers are disciplined, that there’s accountability when these incidents occur, and that they do not happen again,” stated Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa of Ward 35, who first introduced the CPAC ordinance into the city council.

The CPAC ordinance currently awaits a vote in the Public Safety Committee and has undergone updates with substitute language to improve its viability. It now has the support of 19 alderpeople and would require 26 votes to pass or 34 to make it veto-proof.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #MayorLoriLightfoot #CPACNow #AnjanetteYoung

Chicago, IL – Mayor Lori Lightfoot has made it official: she will not support any form of police reform that takes any power from her office. She declared the “negotiations have broken down” with aldermen who supported a proposal called the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) because they insisted on giving it the power to set policy for the Chicago Police Department. The CCPSA would add a convoluted layer of bureaucracy over the already broken system of ‘oversight.’

Desmon Yancy, staff coordinator of the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA), the author of the CCPSA, has called for pushing that proposal through the council over mayoral objections, and Alderman Chris Taliafero, chair of the council Public Safety Committee, has echoed those calls. There are 29 aldermen who have signed on as sponsors of this legislation.

They have a problem, however. Eleven of the 29 are also sponsors of the ordinance for real community control of police, a proposal supported by an overwhelming majority of Chicagoans. That proposal gives an all-elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) powers much greater than those of the GAPA proposal, including the power to hire and fire the police chief and to discipline police officers for violations of civilian civil rights.

35th Ward Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said, in the wake of the mayor’s obstinacy, “If the supporters of CPAC hold firm and do not vote for the GAPA proposal, it cannot pass. And if the supporters of GAPA support CPAC, that ordinance will pass. Instead of focusing on a bill designed for a mayor who has no interest in sharing power with communities, we urge the GAPA coalition to join the broadest and longest-standing movement for true democratic control of the Chicago police: CPAC. “

Rosa added, “The CCPSA/GAPA proposal offers only a fig leaf of reform over a racist and corrupt system of policing in Chicago. Its elected body has no power except to nominate another body that has virtually no power over the CPD, and those nominations must be approved by the mayor and the city council. The people of Chicago demand and deserve an elected body that has the authority to establish policies, rules and regulations for the CPD that respect the rights of civilians, especially Black and brown civilians, that are routinely violated by police steeped in a culture of white supremacy and racism.”

Jazmine Salas, Koby Guillory and Regina Russell, co-chairs of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, called on all who support real community control of the police to call their aldermen now, and demand that they support CPAC. “Nothing short of CPAC offers any hope of ending police crimes in Chicago and empowering the people to determine what safety looks like in their communities,” they said in a joint statement.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #ChicagoAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #CPACNow

Chicago, IL – About 1000 people gathered at two locations August 9 and marched to Diversey and Halsted for a rally aimed at getting North Side Aldermen to sponsor the ordinance establishing an all-elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC).

The focus was on the 2nd, 32nd, 43rd, and 44th Wards and Aldermen Brian Hopkins, Scott Waguespack, Michele Smith and Tom Tunny.

The action is part of the nationwide protests over unrelenting killings of Black and Latino people by police in Chicago and the United States, especially since the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks.

Sponsors included the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Chicago Boricua Resistance, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), Black Lives Matter-Chicago, Chicago Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), End Northside Racism, Northside Action for Justice, 48th Ward Neighbors for Justice, 33rd Ward Working Families, 32nd Ward United, 2nd Ward Neighbors for CPAC.

#ChicagoIL #PoliceBrutality #antipolicebrutality #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #CommunityControlOfThePolice

Minneapolis, MN – A coalition of police accountability and civil rights organizations held a press conference to denounce plans by Mayor Jacob Frey to turn over police accountability efforts to the Minneapolis Foundation and an unnamed group of advisors. This comes on the heels of nine city council members declaring they will disband the Minneapolis Police Department.

The Minneapolis Foundation is headed by former Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak. During his tenure as mayor, 38 people lost their lives at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, including Abu Kassim Jeilani, Fong Lee and Terrance Franklin. Rybak failed to take action to address these killings or the many complaints of police brutality, despite demands from the community. His administration shut down the Civilian Review Authority, first by defunding it then by replacing it with the utterly ineffective Office of Police Conduct Review. He oversaw the MPD’s involvement in the corrupt Metro Gang Strike Force. He condoned rank brutality against protesters and concertgoers in downtown Minneapolis during the Republican National Convention.

Michelle Gross, of Communities United Against Police Brutality, described her experience as chair of a civilian review redesign work group, which spent 11 months developing recommendations to strengthen the civilian review process in the first years of Rybak’s tenure as mayor. He threw out those recommendations and, according to Gross, “under his tenure, he destroyed civilian oversight of police.”

Nekima Levy Armstrong of Racial Justice Network slammed Rybak, who now claims to speak as an expert on police reform. “He had an opportunity when he was mayor of Minneapolis to show any expertise he might have had, and he failed the residents of the city of Minneapolis, and specifically the Black community and other communities of color who suffered many losses at the hands of a violent and out of control police force under his watch… Many of those officers who killed people under RT Rybak’s watch are still on the force to this today.”

Jess Sundin of Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar said, “TCC4J is working not only for community review boards, but to expand community oversight to community control of policing in Minneapolis. We are working for an all-civilian police accountability council (CPAC). Not some civilian members, but all civilians. We want that council to not only review after problems happen, after violence has occurred. We want that organization to be responsible for setting police policy, negotiating contracts, for determining budgets. If we’re going to defund the police, if we’re going to dismantle or disband MPD, it needs to be a process that’s led, not by the Minneapolis Foundation and the elite of this city, but led by community members that are most impacted. And that’s something that CPAC can deliver us.”

Other speakers included Jaylani Hussein of CAIR-MN, Noah McCourt of Disability Justice Network, and Pete Gamades, of Minneapolis for a Better Police Contract.

#MinneapolisMN #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #CommunityControlOfThePolice #CPACNow #MinneapolisFoundation

Arlington, TX – The Progressive Student Union (PSU) rallied 30 students and community members, June 18, demanding community control and defunding of the Arlington Police Department. “We need to remember why we are doing this,” said Arlington resident Adara Arrie. “This is not something to post on social media for a trend. Change has not happened,”

This rally is one of the many across this country calling for community control of the police and less over-policing in our communities.

“The Arlington Police Department receives $66 million,” said PSU organizer Mark Napieralski, “we could use that money to fund our communities, our health care, our education.”

Speakers recounted the Arlington Police Department’s history of brutality. The APD has murdered at least 13 people in the past seven years alone.

“Do not wait until your loved ones is dead for your voice to be heard,” said PSU member Ebony Taylor, “we should not be killed for the color of our skin.”

PSU ended the rally with taking a knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds at the major intersection of Abrams and Center Streets, to honor George Floyd’s memory.

#ArlingtonTX #StudentMovement #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #ProgressiveStudentUnion #ArlingtonPoliceDepartment #CPACNow

The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) condemns the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) targeted anti-Black racist campaign against Kim Foxx.

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) attack on State's Attorney Kim Foxx has nothing to do with moral outrage and everything to do with humiliation. Foxx, an elected Black official brought to power by a movement for racial justice, has been exposing and undoing the decades-old work of the Chicago Police Department's falsely imprisoning and torturing Black and Brown men.

The FOP's rage at Jussie Smollett's release and the work of the State's Attorney's office more generally stems from a simple fact: the mere word and presumed authority of the CPD are no longer enough to secure their terrorizing grip on Black, Brown, queer and working-class communities in Chicago. Accustomed to clearing case after case through the expedience of torture, extorted confessions and dubious eyewitness testimony – including for the 70 wrongfully convicted prisoners of color who have been released by Foxx in the past two years – the FOP is enraged at the thought of a Black prosecutor who dares to say no to their false assertions and instead demands evidence. In a show of force that served only to highlight their blatant refusal to represent all communities, they even brought in only white police chiefs from the Chicago suburbs to condemn the State's Attorney.

But for confirmation of the FOP's underlying racist ideology, one need look no further than their refusal to DENOUNCE the involvement of known white nationalists at their recent protest against Foxx, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times on April 27.

When asked by the Sun-Times about the presence of white supremacists at their April 1 rally, including the American Guard, American Identity Movement, and the Proud Boys, the president of the FOP had only one comment: he did not know who these groups were.

Significantly, neither he nor FOP Vice-President Martin Preib (when asked separately by WBEZ) have come out to publicly denounce the attendance and existence of groups who are fighting for a United States free of non-Europeans. It is hard to believe that the union representing the second largest police force in the United States, which touts its intelligence capabilities, fusion centers, and partnerships with federal law enforcement, has never heard of white supremacist associations, amidst an alarming national uptick in racialized hate crimes perpetrated by such groups. Graham's statement is either a bald-faced lie or a stunning admission of incompetence on the part of the FOP.

The FOP already supports the blanket criminalization of Black and Brown citizens through a “gang database”; the unjustified murder of people of color, including children; the framing and subsequent deportation of wrongfully convicted immigrants; the denial of well-documented cases of police torture of Black and Latinx men; and resistance to any type of police reform that would curb such racist abuse of power. While all of these activities help further the white nationalist cause, the Sun-Times' chilling photo of American Guard members at the April 1 FOP rally with a veiled death threat reading “Foxx permanently must go” spells a dangerous escalation in the support of this racist agenda. We demand that the FOP unequivocally denounce these groups and prohibit the involvement of white supremacists at its rallies and in Chicago.

The attendance of known white nationalists at FOP rallies should perhaps not be surprising, given that Chicago FOP Lodge 7 police officers unanimously voted to support a racist, Donald Trump, for U.S. president. It is nevertheless alarming and raises the inevitable question of how many FOP members are also members or associates of such hate groups. Communities of color have the right to know who is policing them just as they have to right to democratically determine who is policing them. We therefore call on the FBI, COPA and the press to investigate this question and make their findings available to the public as soon as possible.

Taken together, these facts highlight the FOP's direct role in making Chicago unsafe for residents of color and immigrants. This is the reason we continue to fight together with communities across Chicago for an all-elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) with the power to protect residents from the CPD's racist attacks. This is the reason why 17 incoming city council members support the CPAC ordinance. And this is the reason we will be protesting on Monday, May 6, 2019 at 4 p.m. in Union Park (in front of the FOP office) — to exercise our constitutional right to oppose the FOP, and to amplify our collective voice to pass #CPAC now.

We demand that the FOP heed the call for justice that saw McCarthy, Alvarez, and Rahm Emanuel ousted before they could inflict more harm on Black and Brown communities through neoliberal policies of disinvestment. We demand the FOP stop its racist attacks on Foxx. And we call on all progressive forces and all communities in Chicago to continue their fight for an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (#CPACnow). All Power to the People!

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism #CAARPR