The case, which was continued to September 18, referenced a speeding ticket issued to Leanne Cusack on June 5, when she struck and killed Murod Kurdi with her car. Cusack had admitted to drinking before getting in her vehicle, but when Oak Lawn Police Department (OLPD) arrived at the scene, they allowed Cusack to leave without alcohol tests or arrest for the death she caused. The next day she was seen drinking at the same bar.

After the crowd of over 100 supporters raised chants for justice, Murod Kurdi’s mother and brother, Fadia Muhamad and Suphi Kurdi, shared their grief at the loss of their family member with the press.

“I want to see justice,” Muhamad said. “There is no parent that should ever have to go through something like this.” She also connected the case to the larger issue of public safety in Oak Lawn, expressing the urgency of accountability that is needed to prevent another tragedy. “If there is no justice, this can and will happen again,” she said. “It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when and who the next victim will be.”

For Murod Kurdi’s family and the Arab community of Oak Lawn, justice means prosecution — by the Cook County State's Attorney's office — of Kurdi’s killer to the full extent of the law. Kurdi’s community also demands that Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul open an independent investigation into the OLPD for its crimes and neglect toward Arab communities and other oppressed nationalities.

In line with the racist stance of OLPD, the court staff at Bridgeview County showed special treatment for Kurdi’s killer, while denying his family and their supporters adequate room to witness the hearing. Court officers let Cusack enter and exit the courtroom through a backdoor to avoid facing the family of the man she killed.

Kurdi’s case comes less than a year after three Oak Lawn police officers beat 17-year-old Hadi Abuatelah within an inch of his life. One of those three is Mark Hollingsworth, who was also one of the officers assigned to review the footage of Kurdi’s killing, though he wasn't at the scene when it happened. In a meeting with Fadia Muhamad, Hollingsworth claimed he saw enough to know that the killer wasn't drunk.

The organized response from the community in Hadi Abuatelah’s case has resulted in Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx bringing charges against Patrick O'Donell, one of the three offending officers.

“The struggle of the Arab community against police crimes in Oak Lawn shows that justice is not handed down by the system,” said Arab American Action Network organizer Muhammad Sankari. “Justice is won by fighting back and demanding it.”

#ChicagoIL #AsianNationalities #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PoliceCrimes #MurodKurdi

Milwaukee, WI – Thursday, May 25 marked the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by killer cop Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. George Floyd’s murder sparked a rebellion in which millions took to the streets in the U.S. and around the world. His murder resonated in Milwaukee, a city with countless victims of police crimes. To commemorate George Floyd and all victims of police crimes in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR) organized a vigil.

“May 25, 2020 was a day that changed many of us,” said Femi Akinmoladun, member of the Milwaukee Alliance. Tens of thousands of people in Milwaukee poured into the streets to demand justice for George Floyd and other victims of police crimes in the city. Milwaukee has a long history of police crimes, many of which involved officers or racist vigilantes choking a Black or brown man to death.

Speaking to this history, Brian Verdin, education chair of the MAARPR, said, “When I saw the footage of George Floyd’s murder, I couldn’t help but think about the people in Milwaukee who have been killed in similar ways – choked to death. I think about Ernest Lacy in 1981. Derek Williams in 2011. Corey Stingley in 2012. Joel Acevedo in 2020, one month before George Floyd.”

Three years have passed, and although the streets aren’t filled with thousands of people, the organizing has not stopped. As Lo Cross, co-chair of the MAARPR, stated, “There’s a lot of work to be done. It’s a long struggle. It has been three years since George Floyd was murdered, but the struggle continues. We’re only going to win what we’re organized to take. We can’t wait for the next spontaneous event to set off another wave of struggle. We must build up our organization and be ready.”

The struggle continues, and in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Alliance has been diligently building partnerships with other community organizations to push for progressive changes. Speaking to this, Donyae Robinson, organizer with Black Leaders Organizing Communities, said, “If we stand up together, I feel like nothing can stop us.”

#MilwaukeeWI #OppressedNationalities #PoliceBrutality #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism #GeorgeFloyd #MilwaukeeAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression

By Destiny Spruill and Jacob Buckner

Chicago, IL – Two factors have made public safety a lynchpin issue in the upcoming mayoral election between Brandon Johnson, former teacher supported by the Chicago Teacher’s Union, and Paul Vallas, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, backed by the Fraternal Order of the Police (FOP). First is the rise in the crime rate in the city in recent years. The second, and principal, reason is the law-and-order backlash that followed the historic protests of the George Floyd Rebellion.

Groups like the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) are fighting to make sure that the city’s supposed concern for public safety prioritizes police accountability for its Black, Latino, indigenous and working-class residents. These residents face the highest rates of incarceration and violent police raids and have been the most likely to face the full force of the police state.

You can’t discuss public safety without discussing the struggle for community control of the police – a struggle for democratic rights.

“This mayoral election is historic. It is the first time in four decades that we’ve had a truly progressive candidate for mayor – Brandon Johnson. For the first time in history, the people of Chicago have a real choice between the old reactionary, recycling of the status quo and taking a progressive road towards advancing the democratic right of the people,” says Frank Chapman, the executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression (NAARPR).

The movement for community control of the police in Chicago began over 50 years ago. CAARPR played a leading role in the 1970s and starting 11 years ago has led it through its Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) campaign. They believe that electing Brandon Johnson is an important piece in the broader struggle for police accountability. Understanding the history of CAARPR’s CPAC movement is crucial in assessing the needs of Chicago’s most vulnerable populations. It is also crucial in evaluating how we can chart the way forward.

CAARPR and its struggle for community control of police in Chicago

By 1968, the first citywide attempt at community control was started by the Black Panther Party (BPP), which initiated a number of programs that demanded to transform the power structure of the police and its effect on the lives of Black Chicagoans. The Panthers believed that community control of the police was a political necessity for Black community members to decide for themselves how public safety would be implemented. Their demands were clear: violent police officers must be held accountable through community boards, the people must decide the funding of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), and the power of supervising and administering the police department must be transferred to the citizens of Chicago. The National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression (NAARPR) took up these demands and created a model to bring these demands to legislation.

Starting in 2012, CAARPR, the Chicago branch of NAARPR, provided a model based on the principle set forth by the Panthers, and on legislation that had been developed by the National Alliance in the 1970s. Decades later, the need for this movement continued as racist policing in Chicago increased as a result of the heightened power of the CPD. In 2012, 22-year-old Rekia Boyd was murdered by an off-duty police detective named Dante Servin. Following community protests, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression began a ten-year process of building a movement to pass an ordinance that would create community-controlled police boards in all 22 Chicago police districts. This movement became known as the Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) campaign.

CAARPR spent the next years in working-class neighborhoods most affected by police violence and spoke to survivors and community members about their public safety needs. These efforts continued from the murder of Laquan McDonald in 2014 to the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. When George Floyd was murdered, the National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression called for a national day of protest on May 30. In Chicago, 20,000 marched or car caravanned into the Chicago Loop. In the following weeks, over 100,000 marched in Chicago. Every protest called for “CPAC now!”

The campaign collected over 60,000 signatures with an average of 1000 signatures in 38 wards. Their efforts proved that victory is only possible with the leadership and experience of the community. This mass movement created the conditions for passing legislation.

By 2021, CAARPR had the support of 19 of the 50 city council members. A competing police accountability legislation, the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA), had the support of 26 of the 50 city council members. Council members of the Socialist Caucus of Chicago told GAPA that they would not cast a vote to support their legislation unless they came to an agreement with the CPAC legislation proposed by CAARPR. After then-mayor Lori Lightfoot refused GAPA’s demand to include control of police policy in their legislation, negotiations between CAARPR and GAPA began, and a compromise was reached two months later.

The Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance was passed in the city council and officially created two bodies for police accountability: the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) and the police district councils, for which there were elections in February. These bodies have the following powers: Directly investigating crimes of police violence; determining Chicago Police Department policy; hiring and firing the Chief Administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA); holding hearings about police superintendents; and recommending preventative, proactive, community-based and evidence-based solutions to violence.

These District Councils and the CCPSA go beyond stopping vicious and racist police officers, they hold a model for community members directly affected by racist police violence to see justice and build a regenerative model to change public safety.

Many of the candidates for these boards had never run for public office – they are motivated by their own experiences with police violence. Cynthia McFadden, for example, ran for the board because she was inspired by her father who fled the South due to extreme violence only to be murdered by Chicago police the day of his arrival. Coston Plummer was motivated by his older brother who was forced by Chicago police to falsely confess to a murder when he was just 15 years old. These candidates believe that ECPS represents the will of communities impacted by police violence to finally experience justice.

On February 28, 2023, for the first time in history, residents of Chicago had the opportunity to vote for these boards – resulting in 39 of 66 district councilors being elected from the movement for police accountability. CAARPR, alongside their partners in their community, expanded this grassroots campaign and made it possible to succeed.

From CPAC to ECPS to Brandon Johnson

“The terms of this election were set by the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Across the U.S., 26 million people called for justice – including Brandon Johnson. Brandon Johnson has received the support of the Chicago Alliance because he alone included police accountability and working with ECPS in his platform and campaign. Paul Vallas received support from the FOP to maintain injustice. On February 28, the Black community voted against the FOP and for justice through democratic control of the police in the district council elections,” says Joe Iosbaker, cochair of the Labor Committee of CAARPR.

During a mayoral forum on public safety at the UIC Forum on March 14, Paul Vallas put forth his vision of police accountability by saying, “Community policing fundamentally means, you have beat officers on every beat. So every single beat is covered by a patrol car, manned with officers. Officers know the community, and are known by name and by badge number, by the community.” Vallas has seized on rising concerns for public safety – which have steadily grown as the city of Chicago experiences more violence and believes the only way forward is to increase police presence and grant them more control over the city. Chicago’s FOP, an organization that is nationally known for its hostility towards Black and brown people, threw its support behind Paul Vallas. He welcomed its endorsement and thanked “Chicago’s finest, men and women of the FOP who sacrifice their lives to make our city safer. Reducing crime and making Chicago safer are my top priorities.”

Brandon Johnson has built his public safety platform with the intention of addressing the “root causes of violence and poverty.” Johnson’s campaign for Chicago mayor is not only about the use of community control boards, but about creating an overall model of safety which positions the needs of the community at its center. Johnson argues that public safety is not only about stopping police violence but about investing in generative initiatives such as mental health care and housing.

Johnson believes these measures will prevent systemic violence from attacking Chicago communities. One of his initiatives involves getting rid of the racist “Gang Database,” which currently “labels more than 280,000 people – 95% people of color as gang members without requiring evidence of gang affiliation or informing them of their listing.” The Gang Database has been used to profile and surveil Black neighborhoods, resulting in heightened Black and Latino arrests. Johnson also supports the Anjanette Young Ordinance, which will stop no-knock warrants. He believes in collaborating with the democratically elected District Councils to manage police accountability and decide the Chicago Police Department's policy.

Each of Johnson's initiatives interconnects with the overall needs of the community, including mental health. Within mental health initiatives, Johnston aims to Launch Crisis Response Teams with non-police personnel, reopen all 14 mental health centers, and expand the 988 mental health crisis hotline to 24 hours.

The fight for Brandon Johnson is the fight for justice for the Black and Latino community In Chicago

The mayoral election between Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas will decide if the city continues the struggle for a public safety plan that includes Black and Latino Chicagoans and its working-class neighborhoods. The grassroots work of the last ten years – the struggle for democratic control of the police – could be upheld through Brandon Johnson’s leadership. For ten years, Chicagoans have fought for police accountability, affirmative mental health treatment, and housing for all community members. Many believe Brandon Johnson’s candidacy represents the work that Black Chicagoans have put toward a movement to see their own collective needs met against systemic violence.

Throughout the ten-year CPAC campaign, CAARPR created a grassroots movement that won a historic ordinance to hold the police accountable. CAARPR responds to the calls for public safety this way: “Black and brown communities are over-policed and under-protected. There’s a reason that 70% of violent crimes in our neighborhoods go unsolved. No one trusts the police. And why would they? After generations of police crimes, like the reign of torturer Jon Burge!” In the words of Frank Chapman, “We want to hold the police accountable for what they do, and what they don’t do.”

CAARPR’s current task is to uphold the advances made by the district council elections through the election of Brandon Johnson, but they will carry forth the mission toward real police accountability, in partnership with the local community, well beyond this mayoral election. We will continue to look to them as leaders in our struggle against state-sanctioned violence.

#ChicagoIL #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #Elections #ChicagoAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #CommunityControlOfThePolice #BrandonJohnson

Los Angeles, CA – On March 26, over 50 people gathered at Belvedere Lakeside Park in East LA to support the surviving family of David Ordaz, Jr. The event was led by Emily Ordaz, the 16-year-old surviving daughter of Ordaz, and Centro CSO’s Sol Marquez.

Los Angeles Sheriff's deputies killed Ordaz outside of his family home on March 14, 2021, after Ordaz was suffering a mental health crisis and his family called 911.

During the beginning rally, the various speakers included Emily Ordaz, Ordaz’s mother Edelmira Ramirez, the family of Marco Vasquez Jr., the family of Paul Rea, the family of Leonel Chavez, the family of David Sullivan, Say Their Names-LA, Luis Sifuentes of Centro CSO and Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Street Watch LA.

Among the passionate and inspiring speeches were demands for more community control of LA County Sheriff’s Department and LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva, the jailing or prosecution of each officer involved in these officer-involved shootings, and solutions to an obvious problem: Los Angeles is a leader in police brutality cases around the country, of which Chicanos are the majority of the casualties.

After the rally, the crowd was led by the Ordaz family to protest the East LA Sheriff’s station, on the opposite side of the park. Hilda Pedroza, the sister of David Ordaz, Jr., pushed her mother Edelmira Ramirez’s wheelchair to the front door of the station. Ramirez pressed the call button, used when asking for assistance from the deputies, or to be let into the station. Ramirez began to plea through the intercom button that she needed to be assisted in winning justice for her son David Ordaz, Jr. The crowd of protesters became angered by the deputies ignoring Ramirez’s cries for help.

Pedroza, inspired by her mother, angrily grabbed a microphone brought by the organizers o