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Prosecutor Anita Alvarez covered up police killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald
"A horrific execution"
Prosecutor Anita Alvarez tried to cover-up the brutal police killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
Anita Alvarez stands in the way of justice for Black Chicagoans. Tell her to resign:
TAKE ACTION
Dear Chris,
Yesterday, officials released graphic video of Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times last October.1 It’s an unimaginably painful video that you don’t have to watch to know its horror. Now, State's Attorney Anita Alvarez has charged Officer Van Dyke with 1st degree murder — the first time in 30 years that a Chicago police officer has faced criminal charges for an on-duty shooting.2
Officer Van Dyke’s arrest is a critical step forward, but it’s too little, too late. Officials, including State's Attorney Alvarez, have known about Laquan’s murder for over a year now and there is evidence that they were trying to cover it up.3 It's unacceptable, and part of a much larger crisis of anti-Black police violence and police impunity in Chicago. Chicago law enforcement kill more Black people than police in almost every other city, yet police are simply never charged.4
Join us in demanding that State's Attorney Anita Alvarez resign and and request a special prosecutor to take over the police killing case of Laquan McDonald.
After Officer Van Dyke fatally shot Laquan on October 20th, 2014, police said it "self-defense." They claimed that Laquan "lunged" at the police with a small knife and then closed the case, making no mention of video evidence. Thanks to a whistleblower in the city government, we now know that the police's story of Laquan's killing was a total lie.5 The graphic video shows Laquan walking up a street and moving out of the way when Office Van Dyke and his partner jump out of their police car. Within seconds, Officer Van Dyke fires two shoots causing Laquan to fall to the ground. As the teen lay in a fetal position, Officer Van Dyke fired another 14 fatal shoots.6 The next day, police deleted 86 minutes worth of footage from a nearby Burger King that caught the killing on camera.7
State's Attorney Anita Alvarez is one of the worst prosecutors in America.8 Although she had access to the video of LaQuan's murder for over a year, she didn't indict Officer Van Dyke until she knew the video would be released and her political career would be threatened if she didn't act. According to the investigative journalists who broke news of the video, “at every level, from the cops on the scene to the highest levels of government, they responded [to Laquan’s killing] by circling the wagons and by fabricating a narrative that they knew was completely false.” 9 Of course, Prosecutor Alvarez is yet to charge any of the other officers or police leadership that helped cover-up Laquan's killing. How can we trust a prosecutor who protected Officer Van Dyke for a year knowing that he murdered a teenager?
What happened to LaQuan is far too common in Chicago and across the country. Chicago police shoot on average 50 people a year, yet no one is ever charged.10 In fact, Chicago law enforcement kill more Black people than cops in almost every other city, and thanks to Prosecutor Alvarez this crisis is likely to continue.11 Her failure to secure justice for Black families goes beyond negligence to deep-seated corruption. In April, Prosecutor Alvarez tanked the case against Chicago Police Officer Dante Servin for fatally shooting 22-year-old Rekia Boyd in order to protect her relationship to the local police union, which donates to her campaign.12 We cannot allow this corruption and systemic racial discrimination to continue. Prosecutor Alvarez is up for re-election next year. If enough people take action we can get her out of office before it's too late.
The year long delay in charging Officer Van Dyke and the lack of justice for countless other police violence victims in Chicago demands that we re-evaluate the leadership of this city. Click here to build a courtroom where justice for Laquan can be served.
Thanks you,
— Scott, Arisha, Lyla, Enchanta, Josh, and the rest of the ColorOfChange team.
November 25th, 2015
References:
1. "Laquan McDonald video reveals false police account – but still leaves gaps," Guardian 11-25-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5570....872082.VH1Gft
2. "Chicago Activist: City’s Call for Peace over Laquan McDonald Video Does Not Extend to Police Dept.," Democracy Now! 11-24-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5571....872082.VH1Gft
3. "How Chicago tried to cover up a police execution," Chicago Reporter 11-24-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5572....872082.VH1Gft
4. "Chicago tops in fatal police shootings among big US cities," Chicago Sun-Times 07-26-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5573....872082.VH1Gft
5. "Journalist on Shooting of Laquan McDonald By Chicago Police Officer: “It Was An Horrific Execution," Democracy Now! 11-24-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5574....872082.VH1Gft
6. See reference 5.
7. See reference 1.
8. "The horrifying behavior of Anita Alvarez, Chicago's head prosecutor," Daily Kos 11-24-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5575....872082.VH1Gft
9. See reference 5.
10. See reference 8.
11. "City Comparison Tool," We the Protesters
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5576....872082.VH1Gft
12. See reference 8.
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Calls for reform after McDonald video release; protesters march in Loop
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...125-story.html
Calls for reform after McDonald video release; protesters march in Loop
Dorothy Holmes, the mother of Ronald Johnson, who was shot and killed by Chicago police in October 2014, holds a news conference outside the mayor's office in March 2015 with activists and members of other families whose relatives have been fatally shot by police. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Patrick M. O'Connell, Grace Wong and Tony BriscoeContact Reporter
Chicago Tribune
Mother accuses police of lying in 2014 fatal shooting
NOVEMBER 25, 2015, 6:46 PM
Community activists and NAACP leaders on Wednesday called for reforms to the way police-involved shootings are handled in Chicago, some of them taking to the streets in the wake of the release of the recording that captured the shooting death of teenager Laquan McDonald.
Leaders of NAACP chapters in the city pushed for changes to the Independent Police Review Authority and for the creation of a review board made up of community members.
"We have been attacked," said Rose Joshua, president of the South Side chapter. "We have been attacked by complicity, patronage and discrimination in our city's system."
In the hall outside the mayor's office Wednesday, there were tears and speeches focused on the same theme.
"I'm tired of seeing mothers grieve. I'm tired of seeing our community suffer," activist William Calloway said at a news conference at City Hall. "I see more large demonstrations happening, especially if this administration won't provide us with transparency and justice."
What began as a small gathering of protesters representing mixed interests swelled to more than 100 people who snarled traffic in the Loop and River North.
Black City Council members renew call for top cop's ouster over teen's shooting
"We're here for what the video of Laquan McDonald's coldblooded murder represents: not just a few bad apples as they tried to say but a systematic 13-month coverup by police," said Marge Parsons, of Stop Mass Incarceration Network. "What that video shows is monsters shooting that young man down in cold blood."
The protest appeared unorganized as people walked into rush-hour traffic.
Demonstrators repeatedly chanted "16 shots!" in reference to the number of bullets Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke fired at McDonald. Van Dyke was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in connection with McDonald's death.
Protesters meandered from State Street, east on Randolph Street, then north on Michigan Avenue to the Magnificent Mile.
Activists take to the streets in reaction to the release of a Chicago police dash-cam video showing the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, 17, by an officer in October 2014. (Chicago Tribune)
At times, they formed circles or sat down in the middle of busy intersections. Some got in the faces of police officers, with one repeatedly blowing a whistle and then, within an inch of them, yelling, "Shoot me 16 times!"
Activists and community leaders scheduled a street demonstration for 11 a.m. Friday, aiming to protest on Michigan Avenue during the busy shopping day on the Magnificent Mile.
At the City Hall event, Dorothy Holmes, the mother of a man killed in a police shooting a week before McDonald was fatally shot, accused police of lying about the circumstances of her son's death. Holmes called for the release of the dash-cam recording of the incident so the public can find out the truth about what happened, in a case she said parallels the shooting of McDonald.
"I'm asking that the mayor, (police Superintendent Garry) McCarthy, (Cook County State's Attorney Anita) Alvarez release the video so that everyone can see that this officer is lying about what happened the night he murdered my son," Holmes said.
Holmes' son Ronald Johnson, 25, was shot Oct. 12, 2014, in the 5300 block of South King Drive. Police at the time said Johnson pointed a weapon at officers during a foot chase, and one officer fired shots at Johnson, who died at a hospital.
Holmes said she began to watch the McDonald video but stopped because it reminded her too much of her son's killing. Holmes, who filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the police officer, said she has seen a video of her son's death.
"Don't nobody want to see no video of your son getting gunned down by the people who are supposed to protect you," she said.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson said he and others, including Illinois U.S. Reps. Bobby Rush and Danny Davis, met Wednesday with younger community activists. The group decided on several responses to the video's release, Jackson said.
• The 11 a.m. demonstration Friday, beginning at Michigan and Wacker Drive and heading north along the Magnificent Mile
• A push to have McCarthy removed.
• Voicing distrust for Alvarez and calling for a special prosecutor to take over the Van Dyke case.
• Calling for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the handling of the case.
"The whole idea is that we need a massive demonstration," Jackson said. "And a massive quest for justice."
He said there are many community members from neighborhoods across the city who are in the mood for change and action.
"We do the best we can to have a common agenda," Jackson said.
The NAACP will hold a rally at noon Monday in front of City Hall regarding police reform. Joshua urged the community to hold aldermen accountable for not taking action when the city settled with the family over McDonald's death.
"We think that when citizens are involved in police actions, and they can question witnesses regarding police shootings, that it will be a better city and a better Chicago," Joshua said.
Joshua said the NAACP does not consider IPRA, a civilian board that handles the most serious cases, to be independent from the Police Department.
"Our good mayor appoints the head of IPRA," she said shakily. "Our good mayor appoints the police chief. And our good mayor appoints the police board. Every one of those agencies has some say-so or some responsibility to answer to senseless crimes in our community. We are calling for reform because of the fact that in the city of Chicago, the mayor is the executive and has charge of this city."
Joshua demanded the mayor and City Council look at the authority of IPRA within 60 days and consider replacing it with a citizen review board.
Rebecca Raines, criminal justice chairwoman for the West Side chapter of the NAACP, said members are in the process of filing a complaint with the Justice Department about how police excessive-force cases are investigated.
"If you put this much taxpayers' money out in settlements, how can you say that everything was justified? Every officer's act was justified? And yet you keep paying out," Raines said.
At the City Hall news conference, activist Calloway also called for McCarthy to be fired and said there needs to be a culture change within the Police Department. He said a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the release of the Johnson video was filed with the city a few weeks ago.
Holmes, Johnson's mother, said police treat residents like criminals, but she said police are the criminals "just hiding behind a badge and gun."
"Right now, we don't even want them in our community," Holmes said. "If they come into our community to harm us, then we don't even need them there."
Chicago Tribune's Dawn Rhodes contributed.
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Copyright © 2015, Chicago Tribune
News like this, I have often heard and I was surprised with the moral condition of contemporary man.
Petition: Arrest Rahm Emanuel, Garry McCarthy and Anita Alvarez for police lynching
Petition: Arrest Rahm Emanuel, Garry McCarthy and Anita Alvarez for police lynching of Laquan McDonald
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Today in Chicago: Mass March demanding Justice for Laquan McDonald
People are taking to the streets in Chicago and across the country in outraged response to the police lynching of Laquan McDonald, a Black 17 year old. While Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and a host of other city officials insist that this was simply the case of one "bad apple," the cover-up and the Chicago Police Department's infamous reputation for racist brutality suggest otherwise.
It is a testament to the strength of the movement and those who worked to uncover the truth that killer cop Jason Van Dyke has been charged with murder. We need to keep up the fight to hold the entire system responsible. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez are accomplices to the murder of Laquan McDonald.
Click here to sign the petition demanding the arrest of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Superintendent Garry McCarthy and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez for the police lynching of Laquan McDonald.
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Chicago marches against police crimes on Black Friday
Chicago marches against police crimes on Black Friday
By staff
Chicago, IL - 1500 people marched on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile on Friday, Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving. “A Unity March and Rally in Memory of Laquan McDonald” was called as part of the Black Friday protests that originated last year as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a Chicago cop in October 2014, and only this week did a court compel Mayor Rahm Emanuel to release the dash cam video of his murder.
The Magnificent Mile is one of the ten richest shopping avenues in the world, and most protesters were there to call for a boycott of stores in order to press their demands for an end to police murders. They did so in a militant action that went on for many hours, shutting down Saks Fifth Avenue and dozens of other expensive stores.
Frank Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression was one of the leaders of the march. He said of the crowd’s sentiments, “The people indicted all those who participated in the cover-up.” The killer cop, Jason Van Dyke, was shielded by Mayor Emanuel and Superintendent of Police Garry McCarthy, for 13 months.
Chapman added, “In the name of unity, Reverend Jesse Jackson has endorsed the demand for an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC).” The movement in Chicago has increasingly called for CPAC to establish community control of the police.
Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]
Top Chicago cop forced out by movement against police crimes
Top Chicago cop forced out by movement against police crimes
By staff
Chicago, IL - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired the Superintendent of Police, Garry McCarthy, Dec. 1. The action came one week after a judge forced the city to release a video of the execution-style murder of a Black youth, Laquan McDonald, by a Chicago cop.
Youth organizations, including Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY), celebrated outside Chicago Police Department headquarters at 7:30 p.m. Aislin Pulley of BLM said, “This is a victory, but there’s a struggle that still continues.”
Frank Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression commended all those in the community who marched in the past week to demand justice for Laquan McDonald. McDonald was shot 16 times by police officer Jason Van Dyke. According to Chapman, “The video clearly showed that the killer cop was in no danger.” Speaking to the crowd at CPD headquarters, Chapman said, “What this cover-up shows is that we can’t have the mayor over the police. We need community control!”
Which way next?
Chapman continued, “The problem doesn’t end with McCarthy. The mayor, the Independent Police Review Authority, they’re all guilty.”
Mayor Emanuel announced the creation of a Task Force on Police Accountability. However, the people appointed include three former prosecutors, a former head of the Illinois State Police and one former public defender. Numerous organizations in Chicago are supporting instead the Alliance proposal for an elected civilian police accountability council to bring an end to the long history of police crimes.
The Black Lives Matter movement and a growing chorus of voices are also calling for the resignation of the mayor. Even the Chicago Tribune said that Emanuel should resign.
Calls for federal investigation
For several years, the Alliance has campaigned to bring in the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the crimes of the Chicago Police. On Dec. 10, dozens of torture victims, their families and the families of murder victims will file formal complaints with the Civil Rights Division, which handles complaints against police departments. A support rally will be held at 5:00 p.m., according to the call from the Alliance, to “hold the federal government accountable for its complicity in police crimes and torture.”
An open letter will also be presented to Attorney General Roberta Lynch demanding the firing of other killer cops, such as Dante Servin, killer of Rekia Boyd; and Gerardo Sierra, killer of Flint Farmer. The protest is adding a demand for a federal investigation of the police torture site known as Homan Square.
In the wake of the crisis from the video of Laquan McDonald’s murder, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is also calling for an investigation by the Department of Justice.
Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]
Protesters in Chicago demand: ‘Stop DOJ complicity with police crimes’
Protesters in Chicago demand: ‘Stop DOJ complicity with police crimes’
By staff
Chicago, IL - Victims of Chicago Police Department (CPD) crimes gathered with 500 supporters on Dec. 10 to file complaints with the U.S. Attorney’s office. The official complaints represented torture victims, such as Mark Clements; Howard Morgan, a former police officer who survived being shot 28 times by Chicago cops; Emmet Farmer, on behalf of his son Flint, whose murder was captured on dash cam video; and Dorothy Holmes, mother of Ronald “Ronnieman” Johnson. The video of Ronnieman’s murder one year ago has just been released by the city, and has sparked another massive wave of protests.
Also filing were Bertha Escamilla and Anabel Perez on behalf of their sons, both tortured into false confessions as teens; and the sister of Heriberto Godinez, killed by CPD in August.
Organized by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, they held a press conference before their meeting with the office of U.S. Attorney, Zachary Farndon. There they presented their demands, including that the Department of Justice prosecute all criminal cops and their co-conspirators in Chicago and Cook County government and that the CPD torture center known as Homan Square be closed.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch will be coming to Chicago to carry out an investigation into the CPD in the wake of the cover-up of the murder of Laquan McDonald. The torture survivors and families of victims expect Lynch will narrow the investigation to address only a few high profile cases, but they want justice for their loved ones as well.
Frank Chapman of the Alliance said, “We want to call attention to the overriding fact that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has consistently been complicit in police crimes in Chicago and that their role in the cover-up of the murder of Laquan McDonald is just the latest example of their complicity.”
Chapman continued “The DOJ is coming to our town but they are not coming to give us justice unless we demand it and fight for it.”
Protesters then wound through downtown Chicago, ending up outside Block 37, the site of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s holiday party. Mike Elliot of the Alliance spoke to the crowd about keeping up the pressure on Emanuel, as well as State’s Attorney, Anita Alvarez, to resign. People in the crowd were happy to disrupt Emanuel’s party.
The Alliance also used the protest to highlight their legislation to create community control of the police. Chapman stated, “We also want to give a human face to our demand for an all elected, Civilian Police Accountability Council. The people must be empowered to hold the police accountable. And we, the people must have the decisive and final voice in how our communities are policed.”
Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]
High school students protests against police terror rock Chicago
High school students protests against police terror rock Chicago
By staff
Chicago, IL - #ResignRahm was trending today, Nov. 9, on Twitter, as high school students and office employees walked off their jobs to march outside city hall. What started as a joke Facebook event resulted in thousands of people in a protest demanding that Mayor Rahm Emanuel resign.
The event page went viral as the crisis in city hall deepened after the release two weeks ago of the video showing a Chicago cop shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times. A USA Today poll found 51% of likely Chicago voters thought Emanuel should leave office.
According to Frank Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, “Chicago has never seen this kind of crisis.”
Later in the evening, hundreds packed the police board meeting to continue to push for the firing of police officer Dante Servin, who shot and killed Rekia Boyd three years ago. One after another, activists came to the mic to speak. “Good evening, unelected board,” were the words spoken by Rachel Williams of Black Youth Project 100.
After Williams, Dorothy Holmes took her turn to condemn the board. Holmes is the mother of Ronald “Ronnieman” Johnson, shot in the back by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) in October 2014. The video of the police killing her son was also released in recent days as a result of the scandal surrounding the police and the city administration. With a quivering but strong voice, she said, “You saw the video. My son was unarmed when murdered by Officer George Hernandez. [State’s Attorney] Anita Alvarez is a bald-faced liar. She needs a Department of Correction suit on. We’re not the criminals. They’re the criminals.”
Shortly after this, the crowd stormed out of the hearing. In a rally outside CPD headquarters, LaCreshia Birts, Black Youth Project 100 member and youth coordinator of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, said, “This unelected board needs to be replaced by an elected, civilian police accountability council.” She called on everyone to join as the Alliance, over 40 family members and survivors of police crimes protests at 5:00 p.m. at Federal Plaza Nov. 10. The families will present complaints to the Department of Justice to demand that their cases be included in the Department of Justice investigation that is beginning to investigate the CPD.
An open letter to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanual
An open letter to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanual
By Frank Chapman
Fight Back News Service is circulating following June 1 statement by Frank Chapman, Field Organizer, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR).
Mayor Rahm Emanuel,
Because you have declared that you will be introducing legislation to the City Council on June 22, 2016 we, who have been fighting for community control of the police here in Chicago, would like to inform you that we totally reject your attempts to hoodwink us into thinking your proclaimed concerns for police accountability are genuine. We will be at City Hall on June 22nd, making sure that our voices will be heard, demanding that our proposed ordinance creating an all elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) be enacted.
Here are two statements you made that we would like to address:
1. On May 13, 2016 you stated that, 'While much work still remains, we will continue to make significant strides on the road to reform. To fully fix Chicago's police accountability system, we must be thoughtful and bold and have the courage to call out and address the root causes that have eroded trust between police and Chicago's communities and some of Chicago's residents."
Before we have that discussion, Mayor Emanuel, you need to deal with your own malfeasance while in office, for example, your complicity in the murder of Laquan McDonald and your refusal to intervene in the name of justice in the cases of Flint Farmer, Ronald Ronnieman Johnson, and numerous other cases where murders by Chicago police officers were video recorded. You could have used your executive authority long ago to move the Police Board to fire Dante Servin, the murderer of Rekia Boyd. You could presently use your executive authority to fire and press for charges against all those CPD officers who lied on their reports in the Laquan McDonald case. You could use the evidence from the over 100 videos about to be released to seek immediate prosecution of police crimes. Then you could do the most honorable of all things and resign as Mayor of Chicago. That's the kind of courage you need to have in this precise moment of history.
2. Also on May 13, 2016 you said, "We will be judged by whether our actions truly measure up to the demands of the moment. I am confident that by creating this new structure and committing to this comprehensive plan, Chicago will be better off because we are facing up to these difficult challenges and we are doing so together."
You, Mr. Mayor, have already been judged by your actions, and the people want you to cease using your executive authority to cover up and excuse police crimes and to hand in your resignation. This is the only honorable thing you can do after 16 shots and a cover up. You should be a co-defendant of Jason Vandyke, the killer of Laquan McDonald. You are not a social reformer advancing the cause of justice for the people. You are a crime partner to all the police criminals at large in this city and we, the people, sooner or later, will bring you and your partners in crime to justice.
No Justice, No Peace!
Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]
Response to the Release of IPRA’s Police Review Evidence --
Response to the Release of IPRA’s Police Review Evidence --
STATEMENT FROM THE REVOLUTION CLUB, CHICAGO
response to the release of IPRA’s police review evidence.
STOP POLICE TERROR! TIME TO GET ORGANIZED FOR AN ACTUAL REVOLUTION - AT THE SOONEST POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY.
For years, people in Chicago have been told that police shootings and brutality complaints were being investigated by IPRA (the so-called Independent Police Review Authority AKA the wastebasket). For years, IPRA has buried the evidence of the Chicago Police Department’s brutality and murder. In response to months of outrage and protests, IPRA just dumped evidence in almost 100 cases, some 5 years old, into the public’s view. Even the way this was done was cold – released on a Friday afternoon while the mayor was out of town! More revelations will be spilling out in the days to come. But right now 4 things need to be said:
1. All this shows once again that the CPD is an occupying Gestapo army terrorizing communities of the oppressed, covering up their crimes and getting away with it. Year after year and yet no punishment for these crimes, including murder after murder. In fact it is the people the police brutalize who get charges and do time. Just one of the cases: a van carrying alleged “burglars” who were unarmed was riddled with 75 bullets, killing one person and wounding 2 others. When the IPRA investigator said it was excessive use of force, he was fired. The case is still being investigated over 4 years later!!!! This was not a “backlog” as the city claims. It was a systematic cover up.
2. NONE of this would have come to light if people had not been raising hell in the streets protesting the fact Black and Latino youth have a target on their backs and are treated as suspects and brutalized from a very early age. In Ferguson, the youth said ENOUGH and rose up against the violence of the police and the killing of Mike Brown. The protests that rocked Chicago after the video was released showing Laquan McDonald being gunned down in the street like a dog – this forced the city to release the material from these cases. There is only one “reasonable demand” in this situation – INDICT, CONVICT, SEND THESE BRUTAL COPS TO JAIL. THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY AS HELL.
3. “The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people. It is to serve and protect the system that rules over the people. To enforce the relations of exploitation and oppression, the conditions of poverty, misery and degradation into which the system has cast people and is determined to keep people in....” (Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:25) This is why the police keep murdering and brutalizing here and across the country and get away with it. There is no reform or transparency that will “fix” the police because the system needs them to maintain a “law and order that enforces all this oppression and madness.” Until we learn this lesson, people will be fooled once again by the rulers of this system.
4. The days when this system can keep doing this must be over. The Revolutionary Communist Party is organizing NOW to overthrow this system at the soonest possible time. Preparing to lead an actual revolution to bring about a radically new and better society: the New Socialist Republic in North America. The RCP has the strategy and the leader in Bob Avakian – what is missing is you. Join with us, standup and learn more about this as you work with the Revolution Club and go to Revcom.us to get with the revolution.
Revolution Club, Chicago 312 804-9121 [email protected]
Chicago ordinance would make protesting police abuses a hate crime
Chicago ordinance would make protesting police abuses a hate crime
By staff
Chicago, IL - Alderman Edward M. Burke has introduced an ordinance to expand Chicago’s hate crime ordinance to include any offense against police officers or firefighters. “It is the goal of this ordinance to give prosecutors and judges every tool to punish those who interfere with, or threaten or physically assault, our public safety personnel," Alderman Burke said in a June 6 news release.
Co-chairperson Ted Pearson of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) blasted the proposed ordinance. “This is an attempt to intimidate the movement for community control of the police by suggesting that protests against police crimes are hate crimes.”
It’s potentially intimidating, Pearson said, because people who protest police crimes could be charged under this law. “This is adding insult to injury to those who are outraged when the police murder an unarmed person and protest,” he said. He cited the 2012 murder by police of Jamaal Moore, 23, who was unarmed. Scores of people from the neighborhood at Garfield Boulevard and Ashland Avenue angrily protested the murder, and several were arrested. “Would people in such circumstances now be charged with a hate crime against the police under this new law?”
The CAARPR has proposed legislation to the city council creating an all-elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC), and has organized tens of thousands of supporters of this proposal in communities throughout the city. The coalition supporting CPAC will demonstrate outside the city council the morning of June 22, the day Mayor Rahm Emanuel is scheduled to introduce his ‘police reform’ ordinance.
Frank Chapman, Field Organizer of the CAARPR, declared, “The people can see through the meaningless smoke and mirrors game being played by the mayor. People in the communities that live under a virtual police state are demanding real community control. We are demanding passage of CPAC!”
Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]
Two Years After the Police Murder of Laquan McDonald - Labor Beat video
Two Years After the Police Murder of Laquan McDonald - Labor Beat video
Two Years After the Police Murder of Laquan McDonald
On YouTube at: https://youtu.be/xpaulby-yfY
+ YouTube Video
Since the police murder of Laquan McDonald by the Chicago Police in 2014, it has been a challenge to keep track of similar brazen executions by the cops. But the shooting of Laquan gave rise to a unique, interrelated bundle of political developments.
The videotape of Laquan’s shooting became an even bigger issue following the Mayoral election when people realized that Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration had withheld the tape's release so it would not damage his vote count. This ignited powerful protests in the streets in front of City Hall and city-wide calling for Emanuel’s resignation. The scandal also accelerated calls for throwing out the City’s rubber-stamp police accountability charade. Such calls have been led by the movement for a Civilian Police Accountability Council, and if successful would seriously undermine Mayor Emanuel’s viability.
On October 22, 2016 the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and other groups supporting CPAC held a protest march, announcing an economic boycott on Michigan Avenue for the holiday season.
Labor Beat interviewed activists in CPAC, whose banner led the march. Mike Siviwe Elliott of CAARPR summarized the two-year history of the Laquan case and its aftermath. This short history lesson is enhanced with Labor Beat’s exclusive archival footage of the 'Rahm must resign’ protests and of a CPAC press conference at City Hall calling for independent, civilian-controlled police accountability.
Joe Iosbaker, member of SEIU Local 73, discusses his own union’s overwhelming support of the CPAC proposal. Iosbaker also dismisses the Mayor's maneuvers to push a placebo ‘reform' for police accountability, which in fact preserves mayoral control. “It’s basically just changing the name of the old system.” Length -
Two years since Laquan was murdered: activist remember, march up Michigan Ave. Photo: Labor Beat
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UPDATE. Labor Beat welcomes Cambridge, MA to our list of cities (7) where we are on cable-tv as a series. Dining hall workers at Harvard have been on strike and students have gone out in support. Recently the Teamsters donated $10,000 to the workers. This is an important time for Labor Beat to start pro-union cable-tv in that town.
Free all victims of Chicago police torture
Free all victims of Chicago police torture
By Joe Iosbaker
Chicago, IL - The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression led the families of 17 wrongfully-convicted men to meet with Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in February. In the meeting, Foxx committed to investigate each of the cases and where there is proof of innocence, she said she would release them.
Frank Chapman, Field Organizer of the Alliance, demanded much more of Fox: He called for the immediate release of all victims of police torture. "These men should not spend another day in prison,” he declared. "Every one of the more than 100 men who have stated they falsely confessed under torture by known torturers should be released, at least on recognizance bonds while the SA decides whether to continue cases against them."
"But even this is just a first step," Chapman declared. "In addition, these known torturers and their prosecutorial aiders and abettors should be indicted and prosecuted for their ongoing conspiracy to violate the civil rights of their victims.”
Chapman pointed out that the statute of limitations on the crime of torture cannot start to run out, “until the victims of the crimes are free and fully compensated for the loss of decades of their lives behind bars."
Free Jaime Hauad
Earlier in February, a group of mothers of some of the wrongfully convicted men held a press conference at Cook County Jail to demand Foxx keep her campaign promise to investigate the cases of the wrongfully convicted, starting with Jaime Hauad. On Feb. 6, the Chicago Sun Times had editorialized that Hauad deserved to have his case reviewed by Foxx, and cited the Illinois Torture Commission, which said in 2014 that there was strong evidence that Hauad had been tortured.
Hauad was 17 years old in 1997 when he was arrested, tortured, charged and sentenced to life in prison for a double murder he didn’t commit. The Area 5 Gang Crimes Unit of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) who tortured him and concocted the evidence was headed by Detective Reynaldo Guevara, who is now known for having framed 51 men and women for murder. Guevara’s partner, Detective Joseph Miedzianowski, is serving a life sentence for running a criminal gang within the CPD, and was accused of abusing suspects and fixing cases.
Hauad is one of the victims of torture at the hands of Chicago cops that are still imprisoned, and he is one of 29 men still in prison having been framed by Guevara. Hauad’s mother, Anabelle Perez, a member of the Chicago Alliance, demanded that her son’s case be investigated, that he be set free, and his torturers be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
As a result of the earth-shaking struggles against police crimes in the past several years, Hauad and his family could finally get some justice.
Chicago: Epicenter of the crisis of police crimes
Foxx was elected in 2016 in a protest vote against her predecessor, Anita Alvarez. A wave of anger swept Alvarez from office after she was exposed for her role in the cover up of the police murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in October 2014. McDonald was executed in cold blood by Officer Jason Van Dyke. The world has seen the video of Van Dyke shooting McDonald, who had been carrying only a three-inch knife, and was walking away when the killer cop shot him 16 times from a distance of 20 feet or more. The outcry over McDonald’s murder created a crisis of legitimacy for Mayor Rahm Emanuel that continues to this day.
Chicago had already been known as the wrongful conviction capital and the torture capital of the country. This deserved reputation came after the revelations in the 1990s of the more than 200 victims of torture, almost all young Black and Latino men, at the hands of a gang of cops headed by Detective Jon Burge. Now another gang in blue is being exposed, headed by Guevara, which targeted mainly Puerto Rican, Mexican and Black youth in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.
Release of the Marquette Park Four
The statements by candidate Foxx have so far produced action in one well-known case, when she refused to retry the Marquette Park Four - Lashawn Ezell, Larod Styles, Charles Johnson and Troshawn McCoy. These men spent 22 years in prison, but were proven to have been wrongfully convicted while Anita Alvarez was in office. Alvarez refused to drop the charges against them and release them.
The innocence of the four men having been accepted by the states’ attorney, their case now becomes a powerful condemnation of the CPD. As Ted Pearson of the Chicago Alliance put it, “Their release is a victory in the struggle for justice for victims of the crimes of Chicago police officers, corrupt prosecutors, and judges who turn a blind eye toward police crimes.”
Struggle for justice for victims continues
In March, the Chicago Alliance announced the launch of an effort to demand Foxx use her office to release all torture victims. Chapman explained that the Alliance is supporting the actions she is taking. “This is the first time in 26 years that a state’s attorney broke with the Fraternal Order of the Police, broke with the mayor, on the question of torture.”
During the meeting with Foxx in February, Chapman stated, “As long as you’re moving in the right direction, we’ll move with you. If you move in the wrong direction, we’ll move against you.”
In her election campaign, Foxx had criticized her predecessor for failure to do more with the branch of her office called the Convictions Integrity Unit. The Alliance believes that Foxx is compelled to address the gaping sore of the torture victims because, as she said repeatedly during her campaign, her goal is to address the “widespread public distrust in our broken criminal justice system.”
Foxx drops case against Robert Almodovar and William Negron
On April 10, two of Guevara’s cases came before a judge to decide if they should be tried again. Robert Almodovar and William Negron were 19 and 17 years old when they were falsely accused of a double murder in 1994. They have been in prison for 22 years.
In 2015, a review of the case was undertaken by the City of Chicago. Mayor Emanuel was compelled to launch an independent investigation of Guevara’s victims. That investigation led to an appellate court ruling that the prosecutors’ evidence was “arguably quite tenuous.”
In Judge James Linn’s court, Assistant State’s Attorney Celeste Stack actually argued against a new trial, attempting to refute the mounting evidence showing Guevara’s crimes. The Chicago Alliance blitzed Foxx’s office with phone calls in response, and two days later, Foxx made a statement that, given the evidence presented in court on April 10, her office will not retry Almodovar and Negron.
Continued fight for community control of the police
For the Alliance, the release of the Marquette Park Four, and the State’s Attorney refusing to re-try Guevara’s victims is also an opportunity for educating about CPAC, the legislation for an elected, Civilian Police Accountability Council. According to activists like Bertha Escamilla, whose son Nick was tortured by Burge’s detectives and spent 15 years in prison, “Had CPAC existed, those men wrongfully convicted based on tortured confessions would never have been imprisoned.” This is because CPAC would have the power to investigate all complaints of police crimes.
Chapman, too, returned to the demand for community control of the police. "The passage of CPAC will be a great strike for freedom," Chapman stated. "It will end the current situation in which CPD officers can stop and frisk, arrest, and even murder people just because they are Black, Puerto Rican or Chicano/Mexicano, because it will put the power to fire these officers and refer them for prosecution into the hands of the people."
Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]
Chicago police keep nearly 400,000 on a secret watch list
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017.../chic-m24.html
Chicago police keep nearly 400,000 on a secret watch list
By George Marlowe
24 May 2017
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) keeps nearly 400,000 people on a secret watch list, according to a recent Chicago Sun Times report and analysis. While Chicago police admitted to having a substantially smaller watch list last year, the actual number of those being targeted for surveillance is far greater than anything reported before.
Nearly 15 percent of Chicago’s population is now considered “targets” as part of the “Strategic Subject List” (SSL) that the CPD maintains. The list is being utilized as surveillance and monitoring tool to crackdown on large sections of the working class in Chicago, particularly in the neighborhoods wracked by poverty, violence and social breakdown.
Last year, Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson claimed that 1,400 were on a “target list” for causing increased levels of gun violence in the city. After an extended legal fight, the Sun-Times was able to uncover a far more extensive surveillance list of more than 398,000 people—the majority of whom have not been charged with a violent crime or illegal gun possession.
The massive database includes all those who have been previously arrested and fingerprinted for minor crimes since 2013. Disputing the CPD’s claims that those at the top of the list are the most likely to commit gun violence, the report showed that more than half of those at the top of the list have never been arrested for any illegal possession of guns.
Johnson defended the use of the massive surveillance list last Friday, stating that it was part of an effort to track those likely to get caught up in a “lifestyle” of violence. Previously, he claimed that the much smaller list was used for “enforcement.” He has since backed down from the claim that the 400,000 list is an enforcement tool, stating that “it is not a target list” and that “we [the CPD] don’t use the list for any enforcement actions.”
According to the department, the SSL database is programmatically generated by an algorithm — developed by the Illinois Institute of Technology — to classify various sections of the population according to their “risk” factor to commit violence. The criteria reportedly include such things as whether they had been previously identified as a gang member or if they have been arrested for a crime, including non-violent offenses.
Police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi compared the scores generated to a “credit score” and added that the list was used to determine how police forces would be deployed to different neighborhoods. He suggested that the list would not be used to target and arrest anyone without a reason, a claim contradicted by the data from the report itself.
?Johnson also claimed last year that the list was a response to the rise in gun violence in 2016 in Chicago. While violence increased last year, these levels were in large part driven by systemic poverty, gang fragmentation, school closures, decades of deindustrialization and the increasing lack of any future for youth in terms of jobs or decent living standards.
Working-class youth unemployment and underemployment in Chicago remains pervasive and the nationwide fragmentation of gangs is the only social fabric left for many. A reflection of this breakdown is the increasing use of assault weapons by gangs in recent years.
While immense wealth is accumulated at the heights of American society—Chicago alone is home to seventeen billionaires with a combined net worth of $45 billion—the best hopes of working-class youth are frequently extinguished. As recently as 2013, nearly a half of those killed by gun violence were under 25.
In short, the violence in Chicago is an acute reflection of ever growing levels of social inequality amidst the complete failure of the capitalist system.
The response of Democratic mayor Rahm Emanuel to the social crisis and the outbreak of violence has been to increase the presence and powers of the police forces—while schools have been closed, teachers laid off and social programs axed. None of the root causes of such social violence are being addressed in the slightest.
Moreover, the Chicago police have a long and sordid history of violence against the poorest sections of the population, with the full sanction of the Democratic Party and the entire political establishment for more than a century.
The drawing up of the SSL database echoes the operations of the CPD’s notorious Red Squad, which surveilled, infiltrated and disrupted a wide array of political organizations beginning in the late 1880s and continuing throughout much of the 20th century, with the express aim of intimidating working class organizations and thwarting any socialist or anarchist influence.
Earlier in January, following protests over the police murder of LaQuan McDonald in 2015, the Department of Justice (DOJ) produced a damning report of systemic and unconstitutional practices by the CPD in recent years.
While the DOJ report issued toothless proposals, including the negotiation of a court-enforced consent decree to enforce so-called “reforms,” this has seen been scaled back under the Trump administration. Consent decrees, which have routinely failed to implement any long-lasting “reforms” of police violence, are used by the Justice Department and the police establishment to cover up the crimes of the police.
The killing of McDonald in 2015 created widespread public outrage across the country and around the world. His murder and the release of the video—after pressure by an independent journalist—was followed by nearly two years of cover up and false claims of police “ reform” and oversight agencies. Everything was done to stem the crisis for Emanuel politically. Opposition to police murders was frequently met with a military style response by the Obama administration and local police in cities like Ferguson.
Jeff Sessions, the Trump administration’s Attorney General, has made it clear that he is opposed to any restraint on the CPD through a consent decree. Despite this, Emanuel has been fraudulently claiming that he is still committed to enacting reform of the police.
Earlier this year, Johnson proposed a modification of the CPD’s “use of force” policies which scaled back some earlier proposals, adding in that police officers could use deadly force if it was “reasonable and proportional.” The most recent draft produced in May claims to also respect the “sanctity of life.” Whatever the actual content of these departmental policies, the long history of violence by the CPD indicates that these will be largely cosmetic.
Having previously met with Emanuel, the Trump administration has for its part emboldened the most fascistic layers in the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). The new FOP president, Kevin Graham, has been cited as wanting to fight against any police reform efforts of any kind. All criticism of the police is effectively being treated as an act of war. Despite systemic media complicity in covering up police violence in the past, Graham stated, “We will no longer be victimized by a biased anti-Police media.”
The vice president of the FOP, Martin Preib, has also made similar claims that any criticism of the police is merely left-wing propaganda. Preib is a also defender of the most notorious police commander in the history of Chicago Police Department—Jon Burge—who was in charge of systemic torture as well as the extraction of false murder confessions from individuals who were later proven to be innocent.
Meanwhile, police violence and brutality has continued unabated.
In February, 55-year-old Michelle Robey was shot and killed by the Chicago police in the middle of a busy traffic intersection on the South Side. All indications were that Robey had severe mental illness. In April, 48-year-old Shawn Brider was found dead in a Chicago police station. Police claimed he had a cardiac arrest while family have questioned why he was arrested in the first place.
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Justice for Laquan McDonald!
via fightbacknews.org
Chicago, IL — At 8 a.m. on August 11, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) will lead a rally outside the Cook County Courthouse before the court hearing for Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke.
Van Dyke has been charged with first degree murder, official misconduct and aggravated battery after fatally shooting 17-year-old African American Laquan McDonald 16 times in October 2014. This is the first time a Chicago police officer has ever been charged with first degree murder of a civilian. The conviction of Van Dyke could mark a watershed moment in the movement to stop police crimes against Black and Latino communities.
Police dashcam video of Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times, within seconds of exiting his squad car, was released in November 2015. Mayor Rahm Emanuel fought against releasing the video for over a year, as it exposed the lies written in official police reports attempting to cover up their crimes. This included falsely stating that the victim had assaulted the officers, when it is clear in the video that McDonald had his back turned when Van Dyke mercilessly emptied his entire clip into McDonald’s body.
The video release sparked massive protests to demand justice for Laquan, provoking the greatest crisis of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's tenure.
The Chicago Alliance is demanding that Judge Vincent Gaughan proceed with the trial, stop the delays that have been going on for months, and jail the racist killer cop Jason Van Dyke.
Frank Chapman, a leader of the Chicago Alliance, told Fight Back!, “We have been so battered by this corrupt to the core, racist criminal justice system until we really have no expectations of getting justice at all. We didn't get justice in the murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, Philando Castile, Bettie Jones, Flint Farmer, Ronnieman Johnson, Tamir Rice and the list goes on and on until the days turn into decades. So why would it be different with the murder of Laquan? Well it won’t be if we don't make the difference.
“We must be more than outraged. We must show up for justice on August 11. Every victim of a police crime, everyone who lost a loved one or neighbor, everyone who is sick and tired of cops getting away with murder - must show up August 11, 8 a.m. at 2650 S. California. All power to the people!”
The Chicago Alliance will bus people to the courthouse from their office on 1325 S. Wabash, Room 105 at 7 a.m. Anyone wanting to reserve a seat on the bus can call 312-939-2750.
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