More than 65 community, faith, legal and policy organizations from across Chicago have signed an open letter calling for the Mayor to address gun violence by focusing on addressing its root causes. The call comes ahead of Memorial Day weekend, which has become the unofficial kickoff for debates about how Chicago should best address the seasonal rise in gun violence. 

Every year, our city experiences rising temperatures coinciding with heightened gun violence. This cycle commences with Mayor Lightfoot and Superintendent Brown announcing plans for increasing the numbers of police on the streets and the number of people being caged at Cook County Jail. Instead of acknowledging that this violence is a direct outcome of years of divestment rooted in systemic racism, the Mayor and Superintendent have chosen to routinely blame the violence on reforms to our criminal legal system. The city’s “public safety” strategy is not only failing to reduce gun violence, it’s also further destabilizing the communities most directly impacted by it. These policies and their rhetoric are damaging to our collective efforts to attain true community safety. Our city has the second highest per capita spending on police in the country and is home to the country’s largest single-site jail, yet our neighborhoods are still continually subjected to high levels of gun violence. 

This year, we say no more. We cannot accept more of the same harmful narratives and policies from City Hall that sideline the root causes of violence and criminalize community members, all while failing to meaningfully invest in what truly keeps us safe. 

Our communities’ greatest resource is its people, so it is harmful when our mayor insists that systemic problems will be solved by simply arresting and locking more of our neighbors away. We are calling on Mayor Lightfoot to abandon these policies that have failed to keep us safe, and focus on investing in:

• Community-based violence interruption programs
• Restorative justice programs
• Supportive resources for survivors of violence, including gender-based violence
• Youth programs 
• Stable affordable housing
• Good paying jobs with benefits
• Quality public mental and physical health care

These are the resources that our communities need to thrive, and as long as punishment is prioritized over these supports, we will not achieve community safety. As long as trauma is punished instead of healed, our city will remain trapped in cycles of violence. As long as we fail to redress the economic inequities that precede community violence, we will not be able to stop it. As long as we rely on the systems that have harmed us, we will continue to get the same results. 

Tackling violence at the root is a challenging feat, especially when it is entrenched by decades of systemic disinvestment. Chicagoans of various neighborhoods, socioeconomic backgrounds, and identities have long called for restorative approaches to addressing violence in our communities; this most notably includes survivors of violence. Our city is ready to take a public health approach to addressing this long standing issue. 

We call on Mayor Lightfoot to rise to the occasion so that our city can rise as well.

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In order to sustainable movements, we must understand the concept of “power” and what it takes to create sustainable communities rooted in our values. Relationship building is at the core of organizing – and happens in many different ways at different times. Join SOUL and BlackRoots Alliance as we reclaim self-interest as a necessary tool for Black Liberation.

Saturday, October 26, 2019 from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm
University Church | 5655 S University Ave, Chicago, IL

Lunch will be provided. This event is free, however, registration is required. Please click here to register.

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Chicago State University has been the epicenter of Black political consciousness on Chicago’s South Side for nearly fifty years.
Keeping with the rich tradition of civic engagement and producing the next generation of leadership for the city, the University and the surrounding community will have the opportunity to put their issues before the next newly-elected Mayor.

This free event, hosted by ABC 7’s Evelyn Holmes, will be an opportunity to engage every candidate running for mayor around their plan to improve the quality of life in the city — ranging from access to jobs, criminal justice reform, public safety, and economic development to their commitment to investing in the university and its student body.

Skip the registration line and grab your ticket here. And if you have a burning question to ask, post it on our Facebook event here. You may just hear your question during the forum!

About the venue: The Breakey Theatre is the university’s main lecture and performance space located in The Douglas Hall on the east side of the CSU campus. This is an accessible building with closest available parking in lots A-1 and B-7. For a campus map of Chicago State University, please visit www.csu.edu/locator/pdf/campusmap.pdf

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On Tuesday, August 7, 2018, people across the country will re-imagine what safety is…

Night Out for Safety and Liberation aims to change the conversation about public safety to be less focused on fear, punishment, and criminalization and more focused on how we can build equity and power by investing in our communities.

Too often, conversations about public safety revolve around policing and punishment. But safety is about more than that—it’s about having a living wage job, healthy food, healthcare, housing, education, and more.

Tuesday, August 7 at 4:00 PM
Chicago State University
9501 S King Drive, Chicago, IL
FOOD, COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS, PERFORMANCES, & MORE!

Join us on the historic Chicago State University campus, as we bring students and local residents together around art, music, culture, health, sustainable living and cooperative learning.

This is a free event, but registration is required to attend. To register, please visit bit.ly/NOSL2018or call (773) 280-5290.

Download flyers for print
Download flyers to share via email and on social media

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Article originally published in the Chicago Sun Times

Five days after a Chicago police officer shot and killed Harith “Snoop” Augustus, a handful of the protesters who staged outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home went to a Chicago Police Board meeting at CPD headquarters, the first such meeting since Saturday’s shooting.

COPA chief administrator Sydney Roberts said Augustus’ death “has raised may legitimate questions” but claimed releasing further video or audio evidence at this point would create “substantial risk to the integrity of the investigation.

“I know given the history of police oversight in Chicago asking for your patience and trust is a lot to ask, but as the new chief administrator I am asking just that,” Roberts said.

After the meeting, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said he released one edited clip of body camera video from the shooting because he saw it as a “public safety issue.

“I didn’t want to see another Saturday night,” Johnson said, referring to hours of sporadic clashes between hundreds of protesters and officers that followed the shooting.

“You released that tape because you wanted to show him with a gun. And you feel that’s a justified shooting,” Hunt said, claiming that the officer who opened fire escalated the situation when Augustus was talking to another officer.

“Officers don’t behave that way on the North Side,” Hunt said. “They’re creating situations to use deadly force. And it has to stop.”

Earlier Thursday, protesters brought their cries for justice, and a letter laying out their demands, to the front steps of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Ravenswood home.

“There is no reason that Rahm Emanuel should get to sit in his ivory tower, unscathed and unbothered by this moment,” said Tanya Watkins, an organizer with Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation. “His neighbors, his friends, his colleagues and community members cannot turn a blind eye to the injustice taking place in communities of color and the abuse we are suffering at the hands of CPD.”

At least a dozen police officers formed a line, separating about 100 protesters from Emanuel’s home on the quiet, tree-lined street. Some carried a coffin emblazoned with a crossed-out photo of Emanuel. Others carried signs with Augustus’ name.

Emanuel was not home at the time. Mayoral spokesman Adam Collins said that as the Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigates the shooting, “and long after it is complete, we will continue our ongoing work to strengthen relationships, create common understanding and build trust between police and the people they serve.”

Since the 37-year-old barber was shot by police Saturday after being stopped for allegedly exhibiting “characteristics of an armed person,” activists have marched through South Shore, organized a vigil outside of Sideline Studio and held a “mindful healing village” in the Woodlawn neighborhood.

The demonstration outside Emanuel’s home brought together people who said they were beaten by police at Saturday’s protest, with people like Jeannette Hutchinson, who said her uncle was killed by a Chicago police officer in 2000. Speaker after speaker called for transparency, for resources and for Emanuel to resign.

“In six weeks, CPD has murdered three black men on the South and West Sides of Chicago,” said Ariel Atkins, with Black Lives Matter Chicago, “and not once has Rahm demanded that they put down their guns or that they stop terrorizing communities of color.”

Richard Wallace, with Equity and Transformation Chicago, laid out a list of demands, including “complete and total transparency throughout the course of the investigation,” as well as court proceedings, in Augustus’ death; the release of all camera footage from body-mounted cameras; and the names of all officers on the scene at the time of the shooting on Saturday.

The protests won’t go away until the demands are met, Wallace said.

“You hold no one accountable for black death in this city except for the dead,” said Hesna Boukom, with the Southsiders group, addressing Emanuel. “For you, for these aldermen, for police, all Harith had to do was be black to deserve to die and we’re not going to stand for that.”

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Written by Rev. Kwame Pitts; original post can be viewed on Medium.com

This past Friday, I was invited by Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL) Executive Director, Tanya Watkins to speak at an event that continues to bring to the forefront the economic disparity and the environmental racism that is systemic throughout the southwest side of Chicago, certain south suburbs of Harvey, Riverdale, Robbins and Dolton and parts of NWI, including Whiting. East Chicago and Calumet. Pivotal to this day was the presence of Rev. William Barber, continuing founder of the Poor People’s Campaign and his being there was not for posturing but so that he also takes this unheard story to the public national stage. Rev. Barber is prophetic and so much grounded and so personable, engaging all of us and preaching a WORD! SOUL wanted me to speak before Rev. Barber which is extremely nervewracking but if you have been ever involved with community organizing and protests, you know the schedules can get chaotic and while I did speak, it was not what I had prepared. So I thought I’d share my thoughts here.

Good morning; I am the Rev. Kwame Pitts and I serve as Associate Pastor of Campus Ministry on one of the most privileged places in this city, the University of Chicago. Such a difference from driving through Hyde Park and then coming out here, to places like Robbins, Riverdale, Harvey into spaces like Whiting and East Chicago-driving through with refineries on either side, reminds me of LOTR and walking into Mordor. My emotions moved from being disturbed at the deaths due to systemic violence to being angry as hell because the people in these neighborhoods, in these communities are labeled as liabilities; that sending economic development would be a waste of resources.

What good comes out of Riverdale or Harvey right? Why should we invest in those suburbs? Well if you are going to sit here and use the Bible to justify incarcerating children, I think you ought to dig deeper and see what Jesus’s commandment was, Jesus’s ONLY commandment. If you are so fond in quoting “Well Jesus said the poor will always be with us”, as your exit strategy of not helping the poor and the only Scripture you know if you claim to be a Christian then I suggest you read Isaiah 61: The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.

THAT IS WHAT WE ARE CALLED TO.

If you claim you are a Christian but sit idly by while your siblings and your neighbors suffer, then you perhaps need to recheck the theology that you cling to because as Dr. James Cone states “Any theology that is indifferent to the theme of liberation is NOT Christian theology.” I’m going to go out on a limb here because anyone who is the power structure in this suburb, and has not done ANYTHING to fight, to put your body on the front line so that this place has just as much as suburbs like Winnetka, Wheaton or even Homewood-Flossmoor you are as just as much as a part of the problem as the systemic racism and oppression that rains down daily on these, the bodies of your skin folk that YOU are supposed to be serving!!!

(pause)

Environmental racism, as described by our collective Ancestor, Dr. James Cone, “is racial discrimination in environmental policy making and the unequal enforcement of the environmental laws and regulations. It is the deliberate targeting of people-of-color communities for toxic waste facilities and the official sanctioning of a life-threatening of poisons and pollutants in people-of-color communities. It is also manifested in the history of excluding people of color from leadership in the environmental movement.” In other words, all Cook County and the city of Chicago AND the leadership in these suburbs sees places such as Riverdale and Harvey are nothing more than a toxic dump. Like here is where we can just throw all the garbage because our tourists won’t want to come here, right? What you are living in and driving through is nothing more than systemic RACISM. RACISM and oppression have been key in the destruction of lives, from the empty treaties of land occupied illegally by the United States Government of Native lands to the continual poisoning of Flint, Michigan to right here in Riverdale where they think they can choke the lives out of Black bodies without access to clear air, or working hygiene facilities, fresh water, green space-you name it, we are lacking here in it.

AND its been the PEOPLE HERE, NOT the political leadership; the community organizers, the neighbors, the Elders who have been campaigning and speaking for a better quality of life. ITS BEEN THE PEOPLE, NOT those who are more interested in politically posturing, who have had to raise the issue TIME AND TIME AND TIME again, that their children are suffering from diseases; that their children are wrought with trauma; that their sisters and brothers and siblings are backed up in a corner with nowhere else to go, and instead are reduced to acting like rabid disease ridden animals who attack and turn on one another.

THAT AIN’T RIGHT.

(pause)

If we say we follow Christ, if we claim we are people of faith, then what is our calling? What is our responsibility to each other? Let me ask you another question: What is your end game on Sunday? Is it to be seen at the most popular churches so you are known? Is it the excuse that all you need to do is praise Jesus in the Sanctuary, write your little check and check off Church on your to do list? What happens when you participate in the Eucharist, in Communion? Is it your personal time with God for personal salvation so you can then go back out and do the same damn thing OVER AND OVER AND OVER, which is nothing more than your own selfish self-interest?

OR

Is the end game, to ask the Creator to give you strength, to ask the Holy Spirit to put you in those uncomfortable spaces so you can Agitate the system, Empowering the invisible of those who are next to you and those you see on the street, so that they have someplace SAFE, free from violence and peril, to rest; so that they have economic stability and where they can stand in the midst of Creation and take a DEEP BREATHE and KNOW THAT THEY ARE LOVED! Will you put aside all the surface and allow the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Ancestors to fuel you towards being on the front lines, crushing those oppressions that rob us of our living?

Will you remember, that because of the Waters of Baptism, waters that should be running clear and free for anyone to submerge themselves in and the Sacred Word, which reminds all of us, that we should not be so comfortable, when there are those who have nothing; who are dying for nothing; who have been left to fend for themselves because the systemic racist system sees that they are worth nothing and the people who have taken the poison that their oppressions have jammed down their throat, have signed onto that the people in places like Dolton and Robbins and Riverdale and Harvey; that these Black bodies mean nothing and therefore we should not invest in them-that we all came from the Creator; we are all related, and therefore we are responsible to fight for their lives?

What is your end game today?

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On September 18th, 2017, Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans implemented a new order that requires judges to set bail amounts within the confines of what defendants can afford to pay. Because of our work and the work of our allies in the criminal justice reform movement, the affordable bail order is a huge victory in the on going fight for criminal justice reform. Currently, thousands of people that sit in the Cook County Jail at 26th and California, even though they have not yet been convicted of a crime, are there simply because they are too poor to afford bail. The vast majority are people of color. This system is racist, classist, unjust and is not keeping our communities safe.

The Coalition to End Money Bond has been trying to schedule a follow-up meeting with Chief Evans to discuss the implementation of the affordable bail order and how we can continue to hold Judges accountable and work together to reform our criminal justice system.

Seven months ago, Cheif Evans committed to quarterly meetings with The People’s Lobby, who are members of the Coalition to End Money Bond. Over the past 4 months, he and his office have ignored countless calls, voicemails, and in-person visits to his office requesting another meeting with members of the community and leaders of the Coalition. We have proposed over 10 times and dates to meet with us, none of which worked for the Chief Judge’s office. Despite all these efforts on our end, Evans office refuses to suggest meeting times that do work or even return our phone calls. Why won’t Evans meet with us?

Well, we will be occupying his office on October 25 until we get that meeting! Will you join us in holding him accountable to meeting with the Coalition to End Money Bond and demanding that he keep his commitment and meet with us about bail reform in Cook County? To RSVP, please contact [email protected].

Wednesday, October 25, 2017
10am – 4pm
The Daley Center, 50 W. Washington Street, Suite 2600
Chicago, IL, 60602

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PRESS RELEASE

Coalition for Police Contracts Accountability Calls for Contract Reform on Laquan Day

For Immediate Release: October 20, 2017

Press Contact: Drea Hall, (312) 687-8579

On the anniversary of the deadly shooting of Laquan McDonald by Chicago Police Department (CPD) officer Jason Van Dyke, the Coalition for Police Contracts Accountability (CPCA) recognizes the tragic events that took place and the pain that reverberated through our City. Three years later, the CPCA repeats its call for reforms to Chicago’s police union contracts that will end the code of silence and hold officers accountable for misconduct.

Provisions in Chicago’s police union contracts allow officers to lie about misconduct. After Laquan McDonald was shot, officers had 24 hours to speak with each other before submitting corroborating false statements to the Independent Police Review Authority. These statements allowed Jason Van Dyke to avoid any charges until a year later when the video of the shooting was released to the public.

“Chicago’s police union contracts protected Van Dyke and the officers who lied for him. The contracts make it harder for officers to do the right thing and easy for them to get away with misconduct.” said Drea Hall, Director of Organizing at Community Renewal Society and leader with CPCA, “CPCA’s organizing, community, and policy groups have identified 14 points in the contracts that must change if the City wants real reform.”

While we make space on this day to honor the memory of Laquan’s life, we renew our call for action from our elected officials to ensure this tragic story does not repeat itself.

The CPCA calls on Mayor Emanuel to publicly endorse our Coalition’s 14 recommendations to reform Chicago’s police union contracts. We also call on our aldermen to reject any contract proposals that do not include our recommendations for reform.

ABOUT CPCA: The Coalition for Police Contracts Accountability (CPCA)  is comprised of seasoned organizations in Chicago’s organizing and policy-making landscape, many of whom have been working, some for many years, alongside other organizations, coalitions and alliances pushing for transparency within government, criminal justice reform, and police accountability. CPCA’s 14 recommendations for reforming police contracts can be found at  https://www.cpcachicago.org/the-recommendations/

CPCA’s coalition members include ACLU of Illinois, Action Now Institute, ONE Northside, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), A Just Harvest, Southsiders Organized for Unity & Liberation (SOUL), Better Government Association, BPI, BYP100, Chicago Council of Lawyers, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, Community Renewal Society, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA), Workers Center for Racial Justice

###

Original Source: https://www.cpcachicago.org/coalition-calls-for-contract-reform-on-laquan-day

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A report released today by the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) inefficient management of overtime has potentially created millions in wasteful spending, an unchecked culture of abuse of the overtime system, and exhibited insufficient safeguards  for officer health, wellness and performance.

OIG’s audit, which examined practices from 2014 through the first six months of 2016, found CPD’s operational controls do not adequately prevent unnecessary overtime, deter abuse of minimum time provisions, or ensure overtime is paid in compliance with policies and procedures. CPD management controls do not adequately prevent officer fatigue, control costs, or detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse. Furthermore, CPD Directives related to timekeeping do not reflect current practice, do not provide adequate detail to ensure consistent application of Department policies, and do not include policies to prevent excessive overtime, prevent officer fatigue, or control costs.

OIG recommends that CPD management set a “tone at the top” emphasizing the importance of accurate, verifiable timekeeping records, and establish the controls necessary to meet this goal. To address specific issues raised by this audit, CPD should implement an automated timekeeping system, provide supervisors the tools they need to monitor and assess overtime use, hold supervisors accountable for monitoring overtime, and ensure that Department directives are regularly reviewed and updated to reflect current practices.

CPD responded to issues raised in the report with plans to transition to an electronic swiping system, starting at CPD headquarters, by the end of 2017. The full transition to an electronic system for overtime and all other timekeeping purposes is slated for completion by mid-2019. Over the course of the next year, CPD will also begin a new process for more actively managing overtime use by holding supervisors accountable for overtime monitoring and spending.

Although CPD has an automated system to authorize, review, and approve other types of overtime, it still relies on manual processes for regular duty overtime. These processes are costly and lack fundamental controls typically provided by an automated system, including controls to ensure that data is accurate, complete, and backed up securely. Specifically,

• CPD employs 61 timekeepers at a cost of $7.2 million annually, plus support staff, including an unknown number of sworn officers, who assist with timekeeping and data entry.
• Compensatory time liability, totaling $266.8 million, is supported only by hard copy documentation which, if damaged or destroyed, could not be recreated.
• OIG identified 6,727 overtime entries that either duplicated or overlapped other entries, resulting in potential overpayment of $1.1 million.
• 4% of overtime entries, totaling $225.5 million, had either blank or generic Reason Codes, making it extremely difficult to analyze the basis for overtime pay.

In the audit, OIG found potential abuse of the minimum time provisions required by the Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) and CPD Directives. These provisions, intended to compensate an off-duty member for travel time to a work site, credit a member with a minimum of 3 hours overtime for as little as 15 minutes of actual work. Specifically,

• Application of the minimum time provision was not limited to Court and Call Back categories, resulting in potential unwarranted overtime expenditures of $197,895.
• The minimum time provision was inappropriately applied to CPD members answering or receiving phone calls or e-mails, resulting in unwarranted overtime expenditures of at least $36,334. The total overpayment could be as much as $1.2 million if the same rate of misuse exists among those overtime entries that we could not analyze because they lacked sufficient information.

OIG further identified potentially abusive practices for accruing excessive overtime, which CPD management acknowledges but has not adequately addressed. They are,

• “Trolling”: actively pursuing situations that result in Extension of Tour overtime, such as: (a) volunteering for calls at or past the end of a shift notwithstanding the fact that fresh officers have already come on duty; (b) actively seeking a traffic, disorderly conduct, or other violation at the end of a shift; and (c) making an arrest at the end of a shift as a result of escalating a situation which would have been within the officer’s discretion to dismiss.
• “Paper jumping”: requesting to be included on an arrest report despite having little or no involvement in the arrest, specifically for the purpose of earning overtime by being called to court.
• “Lingering”: reporting to court and increasing overtime pay by staying longer than needed.
• “DUI guys”: self-appointing as a DUI specialist and taking over DUI arrests initiated by other officers to earn overtime by appearing in court.

Additionally, CPD does not consistently record authorizations and approvals for overtime in its electronic system, making it difficult, if not impossible, for management to monitor whether overtime is authorized, approved, and processed in accordance with CPD policies. OIG analysis of data from January 1, 2014, through July 31, 2016, found that $27.6 million overtime entries lacked an electronic record of authorization and/or approval, almost $1 million appeared self-authorized or approved and almost $40 million was recorded in the system as authorized and/or approved by peers or subordinates of the member who earned the overtime, with more than 600 instances of two-way relationships in which CPD members approved each other’s overtime in a reciprocal manner.

The CPD Directive describing overtime compensation for various ranks has not been updated since 1994 and no longer reflects CPD practice or the provisions of the applicable CBAs. Due to a lack of adequate monitoring controls to assess and respond to trends in overtime and track secondary (off-duty) employment of sworn members, management cannot detect violations of its policy and cannot ensure that officers optimally meet the stressful demands of their job serving the public.

“CPD’s management of overtime speaks directly to how inefficient management can lead to wide scale waste and a culture of abuse,” said Inspector General Joe Ferguson. “Addressing the management issues identified in the audit may yield multiple benefits to residents, City Hall and taxpayers alike, including : (1) resolving the long-running debate about the necessary size of the sworn force; (2) identification of fiscal resources needed for the broader department reform efforts underway and that will continue under the terms of a consent decree in the future; and (3) better assure that officer workloads are managed to levels that assure their well-being and optimal service to the public.”

To view the full report, click here.

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