Historic support for community control of the police in Chicago’s elections

Latest

Chicago protest against the lenient sentence given to ex-police officer Jason Van Dyke, who murdered Laquan McDonald.
PHOTO/DENISE POLOYAC

 
CHICAGO, IL — The cry for freedom from police tyranny grows ever louder in Chicago, the only city in America that requires its public schools to teach the history of local police torture.
That cry was heard last fall, when ex-Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted for the murder of Laquan McDonald. The day of the verdict, nearly a thousand people marched around City Hall and demanded community control of the police.
That cry was heard again on February 26 when 10 City Council candidates who support the proposed Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) ordinance were elected. CPAC would allow communities to elect police oversight representatives.
Many of these candidates made CPAC central to their campaign. That includes incumbent Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, who was comfortably re-elected to a second term. He was the City Council’s lead legislative sponsor of CPAC.
An additional 15 wards will see runoff elections on April 2. CPAC-supporting candidates are involved in 13 of them.
Everywhere on election day, there were signs of rebellion against the Chicago political “machine” and in favor of a new breed of participatory democracy, one that will allow people of color and the working class to maintain power over institutions that have traditionally been used to repress them, most notably the police.
In a video message sent out to her supporters, Jeanette Taylor, an activist who led a hunger strike to keep open her local public school, made her support for community control clear.
“I am fighting for CPAC … and the dignity our community so deserves,” she said. Taylor led nine aldermanic candidates in the South Side’s 20th Ward and will face Nicole Johnson in a runoff. Johnson also supports CPAC.
Even in the affluent, predominantly white north of the city, the need to wrest control from the corrupt Chicago Police Department (CPD) was front and center in these elections. At a packed town hall meeting on “Democratizing Police Accountability,” 11 of 13 candidates from five North Side wards backed CPAC.
Speaking to the crowd, candidate Matt Martin said, “We need to have an elected community oversight board immediately…We’re going to be demanding this happens not just leading up to February 26th or the runoffs on April 2nd, but every single day thereafter.”
Echoing this, candidate Marianne Lalonde remarked, “Having an elected police accountability council will reduce the wrongful deaths of people of color who are killed by the Chicago police.” Martin, Lalonde and fellow CPAC-supporter Andre Vasquez have all made it into runoffs in their respective wards.
Another CPAC supporter, Maria Hadden, unseated 28-year incumbent Joe Moore with over 60% of the vote in her North Side ward. Moore was against CPAC.
As Chicagoans vote again on April 2, they face a clear choice: Support politicians who have turned a blind eye to police tyranny for decades or usher in a new generation of freedom fighters who understand the time is now to give the people the power to decide who polices them and how they are policed.
 

+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

Resistance Against Mass Deportations Webinar Scheduled July 17

The Zooming to the Resistance Against Mass Deportations Coalition is planning the second in a series of webinars exploring how people across the country are fighting mass deportations. During the webinar, scheduled July 17 at 4 p.m. Pacific, a panel of fighters from California cities and the East Coast will share their experience resisting the cruel ICE raids.

Mamdani’s NY Campaign Electrifies Those Seeking a Better Life

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, has struck a nerve by voicing the demands of those who are struggling to survive as the cost of living continues to rise.

Another Big Beautiful Betrayal for Rural America

You slash Medicaid, you’re swinging an axe at the heart of our rural hospitals, community clinics, doctors and nurses — and every family that depends on a job for a living. It’s not too late to raise hell.

ICE Terror Campaign Threatens Us All

Several recent Facebook reels show how ICE is ramping up its campaign of terror against immigrants, citizens and protestors alike as the effort to create a police state continues and resistance grows. One creator speaks to the significance of Haitians now being targeted.

Medicaid Defenders in Wheelchairs Arrested Ahead of Senate Budget Vote

Over 60 people, including grandmas in wheelchairs, were arrested in the U.S. Senate Rotunda in a nonviolent protest against cuts like Medicaid and the SNAP food program in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Budget Bill.”

More from the People's Tribune