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

‘We Need Urgent Global Climate Action’

Eighty-nine percent of people worldwide want their governments to do more to address the global climate crisis. Conference on tipping points says situation is urgent. Meanwhile U.S. govt does more to boost fossil fuel forms of energy.

May Day 2025: United We Will Win

International Worker’s Day is celebrated on May 1st around the world. Today, the entire U.S. working class, of which immigrants comprise an integral part, is under attack. The defense of immigrants is vital to the defense of the entire working class.

White School Officer Pepper-sprayed and Kneed Black Beaumont, TX Student, Complaint says. Will Feds Act?

A 6-second video, recorded by a teacher and reviewed by the Texas Observer, shows an officer grabbing a student’s hair, kneeing her in the face, and knocking the 100-pound girl on her back.

Pope Francis Dies After Easter Plea to End War in Gaza

"In his final public message, Pope Francis decried the “terrible conflict” in Gaza.

Bring Union Brother Kilmar Home: His Deportation Is an Attack on All of Us

The deportation of union brother Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a gut punch to the labor movement, a slap in the face to every worker who dares to organize.

More from the People's Tribune