As I watched CBS This Morning news regarding Anjanette Young, I was stunned and moved to tears. I thought it’s 2020 is this really happening? Is this happening in Chicago, for real? The policemen have a Black woman on tape looking like a female slave on the auction block, butt naked, from a wrongful police raid.
Women on the slave auction block were examined, paraded, and exploited in front of White men, who leered at their nude bodies while visualizing their suitability for childbearing and hard work. The women screamed and begged for mercy as they were divided from their families and prodded like cattle.
Scenes from slavery ran through my mind, as they have been reenacted in the movies and read on the pages of history books that described the physical/emotional cruelty. I cried as I sat on the side of the bed with a silent explosion. I didn’t sleep well that night, thinking about the humiliation and embarrassment of Ms. Young in a city with a Black female mayor as the tape was shown around the world.
I wrote a scathing article https://ndigo.com/2020/12/22/we-black-women-of-chicago-are-sick-and-tired/ on the occurrence and the police who were in the wrong house. Dahleen Glanton, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, and Laura Washington of the _Chicago Sun-Times wrote articles as well. We saw the incident with the same interpretation and reaction, as Black women social commentators.
Suddenly the phone calls came. Women were cussing and crying, saying we have to do something. People talked about our Black female mayor, hoping that she would undoubtedly move forward with rapid solutions. As the story gained momentum, we learned the raid happened under the watch of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with Eddie Johnson as Police Chief. During a live news press conference, Lightfoot stated she was unaware of the tapes and the next day stated she was aware. Is this confusion or ineptness in the Mayor’s law department and among her senior administrators? Many should be fired, including the Mayor’s staff.
This incident is not a case of loyalty; it is a case of insensitivity. If the mayor has people around her that are not completely honest, she is endangered. It is hard to believe that no one from the Mayor’s senior staff did not act decisively to ensure the mayor was aware of the hideous tape leftover from Emanuel’s administration. Where was the Chief of Staff? Where was the Mayor’s Officer of Intergovernmental Affairs? Where was the Communications Chief? Where was the Chief Engagement Officer? Where were the experts of social justice? Were they writing white papers? Did they see the tapes? If so, they should be fired. Our taxpayer dollars are not working. Are they culturally competent? Are they socially aware? Did they not see the pitfall the mayor was about to jump in? Is the cultural correctness of City Hall, “Don’t bring me no bad news?” Are there not enough Black people in the inner circle with direct contact to the mayor?
It’s Time To March…
I put on my civil rights hat and said we have to march. I began to talk to friends and a march was formed, thinking it was a good idea. Black women have to stand up and our anger has to be focused. I was looking for twelve good women to march with me in front of the Chicago Police Department headquarters, supportive of Ms. Anjanette Young. Twelve policemen terrorized her. Coincidentally Jesus had twelve disciples. Twelve was a good number. I called my friends, Rev. Jeanette Wilson and Delmarie Cobb among them, and we agreed it was time for Black women to rise. We had a call with 10 women to shape a march. The next day we had 60 women on a Zoom call. The next day there were more, representing organizations of mostly professional accomplished women. It was time for direct action. Women from the suburbs and the south, west side, and the north side of the city were fired up and ready to go.
A march of and about Black women formed on Sunday, December 27. We talked about where the march should take place. The police station was obvious because this is police headquarters. We talked about signs and decided we would make our own. We wore Black with pink accents. We talked about men joining us. We talked about white women joining us. We decided Black women would lead a March, heads up and all could join.
We had little time, social media and emails became the communication tools, along with phone calls. We had a discussion on our intentions and I said, “Never Again” should be the overall message from outraged women. A Jewish woman challenged the slogan because it identified with the holocaust. But it is exactly what we mean. We set our agenda and moved forward with details and various assignments. Rev. Wilson was wonderful in keeping order with focus and purpose as she facilitated the effort of outrage.
The march came together on a bright sunny afternoon. The 200 gathered included elected officials. Dorothy Brown and Congressman **Bobby Rush were the first in line. Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. along with Bishop Tavis Grant gave us marching orders and prayed. The march began. Pastor Marshall Hatch and Pastor Ira Acre was on the sidelines watching as we gathered. Congressmen Rush announced he had already called for congressional hearings. Congressman Danny Davis agreed. Alderman Pat Dowell said the change should have been done some time ago, but now is the time to change police policies. Lieutenant Governor, Juliana Stratton, gave an arousing speech on the ill-treatment of Black women and that it must cease. The elected officials were not invited, but they showed up.
Support Ms. Young…
The agenda was quite simple. We were not against anybody. We were for ourselves. We were supporting Ms. Anjanette Young unapologetically and with vigor. I began to think about Rosa Parks. She sat on the bus alone. She broke the law intentionally. The bus driver was correct with his demands to move her to the back of the bus because he was “legal.” Black women, who were mostly domestics, broke the back of segregation as they supported Rosa Parks riding in front of the bus. The demands were simple – end segregation. A voice was heard on the morality of “bad laws,” paying taxes, and being denied rights. The people of Montgomery broke the law with purpose. The young voice was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The “hired help” women mostly car-pooled or walked to work for a year, until the bus company went bankrupt. The end result was the beginning of the end for segregation in public places and Rosa Parks rose to icon status for her stance and Dr. King brought social change to America.
Today, Black women stand to the horrors of bad policing. Sandra Bland was stopped for a simple traffic ticket. She died days later in her jail cell. She talked back to the police, challenging him on putting her cigarette out in her private car and stepping out of her vehicle.
The police executing a search warrant, forced their way into her apartment of Breonna Taylor as she laid in bed with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker. Mr. Walker fired a shot from his licensed gun, thinking it was an intruder. Ms. Taylor didn’t have a chance as the police shot her fatally six times as she stood in the hallway with her boyfriend. They were in the wrong apartment.
Anjanette Young stood butt naked shouting at least 43 times, “the wrong apartment” for 46 minutes. They let her scream. She was disrespected. Black women in Chicago heard slavery pain. We recalled an atrocious history. Enough of knocks on the wrong doors. We must change the police policy. That is the intent of concerned Black women. It’s a simple request.
We want to identify the 12 policemen by name and record, that were involved in the botched raid. They are dangerous to Black women. We need to see their faces and they need to be fired. We need a deep-dive examination of how this happened. How did they get to the wrong apartment? How did they miss the man they were looking for with an ankle bracelet on? What was the breakdown? Newspapers have reported one of the officers has wrongly raided before the Mendez apartment, where he again was in the wrong apartment; he terrorized a family, searched the home, and then simply left. Can he read? Clearly, a very simple discipline would be to remove him from the raid squad. But the public should know his name and face, the police twelve should remain anonymous.
We want complete and transparent reform of the Chicago Police Department, resulting in citizen accountability, the timely and appropriate discipline of officers and administrative staff that take part in cover-ups, and direct actions that cause harm to innocent Chicago citizens. We want proper representation for our tax paying dollars.
We want a revamp of the criminal justice system in Illinois – at every level of government- that includes but is not limited to comprehensive and transparent community engagement in the review and execution of the Federal Consent decree provided by the United States Justice Department. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the Inspector General, and COPA all need to do their investigations in 30 days. The tape addressed the investigation fully, not much to investigate. The police chief, David Brown, can facilitate the change, this mishap is his administrative heritage. However, under his leadership, he can bring about the necessary change in police policy.
We cannot continue to follow the law of the police contract or the police bill of rights, which allows police to murder citizens and engage in misconduct and moved to lesser jobs, at full pay and pension. The police murderer of Laquan McDonald, Officer Jason Van Dyke, sits in jail with a full pension. Jon Burge who tortured 200 mostly Black men into force confessions for crimes they didn’t commit, received a full pension until his death. His torture was on innocent men for nearly 20 years from 1972 to 1991.
Since 2004 the City of Chicago has paid $1 billion in payouts for wrongful deaths for police crimes. A billion dollars of tax paying dollars that could balance the budget without a tax raise. This is a deep Blackhole that could be corrected with police reform.
Change The Law…
In essence, policemen need to be accountable and responsible. Mayor Lori Lightfoot ran a campaign on police reform. We are waiting for it to come. We are pushing the envelope with community engagement. The mayor is playing a good game of legalizing. Too much lawyering. We need morality to step up and stand out. What happened to Ms. Young is wrong. Its stands correcting at every level of government so that it cannot happen never ever again.
The mayor might borrow a page from Mayor Daley’s playbook. Daley was being held accountable for Chicago Public Schools, without responsibility. He went to Springfield to change the law. The mayor needs to do the same with the police department. Change the law.
As one reviews history, there are two kinds of laws, good ones, and bad ones. Until we confront the bad laws for change, they remain. The laws need to change but they have to be broken and or challenged. Rosa Parks challenged the laws of segregation and they changed. Slavery was legal. A Black not being able to learn to read was legal. Black voting was illegal. Blacks owning property was illegal. Blacks’ not being permitted to marry was legal, so we jumped the broom to signify unions. Jim Crow laws were legal. Black code laws were legal. The change did not occur until the laws were broken or challenged, sometimes at penalty and death sacrifice.
There are two Americas, one white and one Black. And yet Chicago remains a tale of two cities. Whites fear Black equality, thus they make laws to protect abuse and even murder to maintain the status quo and to support white privilege, and to maintain power. The Mayor should fire the 12 wrongdoing policemen. The laws say she can’t, but she can. She should challenge the law and take the consequence. This may defy her professional constitution, but the change would come. If Black people don’t break the law to change, it doesn’t come. We can’t wait for white righteousness to just come we have to force it with indignation.
Black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party. To date, we have 30 Black lawmakers in Springfield and 20 Black councilmen, representing the city. If these elected officials cannot change the law, now, then when? Change is necessary. The laws of the legal system protect white males largely from abusive behavior directed toward Black people.
Research from the Tuskegee Institute reports there were 4,743 lynchings in the south, namely of Black men. NOT ONE WHITE MAN WAS EVER PROSECUTED. The murders, the lynching were all conducted by policemen, judges, sheriffs, bankers of the towns. They were sometimes known for their crime but never charged. The killers of Emmitt Till acknowledged they killed the young teen from Chicago, and after the trial, the white men went on to live their lives out of jail. Black women were raped and dismissed. This is America’s ugly history. Black women have been at the bottom of the social ladder, as we toiled the soil. Our voice has to be heard.
We cannot continue in America living with the fear of each other, and disrespect and disregard of Black women. Policemen clearly make mistakes, but their racist/sexist behavior of disregard allows the violence to continue. We have to dig deep to “cure” systemic racism. It won’t change if we continue to look the other way or by doing the same thing of “due process.” We cannot assume political office and act just like others.
Mayor Lightfoot has botched this police mishap. She should meet with Ms. Young at her church, as she has requested. Just do it. No guards, no minister, no policemen, no politics, no staff. Just meet, woman-to-woman. The Mayor should settle with Ms. Young as soon as she can, to get this behind her. Stop paying, prosecuting, studying, and appointing these legal teams to study the case. Watch the tape and all you know to see is right there. This case is wearing the city out. Fire the policemen, fire senior staff. They have failed. Move on. No more cover-up. Change the laws.
Like it or not, Black women are being judged by the Mayor. If she fails, so do we.
IamAnjanetteYoung and IamLoriLightfoot.
