Photo by Melanie L. Brown for Steed Media Service
The Police Accountability Task Force held their first forum this week at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church on the West Side of Chicago. Stakeholders, politicians, organizers and concerned citizens were in attendance at the meeting. The meeting was lead by Lori E. Lightfoot, who is the chair of the Task Force. She is also the president of the Chicago Police Board. Darryl Denard of iHeart radio was the moderator.
The other members of the Police Accountability Task Force include: Deval Patrick (senior adviser, former governor of Massachusetts); Joe Ferguson (technical adviser, inspector general of the city of Chicago); Hiram Grau (technical adviser for policing strategies, former director of the Illinois State Police and former deputy superintendent of the Chicago Police Department); Randolph Stone (professor at the University of Chicago Law School, director of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Project Clinic and a former Cook County public defender); Sergio Acosta (partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson law firm); and Victor B. Dickson (president and CEO of Safer Foundation). The group was formed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Any member of the audience who had a question, comment, suggestion or complaint was allowed to speak. Their questions ranged from why officers who lied on their reports are not in jail, to why White cops are used in communities of color instead of Blacks. Some called for officers to be psychoanalyzed to determine if they are racist, while another commenter said police should be rated.
Three more meetings are expected to occur in other parts of the city this month.
