Anjanette Young had just returned home from the social worker job that she has maintained for over 20 years when police burst into her quarters with a battering ram. They were there due to an anonymous tip from a neighbor who said the person inside, a felon, was in possession of a handgun.
According to CBS Chicago and video footage captured by the body cams of the officers on the scene, Young is heard telling them that they had the wrong apartment an astonishing 43 times. She was also nude.
Less than a minute into the search, one officer grabbed a short coat and draped it over Young’s back, which partially covered her. Then, after two minutes, she was fully covered with a blanket. However, it continued to slip off of her shoulders and remained open. After several minutes had passed, she was allowed to go to her bedroom to put on some clothes.
During a news conference on Wednesday, Dec. 16, Young called for the culpability of the police department and Chicago’s Mayor, Lori Lightfoot. Young also said it is the duty of the police “to serve and protect. Well, they didn’t do that for me. They didn’t care about me. So, yes, I would ask for accountability if you ask me what do I want from this.”
Ironically, this could have all been avoided. The culprit the officers were looking for, a felon, was in a separate apartment in the same complex and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet.
“It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to put on clothes,” she told CBS Chicago. “If I would have made one wrong move it felt like they would have shot me.”
Young is suing the police department and holding Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s feet to the fire. Lightfoot, who was not in office when the incident happened, admits to being “blindsided” by the ordeal. She also reportedly attempted to block the release of the footage by the media.
“Ms. Young’s dignity, that she and all of us deserve, was taken from her in those moments, and that is simply inexcusable,” Lightfoot said.
Young’s attorney, Keenan Saulter, spoke to the double standard that exists in the African American community. “If this had been a young woman in Lincoln park by herself, in her home naked — a young white woman, let’s just be frank — if the reaction would have been the same? I don’t think it would have been.”
View the disturbing footage on the next page.
