Police Superintendent Larry Snelling on Thursday sought to clarify the Chicago Police Department’s response to Operation Midway Blitz during an often contentious meeting of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability.
April’s CCPSA meeting was held at Kelly High School in Brighton Park, less than a mile from where Marimar Martinez was shot by a federal immigration agent last October. It was the first time Snelling has appeared at a public meeting to field questions about Midway Blitz and CPD’s adherence to the Welcoming City Ordinance, and he forcefully defended the PoliceDepartment’s response to the immigration enforcement action.
“We talk about the Welcoming City Ordinance, we talk about the TRUST Act, and I’m not sure everyone is well-versed on what it is,” Snelling said. “But I can guarantee you, when those were written, no one wrote the ordinance and the law with this type of immigration enforcement in mind. I do not believe, under any circumstances, that anyone writing those policies, those orders, those laws, believed that we would see what we saw this past fall.”
“Our officers showed up to keep down violence,” Snelling added, eliciting scoffs and boos from the audience.
The meeting opened with a public comment period where several residents and activists chided Snelling and the Police Department and accused them of aiding and defending federal immigration authorities during the monthslong enforcement effort. CPD’s actions included escorting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers out of areas when protests got testy.
“It is clear that CPD would rather protect and serve ICE rather than the people they have sworn to defend,” Kayla Nguyen, of the Immigrant Rights Working Committee, told the commission.
“CPD continues to operate outside of the federal consent decree,” added Mya Sanchez. “Now CPD is protecting ICE in direct violation of the Welcoming City Ordinance. Putting law enforcement agencies ahead of the people CPD is meant to protect shows that the true goal of these agencies is protecting those in power.”
Snelling stressed again and again that CPD’s first priority is to maintain public safety, and he rejected the accusations of collusion between CPD and ICE, noting that CPD officers were also repeatedly subjected to federal agents’ tear gas.
“What we want to do is keep everyone at a safe distance so that there isn’t a clash between federal agents and those who protest,” the superintendent said. “If you want to protest, it is your right to do so, but it is not your right to physically engage with federal agents.
“Without our officers being there, these scenes would have been way more violent,” Snelling added, drawing jeers from the audience. “There would have been more citizens hurt, there would have been more residents hurt. Our officers stopped it. And it doesn’t matter if we believe it or not, I’m telling you what I know.”
Thursday’s meeting was held about six blocks from where, in October, a federal immigration agent shot and wounded 30-year-old Marimar Martinez. The Montessori school teacher briefly faced federal charges in connection with the shooting, but those were later dropped.
Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance, updated in 2012 as part of the city’s municipal code, largely forbids Chicago police from cooperating with federal immigration agencies in deportation proceedings.
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The seven commissioners also approved a measure to recommend that the Office of Inspector General’s public safety section audit CPD’s implementation of training policies related to the Welcoming City Ordinance.
The lone “nay” vote came from CCPSA Commissioner Sandra Wortham. She said it was premature to call for an audit when the commission itself and those in attendance were unclear on what the Welcoming City Ordinance mandates.
Snelling also alluded to “something at City Hall,” still unannounced, related to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s prior executive order that instructed officers to take reports on alleged state law violations by federal officers, to be referred to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
“This is something that’s in the works at this moment,” Snelling said.
Commissioner Aaron Gottlieb asked Snelling if he’d commit to documenting and sending evidence of crimes committed by federal agents to the local prosecutors’ office.
“The bottom line is this: When our officers go out, if our officers witness anything that they believe is a crime and we have evidence of it, yes, we will do what’s within this order,” Snelling said. “But right now I’m not going to talk about the order until it’s been approved.”
Several district councillors and other activists had, for months, pushed for Snelling to address their concerns in a public forum. Once Snelling took to the auditorium stage, CCPSA President Remel Terry reminded the 100 or so people in attendance to maintain decorum. Several more warnings followed after repeated outbursts from the crowd.
As commissioners posed questions to Snelling, a man in the audience told CCPSA Vice President Angel Rubi Navarijo to “shut the (expletive) up.”
“If we’re going to have a serious conversation about this, it can’t be this way,” Snelling said in response. “It tells me no one’s willing to listen.”
The 90-minute meeting’s conclusion was derailed after security officers tried to remove a woman who screamed at Snelling and the other commissioners, prompting a chant of “CPD, KKK, ICE, they’re all the same” from many of the attendees.
Snelling and the commissioners left the stage while a few dozen activists remained in the auditorium.