Chicagoans of all races and backgrounds vote and pay taxes here. We are the funders who give over $2 billion to the Chicago Police Department’s budget. We are the customers who appreciate good police work. However, too often, we are also the victims of bad policing — from unconstitutional, racially biased and discriminatory treatment to countless incidents of officer misconduct and violent abuse.
Who becomes Chicago’s next police superintendent is a critical concern for our multiracial community coalition to enforce the Chicago police consent decree. The coalition includes 411 Movement for Pierre Loury, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Blocks Together, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Chicago Urban League, Chicago Westside Branch of the NAACP, Communities United, Community Renewal Society, Network 49, ONE Northside and Women’s All Points Bulletin.
We support police professionalism and an end to CPD policies and practices that led to the consent decree. We recommend evaluating superintendent applicants on their past experience, present beliefs and future vision.
We must examine candidates’ track records and ask them to:
• Share their experiences with race and diversity and what they have done to work effectively with diverse groups in communities they have served.
• Give examples of working with and being responsive to complaints from Black and Brown residents.
• Talk about their own experience with officer misconduct and cite examples of how they held officers accountable when they crossed the line.
We must interrogate candidates on their views about:
• The current state of consent decree compliance.
• CPD’s history of racism and abuse against Black and Brown residents.
Candidates must describe their vision for CPD:
• What policies and actions will they take to address the past and present manifestations of racist policing in Chicago?
• How will they achieve the goals of the consent decree and work with Chicago’s police oversight bodies?
• What will they do to improve officer recruitment, training, supervision and discipline?
It is essential that the next Chicago police superintendent commits to:
• Full compliance with the consent decree.
• Ending pretextual traffic stops and CPD collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
• Significantly reducing officer use of force and firearm pointing.
• Supporting alternate response and Crisis Assistance Response & Engagement Program implementation.
More Top Picks Headaches When Reading Could It Be Irlen Syndrome
• Assigning officers to walk in community beat patrols instead of driving around in cars.
— Biliah Castleberry, Karen Freeman-Wilson, Aaron Gottlieb and Michael J. Harrington, Chicago
Board’s jab at union workforce
Regarding “Raoul’s Nicor Gas deal helps consumers now, but union protections likely will balloon bills later”: The Tribune Editorial Board is right to scrutinize what Nicor Gas spends and what Illinois consumers are asked to pay. But its Sept. 13 editorial gets one important thing wrong: Protecting consumers and maintaining a skilled union workforce are not mutually exclusive.
The editorial board characterizes maintaining union jobs as keeping organized labor’s “gravy train rolling” and suggests workers displaced by cuts can simply find work elsewhere. That is dismissive of the workers whose livelihoods are at stake and overlooks why maintaining this workforce matters in the first place.
Nicor’s system serves 2.3 million customers across more than 650 communities in Northern Illinois. Aging pipes must be replaced, leaks prevented, emergencies addressed and critical systems kept operating for homes, schools, hospitals and businesses. A robust Illinois economy depends on reliable infrastructure, and Nicor’s system helps keep businesses and industries across the region running. Maintaining that system safely and responsibly requires a stable, highly trained workforce.
Protecting those jobs does not mean consumers aren’t protected. The company always must justify how it spends ratepayer dollars, and the Illinois Commerce Commission retains authority to review its investments and determine what costs can appropriately be passed along to customers.
Illinois families deserve affordable utility bills and a natural gas system that is safe, reliable and maintained by a skilled workforce. Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s settlement does just that: It corrects Nicor’s requested rate increase while preserving the union workforce needed to safely serve an area home to 6.9 million Illinoisans.
— James P. Connolly, business manager, Chicago Laborers’ District Council
Headline for fatal crash story
Regarding the article “E-bike rider dies after crash at Southwest Side intersection that claimed another life a year ago” (online Sept. 16): I appreciate the reporting on traffic deaths on Archer Avenue, especially given our elected officials continue to tolerate street conditions that put their constituents’ lives at risk.
However, I found the headline deeply troubling: Emphasizing “e-bike” while omitting the pickup truck and its fleeing driver risks suggesting, amid recent complaints about e-bikes and e-motos, that e-bike rider Juan Martin Marquez Luna somehow contributed to his own death.
As a lifelong Chicagoan, it reminds me of how labeling a teenager’s murder “gang-related” can invite readers to treat it as inevitable or the victim’s life as less worthy of concern. “Pickup truck strikes cyclist in fatal Southwest Side hit-and-run crash” would be a headline that centers what happened to him without insinuating that his choice of transportation made him responsible for his own death.
— Cyrus Dowlatshahi, Chicago
School’s tax-exempt status
I could not disagree more with Kelsey Burr and this op-ed attack on private institutions (“City should reject private school’s expansion plans,” Sept. 17). If we were to agree with this “they won’t pay property taxes” argument, then we would need to extend this attitude beyond the school in question and look to solicit property tax payments that are currently lost by other properties that have schools, churches, mosques and synagogues sitting on their non-tax-revenue-generating ground.
I suspect very few would support this reversal of this tax exemption, not just in Chicago but statewide.
— Michael Mudjer, Chicago
Museum a lost opportunity
The New York Times called the new George Lucas narrative art museum in Los Angeles “weird and wonderful” and an “instant landmark.”
Which reminded me that if those in government in Chicago had any vision at all, the museum would have been in our great city. That was Lucas’ preference — but politics, special interest groups and politicians shot it down.
It’s ironic that as we look at continued financial instability, our leaders gave away a long-term opportunity to build tourism, create jobs and generate revenues for Chicago — which, by the way, would have cost our city nothing as Lucas paid for, and was always willing to pay for, the development of the museum that LA now enjoys.
Shame on our leaders.
— Thomas F. Reilly Jr., Chicago
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].