Chicago Teachers Union Black Caucus holds meeting on police issues the night before the April Board of Education meeting...
Mike Elliott made a presentation to the Chicago Teachers Union Black Caucus on April 26, 2016. Substance photo by Jean Schwab.A very informative meeting of the Chicago Teachers Union Black Caucus was held Tuesday, April 26, at 4:45pm at the United Electrical Workers union hall at 37 S Ashland. There were about 20 people present for the meeting. The meeting was about the Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC).
According to the Resolution for the Chicago Teachers Union to support a Civilian Police Accountability Council, which was adopted by the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 2, 2015...
Whereas, while the CTU fully supports and respects Chicago police officers that perform their duties in a lawful manner, we are concerned that there have been numerous other incidents of unarmed citizens and youth in the city of Chicago dying as a result of unjustifiable police shootings and suspicious circumstances….CPAC is a democratic, elected, Civilian Police Accountability Council to replace the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA)
Whereas, The Independent Police Review Authority established in 2007 to replace the Office of Professional Standards (OPS), is reported to have only sustained 1% of thousands of allegations of police misconduct, which may indicate a bias in perspective and judgment.
The meeting was opened by Michael Brunson, Chairman of the Black Caucus and CTU Recording Secretary. Brunson asked how many of us took part in the April 1 strike. He said “that it went very well until the very end when a young woman, unfortunately, took the microphone and started cursing the police."
Many CTU members were upset with the outburst, Brunson said, adding that he has attended many meetings to discuss the issue with people. Unfortunately, according to Brunson, there are many people out there that feel the same about police as this young woman. Brunson noted that the IPRA recently released document that pointed out the same findings that upset the young woman: Police shoot African American 74% while they shoot Hispanics 14%, Police Taser African Americans 76%, Hispanics 13%, whites 8%, police traffic stop 44% African Americas much more than Hispanics and whites. What can we do to hold our police accountable? Look at some of these things happening. We need CPAC instead of police policing police.”
The next speaker was Frank Chapman. Chapman reported that the CTU has given CPAC $25,000 to work on getting CPAC passed in the City Council. Kim Foxx has endorsed CPAC. There are lots of proposals in City Council about monitoring cops but none of this state the problem. We don’t have any community control of policing. Our communities need a voice about who is policing and how they are policing our communities.
Right now, Chapman continued, 71 percent of crimes in Chicago's Black community are unsolved. People talk about racism as an attitude, he continued, but it’s more than that, it’s an institution.
Look at the Laquan McDonald case, he went on. Four cops lied on police reports. Why haven’t they been charged? They are still working. Right now 40 percent of the city budget is for policing. What are we doing to make this happen? He urged people to go to the workshop on April 30th (see below).
We will target wards with the most crimes. We will hold police accountable for their crimes. We will write the rule book and choose the police chief. CPAC legislation is now in City Council. Also other proposals (which don’t give people a voice) are being considered.
A teacher asked what should be done with youth that are mouthy with police because they think they are grown, but they are still children (12-17) and may be hurt? Chapman answered: “We don’t deny that there should be better education, better discipline in our community and we have to work on this. We don’t mind you disciplining children but you can’t shoot them or tase a 90 year old man and kill him or shoot a mentally ill person.”
Next speaker was Mike S. Elliot who spent ten days in Cuba. Elliot talked about the nation of Cuba. They have free education up to a PHD. and beyond. Everyone gets free education and medical care. They don’t have all the crime we have in the U.S. and every working person is encouraged to join a union. We need to look closer at the Policing system in Cuba and what they are doing to deal with crime.
CIVILIAN POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP
Saturday, April 30,2016
9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Trinity United Church of Christ
400 West 95th Street
Chicago
Child care provided
Comments:
By: Charles Larsen
Cuba
I would hold off on singing the praises of Cuba. Ask all of the exiles living in Miami about how \'free\" Cuba is . Also, can you really trust a Workers Paradise when only ONE MAN and his brother have ruled the island for 50 plus years? What about all of the workers..shouldn\'t they have had a chance to become President as well?What good is a union if they can't even get their own elected to President after 50 years?
By: Jean Schwab
Have to look at everything
You have some good points= but the shooting situation has gotten so bad, we need to look at everything. This year 1,000 people have been shot including a relative of my grandchildren. Since January, 5 police have been shot. We have seen too many videos of out of control police. Frankly, the system is not working for police or the people. We have to look elsewhere. I support the police and the system has to change.
By: George N. Schmidt
Gang violence, not police violence, plagues Chicago's streets -- and schools!
Thanks, Jean, for straightening this out. Later this month I will write up the latest from around Chicago's general high schools, where gang fighting has in many places gone out of control. On Friday, April 28, there were at least four fights at Lakeview High School, which is in an area where you can't buy a home for less than a million dollars. A half mile east of Rahm Emanuel's Hermitage Ave. home. Despite the claims that gangs haven't "reached" Norwood Park and Sauganash, the murder of a (former Taft HS, then in an "alternative" school) drug dealer on Harlem Ave. and shootings and robberies farther north prove that bit of community propaganda not true. A lot of the trouble is that principals and others get in trouble for reporting the gang terrorists to CPS, which is trying to keep the "data" down. At the same time, there is (often) mindless protesting against "police violence," while the fact is that the vast majority of the dead on Chicago's streets were killed in gang shootings, not in Laquan McDonald police shootings. Once upon a time, the Chicago Teachers Union had a full-times person who was "Director of School Security and Safety," and my job was to track every gang incident (not just shootings, the most dramatic) and know which gang "nation" was claiming which schools (several dozen high schools and more than 50 elementary schools). Since then, things have gotten worse, but the CTU has refused to assign a staff person to deal with these problems since 2004, and now at least one faction in the CTU leadership is pretending -- to the detriment of teachers, parents, and students -- that all the problems are caused by mis-policing, rather than not enough.
By: Rod Estvan
Responding to Jean and George
There is an excellent history of the origins of the CPD by Sam Mitrani titled the "Rise of the Chicago Police Department." This book shows the early growth of the CPD, not in response to rampant violence in the City, but rather to social and labor uprisings in the City inclusive of the so called Haymarket riot and German beer riots where cannon was used against the working class. The CPD has always been highly corrupt as an institution, which of course does not mean that each and every officer is on the take, but there has been a pervasiveness to corruption.
One academic study of police corruption, titled appropriately "To Serve and Collect" notes that the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police urged it officers not to participate in a identity protected survey of police corruption. This story on NBC 5 aired just in February discussed the interface of CPD corruption with drugs distribution and related violence in Chicago http://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/Chicago-Police-Officers-Allegations-of-Corruption-291607971.html Chicago Police Chief Charles Fitzmorris estimated that 65% of the CPD were on the gangs payrolls in the 1920s. Numerous CPD officers have been caught up in criminal activities and convicted for decades.
One reason Concealed Carry licenses are growing rapidly in Cook County is an awareness that the police are an ambelivnant entity in the City and many suburbs. Effectively you can't live without them, but their real ability to control and contain violent crime is questioned as it should be. Violence of the type described by Jean Schwab is an old story in CPS, it was part of my life in the late 1960s as a student at the old Robert Waller High School (now Lincoln Park HS) and also part of my experience as a teacher at Calumet HS many years later (now Perspectives at Calumet). Gangs and drug crews will likely not be removed by better policing in Chicago. In Chicago, street gangs have existed for more than 100 years, first appearing on the scene in the late 1860s. The song remains the same.
Rod Estvan
By: john whitfield
Angela's cop watch shirt.
Love that Angela's cop watch shirt Mike's wearing.