Reed was not killed over a traffic violation
When a Chicago Police Department (CPD) tactical team serving in the 11th District stopped Dexter Reed in Humboldt Park on March 21, 2024, few could have predicted a brief encounter over a traffic violation would end with a Chicago Police officer injured and Reed mortally wounded. It is even more inconceivable Chicago, considering how the incident unfolded, is nearing a financial settlement with Reed’s estate.
If you are confused over why the City of Chicago has entered into a settlement with Dexter Reed’s estate after it was clearly established Reed attacked a police officer, you aren’t alone.
An incident which has fallen out of the public’s consciousness since the police dashcam capturing the incident was released in April, it will probably be helpful to recall some of the basic facts of CPD’s encounter with Reed. Reed was stopped by officers at 3836 West Ferdinand for what police originally alleged was a seatbelt violation. Later, in a contradiction to the initial version, police stated the stop was prompted by illegally tinted windows.
Despite the contradiction, officers who stopped Reed acted in full accordance with CPD use-of-force guidelines and within the guardrails of state law.
When officers stopped Reed, the emergency lights on the unmarked CPD car were activated and officers clearly distinguished themselves, primarily through officers wearing police-issue tactical vests with the inscription “POLICE” visible on the back of the vest.
Reed was fully aware he had been stopped by Chicago Police.
Upon approaching Reed’s vehicle, officers ordered Reed to lower both the driver’s side and passenger window. Reed complied, briefly. Almost immediately after lowering the driver’s side window, Reed defied repeated lawful police orders and rolled it back up. Police also issued orders for Reed to unlock his doors. Reed refused.
Thirty-five seconds after officers stepped from their vehicle to question him, Reed opened fire on police, striking one officer in the wrist. Sadly, officers were compelled to use lethal force against Reed, striking him a total of 13 times in a fusillade of 79 shots.
Although CPD discovered a gun on the passenger's seat of Reed's vehicle, along with 11 spent casings, news of Reed’s fatal shooting at the hands of police inspired predictable results: Accusations of police racism, calls for the disbandment of tactical units, and, unsurprisingly, both protests demanding the dismissal of officers and additional police reform measures.
Activists baying for police blood received a handy assist from media, which joined in on the gang tackle of officers. In Chicago media’s completely predictable and utterly embarrassing overreaction to Reed’s death, journalist across numerous platforms peddled a string of stories mechanically repeating “96 shots” and portrayed officers at the scene as armed racists driven by innate bloodlust. In one notable instance of media attempts to discredit officers involved in the Reed incident, reporters with "do-it-yourself-journalism" outfit Block Club whipped up an article cataloging complaints officers involved with the Reed incident faced over “unwarranted” traffic stops.
A slander Chicago media reserves only for Chicago Police, together with the publication of articles painting officers as men and women who murder with impunity, for weeks reporters plied stories depicting Reed as a bonny lad and scholar who had played basketball at Westinghouse High School and Morton Community College. Unsurprisingly, the good folks at Block Club failed to mention Reed was out on bail and awaiting trial on a felony gun charge.
Dexter Reed fired first
For all the confusion over why Reed opened fire on officers over a traffic stop, it is every bit as baffling the City of Chicago has agreed to terms on a settlement with Reed’s estate. It is an outrage, and though the total sum of the agreement remains unclear, any payment to Reed’s estate would be a colossal error with grave and costly consequences for Chicago.
There are ample reasons for the Chicago City Council to reject a settlement with Reed’s estate, the most obvious, of course, is Reed, for reasons which are still opaque, opened fire on officers. Nonetheless, it is far more consequential to understand precisely why Chicago has agreed to settle with Reed’s estate. Something unprincipled is afoot here.
Though the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) has yet to conclude its probe of the incident, the swiftness with which Chicago has agreed to a financial settlement is peculiar. A matter which moved forward only with the explicit approval of the mayor, Brandon Johnson's willingness to come to terms with Reed’s estate is a calculated maneuver to indulge his anti-police base.
First and foremost, Mayor Johnson instructing the City of Chicago Department of Law to settle with Reed’s estate is his taking a proactive step ahead of the outcome of COPA’s inquiry into Reed’s fatal shooting. Though the investigation has yet to be concluded, Johnson understands there is a low probability the Cook County State’s Attorney will formally charge any officer. His mind always turning, Johnson’s push to settle with Reed’s estate prior to COPA issuing a determination in the matter is our scheming mayor’s effort to funnel tax dollars to Reed’s estate, despite Reed’s attack on officers. Johnson authorizing a settlement is also an explicit sign he believes police officers involved in Reed’s fatal shooting acted rashly and irresponsibly.
To Johnson, Chicago Police are amoral monsters who recklessly destroy lives and officers did not sufficiently apply “de-escalation” measures when they encountered Reed. A man who lacks the courage to confront unpleasant facts, although Johnson is fully conscious of the fact Reed fired upon police — wounding one officer — the mayor is a disciple of the false narrative of police as oppressors who “overpolice” minority neighborhoods. In Mayor Johnson’s slanted worldview, officers’ fatal encounter with Reed was avoidable and the officers are entirely at fault, not Reed.
In addition to the mayor believing officers immediately and reflexively applied lethal force to Reed, Johnson’s decision to enter into an agreement with Reed’s estate is a powerful sign he remains committed to ensuring the survival and advancing the interests of DEI orthodoxy and the defund the police movement. An ethos and a movement which have fallen out of favor across America — and broadly rejected in the 2024 election — Johnson authorizing the settlement is a subtle message to his increasingly radical base progressivism remains the predominant ideology in his Chicago. As much as Johnson consenting to a settlement with Reed’s estate is a nod to his progressive base, it also serves as a stimulant for Chicago’s progressives to keep up their crusade against the Chicago Police Department.
Aside from slaking the thirst of his progressive loyalists, the settlement with Reed’s estate is Johnson notifying unscrupulous civil-rights law firms he has no intention of fighting future litigation against the city. The mayor’s push to settle with Reed’s estate also signals his intent to use his executive authority to carry out the wishes of donors, civil-rights law firms, and the anti-police movement.
In a personal gesture to help avert criticism of the agency trusted to oversee CPD, the settlement with Reed’s estate provides cover for COPA and its clumsy chief administrator, Andrea Kersten, whose entire tenure at the oversight agency has been marked by chronic blundering and indefensible acts, and whose agency has been revealed to be structurally biased against CPD and an incubator of trouble.
By instructing the City of Chicago Department of Law to settle with Reed’s estate, Johnson is signaling he is absolving Kersten for her unprofessionalism in the midst of the Reed investigation and will overlook any violations to investigatory decorum, however outrageous, Kersten commits in the future. Worse, Johnson licensing a settlement with Reed’s estate is delivering a hidden message: The mayor is informing Kersten she has his approval for her to use the full scope of her office to inflict a punitive and undue punishment on officers involved with Reed's traffic stop.
Johnson settling with Reed’s estate is a monstrous betrayal of police officers’ loyalty to the City of Chicago
A premature settlement, for Mayor Johnson to assent to a legal agreement with the estate of Dexter Reed is just the most recent dagger in the backs of Chicago Police officers. Johnson’s act of supporting a payout to Reed’s estate repeats a pattern of troubling behavior among previous mayors over the past decade — both Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot were equally unfaithful to the Chicago Police Department — yet Johnson’s actions are certain to have far more perilous consequences on police than his predecessors. Johnson backing a settlement with the estate of a man who fired on police will force CPD to dramatically curtail proactive policing and force police to waver in instances in which vigilance is critical, whether in defense of an unarmed resident, colleague, or self.
Finally, and more broadly, Johnson’s desire to financially reward Dexter Reed’s estate is also an act of treachery against residents of Chicago, who rely upon CPD to shield them from the wave of violence plaguing Chicago’s streets. With new Cook County State’s Attorney, Judge Eileen O’Neill Burke, in the midst of recalibrating her office to its original mission of prosecuting crime, the burden to preserve order on Chicago’s streets has fallen almost entirely on the Chicago Police Department. Men and women who voluntarily face daily hazards — real and looming — Chicago Police are the last remaining bulwark standing between residents and violence and victimization, between civility and chaos, and between life and death. What befalls the Chicago Police Department befalls residents of Chicago. If officers are less inclined or unable to defend themselves, they are virtually powerless to protect the defenseless.
Mayor Johnson approving a monetary settlement to Dexter Reed’s estate is tantamount to rewarding a violent, criminal attack on a Chicago law enforcement officer. A disgraceful act, Dexter Reed’s estate is undeserving of one dime of Chicago residents’ tax dollars. Though the mayor would have us believe the proposed settlement to Reed’s estate is compensation for a human loss, it is, rather, wholly about the politics of the defund movement. The strongest and most rambunctious faction of his base, Johnson agreeing to remunerate Reed’s estate is not merely the alignment of views but reveals his keenness to use the mayor's office as both a voice and a vehicle to express grievances and rage against Chicago Police.
