Mayor Lightfoot, City Council Push Chicago to the Brink of Lawlessness

GAPA proposal certain to immobilize police, introduce chaos on Windy City streets.

In a move only a Progressive politician could love, Lori Lightfoot is poised to embrace a new oversight agency for the Chicago Police Department (CPD) sponsored by the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA).  Chicago’s elected officials have been to the "police accountability" well so many times, the City of Chicago is officially the laughingstock of national law enforcement for its bizarre system which nearly begs officers to stop policing.

For those keeping score, Chicago Police officers are under internal oversight by their Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA), an Investigative Response Team (IRT), which responds to all officer involved shootings, a Force Review Unit (FRU), which reviews all uses of force and firearm pointing incidents, an Integrity Unit, which examines all investigatory stops, and an Inspections and Auditing Division.  

From outside the department, the CPD is bound by an oversight agreement for investigatory stops with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a retired federal judge, oversight of all uses of force and Fourth Amendment-related complaints by the Chicago Office of Police Accountability (COPA), oversight of all police operations by the Chicago Inspector General, oversight of all Rules and Regulations and discipline by the Chicago Police Board, and last but not least, a federal court-appointed consent decree monitor, who completely oversees the police department and its related city departments for the next decade or two.

With so many agencies each looking to claim CPD scalps, the quality and validity of investigations into alleged police misconduct has hit rock bottom.  Outrageous mistakes in administrative prosecutions and inequitable disciplinary action taken against individual officers underscores the fact the CPD suffers not from a lack of oversight, but from accountability hysteria.  There are no serious law enforcement or government professionals who think Chicago is in need of another oversight agency, but never underestimate the willingness of city officials to spend millions of dollars on a bad idea to gain cheap political points.  GAPA, a group which includes an assortment of anti-police radicals and would-be community organizers, is demanding the city create a new elected body to oversee police policy and procedure through the unfounded claim citizens don't have a voice in police matters.  Chicago citizens, of course, do have a say:  The CPD is subordinate to Chicago’s civilian leadership, the mayor and aldermen in the City Council.  Both the mayor and aldermen are popularly elected and exercise complete control over the CPD.  What GAPA truly wants is for different people – anti-police activists specifically – to seize control of the CPD from the mayor and aldermen.  

Alderman Harry Osterman is championing this ridiculous idea and has pitched an ordinance on the floor of the City Council.  The motion, which appears to be viewed favorably by Mayor Lightfoot, would limit eligibility for a seat on a "Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability" and exclude Chicagoans who are most concerned with safety and security in their neighborhoods.  According to Osterman’s crazed plan, for a candidate to qualify for a position on GAPA’s panel, strict professional standards such as "advocacy on behalf of immigrant or undocumented people," or persons who "have direct experience of police misconduct or have an immediate family member who has direct experience" are among the core competencies.  Absurd credentials, even those wishing simply to serve on a district council will now be forced to go door-to-door collecting signatures to get their names on a municipal election ballot.  Where currently people become active in their local district because they care, city salaries will now be handed out to anyone with political influence, time, and means to fund a campaign.

Even though the consent decree requires increased community engagement, Osterman and Lightfoot are ensuring a decrease in engagement from average residents.  If adopted, their legislation all but ends the familiar neighborhood retiree or concerned parent attending Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) meetings.  Now only anti-police activists will have a seat at the table.  It's absurd that after embracing a consent decree which demands more community involvement, the CPD will put out the welcome mat for only those wishing to de-fund and disable police.

Chicago is on the verge of naming a new police superintendent.  He or she will face the possibility of a consent decree-effect much like Baltimore (also under a new consent decree) is grappling with in the way of historic levels of violent crime.  In Chicago, murders have risen in January 2020 for the first time in years.  Lightfoot has a choice to make:  Give up control of the CPD to anti-police ideologues who will drive the city into the ground, or perform good governance by rejecting GAPA.  If passed, GAPA will be the straw that breaks CPD's and the City of Chicago's back.  If the mayor allows the body count to finally rise to a level which turns the tide on the anti-police movement, Lightfoot and the alderman who voted for this idea will bear sole responsibility for rising crime rates that are certain to follow if GAPA is adopted.  That will be little comfort to the loved ones of the victims of this disastrous idea.  

We already have an elected "Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability."  It's called the Mayor and the Chicago City Council.  If Lightfoot and councilmen don't want to run the police department, they should step down and allow Chicago to choose leaders who are willing to defend residents, empower the police to perform their duties, and stand up to anti-police fanatics.

[Chicago Sun Times] [Photo courtesy WBEZ]