E-mail to Chicago Mayor Lightfoot: Police Brutality, Hiring Security Firms, Funding Left Behind Neighborhoods

Below is an e-mail that I have sent to Chicago Mayor Lightfoot. I get the feeling it breaks all the advice for writing your elected officials. Frankly, I don't really care. I really needed to get these matters off my chest and let his elected official know how I really feel in as tactful a format as I can muster.

To: letterforthemayor@cityofchicago.org

Subject: Disappointed in Police Brutality During Protest Rallies, Hiring Security Firms, and Delays in Developing and Funding Left Behind Neighborhoods

Dear Mayor Lightfoot,

My name is Jesse Lex and have been a resident of East Lakeview for 13 ½ years. In all the years that I have lived in Chicago, I have never felt so disappointed and frustrated with the city government and afraid for conscientious resident citizens as I was during the weekend protests after the lynching of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

I did not personally participate in any of the rallies, but I kept tabs on them through the Twitter and Facebook feeds of immediate friends and activist accounts of people who participated. I also read articles in various newspapers (most particularly, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times). Based on the social media feeds, the police presented themselves as angry monsters that just wanted to brutalize people who rejected the police and their brutal ways. Through the newspaper articles, you, Mayor, gave the impression of being arrogant, without empathy, and incompetent (“Profane exchange: Lightfoot, chief City Council critic tussle over police tactics during looting”, Chicago Sun Times).

Many times, I said to myself that Mayor Lightfoot, the mayoral candidate who I warmed up to from the beginning of the 2019 mayoral race and who I stood behind to the end of the race even as at least one or two of your opponents criticized you for your rapport with the police and your lack of empathy for victims of the police, I said to myself over the weekend after the George Floyd lynching, Mayor Lightfoot has failed this city. I have said to this myself after having

• Read your white papers on your campaign website
  
  
• Read critical articles and blog entries about your performances as a/an
  
  • Federal prosecutor
    
    
  • Appointed official of multiple commissions to oversee and report on the shortcomings of the Chicago police department
    
    
  • The person who had run meetings with the public on behalf of the City and the police

When I voted for you twice, Mayor Lightfoot, I had notched these shortcomings up to a combination of

• Inexperience
  
  
• Doing what you needed to do succeed and make it in this unfair world of patronage and politics for a greater good
  
  
• That you had great thoughtful ideas and plans presented in white papers

And that as the leading critic of the Chicago Police Department, you would

• Reign in the Police Department
  
  
• Get the police to stop engaging in brutal abuses
  
  
• Clean up the Department so that it behaves

After that weekend of police brutality targeted at demonstrators, your performance dashed my expectations and faith in you as Mayor. On the one hand, per the link I provided above in the Sun Times article, you showed a vast amount of incompetency, a lack of ability to control the police (and National Guard sent in by the State), and that, honestly, you have earned the reputation that many Progressives have given you: you’re practically a cop in all but name.

In many ways, you ended up acting like a “Law & Order” Mayor that only started showing some restraint when the “Law & Order” President Trump threatened to send in the active military to put an end to the disorder. You may have put on a good show to the nation outside of Chicago with your standing up to President Trump and maybe even to some in the City of Chicago who care more about their own safety and comfort rather than

• Justice
  
  
• The wellbeing of everyone in our city and nation
  
  
• An actual prosperity based on trust and understanding rather than
  
  
  • Supporting and pushing up a class of people that are doing just fine
    
    
  • Who will remain happy as long as they continue to be catered to
    
    
  • Then they scratch the back of politicians that coddle them

Instead, you either allowed the police to or had no control over the police from criminalizing people’s 1st Amendment rights and violating their 4th Amendment rights by:

• Setting a curfew to allow for mass arrests by just being on the streets of their home city (especially egregious when you announced the said curfew only a half hour to forty five minutes before the curfew started the first night)
  
  
• Raising the bridges downtown to trap people into a section of the city to enable mass arrests
  
  
• Shutting down public transportation so that people peacefully in the streets, just trying to travel home, couldn’t get home or had an extremely difficult time getting home, which can be especially difficult for the people who often fit the many non-white profiles that are often the victims of the brutality that provided the impetus to these protests and rallies. . .then exposing them to arrest
  
  
• To allow or order the police to provoke violence by starting to beat and attacking protesters, use batons, rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray, flashbang grenades, and numerous other tools of violence on the dot when the clock struck curfew time. From numerous sources on numerous nights of the protests, contemporaneous reports marked the moment that peaceful protests turned violent when the police and/or national guard started attacking protesters
  
  
• Ignoring looters while chasing protesters that challenged the existence of the police and their methods
  
  
• Hiring three security firms (which to me sound more like armed mercenaries) without any identification or insignias to patrol “troublesome” parts of the city because the Chicago Police Department tired themselves out brutalizing and violating the rights of numerous protesters in the name of “Law & Order” (very reminiscent of when the Federal Government put their Bureau of Prisons Crisis Management Teams on the streets of Washington DC and also when President Trump deployed the Department of Homeland Security onto the streets of Portland)
  
  
• Police breaking the windows of a car to drag out friends and family, and as part of the whole altercation, they pinned someone down with their knee – This occurrence also had me wondering how much more of these brutal liability cases the residents of Chicago will have to pay for through our tax dollars

And to think, all this suppression of free speech in the name of “Law & Order” while the government of China was putting together legislation to outlaw free speech and protest in Hong Kong in the name of “Law & Order”. I find the parallels ironic.

A simple fact that has become clear to me and many people in this city, state, and country over the last 4-10 years: The police has done a horrible job policing itself. The public has lost trust in the police. The good cops are trying to save themselves with words in day-to-day conversations rather than address the problems inside the industry (even good cops seem to follow the code of silence or face recrimination, “Joliet Police Sgt. Javier Esqueda, Who Blew Whistle On Death Of Eric Lurry In Police Custody, Stripped Of Police Powers”, The Chicago Sun Times).

At the rallies, the cops strike first, the cops sprays first, the cops shoot first. Arguably, I can understand itchy trigger fingers because there could be danger around any corner. I've heard stories of good cops getting shot because they were caught by surprise (four podcasts that provide some interesting first-person narratives from a variety of cop experiences – I believe one even touches upon the police trainer-trainee relationship, which you mentioned in an article as something new to you: https://pca.st/episode/2d4b53d0-dc18-0134-ebdd-4114446340cb, https://pca.st/episode/f73990b0-e6c6-0134-ec38-4114446340cb, https://pca.st/episode/b6859830-ec30-0134-ec5e-4114446340cb, https://pca.st/episode/bfa269a0-f1b4-0134-ec5e-4114446340cb).

But you know what? Cops signed up fully knowing the danger of the job, while us (at least us white) civilians are told that the cops are there to protect us if we behave. Cops have killed black people that have tried to behave and out of proportion to the crime. And over the weekend after the George Floyd lynching, the Chicago Police (whether under your orders and enabled by your silence to push for restraint) waged battle on protesters trying to express the pain from police striking down the people that they’re supposed to protect.

I don’t expect any of the things that I’ve brought up in this e-mail to come as news to you (though I’m surprised the police trainer-trainee arrangement was news to you), as you’ve worked in the city of Chicago on multiple boards and departments that focused on the police. During your mayoral campaign, you alluded multiple times to some vague plan that you had for the police. You had multiple white papers addressing rehabilitating the Chicago Police Department and on top of that, treating the issue of crime and violence in Chicago as a public health issue. I believe you even alluded to the school to prison pipeline and trying to cut down on that process, which you are obviously failing at.

Ironically, in the face of COVID-19, public health officials have declared racism and police brutality as a public health issue worth risking facing COVID-19 to address (https://www.ecowatch.com/medical-groups-racism-public-health-statement-2646147376.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4, https://pca.st/episode/64da8cdf-94ee-40a8-8eda-fbf6b7f1c35d). Through your orders or your inaction, you have perpetrated state sanctioned violence in a way that has threatened public health, not in just encouraging bodily and mental harm, which is bad enough. In addition, through

• The use of pepper spray
  
  
• Containing crowds into constricted areas for mass arrests
  
  
• Forcing additional physical exertion in protesters
  
  
• Through simple assaults on protesters

the Chicago Police Department actively took actions that encouraged the spread of COVID-19 through the escalation of violence and confrontation rather than de-escalation and controlling the crowds in more cooperative ways.

Words alone, especially "they're the bad ones, not us" aren't enough for an institution to win trust. I'm not even willing to say win back because the premise of the institution of the police was racist and the controlling people and institutions are guilty are promulgating that premise (https://pca.st/mo2wptjy).

So individual police officers need to

• Act better consistently
  
  
• Get the institution to act better consistently
  
  
• Get the institution to police itself better rather than blame civilians that are trusting in the police
  
  
• Reform the police union so it's not about protecting its own first but protecting civilians of all colors, from white to black to Asian to indigenous to hispanic/latino/latinx, then looking after the professions labor interests.

Then, maybe THEN, civilians can start building trust.

It's like with COVID-19. Businesses want liability protection from their employees or customers getting COVID-19 when the businesses should view life and health as more important, not their bank accounts. By the police trying to maintain power and reputation, they are neglecting the ideal of what the police should be about: maintaining justice and protecting those that can’t protect themselves against people who truly want to hurt or profit through injustice, other people, and society. Rather, the police, in its current state, especially in Chicago, are the ones perpetuating injustice and profiting off other people and society through power relations.

This correspondence has been weeks in composition. Since then, there has been numerous news articles of bad behavior by the police or too much kowtowing on your part to have “discussions” and “lessons” rather than actual pushing for justice and life saving, with “discussions” and “lessons” to happen afterward.

Let’s not even get into your continued poking of President Trump then only acquiescing to both sides because President Trump threatens to send in the Department of Homeland Security, like in Portland. You give off this impression of being a tough person, but then you try to ride the middle line until threats by President Trump actually force you to act according to justice because it quiets protesters for a little time, taking away reasons from President Trump to send in his troops. I want President Trump and his Federal law enforcement in this city even less than you do (you apparently only want Federal law enforcement in this city if you can control them and get your goals met through them, not to further the ends of the people of Chicago), but I would rather you understood the demands for justice that protesters in this city have and acted based on that justice, not on the fear of big bad President Trump.

Following are some links to articles about the bad behavior of police and your kowtowing:

• Video shows police gave CTA supervisor a choice: Drop complaint against Chicago officer or face arrest, Chicago Tribune
  
  
• Woman who says Chicago police pulled her from car by her hair and placed knee on her neck formally asks city to drop charges against her, Chicago Tribune
  
  
• City Hall missed 70% of deadlines in first year of reforming Chicago Police Department, Chicago Tribune
  
  
• Christopher Columbus statue taken down hours after Lightfoot ordered its removal, Chicago Sun Times (I read this event, considering the timing of DHS forces in Portland and the escalating rhetoric between you and President Trump more about keeping President Trump’s forces out of town rather to acceding to the demands of protesters of justice)

The current controversy of the police shooting of the 20-year old in Englewood then the looting in the Magnificent Mile and Gold Coast last weekend also provides another example of bad leadership and an out of control situation. On top of that, throw in that many residents of Chicago also interpret the Monday morning looting as being somehow connected to you breaking up a party on Montrose beach and putting up further fencing because of COVID-19 issues (which I support).

As the Englewood situation news develops and disseminates into the population, I find myself wondering how the Englewood situation was allowed to escalate as much as it did at the moment and how it became connected to the looting when residents and active members of the Englewood community requested police brutality protesters to leave when protesters were looking to demonstrate for black people and the residents of Englewood. Why did the Englewood situation need 200+ police at the scene?

Mayor Lightfoot, I’m simply listing symptoms of

• Your bad and lackadaisical leadership
  
  
• Your lack of control over the police or your egging the police on to execute a “Law & Order” way of life in Chicago
  
  
• Your failing to follow through on your white papers to develop not so well off neighborhoods to help mitigate the root causes for the crime and violence that occurs in the city (though your focusing on money-making ventures like Lincoln Yards, casinos, marijuana distribution and cultivation in the northern parts of the city – all understandable since you need capital to invest in improving things, but nonetheless, your focus on revenue or at least the publicity regarding revenue over the improvement of different parts of town is disgraceful without addressing the injustices of the city)
  
  
• Your lack of working and cooperating with activist leaders in our city to figure out the causes of injustice, figure out solutions for addressing injustice, and executing those solutions
  
  
• Your plain lack of understanding that justice needs to be enacted and symbols of injustice removed (and possibly located elsewhere for educational purposes) to instead focus on a reckoning and learning from your own imagination

I am someone who lives on the north side of the city. I have a full time job and a comfortable lifestyle that I have been able to maintain during the COVID-19 pandemic. In complete honesty, these types of issues don’t affect me directly except in my heart, my conscience, my soul, and my mind that the Mayor of this city is not showing the respect and empathy to the people in this city that need it the most and who you had made campaign promises through white papers that you would help the most.

For all material direct reasons, you probably protect my interests. Deep down in my soul, though, I feel that you are failing me and this city. You need to do better to fulfill your white paper campaign promises and to realize justice in Chicago. You need to stop ignoring the cries of people in this city for

• Justice
  
  
• Improvement
  
  
• Reduction of violence
  
  
• Meeting with people
  
  
• Empathizing with people
  
  
• Respecting people
  
  
• Working with people

to make this city a more just and glorious Chicago that all residents can be happy about living in, not just being proud about a nagging feeling that this city has a lot more potential to be better than it is now.

Please do more. Honestly, I have no desire to support you at this point in time. I know that you’re a smart person, however. Unfortunately it seems like you feel like you’re the smartest person in the room and that other people don’t have good ideas. Mayor Lightfoot, please

• Work with other people
  
  
• Listen to other people
  
  
• Respect other people

but please don’t have those people be the Fraternal Organization of Police or the fear of President Trump. Rather, have the voices of people who want true justice and truly want what’s best for the city of Chicago and the people in it be who you listen to. I want to have that Mayor Lightfoot as the incumbent candidate in 2022 to vote for, not the one who we have now and who I have painted in this correspondence.

Sincerely,
Jesse Lex