“Rahm Emanuel wants to spend another $95 million on Chicago Police and we are fed up! We want schools for kids, not cops! We want police accountability, not more resources for the police. A fancy new building will not end racism. We want real safety in our communities. That means investing in programs and services like quality schools, quality health care, jobs for teens, childcare for all, living wages.”
Some youth from Mitts’s ward disagree. The #NoCopAcademy campaign has been endorsed by a long list of established community groups, but young people from West Garfield Park are taking a leading role in organizing. Since the beginning of September they’ve been at the forefront of public actions and have canvassed the neighborhood, collecting signatures in opposition to the project.
She’s also not convinced more firefighters would be good for West Garfield Park. In August, her friend, 17-year-old Charles Macklin, was shot to death by an off-duty Fire Department lieutenant.
At a City Council hearing Wednesday, a handful of #NoCopAcademy campaigners showed up to see whether any new information about the training academy project would be discussed. (It would not.) After 30 minutes of public testimony—a litany of three-minute pleas, from kids, parents, and seniors, mostly for school funding and affordable housing—aldermen Walter Burnett, Ed Burke, Chris Taliaferro, Matt O’Shea, Derrick Curtis, Anthony Napolitano, and Willie Cochran (a former cop himself currently facing a federal indictment on charges of fraud, extortion, and bribery), as well as Mayor Emanuel dedicated 15 minutes to honoring the memory of police officer Bernie Domagala who died last month due to complications from bullet wounds he sustained on duty in 1988. His killer was a distraught fellow cop.
