People from community organizations, labor unions, and religious leaders will converge again on the meeting of the City Council this Wednesday, September 14, 2016 to demand enactment of the legislation creating and empowering an all-elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC). This legislation was introduced in the Council by Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa on July 20 (Record #O2016-5707) and has the support of Aldermen Moreno, Sadlowski Garza, Foulkes, Brookins, Maldonado, Santiago, Mitts, and Pawer.
A news conference will be held at 9:00 a.m. at City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle, 2nd Floor, outside the Council chamber, before the Council meeting.
They say Rahm Emanuel and his allies in the City Council, including the so-called “progressive caucus”, are on the run, dodging the demands of the people for the only just and democratic solution to police crime and abuse spiraling out of control in Chicago. Over nine months’ worth of “public hearings” have been held beginning with the mayor’s appointed Police Accountability Task Force and culminating with the “progressive caucus” neighborhood hearings. The people testifying at these hearings overwhelmingly demanded CPAC and community control of the police. By the final hearings the cries for CPAC were nearly unanimous. Over 3,000 marched on City Hall for CPAC last August and at least as many again just this past July. The Chicago Alliance has gathered almost 40,000 signatures in support of the ordinance throughout Chicago, and the offices of many aldermen have been inundated with postcards urging them to support it.
The Mayor is trying to hoodwink the people with a newly appointed police oversight body that continues to be unaccountable to the people. No matter how often he reschedules the introduction of his phony solution, we, the people will be there to stop his royal decree. They locked us and Chicago teachers out of the Council chambers on June 22. The people will continue to hammer on that door, and that loud roar you hear is the people winning. “We need CPAC, and the time to pass it is NOW!”
For more information, contact:
Frank Chapman 312-513-3795 email: fchapman@naarpr.org or
Ted Pearson 312-927-2689 email: tpearson@naarpr.org
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