#TheBluestLie Collaborative Release Web App for Chicagoans to demand City Alderman take a stance on the Blue Lives Matter Ordinance.
CHICAGO, IL – #TheBluestLie Collaborative continues its campaign against City Ordinance #4878, to expand Hate Crimes legislation to provide protections to police officers. This expansion of the Hate Crimes legislation is a part of a new wave of “Blue Lives Matter” legislation that are appearing across the country. If the ordinance passes through the Public Safety Committee and City Council, anyone who has a negative interaction with a police officer can be charged with a Hate Crime which carries a felony of at least 6 months imprisonment and a $2,500 fine.
Since the proposed introduction of the Blue Lives Matter ordinance, very few Aldermen have taken a stance on whether they are against or in support of the ordinance. Some City Aldermen are calling for increased police accountability but have not taken a stance on the Blue Lives Matter Ordinance – an ordinance that would erode the gains to initiate increased police accountability measures in Chicago and would make marginalized communities more vulnerable to police intimidation, violence, and incarceration.
Today #TheBluestLie Collaborative partner, BYP100 released a web application to help everyday Chicagoans 1) easily discover their alderman by typing their address 2) report on call outcomes 3) and share their efforts on social media. Activists have already started to call their Alderman on the tool to find out where they stand on the Blue Lives Matter Ordinance. Website Developers Rich Ranallo and Jeffrey Hitch teamed up to create the #TheBluestLie website at #ChiHackNight; Chicago’s weekly event to build, share, and learn about civic tech. Website Developer, Jeffrey Hitch was moved to use technology to help more people to mobilize against the proposal of the Blues Lives Matter Ordinance, “The proposal of the Blues Lives Matter ordinance in Chicago is a statement that ignores the harm that police brutality has brought on Black communities and the Black lives that have been lost. It serves to discourage anyone willing to speak out against this system and to twist the narrative making police victims.”
#TheBluestLie Collaborative hopes to get responses from all 50 Aldermen in the event that the delayed Blue Lives Matter ordinance is introduced in the Public Safety Committee of City Council. #TheBluestLie Collaborative demands that the sponsors of the ordinance, Aldermen Burke, Cochran, Sposato, Curtis, Napolitano, O’Shea and Taliaferro rescind their proposal to expand the Hate Crimes legislation to protect police officers and to stand on the right side of justice for true police accountability in Chicago.
[Local spokespersons available for additional comment. Contact Camesha Jones at to 708-580-0255 coordinate.]
#TheBluestLie Collaborative is lit and led by young Black Chicagoans committed to each others’ autonomy, liberation and abundant futures.
