[ad_1]
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who ran for office on a platform for police reform and racial justice, said on Friday that the city’s attempt to block a local television station from broadcasting a Police video of a botched raid was “a mistake”.
His announcement came as the city officially withdrew a motion to prevent the CBS Chicago affiliate from releasing video of police raiding the wrong house and handcuffing resident Anjanette Young, who was naked.
“The action against news station CBS2 that was filed by the city’s legal department was a mistake,” Lightfoot said.
The city also withdrew a sanctions motion against Young’s attorney Keenan Saulter, who obtained the police body camera video of the botched raid in a challenge in Federal Court. Lightfoot said she was not aware of the video or of the city’s attempts to keep it a secret.
Lawyers for the city had claimed that the apparent leak at the TV station, which aired the footage Thursday, violated a court order that allowed Young to obtain it.
The city was “very concerned about the violation of a court decision,” the lawyers said in their withdrawal.
Lightfoot had said earlier this week that the February 2019 raid took place before its unveiling and that the video, which she claimed to have seen for the first time on Tuesday, was appalling.
A dozen officers armed with rifles broke into Young’s home as she prepared for bed and handcuffed her as she tried to use a quilt to cover her naked body.
“You have the wrong house!” Young, 50, has pleaded several times.
Police acted on information from a confidential informant concerning a suspect wanted for illegal use of a handgun by a criminal and possession of ammunition and a small amount of drugs. It turned out that the suspect lived nearby and was already under electronic surveillance by the prison authorities.
Young, who is black, has filed a complaint against a police department that has long faced allegations of racism.
“Take my house as it was, and have the police for 40 minutes yelling at me, telling me to calm down, naked, handcuffing me,” Young said at a press conference Wednesday. “No one should have to go through this.”
Black clergy, including Reverend Jesse Jackson, were scheduled to hold a press conference on the matter on Friday. Reverend Marshall Hatch of Chicago’s New Mount Pilgrim Church issued a statement demanding that city council hold public hearings to hold the police department and its oversight committee accountable and to find out if Lightfoot knew more about the case than she suggests.
“We have had enough cover-ups in this city,” he said, “it’s time to be transparent”.
Lightfoot was elected by a city rocked by the fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald in October 2014. The city resisted posting a video on the dashboard and camera of the murder, which lied to the public. police claiming the shooting was justified.
Samira Puskar contributed.
[ad_2]
Source link