Thread by @muckrakery

Before Lori Lightfoot released the results of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force—which Lightfoot chaired—she called me and my attorney, to ask us our thoughts on how long the city could/should wait to release videos of police shootings. (1/x)

We told Lightfoot that we were fairly certain the Illinois FOIA law applies to those “documents” just like everything else. I.e., we believed CPD has just two weeks after a shooting—of a member of the public by a cop—to release all the video they have of it. (2/x)

As I remember, Lightfoot pushed back at our suggestion. Don’t we want to allow time for the IPRA (back then it was IPRA) investigation? she asked. We said that, if shown sufficient evidence of an ongoing investigation, we might be convinced to wait a bit to sue for records. (3/x)

Soon Emanuel holds a press conference stating that Lightfoot and crew had finished the task force report and issued recommendations. He tells the news cameras that the task force even got the recommendation for video release from those who sued for the McDonald tape—i.e. me (4/x)

Only problem was, the recommendation Lightfoot gave the city re: shooting video release was 60 days. My attorney, @mvtopic, and I had been explicit that 14 days was our max, barring rare circumstances. Either Lori lied to Rahm about what I said.. or Rahm lied to the public. (5/x)

I tweeted as much at the time. If anyone wants to sift back through my tweets that far, be my guest. I’m too busy with other things ATM for those shenanigans. I just want to speak my peace about Lightfoot generally for a second. (6/x)

She has great potential as a mayor, mainly because she campaigned as a reformer—she claimed a moral high ground. Chicago’s amazing journalists can hold her to that high ground. If she doesn’t clean up police accountability, she could easily be a one-term mayor. (7/x)

By accountability, I mean the ***LITERAL RECOMMENDATIONS HER GROUP, THE TASK FORCE, PROPOSED***. The set of recs was, in sum total, pretty great. So great that the skeptic in me wonders whether she knew, when she made all of them, that precious few would ever be followed. (8/x)

Regardless, I want to know, of our mayor-to-be: “YOU made these recommendations. You later blamed Mayor Emanuel for not following them. Now that you’re going to be mayor, will YOU commit to implementing them all in, say, your first year?” Ask THAT on my behalf, @tvbrad ;-) (9/x)

We have reason to be skeptical that Lightfoot will follow all—or most—of these recommendations, even though they ostensibly came from her desk. When she was head of the police board she only chose to discipline a few officers—out of 100s for whom IPRA suggested discipline (10/x)

As head of IPRA’s forerunner—Office of Professional Standards—Lightfoot botched a case prompting Daley Jr. to dismiss her & change the agency’s name. We know from a whistleblower that IPRA was corrupt. We also know little changed b/w OPS & IPRA. Maybe OPS was just as bad. (11/x)

I once served on a panel with Lightfoot. When I raised this point—how can we trust her as a police reformer when she led the OPS until its demise—she had no rebuttal. That may have been the most politically smart response in that moment, I think: to not respond. (12/x)

That said... I think anyone can leave their past behind them. Lori Lightfoot has the chance to be the person who issued those 200 baller recommendations. She has a chance to bring on long-time police reform scholars, we might call them, as advisers. (13/x)

From all these years Lightfoot spent defending police, they trust her. So if she says “These big changes are for your good,” they might believe her. In reality, drastic reforms *would* be for the good of cops. The very profession—among race-conscious folks—has been tainted (13/x)

I don’t believe I have anything else to say for now. Except:

The activists, and the average people who back them up, are why politicians have to listen to people and not just money.

And

Godspeed, Chicago. Cross your fingers that Lightfoot becomes who she said she’d be

(14/14)

A great addition to this, as suggested by a v smart reader of my BS:

Here be the list of recommendations for Lightfoot’s police accountability task force

chicagopatf.org/wp-content/upl…