Thread by @kgosztola

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot spent nearly 60 percent of discretionary federal COVID-19 relief funds on Chicago Police Department. She thinks any criticism is dumb.

An inspector general report on police response to George Floyd protests shows why outrage is legitimate.

THREAD

On Saturday, May 30, protesters observed "apparently indiscriminate uses of force by CPD members." Police tackled, punched, and used batons to "strike peaceful protesters in the head and neck."

Body camera footage captured some evidence of this violence.

Body camera footage recorded a Chicago officer as they knocked a person filming an arrest off their bicycle.

As the OIG noted, no attempt was made to "effect an arrest or talk with the bicyclist."

One protester recounted what happened on May 29, as Chicago police tried to clear people from area near Trump Tower.

"It felt like I was in the middle of a rugby scrum...I repeatedly told officers to stop pushing because someone behind me was having trouble breathing."

From the same protester (Protester #4): "Police participated in reckless endangerment. They put the lives of so many people in jeopardy."

"Police presence escalated tensions and created a dangerous space for everyone near or around the protest."

On May 30, officer opened a transport to find female arrestee lying face down and having a seizure. "Chick's having a seizure I guess." Officer decided she was still breathing, there was nothing to do, and shut the door without rendering any aid.

Body camera footage also captured one Chicago police officer telling fellow officers he "made an arrestee cry by telling the arrestee they would be raped in jail given their thin physical stature."

Some of the clearest examples of the scale of violence against protesters on May 30-31 (the weekend) were captured by body cameras, but the OIG indicated those cameras only recorded 11% and 14% of arrests.

A number of CPD officers didn't wear body cameras at all.

The inspector general documented several instances where CPD officers obscured their star numbers so they could not be identified, making it hard to hold them accountable for any violence against protesters.

CPD's use of baton strikes to the head or neck of protesters was documented.

"I witnessed an officer deliberately hit teenage girl in the face"

"An officer hit me in the throat with his baton"

"He [pressed] the baton against my neck so hard that I couldn't fall to my knees"

The OIG report contained testimony from Chicago police, and strongly suggested CPD hid or omitted baton strikes and other uses of force from their reports.

Importantly, no CPD officers bothered to rebut protesters' claims of violence against them.

Looting was captured by body cameras. In this example, Chicago police struck a "subject" in the head or neck three times (apparently with a closed fist). The subject was face down. Police did not report the use of force.

This protester watched police respond to looting on May 30. CPD let kids break into businesses. Then they beat the kids up as they tried to leave.

They never saw "humans acting so violently against each other & was struck by seeing CPD officers take out their anger on kids."

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told the inspector general she authorized Chicago police to pepper spray protesters.

On May 30, SWAT deployed chemical agents at least 85 times against the crowd—though there is little documentation of why spray was used in each of these instances.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot seems to think protests were not an organic response to outrageous murder by police in Minneapolis and a show of solidarity with those rising up throughout the United States.

"This was a conspiracy, sophisticated, paid for and promoted by someone..."

There was apparently a level of racism to Chicago police commanders and Lightfoot halting downtown public train service at 6 pm.

"One command staff member mentioned stopping people coming from the City's South Side."

In highly segregated city, they aimed to stop black people.

The inspector general report addresses "unusual" decision by Mayor Lightfoot to raise bridges and the potential dangers this entailed.

Such a step for curtailing protests was considered ahead of 2012 NATO summit but rejected as "ineffective tool for emergency crowd control."

Highlighted in the report is what happened when protesters sought refuge in the Chicago Freedom School after Lightfoot imposed a curfew.

City of Chicago issued a "cease and desist order" because the school was feeding people and threatened to impose daily fines of $500-1000.

What we know about where $280 million in COVID-19 relief went remains vague. If any of it went to paying police for their deployment during protests, that means it went toward brutal police response against Chicagoans instead of programs that could address their basic needs.

Would City of Chicago Office of Inspector General have reviewed police response if there wasn't a federal consent decree?

Fortunately, public has this report so they can know many of details related to what Lightfoot and police did.

Full report here: igchicago.org/wp-content/upl…