Public Statement from GAPA

Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability’s Response to Mayor Lightfoot’s Rejection of Community Role in Community Oversight

Chicago, IL (October 1, 2020) – Members of the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) said today that they are outraged by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to abandon efforts to work with community members to create a community oversight board for the Chicago Police Department, Civilian Office of Police Accountability, and Police Board, and by the Mayor’s false narrative that GAPA has held up progress to create the board. At a town hall meeting on Tuesday September 29, Mayor Lightfoot announced that she would no longer support GAPA’s efforts to establish the oversight board, and, at the town hall meeting and at a press conference on Thursday October 1, she blamed GAPA for her decision to abandon the community process.

GAPA has been working diligently for years, with deep community involvement and in consultation with experts from around the country, but the Mayor has rejected GAPA’s conclusions.

“GAPA has proposed solution after solution, all with support from community members and national experts, but the Mayor has stonewalled and refused to negotiate issues that are core to the community,” said GAPA Coordinator, Desmon Yancy. “We continued to accommodate the Mayor’s concerns about the proposal, while keeping true to what we believe the city needs now--an ordinance that gives our communities real power and a voice in policing and public safety matters,” added Yancy.

This has never been about timing. Mayor Lightfoot failed to meet her own deadline to create a civilian oversight body in her first 100 days. “The real issue is whether the Mayor will accept the community as an equal partner in police reform,” said Yancy. As head of the Police Accountability Task Force and as a candidate for Mayor, Lori Lightfoot said community members should play a key role in setting up the civilian oversight body. She even endorsed the GAPA proposal early on. “Now, as Mayor, she scorns the efforts of thousands of community members who spent years developing that proposal, and she says she is going her own way. Apparently, she wants community oversight without community,” said Yancy.

The GAPA ordinance would give community members a powerful role in police reform efforts and Police Department policy making. It would require the new community oversight board to work in partnership with CPD, and to make Police Department policy only by consensus. But the Mayor wants to hold on to the power to make policy even over strong community opposition.

“We are also infuriated by Alderman Chris Taliaferro’s decision to put his and the Mayor’s political interests over the people of this city.” said Father Larry Dowling, Pastor of St. Agatha Catholic Church, and a leader with Community Renewal Society. Earlier this year, Ald. Taliaferro, who chairs the City Council Public Safety Committee, sided with the community, saying that if the Mayor had the final say on Police Department policy, “You begin to ask whether or not you even need a Commission if they have no authority and no responsibility and no power.” But now he has flip-flopped and said that the Mayor should have the final say on Police Department policy. Why did Alderman Taliaferro flip-flop? The reason, he told the Sun Times’ Fran Spielman, is that the Mayor’s “political future” is on the line. “Well so is the safety of Chicagoans. Last time I checked, our elected officials were charged with putting us above their own personal and political interests,” replied Monse Ayala, a leader with the Southwest Organizing Project.

“We will not sit quietly by while the Mayor and Chairman Taliaferro make merely symbolic gestures, much like other cities did after the murder of George Floyd. We will not sit quietly by while public officials who care more about tweets and rhetoric backtrack when it comes time to do what needs to be done--giving the community real power to direct its safety. We need action. It is time for the City Council to be a governing body and take action along with the community, and not cower under the thumb of the Mayor,” said GAPA Coordinator, Desmon Yancy.

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The Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability is a coalition of community organizations working in more than 30 wards throughout Chicago, committed to making our neighborhoods safer, improving police practices and police accountability, and transforming community-police relations.