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FinalCall.com News
National News
Leaders question ‘police riot’
By Cinque L. Muhammad
Updated May 11, 2003 - 4:12:00 PM
CHICAGO (FinalCall.com)--What the Chicago Police Department (CPD) says was a response to an April 17 domestic violence call to a Cabrini Green public housing complex escalated into an alleged racial profiling incident in which four young Black men were beaten by police officers.
After being notified by the victims about the assault, which was videotaped by an onlooker, Rev. Paul Jakes and the Christian Council on Urban Affairs (CCUA) served Mayor Richard M. Daley with a letter insisting that the officers be suspended without pay, investigated and ultimately terminated.
"The video brought back to our minds the way Rodney King was treated in Los Angeles, California, several years ago. These techniques of abuse have become systematic, perpetuating death, fear, corruption and disrespect to our community," said Rev. Jakes in the letter to the mayor.
According to Rev. Jakes, the men had just attended their grandmother’s funeral and were parked in a Cabrini Green parking lot during the repast, when at about 11:30 p.m., their van was approached by four or more White police officers. The event that followed was caught on video by a neighbor and shown to the media at a press conference at Old St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church the next day.
"The video shows the officers surrounding the van and saying something to the men, busting in the windows with billy clubs and pepper spraying the inside, the victims non-aggressively exiting the vehicle, and the cops throwing them, particularly driver Rondell Freeman, to the ground and beating them," Standish Willis, attorney for the four victims, told The Final Call.
Atty. Willis said that the young men exited the vehicle with their hands up. "It’s obvious they (the police) attacked them," he said.
The men suffered trauma and bruises, one with cuts on his forehead and another suffering asthmatic difficulties, as a result of the attack. The video allegedly also shows that the officers maced and hit several innocent bystanders who were witnessing the event.
"It was like a police riot," said Attorney Willis.
Conversely, CPD spokesman Pat Camden challenged police brutality claims, saying that the van was stopped because one of the occupants of the vehicle threw something out of the van as officers drove by.
"They stopped to investigate and Antonio Parker was in the van and was recognized to have a warrant out on him," said Mr. Camden.
He said the van attempted to drive away after the officers asked the men several times to exit. He added that someone in the van tried to rouse the crowd that was gathering around and "finally, the individuals were removed forcibly from the van."
Subsequently the men were charged with obstruction of police officers.
Rev. Jakes said the warrant on Mr. Parker is old and that there was no probable cause to stop the young men, bust out the van’s windows and spray mace in the vehicle.
Unconvinced of the validity of the CPD’s charge against the men, attorney Willis will defend them in court and is in the process of filing a counter suit against the police on their behalf. He also plans to show the Office of Professional Standards a video of the attack, thereby motivating an investigation of the CPD’s claims.
On April 24, the CCUA demanded to the police board that the officers be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Contending that the current police board is ineffective, they have also called upon city aldermen and state legislators to support the creation of an independent review board comprised of members of the affected community with the power to receive and investigate complaints. The board, according to Rev. Jakes, should ideally be able to subpoena documents, compel witnesses, make findings and impose disciplinary sanctions.
"The citizens of this city have witnessed repeated stonewalling and other forms of obstruction associated with the investigations that are conducted on the actions of police officers that prey on our citizens," Rev. Jakes told The Final Call. "This must not be tolerated."
