Crime & Law
Anjanette Young on Chicago Police Reform: ‘We Are Still Waiting for Some Tangible Action’
This month marks 10 years since the police murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
Community members pushed for reforms in the aftermath of the shooting by then Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke.
But advocates say efforts to hold the Chicago Police Department more accountable and to change the way officers interact with residents have not shown much progress.
Van Dyke was sentenced to seven years in prison and released after serving three. The video recording of the shooting was made public 13 months after the fact — showing Van Dyke shooting Laquan 16 times on Oct. 20, 2014.
The event caused a shift in many Chicagoans’ demands for police reform. Five years ago, a federal court order required CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers. The consent decree took effect in March 2019; however, CPD has fully complied with just 7% of its requirements.
Anjanette Young, founder of I AM Her Foundation, joined “Chicago Tonight” to talk about police reform in Chicago. During a botched CPD raid in February 2019, Young, a social worker, was handcuffed while naked as officers searched her apartment and ignored her dozens of statements that they were at the wrong home.
Here’s some of what Young had to say:
On CPD accountability:
“Individuals like myself and other family members, who are the ones that are being harmed by this timing, is an issue. With Laquan McDonald, it’s been 10 years. For myself, it’s been five years, and yet we are still waiting for some tangible action from the consent decree.”
On the consent decree:
“When we think about Laquan McDonald and how he was murdered in the street and shot 16 times so aggressively by the Chicago Police Department, and then, yet, even just this year, we had (Dexter) Reed. That young man was shot (at) 96 times in 41 seconds. That’s so excessive, and so to see police officers still harming the community the way they have is not seeing any tangible change, although they’re reporting in the data that there has been some change.”
On Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration:
“I’m very disappointed at this time. When I chose to support Brandon Johnson as a candidate for mayor, he and I specifically talked about what that would mean for me and for me to publicly support him, and I shared with him my desire and my passion and my commitment to making change around the way the police interact with the Black and Brown community. And those things haven’t happened yet, and Mayor Johnson is now in his second year, actually going into his third year, and nothing tangible has happened.”
On Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling:
“I’ve had personal conversations with Supt. Snelling, and he verbalizes a commitment to work with me on what it would look like to hold the officers accountable. One of the specific questions I asked him, is by him being the head of the police department, where is his commitment in whatever the mayor and I could come to an agreement on, because we know that he would have to have a commitment in order for his officers to then actually follow through on the things that we put in place. And so he reported a commitment to work with me on those things. However, at this time, I’ve asked for meetings, and those meetings haven’t happened.”
On Breonna Taylor:
“The way Breonna Taylor was murdered in her home, the way the police came to her home and kicked the door in, the way they shot up her home — I felt that same parallel. And what was so disheartening for me is that my home had been raided 13 months prior to Breonna Taylor, and no one had really heard of my story.”
On the I AM HER Foundation:
“The purpose of the I AM HER Foundation is to reduce barriers and provide resources to therapy. I understand that during my time, going to therapy was a key component to my healing journey after the trauma, and so I want to be able to give back to others who have those same experiences.”
