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NEWS & LETTERS,
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2003
Police board secrecy
Chicago--The Chicago Police Review Board meets once a
month--in theory to hear citizens’ complaints about police brutality or other
concerns. The August meeting was notable as the last to be presided over by
outgoing Superintendent Terry Hillard. He didn’t show up, but a number of
people did come to express their concerns about the selection of a new
superintendent. Representatives of the Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago
and Citizens Alert pushed for an open process. David Bates of the Justice
Coalition suggested Black policewoman Pat Hill, who has often challenged the
status quo, as a nominee. They were told that the executive recruiting firm
Maximus Inc. would be handling everything in closed executive sessions of the
board. The public would have no input. You didn’t get much sense from this discussion that
anything more than formality was involved. You certainly didn’t feel that the
system was being challenged. You did feel that when victims of brutality spoke.
Larry Marshall spoke for the family of police brutality
victim Timia Williams when he said: “I don’t care about some so-called new
superintendent right now, I want to talk about the old one who didn’t do
anything when people were beaten. I assume his hands were tied. The law says
that you can’t beat a child, but Timia was beaten by three white police
officers and left to bleed in the street. They weren’t interviewed by the
superintendent. They weren’t even questioned, just given 15-day suspensions.
Each day that goes by I get angrier. “If I had been there when it happened, I’d be in jail
serving my time right now. You can talk all you want about a new superintendent,
but if he also comes in with his hands tied, he or she can’t do nothing.” --Attendee |
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