Police Violence, Race, and Stigma in Chicago

I was recently on a boat with a friend who said - I never read Twitter or Facebook any more, but I do check your blog for new stuff. So when I publish new pieces, I'm posting little excerpts here. Hi Melissa! :)

How do you find my stories? What's the role of the blog for you today? Let me know ... maybe on Twitter.

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My first feature for The Guardian is on the intersections of racism, poverty, and trauma in Chicago, and the black disabled leaders working to make a better city. They are fighting police violence, working to educate their communities on disability, and it was an honor to talk to them and write this:

Chris lives in Ogden Park in Englewood, a neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, where I drove to meet him. As the hot afternoon waned, we spent an hour in the shade of the sycamore trees, sitting on a slanted wooden bench, talking.

He was restless. He sat. He stood up. He paced and smoked. Piece by piece, Chris revealed his theories about disability, race, poverty, policing and the vicious cycle in which Chicago’s disabled black residents have found themselves.

Chris Huff is a member of Advance Youth Leadership Power(AYLP), an advocacy group organized through Access Living, one of Chicago’s leading disability rights organizations. They have taken on a complicated twofold mission.

First, they are trying to teach those concerned about police conduct, including the US justice department (DoJ) taskforce, to see the disability component in the broader narrative of an abusive Chicago police department – especially as a third to half of people killed by police have a disability. Second, and perhaps even more critically, these activists are hoping to help their own communities perceive the links between disability and racial and economic justice.

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DoJ and AYLP: Chicago

The Department of Justice is in Chicago investigating the police force, in hopes of eventually developing a consent decree to help reform the local police department. Consent decrees are a useful tool, though actually effecting change after such a decree is no simple matter.

Yesterday, the DoJ took community testimony about policing in Chicago. They expected a lot of anger and a lot of discussion of racism, and they certainly got it. What I'm not sure they expected is a lot of talk about disability.

But Advance Youth Leadership Power organized an action before the event, where disabled Chicagoans first spoke outside, then they came inside and shared their experiences. Not only did the DoJ hear about disability, but I suspect many other individuals who wanted to testify gained some new perspective on the disability lens. For example:

Image: @BlackAutist holding up his flag that reads proud black autistic. #acceptus #notkillus pic.twitter.com/QxJZ6kn5Rq

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) July 12, 2016

I tweeted the hearing (mostly) under the hashtag #DoJChicago. I expect/hope to use that hashtag a lot over the next few months as they do their work, and we do ours.

There are two related missions.

1) Teach the disability community that they need to be concerned about police violence.
2) Teach the police reform community that they need to think about disability.

Yesterday was a good day for both efforts, thanks to the leadership of Candace Coleman and the rest of the AYLP team. Congratulations to them.

Chicago Action: Testify - Police Violence Against Disabled Chicagoans of Color

On Tuesday night, The Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office will host a hearing on police violence in Chicago. Advance Youth Leadership Power - a group focused on organizing disabled youth of color - will lead an action before it to focus on the intersection of police violence against people of color and people with disabilities.

I am not involved in the organization, but will be in attendance to witness and support.

Here's a PDF of the flyer.

Text reads:

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office will host a hearing on police violence in Chicago. They opened an investigation on the Chicago Police Department due to recent instances of unnecessary violence, including Laquan McDonald, Quintonio LeGrier, and Brandon Bragg.

Advance Youth Leadership Power (AYLP) will be there to testify; the mentioned victims are not only people of color, but also in the disability community. Join us in urging DOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s office to put an end to CPD’s unpunished assault on people of color with disabilities.

For more information and accommodation requests, contact Mayra, Candace, or TJ at ccoleman@accessliving.org or 312-640-2128.

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For more information on police violence and disability - start here.