Activists in Chicago call for investigation into fatal police shootings
A group of local activists in Chicago called for an investigation into a series of fatal police shootings that took place in the city.
Relatives of those killed staged a demonstration in front of the department’s headquarters.
Jason Ware, a campaigner with We Charge Genocide in Chicago, said their deaths were the result of systemic racial profiling of black and minority youth by US police officers. The national debate about this issue reached fever pitch in Ferguson, Missouri, after the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown, but Ware said the issue was also explosive in Chicago.
“The Chicago police department has a disregard for black life and officers have impunity for the crimes they commit against black residents,” he said in an email after the rally.
Demonstrators gathered outside the Chicago Public Safety headquarters, which is home to the city’s police and fire departments.
Organizers say they chose that location because the public feels “anything but safe in the hands of police.”
Among their list of demands, demonstrators asked the Cook County state’s attorney to investigate the department’s “disproportionate use of deadly force” against residents in predominantly black communities. “We need more transparency from our local police department,” said William Calloway, one of the organizers. “The police department needs to be more accountable to the community.”
Black lives matter.
Sound off below!