Lori Lightfoot’s Record Shows the Limits of ‘Police Reform’
In various offices across two decades, Mayor Lightfoot has failed to bring change to the Chicago Police Department.
Jerry Iannelli Apr 28, 2021
Chicago’s Mayor Turns City’s Infrastructure Into Weapons Against Protesters
When election and racial justice protests rocked the city, Lori Lightfoot used raised bridges and shutdown public transportation as crowd control measures, which harmed the city’s workers.
Maya Dukmasova Nov 13, 2020
Feuding With Donald Trump Is Not Police Reform
Mayors of liberal cities love to criticize the president’s incendiary law-and-order rhetoric, but do precious little to check police violence and bloated budgets in their own backyards.
Jay Willis Sep 30, 2020
After Atlanta Teen Is Injured in a Police Encounter, Lawyers Call for Change
The 17-year-old, who his lawyers say was pushed off a fence by a police officer, survived the fall but suffered serious injuries.
Joshua Vaughn Sep 17, 2020
Lori Lightfoot’s Actions Don’t Match Her Rhetoric About Police
Like her Democratic mayoral counterparts in Portland, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York, Lightfoot has condemned police violence outside her borders, while using law enforcement to suppress demonstrations in her own city.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Sep 03, 2020
Activists Say Chicago Mayor’s Police Reform Promises Ring Hollow
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has hampered the process of installing a police oversight council, activists say, despite making it a major part of her public safety platform during her mayoral run.
Maya Dukmasova Jun 23, 2020
Chicago Teachers Fought For Support Staff And Restorative Justice In Schools
After an 11-day strike, the Chicago Teachers Union won guarantees of nurses and social workers in every school and a “path” towards hiring librarians, counselors, and restorative justice coordinators.
Vaidya Gullapalli Nov 04, 2019
It’s Time to Fight the Democratic Mayors Who Are Champions of the Carceral State
The mayors of New York, Chicago, and San Francisco wrap themselves in the language of progressivism, but when it comes to the criminal legal system they’re Trumpian.
Kelly Hayes Nov 04, 2019
Spending billions on policing, then millions on police misconduct
Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. In 2017, the coalition Freedom to Thrive looked at the enormous outlay on policing and incarceration across the U.S.—over $180 billion annually—contrasting it with the systemic underinvestment […]
Vaidya Gullapalli Aug 02, 2019
Spotlight: Will Chicago Get a Memorial to Honor the Survivors of Police Torture?
In 2015, the Chicago City Council passed a reparations ordinance. That ordinance, the first of its kind in the country, was the city’s official acknowledgment that Jon Burge, a Chicago police commander, and detectives under his command, “systematically engaged in acts of torture, physical abuse and coercion of African American men and women at Area […]
Vaidya Gullapalli Jun 12, 2019
It’s Time to Make Chicago Police Pay For Their Misdeeds—Out Of Their Own Budget
Chicago hands out millions in settlements and legal fees for police misconduct. Its newly inaugurated mayor should take a dollar from the department’s budget for every dollar the city spends settling with its victims.
Jonathan Ben-Menachem May 29, 2019