Updates

For Immediate Release: 9/20/17

Posted on by madlittledebbie

No Cop Academy

 

PRESS RELEASE: For Immediate Release

No Cop Academy: Community Groups Oppose Construction of $95 Million Police Training Center

Community groups organizing to stop the construction of Rahm Emanuel’s $95 million police academy in Garfield Park to hold press conference outside mayor’s office.

WHEN: Wednesday, September 20th at 10:00 AM
WHERE: Chicago City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle, 5th floor

Press contact: Debbie Southorn, People’s Response Team, 971-227-3829, DSouthorn@afsc.org

#NoCopAcademy | nocopacademy.wordpress.com

CHICAGO, September 20, 2017: A diverse coalition of more than 20 community groups are coming together for a press conference outside of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office announcing a campaign to stop his plan to spend $95 million building a new police and fire training academy in West Garfield Park. Emanuel’s plan to build this facility was discreetly unveiled over July 4th weekend and a subsequent land purchase was quietly authorized last week by the city’s Community Development Commission.

“Every year, the city of Chicago spends $1.5 billion on police–that’s $4 million dollars per day. We need to fund communities, not police. Rahm closed 50 public schools and half of the city’s public mental health clinics because he said the city couldn’t afford them. It’s a slap in the face to our impacted communities to see Rahm turn up another $95 million for the city’s most violent institution,” said Monica Trinidad of People’s Response Team.

Community groups seek to highlight the hypocrisy of the mayor’s pattern of cutting vital public resources in the name of cost savings while simultaneously pouring more resources into the violent Chicago Police. In 2012, Rahm Emanuel targeted Chicago’s most vulnerable residents by closing half the city’s public mental health clinics to save a measly $2.2 million dollars annually. In 2013, Rahm Emanuel undertook the largest school closing in U.S. history, approving the closure of 49 public schools at one time. The city of Chicago currently spends three times as much on policing as it does on the departments of public health, family and support services, transportation, and planning and development (which handles affordable housing) combined.

Last year, the Department of Justice released a report documenting rampant corruption and human rights abuses within the Chicago Police Department. Since then, we have seen more of the same: Chicago Police have killed 14 people so far this year. The continuing lack of any meaningful oversight or reform means this training center will only further cement the policies and practices that put Chicago’s most marginalized communities at risk of police violence.

“Chicago’s communities need resources–not criminalization. We should be defunding and downsizing the Chicago Police Department and investing those funds in providing the vital resources our communities need,” said Page May of Assata’s Daughters.

In addition to today’s press conference, community groups plan to take action throughout the month to highlight why Chicago needs to fund communities instead of police. The coalition has also released a statement on its opposition, which can be viewed here.

“We have 95 reasons why Chicago shouldn’t invest $95 million more into the Chicago Police. Throughout the month, you can expect to see many different community organizations taking a variety of actions to highlight why we are saying “No Cop Academy,”  said Ruby Pinto of For The People Artists Collective.

The coalition opposing the $95 million police and fire academy includes: American Friends Service Committee, Assata’s Daughters, Axis Labs, Black Youth Project 100 – Chicago, BTGNC Collective, Chicago Community Bond Fund, Chicago League of Abolitionist Whites, Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Girls and Young Women, Chicago Votes, For The People Artists Collective, Grassroots Collaborative, Jewish Voices For Peace Chicago, Kuumba Lynx, Latino Union, Lifted Voices, Love & Protect, National Lawyers Guild of Chicago, People’s Response Team, Project Fierce, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation, Tzedek Chicago, and Workers Center for Racial Justice. For more information and updates on the No Cop Academy campaign, visit https://nocopacademy.wordpress.com/

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Campaign Launch & Statement

Posted on by madlittledebbie

“No Cop Academy” Campaign Opposes $95 Million for New Police Grounds

Over the 4th of July weekend, Rahm announced plans to build a multi-million dollar police and fire training academy in a predominantly Black community on Chicago’s west side. The construction alone will cost $95 million, in a neighborhood he closed 6 schools in. This is just the latest version of ongoing divestment from communities of color alongside massive resourcing of policing.

Rahm thinks he can get away with this. He’s attempted to move each phase of this under the public’s radar, and pass it discreetly through the 2018 City budget while no one is watching. We plan to fight back together to stop this compound. We demand schools for kids, not cops.

Chicago already spends $1.5 billion on police every year—that’s $4 million every single day. We spend 300% on the CPD as a city more than we do on the Departments of Public Health, family and support services, transportation, and planning and development (which handles affordable housing). This plan is being praised as a development opportunity to help local residents around the proposed site, but when Rahm closed 50 schools in 2013, six were in this neighborhood. The message is clear: Rahm supports schools and resources for cops, not for Black and Brown kids.

We demand a redirecting of this $95 million into Chicago’s most marginalized communities instead. Real community safety comes from fully-funded schools and mental health centers, robust after-school and job- training programs, and social and economic justice. We want investment in our communities, not expanded resources for police.

Rahm has sought to portray himself as the resistance to Trump, but is pursuing policies that will compound the president’s multi-pronged attack on our communities. And while the City wants to push the idea of joint training for police and fire, we know that more collaboration at the level of training will lead to increased militarization of emergency response across the board.

The problem of police violence in Chicago has been documented for years by Black organizers and exposed by the scathing 2016 Department of Justice report.  This training center would escalate the practices and policies that cause Black and Brown communities to be targeted, harassed, criminalized, tazed, stopped, frisked, and incarcerated. Rather than committing to meaningful community control of the police, this attempted facelift aims to quell dissent and will only expand CPD’s capacity for violence.  

We refuse any expansion of policing in Chicago, and demand accountability for decades of violence. We will fight for funding for our communities, and support each other in building genuine community safety in the face of escalating attacks.

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