Oct 21, 2024

Honorable Brandon Johnson
Mayor of Chicago
Office of the Mayor
121 N. La Salle St.
Chicago, IL 60602

Cc: Garien Gatewood (Deputy Mayor of Community Safety), Deborah Wizburg (Inspector General), Anthony Driver (President, Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability), Larry Snelling (Superintendent of Police)

Re: Terminate All CPD Officers Associated with White Supremacist Extremism and Launch Task Force Aimed at Appropriately Addressing White Supremacist Extremism within CPD

Dear Mayor Johnson:
We write on behalf of Color Of Change, one of the nation’s foremost racial justice organizations with millions of members nationwide, including more than 46,000 members in Cook County, and the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, a mass defense organization that defends the rights of Black people and all oppressed peoples to unite, organize and fight for freedom, justice and equality. We are joined by 14 undersigned local civil rights, justice reform, labor and other community-led organizations in the city of Chicago and 10 elected officials.

We urge you to demand that Police Superintendent Larry Snelling immediately terminate Chicago Police officers who have been identified as having ties to the Oath Keepers, a white supremacist, anti-government extremist militia organization. We also demand that a task force to include community stakeholders be formed to plan and implement a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to preventing, identifying and eliminating white supremacist extremist activities and associations within the Chicago Police Department (CPD). People affiliated with hate and extremist groups – including the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters – should have no place in policing our streets.

We are deeply alarmed by the results of the recent CPD Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA) investigation into several CPD officers’ affiliations with the Oath Keepers¹. The BIA investigation relied exclusively on interviews with the implicated officers alone, which resulted in the BIA’s failure to sustain any of the allegations against the identified active officers whose personal affiliations to this extremist group were made known. Our letter follows months of continued outrage and calls for immediate action on this matter by the Southern Poverty Law Center, from several members of Chicago City Council and from residents across the 33rd Ward and other parts of the city.²

Our letter also comes after Chicago’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found BIA’s investigation to “suffer from deficiencies materially affecting its outcome.”³ According to the OIG, during the investigations, “BIA conducted deficient interviews, failed to conduct an additional investigative step, and concluded that ‘membership [in] organizations in itself is not a rule violation’” — which the OIG finds runs contrary to CPD’s own Rules and Regulations.⁴

This is unacceptable. It signifies a lack of urgency, lack of thoroughness and lack of accountability on an issue that should be a matter of zero tolerance. It is apparent that the CPD and the BIA cannot be trusted to appropriately investigate and terminate officers on the force who are tied to white supremacist activities and associations. This is why we look to you to direct Police Superintendent Snelling to immediately terminate the identified officers and launch a task force that would address this public safety issue systemically.

The haphazard nature of BIA’s investigation and outcome are particularly disturbing and dangerous given how released records show that some of the implicated officers were recruited to the Oath Keepers from within the department and were paid to become members — signaling a more systemic problem that must be addressed.⁵ Officers associated with white supremacist ideologies and racist policing are a risk to public safety and civil rights. They should not be policing our streets. All eight of these officers at some point had been part of the now disbanded Special Operations Section unit, which notoriously carried out corrupt home invasion operations and were found to have stolen money, drugs and jewelry from Chicagoans.⁶ Furthermore, several of these officers have been accused of using racial slurs and have faced excessive force complaints.⁷

We appreciate you consistently reiterating your commitment to “rooting out extremist, anti-government, and biased organizations in our law enforcement ranks” and your administration’s “steadfast” commitment “to genuine accountability and ensuring that such activities have clear consequences.”⁸ We have seen the same public commitment made by Superintendent Snelling.⁹ However, how can the general public be expected to trust these public commitments to root out Oath Keeper and other white supremacist-affiliated officers on the force when, in this scandal, the department chose to depart from a 50-year-old precedent by affirming that memberships within white supremacist organizations in itself is not a rule violation?¹⁰

If Superintendent Snelling enforced the plain language of CPD’s policy, he could have — and should have — recommended that all of the officers who admitted joining the Oath Keepers while a member of the CPD be terminated. Both you and Superintendent Snelling have the opportunity to make good on your promises and your duty to the people of Chicago by ensuring there are actual consequences for white supremacist associations and activities within the CPD. The issue of white supremacist extremism in law enforcement is not unique to the CPD; the failure to take corrective actions and hold officers accountable to CPD’s own policy on the matter is.

Based on all of the facts and evidence available, it is clear that BIA’s investigation was a sham, and that the identified officers violated CPD policy. We strongly urge you to ensure that these implicated officers are immediately terminated and we ask that you accept the OIG’s recommendation to launch a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to preventing, identifying and eliminating white supremacist-affiliated officers from the force. Given the inadequacy of the CPD and the BIA’s disciplinary response, we look to your administration to prioritize convening this task force comprised of representatives from all appropriate city agencies or departments, as well as community stakeholders, to plan and implement the aforementioned whole-of-government approach to ridding the CPD of white supremacist extremism.

White supremacist extremism and hate within CPD is an urgent matter of public safety that must be addressed rigorously and earnestly beyond stated public commitments.

We look forward to your prompt response and attention to these demands.

Sincerely,

Organizations

Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago
CAARPR
Chicago Torture Justice Center
Chicago United Solidarity Project (CUSP)
Color Of Change
Community Renewal Society
Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) Coalition
Equality Illinois
Friends for Lanetta Thomas PAC
Impact for Equity
​​Jewish Council On Urban Affairs
Network 49
New Era Young Lords/Young Lords
ONE Northside
Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation
Warehouse Workers for Justice

Elected officials

Maurilio Garcia, Council Member, 19th police district
Maria Hadden, Alderperson, 49th Ward
Julia Kline, Council Member, 2nd police district (former)
Dion McGill, Council Member, 7th police district
Deirdre O’Connor, Council Member, 20th police district
David Orlikoff, Council Member, 14th police district
Leonardo Quintero, 12th police district
Elizabeth A. Rochford, 14th police district
Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, Alderperson, 33rd Ward
Andre Vasquez, Alderperson, 40th Ward

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1. Heather Cherone, “Probe Into 8 CPD Officers Found No Evidence They Were Active Members of Oath Keepers — But Investigators Only Asked Them,” WTTW News, May 3, 2024, https://news.wttw.com/2024/05/03/probe-8-cpd-officers-found-no-evidence-they-were-active-members-oath-keepers
2. Southern Poverty Law Center, Letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson and Police Superintendent Larry Snelling, May 14, 2024, https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/letter-investigations-chicago-police-officers.pdf; Violet Miller, “Activist groups seek new probe into Chicago cops’ ties to Oath Keepers,” Chicago Sun Times, July 20, 2024, https://chicago.suntimes.com/extremism-in-the-ranks/2024/07/20/extremism-in-the-ranks-oath-keepers-cpd-snelling-johnson-city-hall-inspector-general-watchdog#:~:text=Residents%20of%20the%2033rd%20Ward,called%20an%20%E2%80%9Cinadequate%E2%80%9D%20investigation
3. Deborah Witzburg and Tobara Richardson, “Recommendations to Reopen Chicago Police Department Misconduct Investigations,” Log #2023-0004935, Office of the Inspector General for the City of Chicago, July 9, 2024, https://igchicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Recommendation-to-Reopen-Log-2023-0004935-1.pdf
4. Ibid.; Deborah Witzburg and Tobara Richardson,. “Advisory Regarding Chicago Police Department Member Affiliation with Anti-Government and Extremist Groups,.” Office of the Inspector General for the City of Chicago, July 9, 2024, https://igchicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Advisory-Regarding-CPD-Member-Affiliation-with-Anti-Government-and-Extremist-Groups-2.pdf
5. Dan Mihalopoulos, “Chicago’s top cop defends clearing officers on extremist group’s membership list,” Chicago Sun Times, May 3, 2024, https://chicago.suntimes.com/extremism-in-the-ranks/2024/05/03/chicago-top-cop-defends-officers-extremist-groups
6. Kevin G. Hall (OCCRP), Tom Schuba (Chicago Sun Times), et. al., “Chicago Police Officers Appeared on Membership List of Extremist Oath Keepers Group,” Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Oct. 24, 2023, https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/chicago-police-officers-appeared-on-membership-list-of-extremist-oath-keepers-group
7. Ibid.
8. Charlie Wojciechowski, “Chicago OIG calls out CPD for not reopening investigations into officers with alleged ties to extremist groups,” NBC Chicago, July 9, 2024, https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-oig-cpd-reopening-investigations-officers-extremist-groups/3484841/
9. Heather Cherone, “Top Cop Vows to Rid Chicago Police Department of Officers Tied to Proud Boys, Oath Keepers,” WTTW News, Oct. 24, 2023, https://news.wttw.com/2023/10/24/top-cop-vows-rid-chicago-police-department-officers-tied-proud-boys-oath-keepers
10. Deborah Witzburg and Tobara Richardson,. “Advisory Regarding Chicago Police Department Member Affiliation with Anti-Government and Extremist Groups,.” Office of the Inspector General for the City of Chicago,. July 9, 2024,. https://igchicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Advisory-Regarding-CPD-Member-Affiliation-with-Anti-Government-and-Extremist-Groups-2.pdf