For Immediate Release: October 21, 2024
Contact: simona.jones@colorofchange.org
COLOR OF CHANGE AND CAARPR SEND LETTER TO CHICAGO MAYOR JOHNSON DEMANDING THE TERMINATION OF POLICE OFFICERS CONNECTED TO WHITE SUPREMACIST GROUPS FOLLOWING ALARMING REPORT FINDINGS
Chicago, IL.- Today, Color Of Change, one of the nation’s largest racial justice groups, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) and 14 other civil rights groups have called for the resignation of all officers of the Chicago Police Department who have affiliations with The Oath Keepers, The Third Percenters, and the Proud Boys, notorious white supremacists hate groups.
This letter follows the CPD Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA) investigation into several Chicago Police officers’ affiliations with the Oath Keepers. It also comes after Chicago’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) decided the BIA’s investigation was materially inept due to being determined solely from interviews. Color Of Change and its colleagues find this ruling unacceptable and an egregious misstep of justice. The letter argues that the BIA is protecting racist police officers, considering report findings found recruitment within the Chicago Police Department, and urges the Mayor’s office to take appropriate action.
Michael Collins, Senior Director of Government Affairs State and Local at Color Of Change made the following quote:
“We are outraged that this letter even has to be written. White supremacists do not belong in the police force. The BIA has conducted a blatantly biased and shoddy investigation. We must hold these police officers to the same standards as any other person. Belonging to a hate group should automatically disqualify you from this job when you have sinister underlying intentions for the community you claim to serve. Oath Keeper recruitment coming from within the department also speaks to a rotten core in the Chicago Police Department. If Mayor Johnson does not demand their resignations, he is allowing white supremacy to exist within the Chicago Police Department. This is dangerous to the Black and Brown communities in Chicago, and we must hold these officers accountable for the deadly affiliations they chose to make.”
Faayani Aboma Mijana, Member of CAARPR and Resident of the 14th police district states:
“It’s a slap in the face to those who have been brutalized, tortured, and killed by racist cops that CPD stand idly by despite knowing that members of its force have known ties to the white supremacist Oath Keepers.
Read the full letter here.
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ABOUT COLOR OF CHANGE
Color Of Change is the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. We help people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by over 7 million members, we move decision-makers in corporations and governments to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America. Visit www.colorofchange.org
ABOUT CHICAGO COMMITTEE AGAINST POLITICAL REPRESSION (CAPR)
The Chicago Committee Against Political Repression seeks to bring local peace, solidarity, labor and human rights activists together against the recent wave of FBI raids and harassment of fellow peace and solidarity activists across the country.