Live reporting by
Morley Musick
Guest speakers from the DNC were no shows ahead of the DNC
Morley Musick
@MorleyMusick
Hello all, Morley here, I was live tweeting the 1st Police District Council meeting for @CHIdocumenters but Twitter deleted my entire thread. I can't seem to recover it, sorry. I'll do my best to summarize the very brief meeting. It's held in the historic Glessner house.
06:39 PM Aug 6, 2024 CDT
Top line: The Police District Councils are elected bodies meant to increase community accountability over the police and transparency. There are 22 District councils, each with 3 elected members.
According to @city_bureau reporting, the district councils are: "the result of years of organizing for accountability in response to police corruption and brutality."
"Two groups advocating for different models, the Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) and the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA), joined forces in 2021 to get the Empower Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance passed that summer."
This meeting concerns a district covering the Chi river to 31st, and the lake to the highway. A huge district covering 7 different Aldermanic wards. Its three elected officials are Sarah Kammerer, Adrienne Johnson, and Jamie Brown. Sara and Adrienne present, Jamie no.
The DNC was supposed to send a member to this meeting, but they canceled. Instead, Sarah recommends that we instead attend two DNC safety briefings on zoom tomorrow. QR codes here.
The meeting begins with public comment. A man named Jeff says the "police have been disabled", prevented from being able to do their jobs. Jeff laments the presence of "loiterers, gangs, and drugs" on Roosevelt ave.
Another public commenter complained about traffic blockages around the Regis hotel.
No more public comment. Sarah exhorts everyone to get the word out about the existence of the council. She explains its purpose, highlighting many of the same points as above. All done within 20 minutes.
