Latest news with #ChicagoPolice
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Chicago alderman pledges to fight Mayor Brandon Johnson's vowed curfew veto, won't ‘twist arms'
CHICAGO — As Mayor Brandon Johnson promises to veto the teen curfew ordinance passed by aldermen, the measure's lead sponsor says he will keep fighting to make it law. Alderman Brian Hopkins, 2nd, won out over Johnson in the City Council on Wednesday when his plan to give Chicago's police superintendent power to declare teen curfews anytime, anywhere passed in a 27-22 vote. But his victory could be fleeting. Johnson quickly pledged to cast a rare mayoral veto, the city's first since 2006. The planned move means Hopkins must garner votes from 34 aldermen to overrule the mayor, a high bar that would require him to flip as many as seven council members. Still, Hopkins said Thursday morning he will move ahead in July with a City Council vote on Johnson's anticipated veto. He plans to keep making the case for his ordinance but added that he will not be heavy-handed. 'I'm going to keep pushing back on the deceptive spin, but I'm not going to call my colleagues and twist arms. Everyone is going to vote their conscience on this,' the downtown alderman said. The Wednesday vote and veto pledge marked decisive steps in Hopkins' two-year push to give police more power to curb the so-called 'teen takeover' youth gatherings that have sometimes ended in high-profile violence, including two Streeterville shootings in Hopkins' ward in recent months. Youth activists and civil rights groups have criticized the curfew measure as an unfair and unconstitutional crackdown that especially harms Black and Latino teens from poor neighborhoods that offer little safe fun. They also argue that those same teens have been left out of the debate and that aldermen should instead invest money in youth jobs, violence prevention and safe activities. 'Our children are gathering to escape the violence in their neighborhoods, the trouble at home and other conditions that they have no control over,' said Abierre Minor, a 25-year-old appointed by Johnson last year to the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. Minor recalled speaking after the vote with her 15-year-old sister, who argued media coverage of 'teen takeovers' has been sensationalized and that all people should have the right to gather as they see fit. The police oversight commissioner said she was 'disheartened' by the City Council majority's decision, but praised Johnson's 'swift and strong' response. 'Every year, our decision-makers propose repressive, ineffective policies to address community violence that does nothing but cause confusion and community harm,' Minor said. 'This year, something different happened. We had a leader who decided to break the cycle.' The Cook County public defender's office and progressive groups have also backed Johnson's stance. Just after the measure passed, Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates urged the mayor, formerly a CTU organizer, to veto it, likening the curfew ordinance to Jim Crow segregation laws. 'The people of Streeterville don't need the police to keep Black youth out of their neighborhood. The people of Chicago need policies and programs that serve and center Black youth,' Davis Gates wrote. Johnson's administration is currently drafting language and plans to officially veto the measure soon. The mayor had long shared tentative criticism of the potential curfew, but ramped up his opposition to the proposal this week. He argued after pledging a veto that the curfew ordinance would harm 'trust within communities' as the city's violent crime rates sharply drop, and compared the measure to crime laws 'that have overwhelmingly led to the criminalization and the incarceration of poor people and particularly people of color.' 'Offering up extended police power, without any check or balance, has not boded well for Black people and brown people in this country,' he said. Hopkins argued Thursday the 'snap curfew' label Johnson and others have used to describe the measure is a misnomer. The measure requires police to give 30 minutes notice onsite before a curfew is implemented. It also requires the superintendent to consult others to declare a curfew, but gives the top cop final say. Superintendent Larry Snelling said in court last week he would not use any power allowing him to declare sudden curfews, but suggested he could use the ordinance to declare preemptive curfews days in advance when police learn of planned, potentially chaotic gatherings. He has carefully distanced himself from the political debate in statements. Johnson has argued he and Snelling are aligned on the matter, but said future superintendents should not have the technical ability to quickly declare curfews with little or no oversight. A final vote ought to move forward in July, without legislative trickery from either side, Hopkins said. 'That'll put the matter to bed, and I'd rather do that briefly than have it degrade into a parliamentary mud fight,' he said. 'I think at this point I am done having persuasive conversations with my colleagues.' Much could happen before a mid-July vote that might pressure aldermen to change sides, he added. He cited, as he did during City Council floor debate Wednesday, reports of a large and chaotic teen gathering at North Avenue Beach earlier this week. Police said they arrested five teens at the beach Tuesday, including three minors, for misdemeanors and citations including battery, resisting arrest and possessing alcohol. ____
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Chicago City Council takes radical step to fight against ‘teen takeovers'
A last-minute curfew designed to keep 'teen takeovers' at bay has been passed in Chicago , but it's expected to be vetoed by the city's mayor. The city council measure passed 27 to 22 on Wednesday, according to ABC7. Mayor Brandon Johnson called the ordinance a 'politicized knee-jerk reaction.' It's unclear if council members have the necessary numbers to override a veto. "Offering up police power, extended police power without any check or balance has not bode well for Black people and brown people in this country," said Johnson. If enacted, the measure would give Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling the ability to implement a last-minute curfew to disperse teenage gatherings across the city. Snelling would also need to consult with the Chicago deputy mayor of public safety before issuing a curfew. Police would be able to enforce the restriction for gatherings of 20 people or more starting 30 minutes after a curfew is issued. "I have a 17-year-old daughter that I have restricted, 'Do not go downtown.' She's not going downtown because it's safe. She can't go because it's unsafe," Alderwoman Monique Scott said, according to the outlet. Ahead of Wednesday's debate, demonstrators protested outside City Hall. Many young people said they were concerned the ordinance would unintentionally target them. Others said such a measure is unconstitutional and could result in the criminalization of teenagers and young children. "We say no to the snap curfew because again it defunds our youth, criminalizes our youth and destroys our narrative and perception of this city," said Commissioner for Public Safety and Accountability Abierre Minor. Brian Hopkins, Public Safety Committee chairman, told the outlet, the intent behind the ordinance was to keep everyone safe during the summer months. "The intent of this ordinance is to prevent teen trends. How long does it take to prevent a teen trend? However long it takes, the more opportunity we have to prevent it, the better off it is, and that's what the superintendent is going to do," he said. "This will be used in a constitutional and effective manner, and all the notice requirements that are in the ordinance will be adhered to... No one here thinks it's perfectly acceptable for large groups of teenagers, some as young as 12, to gather anywhere in the city, downtown or anywhere, and get out of control and to take guns out of their backpacks and to engage in violent behavior and mayhem and chaos." Local governments are dealing with similar issues in other parts of the country. Last month, officials in Charleston, South Carolina, entertained the idea of implementing a curfew to lower violent incidents downtown. This week in Washington, D.C., officials considered a 7 p.m. curfew for teenagers in certain parts of the city. Emergency legislation would need to pass the council to take effect.
CBS News
19 hours ago
- CBS News
Man, 18, charged in armed carjacking of handicapped woman in East Garfield Park
A Chicago man was charged with his participation in the armed carjacking of a handicapped woman on the city's West Side earlier this week. Kennedy Leach, 18, was arrested on Tuesday afternoon by Citywide Vehicular Hijacking Task Force members in the 1100 block of South California Avenue. He was charged with one felony count of aggravated vehicular hijacking of a handicapped person. Chicago police said Leach was identified as one of the suspects who took a vehicle at gunpoint from a 62-year-old woman in the 3500 block of West Congress Parkway earlier in the day. He is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday. No further information was available.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to veto measure giving police power to set temporary teen curfews
CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson announced he will issue a rare mayoral veto after aldermen granted Chicago's police superintendent the power Wednesday to declare a teen curfew anytime, anywhere in the city. The highly contentious ordinance faced months of City Council debate before passing in a 27-22 vote. After the vote, Johnson, who had blasted it as 'lazy governance' and unnecessary, said he will issue the first mayoral veto in decades in a bid to kill the ordinance. Johnson called the measure 'counterproductive to the progress that we have made in reducing crime and violence' and said it will elicit costly lawsuits against the city. 'It's important now more than ever that we do not repeat the sins and the failures of the past,' Johnson said. 'I stand against this proposal because we need data-driven, effective strategies to guide our community.' The 27 votes in favor of the ordinance Wednesday were well below the 34 needed to override a mayoral veto. During floor debate, Johnson's handpicked Finance Committee Chair Ald. Pat Dowell pushed back on the mayor's description of the ordinance and his argument that aldermen should focus on investing in youth instead of passing the ordinance. 'I believe we can and should do both. I'm not down here doing lazy governance. I'm down here to actively work and do what is necessary to protect my community,' Dowell said. 'Stopping these potentially chaotic and violent gatherings will help everybody.' The last mayoral veto occurred in 2006, when Mayor Richard M. Daley vetoed an ordinance that would have required 'big box' retailers such as Walmart to pay wages of $10 an hour. Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, first proposed a curfew ordinance last year after a downtown youth gathering ended in violence and began to push it forward again in March after two similar gatherings culminated in high-profile shootings. He would not say after the Wednesday vote how he would respond to a Johnson veto. 'We'll see what he does,' Hopkins said. 'I think we did the right thing.' The Streeterville alderman first planned to target only downtown with an 8 p.m. curfew, two hours earlier than the long-standing citywide teen curfew. He then sought to give both Johnson's deputy mayor for community safety and the police superintendent shared power to declare the pop-up curfews together. All the while, progressive aldermen and civil rights groups blasted the curfew push as an unconstitutional and unfair crackdown harming teens. Ald. Angela Clay, 46th, argued aldermen were ignoring teen voices and underlying disinvestment that leads to chaotic gatherings. 'What we are doing right now is not listening to the young people of this city,' she told aldermen. 'The issue that we are discussing here is a broader conversation that a lot of us are too afraid to have.' Johnson criticized the early versions, but did not always take a clear side until Hopkins pushed forth a version giving Snelling the exclusive power to declare pop-up curfews. 'It has not worked,' Johnson said of curfews Tuesday, pounding the table during a news conference. 'And now we're doing stuff that works, and then they want to come up with another idea that has not worked. What sense does that make?' Snelling, who would be required to consult others on any curfew and issue public warning 30 minutes before implementation, has loomed large over the debate as both supporters and opponents claimed to have his support. Hopkins said Tuesday Snelling had been calling aldermen to urge 'yes' votes. 'Every one of those conversations ends with the superintendent saying, 'I support this ordinance. I urge you to pass it,'' Hopkins said. But Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, said Snelling told Black Caucus aldermen Tuesday night that he does not need the powers the ordinance grants. Ervin added that he hopes Johnson will veto the measure. Snelling offered a mixed response to the ordinance in court testimony last week. He said he would not use a 'snap curfew' power to declare curfews shortly before they go into effect, but would use a power allowing him to declare curfews days in advance when police are forewarned of such gatherings. The ordinance 'would be used as a deterrent where, if we have that information days before, we would send out notifications to CPS, to parents,' he said. 'This is going to prevent the possibility of violence.' The superintendent added he would never agree to a measure targeting only downtown and said curfew violations are not criminal, meaning they would not result in arrests. But Snelling backed away from the debate Wednesday morning. In a statement to the Tribune, he said police 'have always enforced the law at large gatherings and will continue to do so.' 'The curfew ordinance has become more a matter of politics than public safety. Given that this is a matter that sits within the City Council, I have no further comment,' he added without saying whether he will use the ordinance's powers. Johnson argued later that he and Snelling are aligned in their views on the curfew power. 'There is no space and distance between me and those that I put in charge to run my departments,' he said. A coalition of groups opposing the ordinance called for the city to instead invest in youth jobs, violence prevention programs and safe, engaging activities for young people before the vote. The curfew ordinance could lead to teens being kicked out of parks and beaches, GoodKids MadCity organizer Reynia Jackson said. 'It isn't fair and it isn't equitable,' Jackson said. 'What we need is healing. What we need is prevention.' _____ (Chicago Tribune reporter Sam Charles contributed.) ____
CBS News
2 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
City Council narrowly approves "snap curfew" ordinance despite opposition from Mayor Brandon Johnson
The Chicago City Council on Wednesday narrowly approved a controversial ordinance that would allow Chicago police to declare so-called "snap curfews" on as little as 30 minutes' notice in an effort to curb teen takeovers. The 27-22 vote came despite opposition from Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has called the measure "lazy governance," arguing the city instead should do more to offer youth jobs and programming to give teens other choices besides large often aimless gatherings that have sometimes turned violent. Johnson has not said if he will veto the ordinance, but if he does, supporters of the measure would need at least 34 votes to override a veto. The final City Council vote on the "snap curfew" ordinance was postponed last month, setting up Wednesday's showdown. The proposed ordinance, sponsored by Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), would authorize Police Supt. Larry Snelling to declare temporary curfews anywhere in the city with as little as 30 minutes' notice when mass gatherings are expected or underway, and there is reason to believe they could become a risk to public safety. Supporters have said the ordinance would allow police to break up teen takeovers before they turn violent, but Johnson and other opponents have said police already have the power to issue dispersal orders when they spot large gatherings that become disruptive or dangerous. Critics of the proposal have said curfews are ineffective, and that the city needs to do more to offer youth safe options for youths so that they're not tempted to organize largely aimless gatherings that sometimes turn violent. Opponents also have said the language of the ordinance is too vague, and would allow police to arrest teens without any evidence they've violated the law, since police would be allowed to impose a new curfew before any gathering has turned violent or otherwise posed a public safety threat. Hopkins said the goal of the curfew ordinance is to prevent large gatherings of teens from turning violent by allowing police to break them up as soon as things seem to be getting out of control. "This ordinance would actually lean into tactics, to techniques and tools that are already being used by our deputy mayor of public safety in collaboration with the Police Department," Hopkins said. "This curfew ordinance is simply one more tool in that particular toolbox. It will work because the techniques that are currently being employed actually do work." Ald. Monique Scott (24th) said the city needs to give police more power to impose curfews, saying too many teens involved in such large gatherings don't care about the kinds of programming offered by the city and local community groups. "The havoc wreakers don't want structure. They want to roam, and so if we allowed our police officers a tool to give them the opportunity to enforce a curfew before they see it starting, that's a tool in their toolbox, and they should be able to use it," she said. Scott said violent teen takeovers in Chicago have reached the point that she doesn't let her own daughter go downtown. "If I have to send my kid to Oak Brook to have a good time to go shop and eat, then that's what I'll do until the city's streets are safe. I don't want her in an area where there's no control, and the kids are doing what they want to do, and they're running up and down the streets," she said. Mayor Johnson has said police already have the power to arrest people for committing crimes at such gatherings without relying on power to declare temporary curfews, but Hopkins argued that "this curfew is a better alternative to arresting teenagers." "The police can arrest them. Let's give them something better where they don't have to. They'll simply take them out of this volatile dangerous situation, remove them from it, end the chaos and mayhem, and let the teenagers be safely returned to their families when a parent or guardian comes and gets them," Hopkins said. "That is much better than having to arrest them for doing the things that are in fact criminal acts." The mayor has been outspoken in his opposition to the ordinance, saying on Tuesday, "We're debating something that doesn't work. Why are we even debating it?" "It places too much pressure on law enforcement. I continuously say that we cannot just simply rely upon policing alone. We need people to help my administration do the things that work. When we invest in people, violent crime goes down," he said ahead of Wednesday's vote. "We cannot afford lazy governance, and then we just wash our hands, absolve ourselves of any responsibility, and say, 'Police, you do it.' That is antiquated. That form of governance is dead, and should remain dead." Ald. Angela Clay (46th) criticized the proposal's supporters for not consulting with youth groups about potential alternatives to the snap curfew ordinance. "It bothers me that we have a room full of young people back here, and nobody has asked them their opinion on this issue. I'm very much so dedicated that the people who are mostly impacted by what we are discussing should be at the table, making sure that they are also giving their observations and opinions on the matter," she said. Youth advocates from Good Kids Mad City, Communities United, and other community groups rallied at City Hall on Wednesday in opposition to the snap curfew proposal. They called on alderpeople to vote no and support a youth-led alternative known as the Peace Book Ordinance, which seeks to increase investment in youth-led violence prevention programs. It also would employ youth peacekeepers, create neighborhood-based and citywide peace commissions, and create a "Peace Book" guide of resources for de-escalation and violence prevention tactics. Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) has repeatedly argued that the ordinance could potentially lead to racial profiling by police, noting when he was in high school, he and his friends often got kicked out of places like Navy Pier by police, with or without a curfew. "Every single weekend at Navy Pier, you would watch scores of young kids all getting kicked out, and police telling us to get the heck out of there," he said. "But you would also see who would not get kicked out … typically they were more affluent, typically they weren't Black and Brown, and all that did to us is make us feel like we weren't part of a community, make us feel like we were less than anybody around, and actually led more of us to engage in further activity we shouldn't be engaging in." Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), who originally was one of Hopkins' co-sponsors on the snap curfew ordinance, pulled his support last month, after a provision was removed that would have required both Snelling and the city's deputy mayor of community safety to sign off on any snap curfews. Instead, the ordinance now up for a vote would only require Snelling to consult the deputy mayor before enforcing snap curfews, but the final decision would be solely up to the superintendent. "This power is bestowed in one department whose interests may not necessarily be totally aligned with the interests of our entirety of the city," Ervin said on Wednesday. "Giving authority to a department that historically has not had the best interests of Black kids in its place is not something that I want to sign up for." Complicating Wednesday's debate was Snelling's own stance on the specifics of the measure. According to published reports from WBEZ Public Radio and WTTW-TV, Snelling recently told a federal judge overseeing the federal consent decree mandating sweeping reforms at CPD that he never sought the power to impose snap curfews, and even if granted the authority, would never use it with only 30 minutes' notice.
