On March 22, Wednesday Journal published a story about churches in the Oak Park and Austin neighborhoods gathering on Palm Sunday at the 25th District station of the Chicago Police Department to protest police violence and lack of accountability. Attached to that article was a photograph of me carrying a bushel of apples with the caption stating it was “a basket of apples, symbolic of ‘bad apple’ Chicago police officers.”
To clarify: the apples were a symbol of the vast majority of officers who serve Chicago faithfully and with great dignity — officers whose reputations unfortunately get tainted by the ongoing cover-up of unnecessary force. Most of the complaints of police misconduct are made about a small segment of officers, but the current system overlooks the systemic patterns of abuse.
I brought the apples to make my central point: when bad apples are ignored or protected, it makes the whole barrel smell bad. Police reform supports the police as much as the public.
As I said there, “We must recognize that the police are part of the beloved community. Individual officers need to be thanked for their service. However IPRA needs to be replaced with a truly independent review authority.”
I am pro-police but anti-abuse.
Last week, the same photograph and caption were attached to my One View column, “Planting seeds for a bridge between Oak Park and Austin,” [Viewpoints, March 30] a story of a completely different flavor, calling on the citizens of both neighborhoods to reach out and get to know each other as individuals — so together we can find ways of making our shared part of the world more safe, equitable, and humane.
I am grateful to Wednesday Journal for allowing me to clarify all this. I realize the impact of both words and images when we address the social issues that are so significant — and so sensitive — among us.
Alan Taylor
Senior pastor, Unity Temple