Meanwhile in Oak Park, a divided village board is not so much addressing issues of racism and police reform as it is attempting to study it, surround it with consultants and data.
Monday evening’s special village board meeting on this topic was a botch. It ended, we think, with an inarticulate resolution to have some sort of community conversations, to draft a Request for Proposals for a third-party consultant and to conduct an internal review of the Citizen Police Oversight Commission. Village Manager Cara Pavlicek estimates it could take three months to find the consultant.
We suggest, instead, listening.
Until the voices of concern over local policing are heard, there is no way to understand this issue, there is no way to communicate things Oak Park’s police force does well, no way to engage in crafting meaningful change.
