Last Sunday, 50 members of faith communities in Oak Park and the Austin neighborhood of Chicago gathered in the parking lot of the 25th District station of the Chicago Police Department at the corner of Central and Grand avenues to protest the lack of police accountability and to advocate for the passage of the FAIR COPS ordinance.
Rev. Alan Taylor, senior minister at Unity Temple in Oak Park, and Rev. Ira Acree, pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church on the West Side, coordinated the demonstration in conjunction with the Community Renewal Society’s “Palm Sunday Takeover.”
There wasn’t any occupation of the 25th District station on that first day of spring, however, since the entryway was blocked by eight police officers standing behind barricades, and because Taylor and Acree’s tactic was not to occupy the building in the first place.
Instead, they used apples as a symbol of, on the one hand, their support of good officers and, on the other hand, their desire to publicly lift up the need to remove the minority of bad apples poisoning the system.
The protestors acknowledged that a majority of officers are good cops. Bill Fillmore, a member of First United Methodist Church in Oak Park and a former village trustee, said in the prayer he led, “We pray for the police and their families. We know what a challenging job they have to do.”
Rev. Marshall Hatch, Pastor of New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church in Austin, would later say directly to the eight officers manning the barricade, “These apples are a symbol. One bad apple spoils this whole barrel. None of us think that all the police are bad. We don’t even think the majority are bad. Ninety-five percent probably are just decent people doing the job of public service and want to go home every day after serving the public.”
The action began with Taylor, Acree and Hatch making statements in the parking lot in front of TV cameras. The group, which appeared to come mainly from Oak Park and comprised members of Unity Temple, First United, First Methodist and St. Giles Parish, marched around the parking lot for about 10 minutes chanting slogans “16 shots and a cover up” and “justice now.”
The group then approached the barricade singing “We shall overcome.”
Taylor referenced the Palm Sunday story Jesus of entering Jerusalem in a “spirit of disruption” and said that the groups attempting stage demonstrations at all 26 police precincts throughout Chicago were “calling for an end to police cover ups and the institution of a FAIR COPS ordinance.”
FAIR COPS (Freedom through Accountability, Investigation, and Reform for Community Oversight of Policing Services) would establish the Office of Police Auditor, which would hold police officers accountable for their actions.
Chicago has an Independent Police Review Authority, which is supposed to handle complaints of police misconduct, but Hatch called it a “joke.”
“We know that IPRA serves under the mayor’s office and is intimately tied to law enforcement,” Hatch said. “It is neither independent nor does it have much authority. We simply want the farce to end.”
All of the speakers emphasized that it was the system that needed to be changed, not most individual officers. Alluding to Chicago’s search for a new police superintendent, Acree said, “It does not matter who the new superintendent is if we do not have a new system, a system that protects rogue cops and demoralizes the majority of the very good ones.”
But Acree also acknowledged that most of the bloodshed in Austin is not the result of police, but of city residents.
“People are dying in our community every day,” Acree said. “Most of the killing in our neighborhood is not police killing. It’s neighbors killing each other.”
But he added that holding police accountable was crucial.
“We can’t end the code of silence on the streets if there’s a code of silence in city hall and in the Chicago Police Department,” Acree said.
Wayne Vanek, a member of the St. Giles Parish, said at the end of the action, “There’s been so much pain on both sides. I liked the fact of people of faith coming together, praying together and having the message of ‘let’s heal the community.’ The police are part of the community.”
The demonstrators presented a bushel of apples to the eight officers who accepted it with smiles. Some of the officers shook hands with members of the group as they turned to go back to their cars.
Rev. Jennifer Nordstrom, interim pastor of Third Unitarian Church in Austin Blvd., had tried to coordinate a parallel action at the 15th District station at 5701 W. Madison St.
Police, however, blocked off the entire street in front of the station, and her group canceled their action and joined the demonstrators on Grand Avenue.
Acree said it was important for faith communities to participate in actions like the one last Sunday.
“The church when she is properly operating in her prophetic function, speaks truth to power and challenges society’s injustices, because the church has a moral responsibility to provide hope for the disenfranchised and those who have been marginalized,” Acree said.
Contact: michael@oakpark.com
