In River Forest the police chief and his staff are live-streaming sessions addressing policing issues. One down. More to come.
And we noticed that the mayor of Evanston began a similar project on Monday with a streamed discussion on issues of how police in that north suburb are trained. Future sessions will cover use of force, body cameras, the citizen complaint process and the budget for police. The first session, at least, included members of the police department.
Meanwhile in Oak Park, our leaders are talking unproductively to and past each other. Maybe the village is hiring a consultant. Would be good if the village board had anything approaching a consensus on just what a consultant is supposed to do. So far a dysfunctional village board is just pressing each other’s frayed buttons.
This moment won’t last. The marches. The energy. The hope. That will dissipate. It won’t go away. It will never again just be tucked into a satchel of pain to be carried about. Rather it will infect the groundwater, the coming hard interactions between citizens and police, the reputation of this village for leadership on race, on its manifestation in racism.
Less talk. More leadership.
