* Chicago has shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to settle lawsuits filed against its police department. Here we go again…
* Tribune…
Tnika Tate, 39, said she was parking near a looted mall Sunday when Chicago police surrounded the vehicle, broke the windows and searched Tate and a group of four friends and relatives in the car with her.
Tate said an officer restrained her cousin Mia Wright, 25, by placing a knee on Wright’s neck while she was prone on the ground. Wright was charged with disorderly conduct and released Monday, according to police and the family.
A video of part of the incident was taken by family friend James Smith, 40, who was driving in a second car. A copy of the video was first published by the nonprofit digital news organization Block Club Chicago, and Smith provided the Tribune with a copy later Wednesday.
“She never resisted. It could have been something deadly,” Tate told the Tribune on Wednesday.
* WGN TV…
Tate is a longtime funeral director in Chicago, and said she and her family were just hoping to shop at Target.
Police were responding to reports of looting at the mall, but the family says they didn’t know how officers on the scene could have suspected they were involved.
Wright works at that funeral home.
* Keep in mind that Wright was ultimately charged with “disorderly conduct,” which is a city ordinance violation. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office says the Chicago police did not refer the case to the state’s attorney for felony review. And the state’s attorney won’t have any role in the prosecution…
[Family attorney Nenye Uche] also called for the disorderly conduct charge against Wright to be immediately dropped.
The family still doesn’t understand why police targeted their car in the first place and is demanding answers.
Wright was in the front passenger seat of her cousin’s car Sunday when police, for no apparent reason, began to smash the windows of the vehicle with batons and order everyone out.
An officer grabbed Wright’s hair, which had been wound into a bun, and yanked her from the car, Wright said.
While Wright was on the ground, the officer knelt on her back and neck. Wright, who got a piece of glass in her eye during from the shattered window, was held overnight at a nearby police station, she said.
* CBS 2…
But what bothers them more than anything is when Wright was yanked from the car. The family said one officer held her down by putting his knee on her back and neck.
“They approached my car so forcefully where they just started bamming and hitting at my car, then they bust out three windows of mine, and then they actually tore off my door handle – the passenger side door handle – and they literally drug my little cousin Mia out to the ground,” Tate said.
“I felt like an animal,” Wright said. “They pulled me by my hair, dragged me out the vehicle, had my face down on the concrete. The officer had his knee in my neck. I just felt like an animal. I felt like I wasn’t nothing, like I was not even a human being at that moment.”
Wright was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct.
* Block Club Chicago…
As Wright was being pinned to the ground, she said what happened to Floyd flashed in her mind.
“It hit me at that moment. That’s all I thought about. I heard people screaming, ‘Why do you have your knee in her neck?’ That’s why people are protesting,” Wright said. “It was horrible. It was a moment I was scared for my life.” […]
At the station, Wright said she was verbally abused by a sergeant.
“The sergeant opened the door and he looked me in the face and called me a f—— savage,” she said.
While in lockup, she said she wasn’t given access to an attorney and couldn’t call her mother for more than six hours.
Wright was released 16 hours later with a charge of disorderly conduct. Officers said she was gathered with three or more people with intent to disturb the peace — but Wright said she and her four family members were sitting quietly in their car.
* New York Times…
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability has launched an investigation into the encounter Sunday at Brickyard Mall on the city’s West Side in which police said in a statement that Mia Wright was charged with disorderly conduct. It has also started investigating another incident captured on video showing an officer chasing and punching a protester after a demonstration about the death of George Floyd last week. […]
At a Thursday news conference, Mayor Lightfoot and Police Superintendent David Brown said the police department was working with COPA — which is investigating both incidents captured on the two videos — to identify the officers involved. Lightfoot said as soon as they are identified, their names will be given to Brown, and she promised that any officers who acted improperly would be held accountable.
Still, Lightfoot cautioned that as disturbing as the video at the shopping center might be, the public should not jump to any conclusions. “You can’t just accept everything at face value that you see, and that includes video,” she said.
* From the state’s attorney…
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office is committed to public safety and pursuing the fair administration of justice for everyone in our communities. We are aware of the incident that occurred at Brickyard Mall and are currently conducting a thorough, independent review of the matter, including the conduct of the police officers involved. We take law enforcement accountability seriously and have reached out to the family involved through their attorney.
* Last word…
…Adding… Gov. Pritzker was asked about the incident today…
What I saw was horrific. It was horrific. I mean what happened, thank God it didn’t end like George Floyd. But the police that did it are being investigated
