Winter 2025 Newsletter
Welcome to the Chicago Alliance newsletter! Here you'll find updates on all of the work we have going out in the field with our campaigns.
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Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS)
On November 11 2024, organizers, community members, and elected officials gathered for the first town hall on white supremacist Oathkeepers in the Chicago Police Department.
The Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) Ordinance is the heart of the work of the Chicago Alliance. We fought for and passed this ordinance in 2021. Read about that fight and the history of ECPS here.
As a refresher, the passing of ECPS created 2 main governing bodies: The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) and The District Councils (DC). With 22 Districts throughout the city, the District Council and its counselors work with the CCPSA on Police accountability, public safety, community input & engagement. These two bodies hold monthly meetings that the Alliance regularly mobilizes to in order to center our demands to stop police crimes and fight for community control of the police.
We have a new working group mobilizing residents all over the city to their monthly District Council Meetings and it's only growing! Every week during our Monday evening Stop Police Crimes meeting we hear reports from many community members and their specific district struggle for police accountability. Get involved here!
Oath Keepers Town Halls - CAARPR has organized two Town Halls this quarter to root out white supremacists from the Chicago Police Department: one on November 10th, 2024 and a second on Sunday, February 23rd, 2025 with a panel line-up ranging from community organizers, to elected officials to discuss strategies to strengthen this fight. This work arose out of District Council meetings in discovering that eight registered Oath Keepers were a part of CPD, some who still remain on the force today. As MC Faayani Aboma said at the latest town hall, “Those eight CPD officers should be fired, and every day those officers remain on the force is a further stain on Snelling and CPD. We’re gonna keep fighting until we get all the white supremacists out of CPD.” As Mayor Brandon Johnson begins to implement a task force to investigate police officers with ties to white supremacists groups, we will continue to demand that all officers found are removed from the force.
Justice for Timothy Glaze! Timothy Glaze, a 58 year old man experiencing a mental health crisis, was shot 28 times and killed by CPD officers in the 10th District who entered the Albany Terrace apartments on January 3rd. Mr. Glaze's girlfriend called the police seeking assistance with Timothy's mental health crisis, and instead several officers arrived and filled the hallway outside her apartment with gunshots. The media is painting a story of Mr. Glaze that we, his girlfriend, his family, and the residents at Albany Terrace know is not true, and as we continue to press for the officers involved to be fired and charged for their crimes. Since Timothy’s murder, we have held a phone zap to COPA to release the body cam footage which has since been released. We attended a vigil in honor of Timothy and we will continue to uplift the demand for justice in his case until the officers that were involved are fired.
We Stand With Kiisha Smith, 10th District Councilor - Kiisha Smith, District Councilor for the 10th District, is facing attacks by alderpeople Silvana Tabares and Monique Scott for bringing light to the police murder of Timothy Glaze in Kiisha’s district. Their recent letter attempting to chastise and intimidate Kiisha into silence, along with the action of the District Councilors in the 8th district, who were elected with the support of the Fraternal Order of Police, have led to racist threats of violence against Kiisha for doing nothing more than standing up for what's right. Read the full letter and sign the petition to support Kiisha here.We will be mobilizing community members in large numbers to the next 10th District Council meeting on March 14th at St. Agatha Church, 3147 W Douglas BLVD to say clearly that we stand with Kiisha and she or any District Counselor will not be intimated.
City Hall Mobilizations, CCPSA & Police Board Meetings - CAARPR has continued to mobilize to City Hall and to monthly Police Board meetings to demand justice and accountability against police crimes in the cases for Dexter Reed, Reginald Clay Jr., Lorenzo Williams and Ramon Banks. While there has been push back from the reactionary Fraternal Order of Police, we have shown up to support Dexter and his family as well as held call-ins to get calls to pressure alder people to make sure that Dexter’s family receives the largest settlement possible for his brutal murder at the hands of police. At every police board and CCPSA meeting, we raise the demand to end the use of dangerous and racist pretextual traffic stops and the end to the use of tactical teams!
The Referendum for Community Power Over Policing
The Referendum for Community Power Over the Police aims to expand the power of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability to address the challenges of holding CPD accountable for misconduct.
This referendum proposes making the commission a directly elected, 11-person body with more authority over policing. The new commission would have the power to oversee the police budget, establish police policies, negotiate union contracts, and hire or fire key police leadership, including the Superintendent and Police Board members. This move would ensure that Chicago's policing is more directly democratically controlled by the community.
To pass the referendum, supporters must win a majority vote in the City Council and then mobilize voters to approve it in the upcoming election. To support the cause, individuals can call their alderperson to demand backing for the referendum, sign up for training sessions, or get involved if they are part of an organization or local business that wants to help. For more information, supporters can contact contact@caarpr.org and visit caarpr.org/cpopnow
Coalition Against the Trump Agenda
Since the Trump Administration has again come into power, Chicago is uniting in the fight against him and the republican’s racist reactionary agenda. CAARPR and allies have formed a growing and broad coalition that combines the forces from every corner of our movement, and we invite all those in the struggle to join us.
On January 20th, both Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King Day, the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda organized a march from Federal Plaza to Trump Tower, attended by over 2500 people in sub zero temperatures. Our coalition continues to support each other in our shared struggles against the current administration and its unrelenting attacks against immigrants, LGBTQIA+ communities, the Black liberation movement, the working class, and all oppressed peoples.
The groundwork has been laid, and the Coalition is prepared to continue this fight into the next four years.
If you are a part of an organization who is not already signed on, please contact us to join at contact@caarpr.org
The Coalition’s Points of Unity are:
1) with Trump's commitment to ramp up repression, we need to forge the broadest unity we can in order to defend our movements
2) We unite around the demands to Fight the Racist & Reactionary Republican Agenda, Defend & Expand Immigrant Rights, Stand with Palestine, Defend the Right to Unionize & Strike, Stop Police Crimes, Defend Women’s LGBTQIA+ & Reproductive Rights, and Defend Education & Academic Freedom
3) It is only by uniting the combined forces of our movements to fight for all of our demands that we can not only defend our communities, but win greater power
The Campaign to Free the Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture (CFIST)
CFIST organizers, allies, survivors, and family members rally outside the office of the Cook County State's Attorney, Eileen Burke, on her first day in office on December 2 2024.
The Campaign to Free Incacerated Survivors of Torture has been raising hell for the new State’s Attourney, Eilleen Burke since day one of her term in office. On December 2nd, the campaign held a rally and action outside of her office calling on her to “GET TO WORK, BURKE!” and to free all incarcerated survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction. We kept the heat coming and during Burkes “Meet the new Cook County State’s Attorney: Eileen O’Neill Burke” event this past January downtown, we showed up to shut it down while handing out flyers in the street to let people know the DIRT ON BURKE and her true history of racist prosecution and wrongful conviction.
We are also still mobilizing regular and weekly court support for survivors, both in person and over zoom to make sure survivors are getting access to fair trials and putting the pressure on this justice system to FREE THEM ALL! Court support remains one of our strongest strategies in assuring the freedom of all those who are wrongfully convicted as we know this system will not willfully grant them innocence, but we must consistently demand they do the right thing. We further this work by making weekly calls on the community to call Governor Pritzkers office to demand that he sign the HUNDREDS of petitions for clemency that remain dormant on his desk. With the stroke of a pen, innocent survivors can win with their freedom. We will not rest or let up pressure on the Governor until he signs the petitions of our loved ones.
After being wrongfully incarcerated at the hands of CPD Sergeant Brian P. Forberg and his partner, now commander of Area 5 John Foster. 23 years later, Kevin Jackson is finally home free! On the afternoon of Tuesday, October 8, 2024 Jackson exited Western Illinois Correctional Center welcomed by his loving family, friends, lawyers, and supporters who had fought long and hard to get him free. This is a huge victory for the Black community and its decades-long movement against police torture and wrongful convictions in Chicago, which has freed hundreds of Black and brown people in the last few years, in a direct challenge to the white supremacist agenda of the Cook County legal system. The movement won’t stop fighting until all our people are free!
“Kevin’s release is a huge victory, and it has reassured us that when we fight, we win,” said Jasmine Smith, co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, speaking of the movement against wrongful convictions. “Kevin isn’t the first, nor will he be the last person the movement help frees. Our fight won’t stop till all our people are free and all those who hold up this racist system are held accountable for their crimes.”
Jackson is one of two dozen men and women wrongfully incarcerated by former CPD Sergeant Brian P. Forberg, who was one of the highest paid officers in Chicago during his tenure. His partner now commander John Foster. In 2003, Forberg, who developed a reputation as a “closer,” convicted Jackson of a shooting in which the victim himself said that Jackson wasn’t the shooter. In that case, there was no physical evidence, and all four witnesses recanted at trial, sharing nearly identical stories of being coerced by Forberg and his partner John Foster. Despite that, Jackson was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Years later, in response to revelations that Forberg was married to Assistant State’s Attorney Kirsten Ann Olsen, Partner John Foster is Married to former Assistant State Attorney Mary G. Innes at the time that Olsen passed over Jackson’s post-conviction petition, a special prosecutor was assigned to investigate Jackson’s case. The results of the special investigation prompted the States Attorney’s Office to cease its prosecution of Jackson. Yet in July 2024, Judge Angela M. Petrone, a former Assistant State’s Attorney herself, denied Jackson’s unopposed Motion to Vacate, in a desperate attack on Jackson and the movement against the wrongful convictions upon which she has built her career. Within 24 hours of hearing oral arguments on Petrone’s decision, an appellate court ordered Petrone to release Jackson.
Immigrant Rights Working Committee
As of January 2025, CAARPR has formed the Immigrant Rights Working Committee (IRWC). With Trump looking at Chicago as ground zero for mass deportation, we must do everything possible defend our immigrant population from racist and political repression.
The IWRC will play our role by being the visible resistance to Trump's attacks on immigrants, supporting existing rapid response team efforts, defending our sanctuary city status and supporting efforts being taken by local immigrant rights organizations. Our first action was met with great success in La Villita, where we marched for immigrant rights with 1500 community members down 26th street.
The IRWC is proud that Chicago has drawn the ire of "Border Czar" Tom Homann and even Trump himself, by making it as difficult as possible for them to carry out deportations in Chicago. With that also comes a need for preparation, as we anticipate this will prompt more repressive measures for deportation from the Trump administration, most recently evidenced by the father that was arrested while dropping off his child at school.
Join us as we pave the way for our visible resistance against the repression of immigrants! Reach out to join the IRWC today!
An Open Letter to the Movement on the Need for Unity
(Photo by Ash Lane / Triibe)
CAARPR members and supporters rallied in Washington D.C. to support Chicago Mayor Johnson on March 6, 2025.
We want to thank all of the people that went on this civil and human rights journey with us to Washington, D.C. We also want to thank our D.C. Alliance members and affiliate organizations. I’m not trying to be grandiose, but this was an historical moment.
What could be more important than doing this at a time when we have the most openly rabid, racist, anti-people president in recent history? President Donald Trump wants to turn the clock back all the way to the days of slavery and take away every democratic gain that not only Black and brown people have made, but that the working people of this country have made in the last century.
March 5 was indeed not just a proud moment, but an historically necessary moment for us to stand by the mayor of Chicago as he came under attack. We were there because Brandon Johnson is the mayor of a sanctuary city, and because he’s a progressive mayor trying to address the carnage of neoliberalism that has been going on in Chicago and this country for decades.
Not everyone could go. It’s important for us to say we’re not criticizing those who weren’t there because there were a number of reasons some friends and allies couldn’t be there.
I don’t know why some of you decided not to be there. Some of you say you have differences with the mayor, though you don’t spell out those differences in terms of demands.
I have lived through a number of reactionary mayors: the Daleys, Rahm Emanuel, and also Lori Lightfoot to the extent she continued to carry on their policies of being complicit with the powers that be in this city and their racist agenda with regard to Black and brown people.
Now we have a mayor for the first time since Harold Washington who is definitely a break from that neoliberal tradition of the government playing the role of Robin Hood in reverse — taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
Given this historical reality, we have to unite and fight back against our real enemies and not be shadow boxing with people who can’t even really spell out their differences with the mayor except in terms of their own personal economic or narrow politics. They’re not demanding systemic changes for the people; they’re demanding that the system serve them.
We had concrete political demands when it came to the Daleys, Emanuel, and Lightfoot. What concrete political demands are these people making who say they were once-upon-a-time supporters of Mayor Johnson? I don’t see any.
All I see is people leaning back onto their personal political agenda and saying they’re not getting the attention they deserve. Or taking the wrong side on an issue like the immigrants, where the governor of Texas sent tens of thousands of immigrants here precisely for the purpose of undermining this mayor and calling attention away from his progressive agenda to focus on this crisis.
We can’t play into that. We have to fight for unity.
Right now the fight for unity means we unite and reunite this administration with the people’s movement for the democratic changes that we need in this city and in this country.
We are not trying to set the stage for Paul Vallas or the return of Rahm Emanuel.
In terms of carrying out this program of action, the first thing we need to do is stand up to Trump and his program of mass deportations. We must stand up to this first and foremost so we can stand up to the other attacks: on Medicare and Medicaid, on housing, on the LGBTQ+ community, on youth employment, on police crimes, on mass incarceration, and freedom for the wrongfully convicted.
The social, political and economic crises driven by this administration is currently undermining all of our democratic gains, and threatens to bring in an era of racist and political repression that will put our lives and our democratic rights in jeopardy. Unity in the light of these challenges to our very existence must be primary.
We need unity but not based on minimum demands. We need unity based on maximum demands for justice, freedom, and equality. We need unity based on pushing our progressive agenda forward — not the politics of compromise or groveling to the powers that be — at a time when we have an avowed enemy of the people in the White House.
