Yesterday, 65 legal organizations, lawyers and legal workers signed onto an open letter to Chicago Police Superintendent Snelling and Mayor Johnson expressing their grave concerns about recent actions of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and City of Chicago aimed at stopping protestors from demonstrating during the Democratic Convention. The lawyers also took issue with the way in which CPD has violently addressed protestors seeking a ceasefire and justice in Palestine over the past year. The coalition of attorneys are calling on the CPD and City of Chicago to respect demonstrators First Amendment rights during the convention. This includes but is not limited to allowing protestors to march, providing orders to disperse and giving demonstrators ample opportunities to leave before making arrests as well as calling on the CPD to follow state law and their own policies to cite and release protestors, as opposed to arresting them.
The legal coalition expressed concern about: 1) CPD Superintendent Snelling’s comments that the CPD may arrest peaceful protestors and they took offense at his “gross mischaracterization” describing the 2020 summer protests in support of Black Lives as “rioting,” 2) revisions the CPD made to its mass arrest policy which they contend may further license officers to engage in excessive force with impunity; 3) Corporation Counsel’s efforts to punish pro-Palestinian demonstrators in pursuing convictions for misdemeanors for mere ordinance violations for obstructing traffic; and 4) CPD’s communication of contradictory information regarding where people will be jailed and how they can be located.
The letter concludes by sharing, “we as a legal community are organized and prepared to ensure that protestors’ rights are honored and respected. If necessary, we will hold the CPD and other law enforcement agencies accountable should they eviscerate people’s constitutional rights. Please do not force us to do so.”
Legal organizations that signed on include: ACLU of Illinois, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, Children’s Best Interest Project, The Civil Rights & Police Accountability Project of the University of Chicago Law School, First Defense Legal Aid, Illinois Black Advocacy Initiative, Kaplan & Grady, Law for Black Lives, Loevy + Loevy, Movement Law Lab, Muslims for Just Futures, National Lawyers Guild: Chicago, National Lawyers Guild: Loyola, National Lawyers Guild: University Chicago Chapter, Palestine Legal and People’s Law Office.
