Of all people, I expect more from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the first Black woman to lead the city and the first LGBTQ person to do so as well. She, however, is being accused of actively trying to cover up the horrific injustice that left Anjanette Young, a Black social worker, naked with police body-cameras rolling in her own home, the wrong home in a horribly botched city raid on Feb. 21, 2019. “I was terrified. I tell people that I was scared into compliance," Young told MSNBC's Joy Reid. I was afraid to move because in that moment, I thought if I did anything out of the ordinary that they would shoot me.” Yet the initial response from the city’s legal team in the incident was to attempt to hide the video of Young, who had been adamant that she wanted it released, CBS Chicago reported. The body-camera footage was released recently after about a year’s time elapsed and a Freedom of Information Act request was filed.
Lightfoot similarly tried to keep City Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez from discussing the incident during a web-based city council meeting Wednesday. “I have my five minutes,” Sigcho-Lopez can be seen telling the mayor as she repeatedly cut him off. “We have three matters that are up before the council,” Lightfoot told him. “Those are the three matters um that are before the council. If you want to talk about a separate issue, there will be a time and a place for that, but you are out of order sir.”
Sigcho-Lopez called the video of Young “unacceptable” in a conversation about ethics at the meeting. “I think it’s urgent,” he said, challenging the mayor to have a public safety and health committee hearing on the issue. He asked why the health department was trying to sue Young because she was trying to make the incident public.
“You do not know the facts,” Lightfoot responded, “but that doesn’t stop you from making wildly inaccurate comments. We will be addressing this issue in total after the city council meeting, but I would appreciate if you and others who have an interest in this, as everyone should because the images portrayed on that video were upsetting. No question whatsoever.
“But what I would ask you is to actually get the facts, sir.”
Lightfoot ultimately did keep her promise to discuss the matter in greater depth. She apologized for the video during a press conference Wednesday and said she was “blindsided” by the incident, only being made aware of it Tuesday. "I was completely and totally appalled as a human being, as a Black woman, and as a parent,” she said. Yes I am mayor, but absent that reality, I could have easily been Ms. Young."
Obviously not buying Lightfoot's claim, activist Ja’Mal Green told WTTW the mayor has already broken her campaign vow to "bring in the light." “Here we are still in the dark,” he said. “It is time for change. It is time for transparency. It is time for the mayor to be held accountable for what the administration did.”
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said in a tweet about the incident: "43 times. Anjanette Young told police 43 times that they raided the wrong house. No one believed her. This could have been you. It could have been me. She was traumatized, dehumanized, and humiliated. And this is unacceptable. #ProtectBlackWomen"
Bernice King, activist and daughter of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, tweeted about the incident along with several other activists on Twitter this week. "Such callousness and disregard for human worth and dignity require more than reform. This shouldn’t have happened to #AnjanetteYoung. Unconscionable. @chicagosmayor," the activist said.
