Statement in Solidarity with Our Neighbors Demanding Justice for Adam Toledo

Community Legal System , , , , ,

Published: April 16, 2021

On March 29, 2021, 13-year-old Adam Toledo was shot and killed by a Chicago Police Department (CPD) 10th District Tactical Officer. There is no justification for the death of a child — no “Justice for Adam” — especially at the hands of the state, but yesterday’s release of gruesome body-worn camera footage, showing the boy with his hands up and empty, has ignited the community’s continued calls for less violent, more accountable police.

Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts joins our neighbors’ calls for justice, and notes that “justice” in cases of police violence goes far beyond holding individual officers accountable for individual crimes. “Justice” does not come from policing, prosecution, and incarceration, but from empowered, prosperous, and self-actualized communities. 

Adam Toledo’s murder is far from an isolated incident. Adam was the first of three people who have been killed by Chicago Police in less than a month, since March 29. These murders cannot be addressed with a response that looks only at each killing in isolation. To make this system “just,” a whole-scale restructuring of our public safety infrastructure in Chicago is necessary. We must reallocate the budget of the Chicago Police Department and reduce the population of the Cook County Jail, and redirect the resulting funds to communities that have been victimized by police violence and the criminal legal system for decades. We must implement a public safety structure that is accountable to all Chicagoans.

The person who killed Adam Toledo is a member of a police department that has repeatedly and openly resisted even the most modest reforms — especially those related to the way it uses force. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Superintendent David Brown announced a Community Use of Force Working Group on June 15, 2020, to “provide feedback, revisions, and formal recommendations to the Police Department to adopt under a new use of force policy.” After the group convened in February 2020 and spent dozens of hours devising 155 recommendations, CPD staff met with them for a total of three hours and rejected every recommendation but five. 

A Federal Consent Decree supervising police reform in Chicago was entered in January of 2019. This consent decree is meant to facilitate the process of reform by the Chicago Police Department in the areas of poor community relations, racism, and excessive force. CPD failed to meet more than 70% of the Consent Decree requirements in the first year. As of the Independent Monitor’s most recent report, the department is not even in preliminary compliance with over half of the requirements. To be clear, “preliminary compliance” is an incredibly low bar. All that is required of the City of Chicago is to create “policies and procedures designed to guide officers, City employees, supervisors, and managers performing the tasks outlined in the Consent Decree.” It does not require results or even active training programs — only that the Department creates written policies on how it plans to address each of the requirements.

Some areas of the Federal Consent Decree where CPD has failed to meet this low bar include:

  • “Within 180 days of [January 2019], CPD will review and revise its current policies relating to youth and children and, within 365 days, will…[provide] officers with guidance on developmentally appropriate responses to, and interactions with, youth and children” (Paragraph 32).
  • “CPD will integrate the concept of impartial policing into related CPD training courses when appropriate, including, but not limited to, use of force courses, weapons training courses, and Fourth Amendment subjects courses” (Paragraph 72).
  • “CPD’s use of force policies…will be designed, implemented, and maintained so that CPD members…act at all times in a manner consistent with the sanctity of human life” (Paragraph 156a).
  • “CPD’s use of force policies…will be designed, implemented, and maintained so that CPD members continually assess the situation and modify the use of force as circumstances change…including stopping the use of force when it is no longer necessary” (Paragraph 156g).  
  • “CPD’s use of force policies must…promote trust between CPD and the communities that it serves” (Paragraph 158).

In the wake of Adam Toledo’s murder, it is important to point out that the Chicago Police Department has not only failed to cooperate with mandated reforms, but has shown disdain and disrespect for the process and recommendations from both federal courts and everyday Chicagoans. This disdain and disrespect communicates disdain and disrespect for the principles of these recommendations: the belief that all life is sacred, that law enforcement should be impartial, that violence should be a last resort, and that Chicagoans — particularly Black, Brown, and Indigenous people — deserve basic respect from our government employees. 

Justice for Adam means action. It means City officials holding the Chicago Police Department to account for its strident refusal to respect the lives of the people they purport to serve. It means, as stated by members of the Illinois Latino Agenda, the Association of Latino/as Motivation Action (ALMA), Enlace Chicago, and others, a commitment to “substantive, sustained investments in Brown and Black communities…a laser focus on creating real futures for young Brown and Black [children].” The time for discussion groups, listening sessions, and internal reforms has long passed, and CPD must answer for its patterns of violence and vitriol. We must start with drastic reductions in the department’s funding; changes in personnel; and robust civilian monitoring of and decision-making power for the department. We must listen to the demands of communities who are most devastatingly impacted by institutional violence.

Requesting that the Chicago Police Department reform itself has been a colossal failure time and time again. Our City Officials, including the Mayor and every City Council Member, must step up, take responsibility for the tragedies resulting from their inaction, and enforce consequences for CPD’s refusal to change. Our city insists on a department where the shooting of an unarmed person never happens again. Adam Toledo and his family deserve nothing less.

Several local grassroots groups, including the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), GoodKids MadCity, Chicago Freedom School, and others, have organized a demonstration on Friday, April 16, to demand justice for Adam Toledo and other victims of police violence. More information here.