Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) attends the police district panel meeting Wednesday. The panel urged restraint in the community in the wake of the killing of Dexter Reed, but called for the officers involved to be fired.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
The 11th Police District Council urged the community to exercise “restraint and control” following the release of body camera footage showing police fatally shooting a man last month in Humboldt Park.
Jocelyn Woodards, nominating committee member of the council, read a statement on behalf of the council at its monthly meeting Wednesday at Legler Regional Library, 115 S. Pulaski Road.
“When emotions are high we often retreat within our respective communities so we can assign blame safely without challenge,” the statement read. “We must realize, however, that these exceptionally violent events are part of a pattern that are bigger than us and our anger.”
“We say this as Black members of the police district council who have known the fear of flashing red and blue lights in the rear-view mirror,” the statement continues. “As African American members of this police district council, we are just as sad and frustrated as any of you.”
The council said it was important for the investigation into the shooting to play out, and asked the community to become more involved with the council, saying their power is derived from the community.
A representative of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability was supposed to be at Wednesday’s meeting but canceled, Woodards said.
Activists and community members who attended the meeting reiterated their demands for the officers who fired 96 times at Dexter Reed during a traffic stop on March 21 be dismisssed and criminally charged.
Jasmine Smith, of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, said that not disciplining the officers could widen the rift between officers and the people they police.
“How do you ask young teenage boys to respect people that can just kill them and walk away scot free?” Smith asked.
“This is insane, 96 shots, they hopped out on him like they were gang-bangers themselves,” said Miracle Boyd, an activist with Good Kids Mad City. “CPD should not be allowed to fire that many shots on any residential block, on any civilian, under no circumstance.”
Reed, 26, was stopped while driving by tactical officers with the Chicago Police Department, sparking a tense standoff before gunfire erupted on both sides, ending in Reed’s death and an officer being injured.
Roughly 96 shots in just 41 seconds were fired at Reed, according to footage released by COPA this week.
Reed’s brother, Julius Reed, was arrested Tuesday night as protests erupted outside the Harrison District police station at 3151 W. Harrison St., according to an arrest report and the Reed family’s attorney, Andrew Stroth.
In a letter to Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling last week, COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten questioned whether the officers lied about why they stopped Reed in Humboldt Park.
In her letter, Kersten urged Snelling to strip the four officers of their policing powers while raising serious alarms about their actions and their account of the deadly stop.