Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
The Sun-Times last week endorsed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan for civilian oversight over the Chicago Police Department. This endorsement is based on two faulty premises.
First, contrary to what the Sun-Times asserts in its editorial, the mayor’s proposal is not consistent with what activists have demanded. This is because the mayor’s ordinance takes the community out of community oversight. The mayor’s proposal creates a temporary commission that she will largely hand-select. This temporary commission, controlled by mayoral appointees, will likely retain power for a long time because Mayor Lightfoot’s ordinance will not create a permanent commission that is selected with true community input unless state law is changed. Thus, without a change in state law, the commission responsible for providing oversight over CPD is likely to largely be an extension of the mayor and not representative of communities most impacted by police violence.