Last night, Chicago Bulls superstar point guard, Derrick
Rose, used his platform to give an assist to the national movement against
police brutality. Wearing a shirt that read “I Can’t Breathe,” Rose became the
latest of a growing number of black athletes protesting police violence. With
his statement, he also jumped into black Chicago’s long war against police abuse,
a war in which another famous black athlete, Ralph Metcalfe, fought one of the
most significant battles.
Black Chicagoans have been in a continuous combat against
police brutality. In 1927, for example, a writer for the Chicago Defender
complained that blacks had been pleading for investigations into brutality for
years, but the police never paid attention to these grievances. The writer urged, “Police are paid to protect society, not to perpetrate
indiscriminate murder upon those who fall into their clutches. Men upholding
the sovereignty of a principality are men sworn to their duty as servants of
the people who employ them.” The Defender’s appeal to Mayor Thompson, however,
went unheard.
The continued pleas for justice
from the Defender, and from concerned citizens, became louder in the 1960s and
70s as police increased their violence against black citizens. By 1972, an
estimated 78 acts of police violence occurred each month. Despite constant
calls for justice from the black community, Mayor Daley did nothing, and he
allowed the police to continue their abuse. In 1972, using
his political power, and celebrity clout, Congressman Ralph Metcalfe, one of
the greatest athletes of his generation, formed the Concerned Citizens for
Police Reform to confront Mayor Daley and Chicago’s Police Department. For
Metcalf, his call for justice was rooted in his blackness, and no doubt, his
history of growing up in Chicago witnessing acts of police violence. As he told
the Chicago Tribune, “I’m here to clean up the evil system. It is still time
for some of you who talk black to start acting black. Some folks don’t work at
anything but their mouths.” Metcalfe and his group wrote a list of 6 demands for
Mayor Daley designed to eliminate brutality.
The demands:
1.
Eliminate ‘task force-type operations’ by the
police department
2.
Establish a citizen’s board in each police
district to review abuse cases
3.
Black positions on department proportion to the
number of blacks in the city
4.
Upgrade and increase the positions on the police
department held by blacks
5.
The immediate recruitment of black personnel
6.
All the demands met by May 31
Of course, Mayor Daley did not pay attention to these requests,
and in his first meeting about police brutality, he argued “the police
department is the arm of government we look to for protection… there should be
no interference in the police operation from politics, business or any other
partisan pressure groups.” In other words, Daley wanted his police to have unchecked
power to oppress black citizens. Fueled by the mayor’s lack of concern, Metcalfe
and the Concerned Citizens for Police Reform continued their fight. Throughout the summer of 72, the committee
held meetings in which citizens detailed their personal history with police
abuse. The testimonies of local terrorism, highlighted years of oppressive policing,
but unfortunately, did not bring any immediate change. The police and
politicians hid behind the trope of black criminality in order to legalize
their crimes against citizens. A year later, Congressman Metcalfe used those
testimonies and published “Misuse of Police Authority,” a scathing 96-page
document that highlighted police brutality, cover-ups, and a long history of
job discrimination in the department. What did the city do? Nothing.
Rose’s shirt is a testimony to the continued terrorism the
police have waged in their war against black and brown people in Chicago. In
fact, last month young civil rights activists from Chicago testified to the
U.N. about the history of police violence in Chicago, prompting the U.N. to
issue a concern about unchecked police brutality. Rose, a product of Chicago,
has bravely situated himself in this war against domestic terrorism. Let’s
hope that with Chicago’s brightest star taking a stand against police brutality,
local politicians finally listen and end the “Misuse of Police Authority.”
