A leading national civil rights group, more than a dozen local activist organizations and 10 elected officials sent a letter Monday to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson urging him to fire police officers with ties to what they called “hate and extremist groups.”
The letter from Color of Change and the others came one year after WBEZ and the Sun-Times identified officers whose names appeared on the membership list of the Oath Keepers, a group involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Johnson and Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling promised they would have no tolerance for officers with extremist ties. But none of the officers with connections to the Oath Keepers were punished after an internal investigation was closed in the spring.
The letter sent Monday to the mayor alleged that the investigation by the Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs clearly “was a sham.”
The authors told Johnson, “Both you and Supt. Snelling have the opportunity to make good on your promises and your duty to the people of Chicago by ensuring there are actual consequences for white supremacist associations and activities within the CPD.”
They added, “White supremacist extremism and hate within CPD is an urgent matter of public safety that must be addressed rigorously and earnestly beyond stated public commitments.”
Color of Change says it has more than 46,000 members in Cook County. Michael Collins, the senior director of government affairs at Color of Change, said members of the Oath Keepers should have no place in any part of city government, much less the police, and that there was “a lot of disappointment” caused by the Johnson administration’s response.
“Whatever has happened internally did not work,” Collins said.
The 14 local groups that signed the letter included Equality for Illinois and Impact for Equity, while seven police district council members and three members of the City Council also called for firing the officers with Oath Keepers ties.
Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) said it was frustrating to watch the city absolve the officers without offering “real explanation or insight” into the decision.
“It’s clear when things don’t smell right,” said Hadden, who was joined in signing the letter by Council colleagues Andre Vasquez (40th) and Rossana Rodriguez (33rd). “You don’t need to have a law degree, you don’t have to be an alderperson to … say this just seems wrong.”
The involvement of the three Council members in Monday’s letter marked the latest example of Johnson facing resistance and criticism from allies.
Loren Jones, of Impact For Equity, said the law and policy center joined the renewed push for accountability out of fear that the issue could otherwise “be dead on the table.”
The letter’s authors are also encouraging the mayor to convene a task force that Inspector General Deborah Witzburg’s office previously recommended, with the goal of “preventing, identifying, and eliminating extremist and anti-government activities and associations within CPD.”
As it stands, Jones said the city’s handling of cops with extremist ties has been “extremely frustrating.”
“How are we ensuring that we’re committed to safety of citizens and not the careers of CPD officers?” she asked. “We’re just not showing that.”
Spokespeople for the mayor and police department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the letter.
The letter cited last year’s “Extremism in the Ranks” series, which detailed accusations of racist policing and other alleged misconduct by officers who signed up for the Oath Keepers. The investigation by WBEZ, the Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project tallied 27 current and former Chicago officers who signed up for the Oath Keepers, according to leaked data that covered several years.
Records show eight of them are still on the police department’s payroll. They are Michael Nowacki, Anthony Keany, Alexander Kim, Alberto Retamozo, Bienvenido Acevedo, Dennis Mack, Matthew Bracken and John Nicezyporuk.
In their report closing the investigation, issued on April 4, internal police department investigators wrote that “at some point each of [the accused officers] provided their information in order to gain more information or join a group called the Oath Keepers.”
Still, investigators concluded that most of those officers viewed the Oath Keepers as merely “a Pro Second Amendment group, and supporters of the Constitution.”
And the investigators added, “Most of the accused officers had very limited to no interaction with the Oath Keepers after the initial signup.”
Witzburg has urged the police department to reopen its investigation, but it “declined to do so,” she said.
Witzburg’s office has said it reviewed the internal probe and “found BIA’s investigation to suffer from deficiencies materially affecting its outcome.”
Tom Schuba is a criminal justice editor for the Sun-Times. Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team.