Chicago taxpayers could soon be on the hook for $875,000 to compensate demonstrators who claim they were manhandled and beaten by Chicago police officers during the civil unrest that in some instances devolved into looting after the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
A scathing report by the inspector general’s office found the Chicago Police Department had been “outflanked, under-equipped and unprepared” for the civil unrest — and the settlement that the City Council’s Finance Committee will be asked to approve on Wednesday is the latest example of that.
The underlying lawsuit, filed in November 2020, highlights widespread misconduct that has already been detailed in reports by the city’s top watchdog and the former federal prosecutor overseeing the police department’s court-ordered reform push.
The lawsuit similarly holds that Chicago cops “responded to these protests with brutal, violent, and unconstitutional tactics that were clearly intended to injure and silence protesters.”
The judge overseeing the case shot down former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s effort to limit her deposition in the case, and the settlement was ultimately reached on the day she was scheduled to be deposed, court records show.
Attorney Sheila Bedi represented plaintiffs in the case, only to withdraw when she accepted a job as Mayor Brandon Johnson’s policy chief.
Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson, the former longtime inspector general who wrote the blistering report, said that Bedi’s dual role “raises eyebrows” and question whether that “should be explored here so that everybody is comfortable” with the settlement.
“Counsel has existed on both sides of this,” Ferguson said. “It’s not improper in and of itself. But it really does beg for some additional inquiry … to make sure that everything procedurally was up to snuff.”
The lawsuit alleges that officers “consistently targeted protesters who were peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights with unlawful, retaliatory, and lethal force,” leaving many bloodied, with concussions and other serious injuries.
Officers drove into crowds, deployed tear gas and pepper spray, pummeled protesters and tackled them, and kneeled and stomped on demonstrators on the ground, the lawsuit alleges.
Police often targeted protesters who raised concerns about abuses, filmed or documented the violent demonstrations and served as protest leaders, marshals, legal observers or medics, according to the lawsuit. Many officers shielded their identities, including by covering up their star or badge numbers.
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said Chicago police officers were “put in a trick bag from the beginning with no plan in place” for the demonstrations that at times led to rampant looting and violence across the city.
Even though police were put in a difficult situation, Catanzara said, he insisted that “nothing unlawful happened.”
“You can use a baton to get someone to move if they refuse to move. And when they do refuse to move, even from a baton strike, at some point you are going to arrest them,” he said. “When they resist, they get taken to the ground to be put in control and put in handcuffs. Sorry, use of force is generally not a pretty thing, but it doesn’t make it illegal or improper.”
The pattern of misconduct alleged against Chicago police officers who responded to the George Floyd protests is strikingly similar to more recent allegations against federal immigration officers involved in Operation Midway Blitz.
Last week, Lightfoot announced an initiative aimed at collecting and verifying reports of alleged criminal and abusive conduct by those agents.
The irony was not lost on Catanzara, who said he was not at all surprised that the former mayor managed to avoid a deposition.
“She’s a coward,” Catanzara said. “I was in Lightfoot’s office two days before those riots came here, and she was dropping every f-bomb under the sun that they were not coming to Chicago. But when it did, they had no response whatsoever. They were making it up as they went along. And that’s just disgraceful.”
Lightfoot could not be reached for comment.
Retiring city Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, who co-wrote the report, said the $875,000 payout is “part of a series of settlements and expenses to the city arising from those events.”
“The city simply wasn’t resourced, and it wasn’t staffed for the kind of unrest and how sustained it was. The city was outflanked, outgunned and underprepared for these events. The facts that things went badly is because we weren’t prepared for them to go well,” Witzburg said.
“There were tremendous and profound shortcomings … and there are costs associated with those kind of shortcomings. There are dollars costs. There are costs in public legitimacy. There are costs to pubic trust in the city and in its public safety apparatus.”
The City Council Finance Committee will also be asked to approve a $22 million settlement tied to yet another unauthorized police chase gone bad.
It would go to the family of 25-year-old Angel Eduardo Alvarez Montesinos, who was killed in a vehicle struck by a stolen car being chased by police. The driver of the marked police vehicle faces being fired, and has been stripped of his police powers.