By Erick Johnson of The Chicago Crusader
Publishers and owners of Chicago’s Black media organizations have banded together, urging Mayor Brandon Johnson to keep his campaign promise and fire Chicago police officers with affiliations to extremist groups, namely the right-wing Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.
Chicago’s Black Press, comprised of area print, broadcast, and digital outlets believes the recent mass text problem is a warning of future racist behavior directed to Blacks, especially in Chicago, where the police department has a notorious history of rogue police officers who have been accused of misconduct, racial profiling and heavy-handed policing in Black neighborhoods.
With President-elect Donald Trump set to take office in January, there is concern that Blacks and minorities will be more specific targets of hate groups. Hours after Trump was elected president on November 5, Blacks in colleges and offices across the country received racist text messages telling them they had been “selected” to pick cotton “at the nearest plantation.”
The FBI said in a statement that it is aware of the texts, has been in contact with the U.S. Department of Justice and encourages people who receive them to report the messages to local law enforcement authorities.
It is unclear who is behind the mass text messages, what motivated them or how they obtained phone numbers for large swaths of Black residents.
This week, owners and publishers of The Chicago Crusader, The Chicago Defender, N’DIGO Magazine, Chicago News Weekly and TBT News, sent Johnson a letter, urging him to fire eight officers who remain on the force after having been found to be on the membership rolls of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing extremist group that participated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.
Some of the Chicago officers who appeared on the group’s membership list have faced accusations by members of the public of racist policing.
The eight officers are Michael Nowacki, Anthony Keany, Alexander Kim, Alberto Retamozo, Bienvenido Acevedo, Dennis Mack, Matthew Bracken and John Nicezyporuk. None were disciplined after an investigation by CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA) was closed in the spring of this year, with little to no transparency.
During his mayoral campaign Johnson, who won largely on the Black vote in a heated runoff race against Paul Vallas, promised to fire any police officers with ties to hate groups. So far, the mayor has not kept his promise.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, The Anti-Defamation League, Aldermen Matthew Martin (47th), Chris Taliaferro (29th) and Reverend Ira Acree have also called on Johnson to fire the officers.
Last weekend, several community groups and activists on the North Side stepped up their calls for Johnson to terminate the officers. Many said they didn’t trust the police department’s investigation of the officers.
“The OIG’s office has compared this scandal to a time in the 1960s when a CPD officer was fired for being a KKK member,” said Grace Patino of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, one of the organizers of last weekend’s event.
“Make no mistake, nothing about this situation is normal or should be made to feel normal.”
In October, the national civil rights group Color of Change and others sent a letter to the mayor alleging that the CPD investigation clearly “was a sham.”
Johnson meanwhile has remained silent on the issue. Now, the Black Press is speaking out, calling him to task.
In its letter to Johnson, the Black Press says it is “deeply disturbed by Chicago police officers who remain on the streets despite their ties to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.
“With the divisive state of our country and the 2017 U.S. Justice Department investigation that found a pattern of civil rights violations Chicago officers committed against Blacks and minority residents in Chicago, this city cannot afford to have officers who have ties to hate groups.
“And with the recent election of President-elect Donald Trump and recent racist text messages sent to Blacks across the country, the situation in Chicago is even more urgent.”
Last spring, Johnson and Chicago Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling resisted calls to fire or discipline the officers after closing an investigation that Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg demanded be reopened.
When Johnson and Snelling refused, Witzburg asked state regulators to ban the officers from the force after investigators uncovered their ties to the right-wing extremist group.
The CPD investigation into the eight officers began in October 2023, after WBEZ, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reported on the misconduct records of cops tied to the anti-government group and detailed the police department’s apparent tolerance for extremism.
The Inspector General’s office in July said it reviewed the investigation and “found BIA’s investigation to suffer from deficiencies materially affecting its outcome.” The department was urged to reopen the investigation. Witzburg called on City Hall to form a task force to address the problem.
The Inspector General’s office also said police leaders could have charged the eight cops with breaking CPD rules against officers bringing “discredit upon the department.”
In its letter to Johnson, the Black Press says “Since your term in office began, Chicago’s Black Press has watched you resist calls for removal from the Chicago Inspector General, Black leaders and other organizations that demand you do the right thing. We were disappointed and silent when you and your police superintendent decided last spring not to discipline the eight police officers and closed the investigation.
“We strongly support her (Witzburg) demands that the investigation be reopened.”
Last year, Johnson resisted calls to fire Chicago police officer Robert Bakker. He was initially suspended for three days after the department’s internal investigators discovered Bakker made contradictory statements about his participation in The Proud Boys, an extremist group with openly racist views.
Bakker admitted that he took part in Proud Boys group chats, and the police department confirmed that Bakker was, in fact, the subject of the investigation, according to the Associated Press.
The Proud Boys organization has a sworn allegiance to Trump.
In 2020, Trump failed to denounce The Proud Boys during a nationally televised presidential debate with then Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
After public outcry from civil rights groups, Bakker was given a 120-day suspension. He returned to work in February 2023 after his suspension ended.
About Post Author
