Teen's Killing Inspires Political Lip Service We Hear Too Often

CHICAGO — A cop fatally shot a seventh grader.

And some of Illinois' top politicians responded with ambiguous public statements about being "committed" to ... well, it's difficult to tell.

[COMMENTARY]

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who has held elected office for 49 years, said "as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I’m committed to meeting this historic moment with real change."

Maybe "real change" is different from the phony changes former Mayor Rahm Emanuel sold to Chicagoans after his administration failed to keep hidden the video of former police officer Jason Van Dyke firing every bullet in his gun at Laquan McDonald until the black teenager was dead.

But after nearly a half-century of public service that included Durbin's votes for the "war on drugs" and the Clinton-era crime bill that led to the mass incarceration of Black Americans, details matter about the kind of change politicians committed to making.

That's not what we often get from Illinois' most influential politicians in response to outrage that they pledge will inspire defining moments in criminal justice reform.

Durbin lists some lives lost that were supposed to be catalysts for "real change," as the senator calls it: "From Laquan McDonald to Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Sandra Bland, and tragically many other Black and Brown men and women whose names we do not know, their lives have been lost to brutal acts of racial injustice. The evidence shows that we are dealing with a system of justice that isn’t being applied equally — and we need to change that."

I guess it's like U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth said in a Tweet offering condolences to the family of Adam Toledo — the 13-year-old who was fatally shot in a Little Village neighborhood alley during split second videos that show he followed the officers' orders, dropping a gun and showing the officer his "f------ hands."

"If we're to truly be the Land of the Free, every single American must feel safe, must be able to live," the senator wrote.

Duckworth, who is running for re-election, didn't make a pledge to bring "real change" in the name of Toledo who wanted to be a police officer one day but was slain by a cop who led a bible study at his district.

That's what happened last year, though, following the murder of George Floyd.

Days after Floyd died under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is on trial for murder, Duckworth and Durbin were part of a coalition of lawmakers who supported the George Floyd Policing Act of 2020, which aimed to "hold law enforcement accountable for misconduct in court, improve transparency through data collection, and reform police training and policies."

That bill died, but was reintroduced in March and is set to be reconsidered with Democrats holding voting advantage in the Senate.

Even if it passes and gets signed into law by President Joe Biden, Chicagoans know from experience that even putting police reform promises in writing isn't the same thing as enacting "real change."

The 2018 Chicago Police Department consent decree put in place in the aftermath of Laquan McDonald's murder includes the same kind of "reforms" found in the George Floyd Policing Act but hasn't built back trust in law enforcement or curbed violent crime or racial injustice in our town.

In times like these, when the threat of civil unrest has police bracing for violence, destruction and looting, too many politicians prepping for re-election bids give lip service to the needs of poor, minority communities that government leaders have financially neglected and aggressively policed for generations.

Take Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who tweeted that the killing of Adam Toledo "calls for justice for our children and accountability in all our public institutions."

What does that even mean? How will that be accomplished?

Well, when you read the rest of the governor's statement, it's clear he has no idea.

Rather than speaking for himself and his priorities, Pritzker claimed: "The state of Illinois is committed to this work, whether it is transforming our justice system or investing in communities to create durable and long-term progress."

Chicagoans have heard different versions of that same vague promise too many times from political bosses who rely on support from minority voters in Chicago and Cook County to retain power.

It's not shocking that we would hear it again in the name of Adam Toledo.

But it's just as meaningless.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

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