Follow @MaryMitchellCSTIt was Shaquille Wilson’s big night.
The 22-year-old had turned his life around to the degree that he was being honored by the Lawndale Christian Legal Center at the organization’s annual banquet.
Wilson had completed a program called the Mac House and was working for a small construction company that put him on a clear career path. He was even being featured in a video presentation.
But Wilson never made it to the snazzy affair. Chicago police officers picked him up two blocks from his home as he walked to a nearby Dollar General store to buy a can of spray starch.
“I felt like I was being treated like an animal, like I didn’t have no rights because I was black,” Wilson told me Friday.
“It was to be one of the highlights in my life, and I couldn’t celebrate,” Wilson said. “Not only was I disappointed, I disappointed the people who came to see me and paid $100 for a ticket.”
OPINION
Follow @MaryMitchellCSTHe is suing the city of Chicago and unnamed police officers. His lawsuit says they approached him “with guns drawn, and Wilson was told to ‘get on his knees.’ ”
As they arrested him, one officer told the other, “He fits the description,” according to the suit.
Wilson was taken to the police station at Grand and Central, where he was never interviewed or fingerprinted. But he was placed in a police lineup with others with dark skin and dreadlocks.
Wilson finally was released the next morning through the back door of the police station into an alley.
“It was a false arrest,” said Richard Dvorak, Wilson’s attorney.
He filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the city for records of the arrest.
“I did a FOIA, and it came back with no records,” Dvorak said. “That is one of the things that leads me to believe this was for the sole purpose of putting him in a lineup.”
Bill McCaffrey, a city law department spokesman, said the police department “is looking into the claims. At this time, there is absolutely nothing to support the allegations. However, Supt. [Eddie] Johnson has demonstrated his commitment to quickly investigating and holding officers accountable when wrongdoing has occurred.”
Clifford Nellis, executive director of the Lawndale Christian Legal Center, said he’s known Wilson for seven or eight years and thought it was odd that he couldn’t reach him on the night of the banquet.
“I am really close to him, and for him not to call or text me was really weird,” Nellis told me.
About 200 people attended the event, including Chief Cook County Judge Timothy Evans. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was one of the honorees.
“I remember thinking at the time that it was quite odd you are getting an award and you’re not there,” Preckwinkle said.
Organizers made a vague excuse about Wilson’s absence. They didn’t learn about his encounter with the police until the next morning.
When Preckwinkle heard Friday what had happened to Wilson, she pointed to the “hyper-policing strategy in Chicago’s black and brown communities” as the possible culprit.
“This is very disturbing to me, and, unfortunately, I don’t believe this is an unusual event,” Preckwinkle said.
Nellis said he worried only momentarily that Wilson had been involved in an accident and wasn’t surprised to hear what really happened.
“Honestly, this is not anything unusual for our young people,” Nellis said. “I was frustrated and angry that what otherwise would have been a great night for him to be honored and celebrated, it was basically stolen from him.
“If I were a young person in Lake Zurich and I had said, ‘You’ve got the wrong guy,’ they wouldn’t have kept me overnight after clearing me,” said Nellis, who is white. “Here, it happens all too often. And there are no consequences.”
If Wilson was snatched off the street so police officers could put together a lineup, those officers should not only be sued, they should be disciplined.
We can’t give Wilson back his victorious moment.
But we can stop rogue cops from robbing other innocent, young black men of theirs.
