Lightfoot apologizes for botched police raid

A shaken and furious Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday apologized to Anjanette Young for the botched police raid on the wrong house that humiliated an innocent woman and prompted police officers to handcuff her naked.

The mayor’s apology came on a day that also saw an outraged Young speaking outside CPD headquarters, and members of the City Council confronting her over the raid and demanding hearings and investigations.

Lightfoot said she first learned of the “appalling” February 2019 incident captured on bodycam video Tuesday, when WBBM-TV Channel 2 aired the video as part of its extensive reporting on botched police raids.

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That’s also when she learned about the actions that her own Law Department had taken to prevent Channel 2 from airing the video.

The mayor said her voice was hoarse because she has been reading the riot act to Corporation Counsel Mark Flessner and Chicago Police Department brass ever since.

“I made it very clear to the corporation counsel that I will not be blindsided by issues like this,” Lightfoot said.

“Filing a motion against a media outlet to prevent something from being published is something that should rarely, if ever, happen. And had I been advised that this was in the works, I would have stopped it in its tracks. This is not how we operate. Period.”

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Even more infuriating to the mayor is what happened to Young.

“I watched that video in absolute horror. I showed it to my wife. We both thought about what could happen to us if we were in her circumstance,” she said.

“If you can hear that my voice is hoarse, it is because I have been unsparing in my comments to all involved in the colossal mess. … I don’t expect that to ever happen again. And should it, then I won’t hesitate to take action.”

She added: “I want to tell Ms. Young ... that I am deeply sorry and troubled that her home was invaded and that she had to face the humiliation and trauma that she suffered. That is just not right. It simply should not have happened. And I will make sure that there is full accountability for what took place.”

Lightfoot openly acknowledged Young is “not the first or only person whose home was breached on the basis of wrong information.” And the mayor says she “cannot and will not ignore” the fact that “this happens to Black and Brown people disproportionately.”

That is why wholesale changes were made to the search warrant policy earlier this year and why more changes could be on the way.

Those reforms have already demanded “independent collaboration from a third-party” who has not been paid for the information before a search warrant is executed.

Body cameras must be worn and activated “at all times.” And two internal supervisors must sign off on a warrant “before it is even presented to a prosecutor and the courts,” the mayor said.

Earlier in the day, Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th), of the City Council’s Black Caucus, had called for “an immediate investigation to make sure that accountability is being held. No more concealing or any of that. Justice has to be served. Not only for Ms. Young but for any other woman in the city of Chicago, no matter what ward they live in. This is wrong. ... I am appalled that 12 men would do that to that woman.”

But Coleman also expressed confidence in the mayor.

“Mayor Lightfoot is a woman of integrity and compassion and I’m sure that she will deal with this in that manner, with integrity. She ran on transparency and good governance and I know — I’m very confident that justice will be served for Ms. Young.”

The Council’s Progressive Caucus weighed in as well, issuing a statement calling for both Council hearings and an investigation by the inspector general that would, among other things find out “why it took COPA nine months to open an investigation and to determine whether there was any attempt to thwart transparency.”

The raid, their statement continued, “further erodes the already tenuous relationship between CPD and people of color across the city. ... Chicagoans deserve to know exactly what went wrong here and what city leaders are going to do to fix it.”

Lightfoot offered her apology and other comments on the case at a news conference after Wednesday’s virtual City Council meeting.

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During that online Council meeting, she had gotten into a shouting match with Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) over the raid.

Sigcho-Lopez unloaded on Lightfoot over the Law Department efforts to block release of the video.

“We have a systemic issue of police brutality. Ms. Young called out the police 43 times. Forty-three times to denounce that this was an illegal and wrong, mistaken raid at her house,” Sigcho-Lopez said.

“I hold you accountable, Mayor, to have a hearing on the matter … because the public deserves an explanation for what happened and why the Law Department was trying to sue the plaintiff because she was trying to make this public, as was her right,” he said.

Lightfoot then accused Sigcho-Lopez of making “wildly inaccurate comments,” even though he did not “know the facts.”

“The images portrayed on that video were upsetting. No question whatsoever. But what I would ask you is to actually get the facts, sir. You have spent a significant amount of your time talking about issues for which you have no facts. And that is highly problematic. It is irresponsible. It undermines your fiduciary responsibility — not only to the Council, but to the larger city of Chicago,” she said.

Lightfoot, a former Police Board president, co-chaired the Task Force on Police Accountability in the furor following the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel was ordered to release the video of convicted Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting McDonald sixteen times after it was concealed until Emanuel had been safely re-elected in 2015.

Lightfoot personally drafted the policy that requires the city to release police videos within 60 days.

That’s apparently why she was so incensed about being accused of playing a role in the Law Department’s efforts to conceal the video.

“I have spent a significant portion of my career, my life, not just advocating for police reform, but leading those efforts. It’s part of what led me to run for mayor. My resolve in making sure that our police department is accountable for the way that it treats our residents, particularly residents of color, has not diminished,” she said.

To prove the point, Lightfoot said she has directed yet another review of the video release policy and plans to ask the Illinois legislature for even “more flexibility.”

She has also asked the Law Department to review all pending search warrant cases and directed the Civilian Office of Police Accountability to wrap up its investigation of what happened “before, during and after” the botched raid at Young’s house as soon as possible.

“It’s been a year. Get it done,” she said.

Lightfoot vowed to release the “full length” of body cam video of the botched police raid and use it as a “training tool” for Chicago Police officers.

“Our officers need to understand that when executing a search warrant at someone’s home, it is a significant and traumatic event. That they have an obligation to ensure that the facts are right regarding the evidence of criminal conduct. The court and the prosecutor depend on that truth. And there is simply no margin for error,” she said.

“We cannot breach the sanctity of someone’s home unless we have complete certainty … of the occupant’s criminal conduct or that evidence of that criminal conduct will be found within those premises.”

But the mayor said she will not ask CPD to stop executing search warrants until the policy is reviewed yet again.

“I know that there’s a ticking bomb in somebody’s house and I’m not gonna do anything about it? ... I know that there’s somebody who’s sitting on an arsenal of guns that they intend to use to harm people in our city and I’m not gonna allow the police department to execute a search warrant to take care of that issue? ... Does that make sense to you? I don’t think so,” she said.

Contributing: Sam Charles