Shouts of “we are Adam” echoed outside the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx as community activists listed their demands for justice in the shooting of 13-year-old Little Village resident Adam Toledo.
On Thursday, Little Village activists, members of Black Lives Matter and other advocates gathered at 69 W. Washington St. to criticize Foxx and prosecutor in her office who failed to present all of the facts of Adam’s case during a bond hearing.
Baltazar Enriquez, a Little Village leader, called on Foxx to publicly apologize and file a capital murder charge against the officer who shot Adam on March 29.
Enriquez added her group has submitted complaints about Foxx and Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy to the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission and want Murphy’s license revoked.
“Shame on Kim Foxx for not defending her people,” Enriquez said. “We put her in office, and we’ll take her out of office ... We are not playing games. Charge the officer now, arrest the officer now.”
LaShawn Littrice, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Women of Faith, said the aftermath of Adam’s shooting is another example of the narrative being used to villainize someone shot by a police officer.
“We are standing with [Little Village] in unity, calling for the firing of James Murphy because he falsified information and put it out there for people to change their perception of Adam Toledo,” Littrice said.
Cierra Norris, a criminal defense attorney, said police officers are taught tolerance when dealing with white communities and violence when policing Black and brown communities.
“There’s too many names to mention, there’s too many hashtags, there’s too many justifications,” Norris said. “Tolerance has to start being taught to our police officers and to our police academies. And if they do not have the heart to serve and protect, then they have to find another job.”
Little Village resident Enrique Enriquez said it is officers’ jobs to take kids home at night and prevent them from having guns put in their hands in the first place, rather than just stopping and frisking them.
“Find these officers accountable to law and to justice,” Enriquez said. “Because the Department of Justice is the department of Adam, the department of all these kids.”
No one from the Cook County State’s Attorney office could be reached for comment.
