Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the Chicago PD, and additional bodies of local law enforcement were all chastised Friday in a review of a fumbled police raid.
IG Report: Chicago Mayor Lightfoot Made “Unfounded” Statements About Botched Police Raid That Cost City $2.9 Million https://t.co/ZaQEyRGM0W
— Sharon (@SweetFreedom29) January 16, 2022
Per the reports, February 2019’s awful incursion forced a blameless female to stand without any clothes on before a few male cops; it also made taxpayers pay out close to $3 million in a legal settlement.
The Raid and the Cover-Up
The Inspector General’s review stated it unearthed several “unfounded assertions” by Lightfoot and others regarding the raid. Chicago police pursued a crappy tip to the home in quest of a suspect.
Instead, they came across Anjanette Young, an uninvolved lady changing her dress to get ready for bed inside her home when police arrived, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
I’m HURT: Mayor Lightfoot tried to cover up the video of a police raid that went wrong of a woman who was naked. She told them 43 times they had the wrong home. They handcuffed her instead. After seeing they messed up, they used an ironing board to help her close her door. pic.twitter.com/2BsH4k782z
— Ja'Mal Green (@JaymalGreen) December 15, 2020
Per the newspaper, Young was cuffed naked, even as officers trawled her home in vain; she was not allowed to dress for at least ten minutes. She later filed a $2.9 million lawsuit against the city. Last month, the city reached an agreement with her.
Aside from Lightfoot, a spokesman for her office and the head of the law enforcement accountability department were also found to have made false statements, according to the 164-page report obtained by the Chicago Tribune.
Lightfoot sought a court order in 2020 to prevent local news outlet WBBM-TV from televising police bodycam footage of the botched raid. A judge ordered the video be turned over to Young’s lawyer, who then decided to turn it over to WBBM.
‘You Have The Wrong House’
“You’ve got the wrong address! I live by myself!” Young can be heard in the recordings, which the station finally broadcasted in December 2020.
Lightfoot initially claimed she was unaware of the raid until it was broadcasted on television, but she eventually confessed she received emails about it in Nov 2019.
As revealed by the IG report, Lightfoot’s assertions lacked “adequate due diligence and evidence.”
This resulted in an inaccurate, incomplete portrayal to the media (and general public) of the city’s prior discussions of the bad raid, irrespective of whether she had forgotten about it.
Per the report, several city employees also failed to disclose the blundered raid to the desk of police responsibility in a timely fashion.
According to the Tribune, the city furthermore failed to respond to Young in the fallout of the raid; they “failed to act with openness” and favored media relations over the “greater objective of government.”
However, due to concurrent studies, the report did not suggest any disciplinary proceedings. According to another independent inquiry ordered by Lightfoot, after the raid, city authorities “didn’t even live up to their public service mission.”
In a statement, Lightfoot’s office said, in part, “the OIG was and continues to be silent on its role in Ms. Young’s case.”
