Law enforcement and those who are employed in the profession has traditionally been provided with a mandate to make the communities they serve safe. Their very sense of legitimacy has always depended upon the levels of trust and distinct recognition of respect and dignity that they afford the members of their communities.
We are horrified, however, by the reports of sheer excessive and illegal uses of force, intimidation, and out-right use of terror tactics displayed by federal agents in a recent raid on a residential complex in the City of Chicago, IL, the nation’s third largest municipal center. The actions of masked, un-regulated agents in storming homes, their use of flash bangs, intimidation and fear tactics, goes against every tenet of constitutional norms and constitutes a direct and consequential assault on the very legitimacy of our profession.
Because of their actions our profession is now at serious risk of loosing the trusting relationships that we have tried so hard to develop. We are now being made to be seen as a profession that is more interested in undermining the will of the people we serve, using fear, intimidation, administrative injustice, and force to control their neighborhoods, rather than understanding, compassion, opportunity and equity.
Their actions appear to be specifically meant to divide both the members of our profession and the citizens of our nation, by using fear, intimidation and force of will to control their way of life. Their actions implicitly dictate that they have chosen to treat the members of the community as enemy combatants, rather than persons who both need and seek our help, and demand respect on a day to day basis.
If we, as members of this profession, continue to allow these acts to go unpunished and without accountability, then we must accept that we must forfeit the moral authority to expect compliance or cooperation from any community.
The National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers, Inc. (NABLEO) joins with the members of the Ethical Society of Police in making the following demands, demands that, if not fervently met, will ultimately determine the credibility of all law enforcement, regardless of where they operate, as anything less will say to the nation that we are free to exercise state violence, and not true policing.
We Demand:
- An immediate independent federal and local investigation into the conduct, use of force, chain of command, and any violations of civil rights in the Chicago raid.
- Release of all warrants or legal authorizations claimed to justify the operation – redacted only where legally required – so that the public may judge whether the operation had lawful basis.
- Accountability for any agents or supervisors found to have overstepped legal bounds – up to removal, prosecution, or disciplinary action.
- A public recommitment by federal law enforcement (ICE, CBP, Border Patrol, DHS) that no future operation will use militarized tactics in residential neighborhoods unless it strictly complies with constitutional requirements, minimal force doctrine, and full transparency.
- That local, state, and municipal departments refuse to cooperate in future operations that fail to meet constitutional standards, and that police associations issue formal statements condemning such violations.
The National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers, Inc, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is a premier national organization representing the interests and concerns of African American, Latino and other criminal justice practitioners of color serving in law enforcement, corrections, and investigative agencies throughout the United States, and the communities in which they serve.
