The following statement can be attributed to Nusrat Choudhury, legal director at the ACLU of Illinois:
 
“Today’s sudden announcement of an interim foot pursuit policy by the Chicago Police Department continues to fail in serving residents of the City in at least one critical respect. The policy was developed without incorporating the ideas of Black and Brown Chicagoans who have been the victims of reckless foot pursuits and have stood ready to work with the City on a policy to restrict foot chases. The Superintendent reports on an ‘internal process’ that sought input on the policy from CPD officers, but that process ignored Chicago residents. 
 
The only true path to police reform includes meaningful and deep community input in order to shape policies and practices that end patterns of violent policing that have targeted Chicago’s communities of color for generations. But this requires the City to be truly open to changing policies to reflect community experiences and needs. The Monitor enforcing the Chicago Police consent decree found that the City relegates community engagement to the late stages of policy development and fails to incorporate community engagement which often prevents meaningful community participation.
 
To achieve real reform, the City must do better.”

Calling the step necessary to fix a flawed democracy, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois today submitted testimony in support of House Joint Resolution 16, supporting statehood for the District of Columbia.

“House Joint Resolution 16 addresses a serious flaw in our democracy — the lack of meaningful representation for the more than 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia,” said Colleen Connell, Executive Director, ACLU of Illinois. “Each of these people deserve the same for voting rights as every other American. The ongoing denial of full voting rights for the residents of DC, most of whom are Black and Brown, is an egregious example of voter suppression which is sweeping our country today.”

As of December 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates D.C.’s population has grown to 712,000. Among D.C.’s voting population today are more than 11,000 active-duty service members and more than 30,000 veterans, all of whom are being denied their full voting rights simply because they live in D.C.

“It is long past time for D.C. to be granted statehood. Making D.C. a state is not a partisan issue, it is a campaign for equal civil rights. It is a democratic effort to re-enfranchise more than 712,000 Americans who have been wrongly denied their full voting rights for more than 200 years. Every member of our state legislature, every member of the U.S. Congress, and every person who believes in our Democracy and equal rights should support D.C. statehood. The ACLU of Illinois encourages you to pass this resolution and add your voice to those demanding statehood for our fellow Americans in Washington, DC. It is time for this historic wrong to be corrected,” Connell concluded.

You can read the testimony in full here. 

The statement below can be attributed to Ghirlandi Guidetti, LGBTQ & HIV Project Staff Attorney, ACLU of Illinois:
 
“At today’s hearing, DCFS officials offered more excuses for its inadequate care for LGBTQ youth, as confirmed by the Auditor’s report. Rather than accept any responsibility for its failures – a prerequisite for any meaningful change – the Department suggested things are different now, and made more promises for the future. 
 
The truth is that the experiences of LGBTQ youth in care are no better today than they were during the audit. Our youth deserve better than promises of future change.”