BY JOHN STUDER
CHICAGO - Since last September 26, when two Chicago cops
brutally beat 18-year-old Jeremiah Mearday, breaking his jaw
and driving his teeth down his throat, opponents of police
brutality and supporters of the cops have faced off on the
city streets here.
After Mearday was beaten by the police, he was arrested and charged with starting a fight with Matthew Thiel and James Comito Jr., the two cops who beat him. That night, opponents of racism and police brutality began organizing. They formed a city-wide committee, the Chicago Committee Against Police Brutality, chaired by Rev. Paul Jakes, Jr., of the Old St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago's west side Black community. Two rallies in support of Mearday drawing hundreds of people, were held in the church.
At the same time, the police brought charges against Mearday. Under the pressure of the public outcry, the city suspended the two cops and accused them of violating police policy.
On November 7 Mearday appeared for his first day of court on the cops' charges, and was met by 100 police officers, the overwhelming majority of them white, who jammed the courtroom, mostly in uniform. When Mearday's case was called, they stood and glared at the youth.
The second court hearing against Mearday was held December 3. More than 200 opponents of police brutality, overwhelmingly Black, marched on the court house, chanting "racist cops, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide." They were met by a counterdemonstration of more than 100 cops who were bussed to the courthouse from a nearby police station.
The city Police Board met a number of times in December and January to take testimony in the suspension of the two officers. Again hundreds of cops attended these hearings to back Comito and Thiel. Jakes and other leaders of the Chicago Committee Against Police Brutality also appeared. The Police Board has taken the case under advisement and is not scheduled to rule until April at the earliest.
Mearday's next hearing was held January 21. Some 100 opponents of police brutality marched on the courthouse before the hearing and 80 attended the hearing itself. More than 100 cops - including the leaders of the Fraternal Order of Police -marched on the courthouse and also jammed into the hearing room.
When the court clerk called the case, all the white cops stood up in unison. The supporters of Mearday then jumped to their feet and shot their fists into the air.
When reporters interviewed Mearday supporters, one white officer told the media, "they like to talk to the ignorant masses." Some of the cops threatened to organize a "slowdown" on the job, demanding a free hand on city streets.
Mearday's next court hearing is scheduled for February 18.
Guillén was killed in front of his wife and children on Oct. 3, 1995, by Chicago cops Chris Anderson, Daniel Parise, and Michael Ponti. According to paramedics on the scene, the police made no effort to revive Guillén after he stopped breathing. The Cook County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide.
After the killing, the cops' own Office of Professional Standards recommended that the three officers be suspended. These actions were first reduced by the police superintendent and then totally vacated by the Chicago Police Board. Under pressure from the cops, two consecutive Cook County state's attorneys refused to file charges against the cops.
Ilsa Guillén, Jorge Guillén's widow, filed a civil suit against the cops demanding they be held accountable for the death of her husband. Activists organized a committee, Neighbors Against Police Brutality, and held meetings, demonstrations, and other actions to win justice for Guillén.
Family and committee members were successful in forcing the Chicago city council police and fire committee to hold a public hearing into the murder in the summer of 1997. The hearing was packed with dozens of supporters of Guillén. The council committee had yet to release its report on the incident before the city announced the settlement with the Guillén family.
The day after the settlement was reported to the press by a source at City Hall, both Mayor Daley and Guillén's family called press conferences to comment on the agreement.
Daley claimed that despite the city's decision to settle, he continues to defend the three cops. He said that the settlement avoided taking the case before "an unpredictable jury" that would only have to find a "preponderance of the evidence" in favor of the charges against the cops, and might award Guillén's family more money. Daley claimed that cases like Guillén's were settled all the time.
At the same time, City Hall sources reported that the Guillén agreement was the largest such settlement in at least five years. Since 1992, the city of Chicago has paid more than $29 million to settle 1,657 lawsuits charging police with brutality, false arrest or improper search and seizure.
While the mayor spoke to the press at City Hall, the Guillén family and their lawyers canceled their press conference, reporting that city lawyers had threatened them that if they spoke to the press it would jeopardize final approval of the settlement.
"The family has been muzzled," Rev. William Coleman told the press, surrounded by members of Neighbors Against Police Brutality, state senator Miguel Del Valle, and other activists against police violence, including Rev. Paul Jakes, Jr. Jakes is a leader of the Greater Chicago Committee Against Police Brutality, formed last fall to press for justice in the police beating of Jeremiah Mearday.
William Nolan, president of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the Chicago cop association, condemned the city's decision to settle the case. "This is absolutely bogus," he declared, claiming the settlement was part of a "disgusting pattern" of the city and Mayor Daley failing to support the cops. The city's police officers and the FOP have become increasingly active in fighting against charges of police brutality here.
Lizbeth Guillén, Jorge Guillén's daughter, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the settlement did not mean the family had won justice. "It might be more justified if the three cops would be arrested and put in jail," she said. "That would mean more than anything. As long as they're still out there, it's not good enough for me."
Photo Box
Demonstration of 250 people in Minneapolis on Martin
Luther King Day January 19 demanding justice for Lawrence
Miles Jr. , a 15-year-old shot in the back by police and
charged with "terroristic threats." The city dropped the
charges against Miles Jr. the next day. Supporters against
police injustice have also mobilized for Andre Madison, who
was shot by police in November 1996, and sentenced to three
years in prison for second-degree assault. His sister
Carlotta, who is active in the case, spoke at a February 9
press conference to protest police harassment, as she was
detained briefly without being issued a citation on fictitious
accusations of driving a stolen vehicle.