Vol. 76/No. 30      August 13, 2012

On Nov. 6, six city cops beat and repeatedly used Tasers on Hanna as they arrested him for allegedly attacking his girlfriend. Hanna, an African-American, was hospitalized as a result and died a week later.

At the June 16 North Chicago City Council meeting, Janet Manzella described how she was beaten by one of the cops suspended for 30 days for his role in Hanna’s death.

Manzella, who is Caucasian, is confined to a wheelchair. Responding to an October 2010 call she made to report suspected drug dealing, the cop in question arrived. Instead of questioning those she had called about, the cop “started hugging on the people,” Manzella said, according to ABC local news. “And he pointed at me and said, ‘Go get your ID.’”

Manzella said as she went to get her ID, the officer kicked in her door and slammed her up against the wall. At the time she was recovering from spine surgery.

“I was pinned between him and the wall. My walker … went flying into the bathroom,” said Manzella.

She also described how the same officer physically grabbed and harassed her a few weeks later when she was shopping at a Walmart.

Manzella repeatedly tried to file complaints with local officials, but they were ignored. City Council Alderman Valerie DeVost, who accompanied her on one occasion, corroborated Manzella’s story.

“This is the type of thing they try to hide from the public,” Ralph Peterson, Hanna’s cousin and a leader of the fight to prosecute the cops who killed him, told the Militant. “The citizens of North Chicago are terrified because those they think are supposed to serve and protect, carry out terrorist acts against them.

“Janet Manzella came forward after we convinced her that she had nothing to fear. There are others we know of. They’re beginning to see they have nothing to fear, and they’re just waiting to tell their stories.”
 
 
Related articles:
Chicago forced to pay victims of cop torture in suit  
 
 
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