For years, Chicago Police ran secret background checks on people who signed up to speak at public meetings.

Heard about this over the radio this morning. You engage in your first amendment right especially to speak before a governmental body and someone presumably before you speak decides to check you out before you speak. And this is assuming that you never stood before this body to speak, ever.

Documents obtained by the Tribune under a public records request show the Police Department gathered the details on nearly 60 people in advance of their speaking at monthly meetings of the Chicago Police Board since at least January 2018. A police spokesman said the background checks go back further, to at least 2013.

The checks appear to be extensive, with police searching at least one internal department database to determine if speakers have arrest or prison records, warrants outstanding for their arrest, investigative alerts issued for them by the department and even if they’re registered sex offenders or missing persons. Police also searched comments that speakers had previously made on YouTube or on their Facebook and Twitter accounts, among other internet sites, the documents show.

Among those subjected to background checks were a woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted decades ago by a Chicago police officer, a community activist who gained prominence after the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald by a police officer and a 77-year-old man known for his frequent, flamboyant rants on a variety of topics at public meetings across the city.

In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Lori Lightfoot slammed the background checks, saying she had been unaware of the practice when she chaired the Police Board before her run for mayor.

Describing herself as “furious and incredulous,” Lightfoot told the Tribune that she had ordered an immediate stop to the background checks and said the Police Department owes the public an apology.

“I want to make sure that we get to the bottom of this and understand who is responsible,” the mayor said in her fifth-floor office.

Here's what our police superintendent said about these checks:

Later Tuesday, as he left a City Hall meeting with Lightfoot on policing strategies, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson punted when asked if the background checks should have taken place.

“To be quite honest, nobody did anything with it,” Johnson told a Tribune reporter.

But he made it clear the practice has come to an end.

“I don’t think we have a reason at this point to continue it," said Johnson, who often attends Police Board meetings with members of his command staff. "It’s done.”

The current Police Board chairman, Ghian Foreman, also blasted the background checks, saying the nine-member board found the practice “incomprehensible.”

Now I want to know what 2nd City Cop says about this, if they choose to say anything.

h/t Newsalert

Tribune: Top cop seeks to fire 7 officers for lying about Laquan McDonald shooting

Well perhaps this was necessary way before the Van Dyke trial:

Nearly two years after a Chicago police officer fatally shot Laquan McDonald and numerous colleagues filed reports that clashed with video of the shooting, the Police Department on Thursday announced plans to seek the firing of seven officers for allegedly lying about the shooting.

The department's actions represent a long-delayed official response to a shooting that has come to publicly symbolize broad and long-standing problems with policing in Chicago. The move by Superintendent Eddie Johnson also signifies a stand against what the department's critics say is a pervasive and corrosive practice by officers — covering up for one another even in the most troubling situations.

"This is the classic code of silence situation where you have an incident go down and you've got multiple police officers who all feel obligated to help cover the behavior of police officers," said criminal defense attorney Terry Ekl. "Those examples happen over and over and over again. ... Before you know it, an entire community of people do not trust the police, they do not respect the police, they do not like the police. And that is the situation we have now."

Johnson's announcement came in response to a six-month investigation by the Chicago inspector general's office into the shooting by Officer Jason Van Dyke that was captured on a dashboard camera of a responding police vehicle. The footage went viral after the city was forced to release it by a judge last fall after months of resistance.

Capitol Fax: Mass shootings overwhelm city

A violent weekend in Chicago and as Rich Miller states: There are no words… He shares and embeds some tweets and quotes some news pieces. You might see a press conference with Rahm Emanuel and his police chief Eddie Johnson later on, perhaps you'll see it on Chicago Tonight as I saw a microphone for them at this press conference.

Mass shootings overwhelm city https://t.co/hObQTSatGl

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) August 6, 2018

And of course why wait for Chicago Tonight if I could find some footage of the mayor and police superintendent right now. [VIDEO]

Will more marching end this violence in our problematic neighborhoods?

Community press conference regarding Eddie Johnson

A press conference was called today by Richard Wooten, former police officer and current leader of the Gathering Point Community Council and Grater Chatham Alliance, meeting at Josephine’s (formerly Captain’s Hard Time dining

Eddie Johnson was scheduled to appear (after meeting with Wooten and several ministers a few days ago). Unfortunately, Johnson was called into a meeting with Mayor Emanuel as well as having the President come to University of Chicago that day, so he was not in attendance.

Wooten instead used the press conference as an opportunity to express support for Eddie Johnson as permanent Police Superintendent. Wooten was joined by representatives of community organizations from West Chesterfield, Chesterfield, Chatham, Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing and Park Manor as well as 6^th Ward Alderman Rod Sawyer and Victor Love & Josephine Wade of the restaurant.

 

Wooten and others noted that “We are not pleased with the process, but we are pleased with the person.”

Praises for Johnson included how he boosted morale for officers in the 6^th district, reduced crime, and instituted “Peace in the Park” program at Cole Park, immediately following the death of Thomas Wortham IV.

Wooten also talked about plans for a Justice Town Hall meeting, especially for the residents of the greater area, in which Eddie Johnson will be invited. Specifics will be determined, pending Johnson’s schedule.

Andrea Watson of DNAinfo was in attendance, so expect a story very soon. Channel 2,5,7 and 32 (local CBS, NBC, ABC, & Fox stations, respectively) were also in attendance, so expect stories today as well, perhaps as early as noon or 4pm .

Reporters asked tough questions such as “How can Eddie Johnson change the culture of ‘Code of Silence’ which has been around for generations”