On cursing at the police at CTU rally - and why compromise is no vice
You know how, when I was at the Chicago Teachers Union's Thompson Center rally, I went to recharge my battery about half an hour in, because the march wasn't going to start for another half hour and, hey, it's not like any of the speakers was going to say anything that wasn't already said.
Well, turned out that I missed one of those speakers cursing at the Chicago police.
According to Chicago Sun-Times, CTU president Karen Lewis was supposed to be the last person to speak. But, for some reason that nobody seems to know, May Page, of the Assata's Daughters, went up to speak right after her. She denounced CPD, the Fraternal Order of Police (the police union) and Chicago Independent Police Review Authority (a police oversight body that has increasingly come under criticism for being too easy on the cops). Sources don't quite agree on what exactly Page said to cap off her speech, but everybody seems to agree that she said "fuck the police," followed by some version of "and fuck everybody who supports them."
Page May speaks at Thompson Center rally (via Ted Cox/DNAinfo)
Lewis, who, in her own speech, said that police wasn't the enemy, wasn't amused. FOP were even less amused, demanding that CTU issue an apology. And over at Second City Cop blog - which, for better or for worse, is our only window into CPD officers' unfiltered opinions - the response was even harsher.
The article says that CTU spokesperson said that the union had no idea Page was going to swear. Which could well be true. "Thou shall not use obscenities" us one of the unspoken rules of the union rallies. But, as I mentioned in my post, it wasn't a usual rally, and there were several signs using harsh language.
Assata's Daughters describes itself as a radical feminist, LGBT-friendly collective that strives to educate and empower its members as well as speak out on issues that matter to them. They are one of the many groups that make up the ad hoc Black Lives Matter movement in Chicago. I haven't been able to find a clear statement on what exactly they think of police, but the best I can gather is that, at the very lease, they want to "defund" it and redirect the money toward "services such as health care, education, mental healthcare and youth development programs" - which they describe as things that actually keep the black communities safe. So the fact that they wouldn't be fans of the police shouldn't be surprising. The swearing, while unexpected, it's really that surprising, either. Members of the BLM coalition have shown little reservations about tipping the sacred cows of the civil rights movement - like shouting Jesse Jackson and other veterans of the 60s protests off the stage during last year's Black Friday protests.
For full context, I would be remiss not to mention that, only two days before the rally, a story broke that the FOP hired Jason Van Dyke, the officer who shot Laquan McDonald, as a janitor for its hall. On one hand, I'm not entirely unsympathetic - the man hasn't been convicted, and until the jury reaches the verdict, he's on unpaid leave, and he man has a family to take care of. But, at the same time - you can see how that would, to put it mildly, rub people the wrong way.
According to DNAinfo Chicago, CTU vice president Vice President Jesse Sharkey sent an e-mail that walked a file line, expressing regret over the incident without apologizing to anyone, especially FOP.
"Although one speaker went off message and condemned police in a way that our Union does not condone, and we regret what was said, the rally was a resounding success," Sharkey wrote. "We hope that this unexpected incident, which could not be predicted, does not obscure the tremendous power and momentum we created on April 1. The fact is that our expanding coalition will increase our chances to win progressive revenue and governance reforms before the summer and into the fall."
Sarah Chambers, a teachers union executive board member, told DNAinfo Chicago that she got why Page was filling the way she was, citing FOP giving Van Dyke a job and that time the police union put up a link to an online fundraiser for Van Dyke's defense fund while claiming that they totally weren't trying to endorse anything.
For me, the whole situation raised some disturbing questions about the way the rally was organized. Either CTU did mean for Page to speak and was covering its rear post facto, or there was some kind of an organizational breakdown somewhere. I won't rule out the former, but I'm more inclined to believe the later - it was a complex event involving lots of groups, and CTU was trying to keep everybody happy.
Even if you believe that Page was absolutely right (more on that later), this is still troubling because... Imagine some speaker that wasn't originally supposed to speak saying "fuck kikes?"
At the very least, CTU needs to have a better handle on who is going to say what. Just so nobody would be caught off guard.
As it is, I think CTU is trying to walk a very fine line. As Sharkey said, the union is trying to build a coalition united around pushing through progressive reforms. Some disagreement is inevitable, but so long as they are able to agree on some goals, its an alliance worth trying to preserve.
At the same time, as I said before, many police officers were supportive of the 2012 strike. FOP and CTU do have some common interests - they both want pensions to be fully funded, they both have interest in pushing back against Gov. Bruce Rauner's efforts to weaken unions, and they both want to see Chicago do better (even if they may not always agree on what that would take). Which is why, I suspect, CTU criticized officers using excessive force, police cover-ups and racial profiling, but they always framed it as "CPD is broken, but we can work together and fix it." Many members of BLM Chicago coalition want to tear it down completely.
There have been some pushback at Lewis and others who criticized Page, with arguments that could be best summed up by this tweet.
Am I disappointed in "leaders" who let @may20p take the fall for the crime of refusing compromise & centering radical possibility? Yes.
- wikipedia brown (@eveewing) April 6, 2016
The desire to defend ideological purity, the belief that compromise hurts the cause, is, unfortunately, natural. It exists in all groups, on both sides of the ideological spectrum. It's the same impulse that drives Republicans to vote against Affordable Care Act, a conservative idea, simply because it was just happened to be passed into law by Democrats. It's the same impulse that led to the current Illinois budget impasse, as Rauner refuses to vote for a budget until reforms the laws he wants passed have been passed.
There is something to be said for not compromising too much - there must be some kind of ideological core, some principles that drive your group's agenda. But real world issues are complex, and solutions tend to be complicated. You need a certain diversity of opinions, someone to provide a counterpoint, to serve as a check against excesses. So, quite frankly, I don't see anything wrong with CTU leadership trying to have a wider tent.
Well, turned out that I missed one of those speakers cursing at the Chicago police.
According to Chicago Sun-Times, CTU president Karen Lewis was supposed to be the last person to speak. But, for some reason that nobody seems to know, May Page, of the Assata's Daughters, went up to speak right after her. She denounced CPD, the Fraternal Order of Police (the police union) and Chicago Independent Police Review Authority (a police oversight body that has increasingly come under criticism for being too easy on the cops). Sources don't quite agree on what exactly Page said to cap off her speech, but everybody seems to agree that she said "fuck the police," followed by some version of "and fuck everybody who supports them."
Page May speaks at Thompson Center rally (via Ted Cox/DNAinfo)
Lewis, who, in her own speech, said that police wasn't the enemy, wasn't amused. FOP were even less amused, demanding that CTU issue an apology. And over at Second City Cop blog - which, for better or for worse, is our only window into CPD officers' unfiltered opinions - the response was even harsher.
The article says that CTU spokesperson said that the union had no idea Page was going to swear. Which could well be true. "Thou shall not use obscenities" us one of the unspoken rules of the union rallies. But, as I mentioned in my post, it wasn't a usual rally, and there were several signs using harsh language.
Assata's Daughters describes itself as a radical feminist, LGBT-friendly collective that strives to educate and empower its members as well as speak out on issues that matter to them. They are one of the many groups that make up the ad hoc Black Lives Matter movement in Chicago. I haven't been able to find a clear statement on what exactly they think of police, but the best I can gather is that, at the very lease, they want to "defund" it and redirect the money toward "services such as health care, education, mental healthcare and youth development programs" - which they describe as things that actually keep the black communities safe. So the fact that they wouldn't be fans of the police shouldn't be surprising. The swearing, while unexpected, it's really that surprising, either. Members of the BLM coalition have shown little reservations about tipping the sacred cows of the civil rights movement - like shouting Jesse Jackson and other veterans of the 60s protests off the stage during last year's Black Friday protests.
For full context, I would be remiss not to mention that, only two days before the rally, a story broke that the FOP hired Jason Van Dyke, the officer who shot Laquan McDonald, as a janitor for its hall. On one hand, I'm not entirely unsympathetic - the man hasn't been convicted, and until the jury reaches the verdict, he's on unpaid leave, and he man has a family to take care of. But, at the same time - you can see how that would, to put it mildly, rub people the wrong way.
According to DNAinfo Chicago, CTU vice president Vice President Jesse Sharkey sent an e-mail that walked a file line, expressing regret over the incident without apologizing to anyone, especially FOP.
"Although one speaker went off message and condemned police in a way that our Union does not condone, and we regret what was said, the rally was a resounding success," Sharkey wrote. "We hope that this unexpected incident, which could not be predicted, does not obscure the tremendous power and momentum we created on April 1. The fact is that our expanding coalition will increase our chances to win progressive revenue and governance reforms before the summer and into the fall."
Sarah Chambers, a teachers union executive board member, told DNAinfo Chicago that she got why Page was filling the way she was, citing FOP giving Van Dyke a job and that time the police union put up a link to an online fundraiser for Van Dyke's defense fund while claiming that they totally weren't trying to endorse anything.
For me, the whole situation raised some disturbing questions about the way the rally was organized. Either CTU did mean for Page to speak and was covering its rear post facto, or there was some kind of an organizational breakdown somewhere. I won't rule out the former, but I'm more inclined to believe the later - it was a complex event involving lots of groups, and CTU was trying to keep everybody happy.
Even if you believe that Page was absolutely right (more on that later), this is still troubling because... Imagine some speaker that wasn't originally supposed to speak saying "fuck kikes?"
At the very least, CTU needs to have a better handle on who is going to say what. Just so nobody would be caught off guard.
As it is, I think CTU is trying to walk a very fine line. As Sharkey said, the union is trying to build a coalition united around pushing through progressive reforms. Some disagreement is inevitable, but so long as they are able to agree on some goals, its an alliance worth trying to preserve.
At the same time, as I said before, many police officers were supportive of the 2012 strike. FOP and CTU do have some common interests - they both want pensions to be fully funded, they both have interest in pushing back against Gov. Bruce Rauner's efforts to weaken unions, and they both want to see Chicago do better (even if they may not always agree on what that would take). Which is why, I suspect, CTU criticized officers using excessive force, police cover-ups and racial profiling, but they always framed it as "CPD is broken, but we can work together and fix it." Many members of BLM Chicago coalition want to tear it down completely.
There have been some pushback at Lewis and others who criticized Page, with arguments that could be best summed up by this tweet.
Am I disappointed in "leaders" who let @may20p take the fall for the crime of refusing compromise & centering radical possibility? Yes.
- wikipedia brown (@eveewing) April 6, 2016
The desire to defend ideological purity, the belief that compromise hurts the cause, is, unfortunately, natural. It exists in all groups, on both sides of the ideological spectrum. It's the same impulse that drives Republicans to vote against Affordable Care Act, a conservative idea, simply because it was just happened to be passed into law by Democrats. It's the same impulse that led to the current Illinois budget impasse, as Rauner refuses to vote for a budget until reforms the laws he wants passed have been passed.
There is something to be said for not compromising too much - there must be some kind of ideological core, some principles that drive your group's agenda. But real world issues are complex, and solutions tend to be complicated. You need a certain diversity of opinions, someone to provide a counterpoint, to serve as a check against excesses. So, quite frankly, I don't see anything wrong with CTU leadership trying to have a wider tent.