Two Chicago officers relieved of police powers amid investigation into brutal encounter seen in video
Grace Hauck USA TODAYCHICAGO – Two Chicago officers have been relieved of their police powers after viral cellphone video showed officers dragging two people out of a car, one of whom says an officer pressed his knee into her neck.
The revelations of brutality are the latest in a firestorm of protests nationwide, with tens of thousands of citizens outraged over the death in Minnesota of George Floyd. The 46-year-old black man died after a police officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes.
Bystander video of the Chicago incident posted to social media appears to show a swarm of about a dozen male officers surrounding a small car in a strip mall parking lot on a sunny day, beating the car and its windows with batons.
Officers appear to pull a person out of the passenger’s side door and another person out on the driver’s side. At least two officers appear to hold down the person pulled out of the passenger’s side.
The Chicago Police Department relieved the two officers Friday, one day after the department's civilian police oversight agency, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), recommended the department "either modify their duty status or relieve them temporarily of police power until COPA can further assess the events and circumstances surrounding the use of force."
COPA said it had not identified all of the officers involved in the incident.
Mia Wright, 25, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct at Brickyard Mall Sunday after "the offender was observed by responding officers assembled with 3 or more persons for the purpose of using force or violence to disturb the peace," police said in a statement, according to local news reports.
But Wright and her family say that they were unjustly targeted. All of the occupants of the car were black.
Tnika Tate, 39, said in a press conference Thursday that she, her cousin Wright, and three other people were headed to Target to pick up supplies for a birthday party when they discovered that the mall was closed.
The local alderman announced on Facebook that afternoon, following looting throughout the city the night before, that the mall had closed.
Tate said the group was leaving the parking lot when about a dozen officers swarmed the vehicle, yelled at them to get out of the car and began banging on the windows.
Wright said one of the officers dragged her out of the car by her hair, slammed her to the ground, and put his knee on her neck. Officers also dragged a man out of the car, Tate said.
"What I experienced Sunday was traumatizing. I was attacked," said Wright, who got glass in an eye during the incident. "All I thought about was what happened with George Floyd. And it could have been another situation like that."
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said on Twitter Thursday that she had seen the video of the incident and that "if any wrongdoing is discovered, officers will be held accountable."
Asked about the incident again in a press conference Friday, Lightfoot said that she was in touch with COPA daily and was awaiting the results of its investigation.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office was also conducting an investigation into the incident.
At the press conference Friday, Lightfoot also said a police officer who was caught in a photo flipping off protesters should be fired.
Via PakapNews