It was no accident that as family members of Alexis Wilson, Eric Lurry and George Floyd told their stories of loss and outrage on the stage of the Prairie State College stage Thursday, more and more grieving people squeezed together and eventually surpassed the length of the table set out for them.
“This panel could be so much bigger,” said Katie Wright, whose son Daunte Wright was fatally shot by a white police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota in 2021. “It is so much bigger.”
Between 74 and 140 people have died due to their interactions with police since 2016 in Illinois alone, according to data collected as part of the University of Illinois Chicago’s law enforcement epidemiology project. African Americans, homeless people, those with motor disabilities and individuals with psychiatric conditions are more likely to be injured, suffer severe injuries and be killed during contact with law enforcement, the report found.
Thursday’s panel, moderated by Prairie State College Board Chair Camiella Williams, brought together about a dozen people advocating for police reform and accountability, most of whom experienced the loss of a family member at the hands of an officer.
They included Cara Wilson, whose 19-year-old daughter was shot and killed by Dolton police in 2021, and Lakeisha Brandon, whose 17-year-old son was fatally shot by an off-duty Chicago cop in Hazel Crest in 2017.
“A lot of times when people think about Illinois, they think about just Chicago, but they never think about the suburban communities and what we need,” Williams said, citing a Better Government Association and WBEZ report that found that of the 113 police shootings in suburban Cook County from 2005 to 2018, not one officer was disciplined.
“It’s because there’s no oversight. Chicago has (the Civilian Office of Police Accountability). Cook County has nothing.”
Williams said she is fighting for that oversight, which includes taking investigation of police misconduct out of the hands of the Illinois State Police and creating a statewide system that tracks police firings to prevent officers from simply jumping to a new department after committing serious offenses.
“When we’re talking about solutions, it needs to be realistic, it needs to be tangible and something that we can do,” Williams said.
When talking about next steps, many of the panel’s family members vowed to continue advocating for change both in Illinois and around the country.
“There’s nothing we can do for our sons at this point,” Wright said. “So what can we do to protect your children, your grandchildren, your relatives, sisters, uncles and aunts … And that’s within these policy changes that we’re trying to reform and to make sure that we can keep our community safe.”
