Progressive organizer Kaleb Autman, 14, speaks at a noise and light demonstration on March 10, 2016, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo: Sarah-Ji)
On Tuesday, as voters in Illinois, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri go to the polls, national attention will surely be fixed on the outcome of the presidential primary race — an outcome that has become unexpectedly contentious for the Democratic front-runners. But opponents of police violence around the country will also be focused on the outcome of a much less publicized battle: Illinois’ Cook County state’s attorney race.
In a city like Chicago, where establishment connections run deep, the fight to displace a controversial top prosecutor and the newly tight race between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton intersect quite clearly in the minds of some community members. Given Hillary Clinton’s continued support of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who many believe colluded with Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to cover up a now high-profile police shooting, many view Clinton and Alvarez as being part of the same systemic problem: the establishment left, maintaining the status quo in the face of community struggle. “Tell me who you know, and I’ll tell you who you are,” said local organizer Tess Raser, of the grassroots group Assata’s Daughters.
The story of Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer, is no longer the stuff of national headlines, but calls for the removal of Alvarez, who took over a year to indict McDonald’s killer, have not waned in Chicago’s Black community. Alvarez, who only filed charges against Officer Jason Van Dyke once the court-ordered release of dashcam footage of McDonald’s killing was imminent, has maintained that she did nothing wrong by taking over a year to charge Van Dyke — a decision which left the police officer, now charged with first degree murder, on the job for a full 13 months after McDonald’s death. Alvarez’s critics, including the editorial boards of…