Chicago: Young Black Leaders Meet w/ Mayor, Present Demands

For Immediate Release
June 2nd, 2015

                           Today: Young Black Leaders Meet with Chicago Mayor to Present Demands


CHICAGO -- On Tuesday, June 2nd, young Black leaders from all over the city will meet with the Mayor's office to discuss specific actions the Mayor can take to prioritize young people at the city level. The community organizers that are meeting with the Mayor's office Tuesday afternoon are inextricably tied to youth led organizing projects across the city.

“We appreciate the Mayor’s attention but if his administration is going to have a felt impact in the lives of marginalized young folk they need to not only be hearing us out but start following our lead,” says Veronica Morris Moore, a youth organizer and founding member of the Trauma Center Campaign.

Members from BYP 100, We Charge Genocide, Fearless Leading by the Youth, Circles and Ciphers, #LetUsBreathe Collective, SOUL & IIRON Student Network and other youth led organizations will be presenting a list of demands they have for the city that reflect ongoing community organizing work and the basic principles of the Black Lives Matter movement. The demands reflect a movement towards ending the criminalization of young Black people, ensuring more police accountability, and securing necessary resources to prevent gun violence within our communities. These demands include:


    1. The passage of the S.T.O.P. ordinance which would make CPD reconfigure contact cards to require inclusion of race,
       gender, reason for stop, etc & allow data transparency of arrests, instances of sexual assault, & other police misconduct

    2. The lowering of ticket prices for misdemeanor marijuana possession to $50 dollars in Chicago

    3. Trauma Center Regional Solutions Meeting - We demand Mayor's Office to begin meeting the process of healthcare providers,
       legislators & southside communities to come together & find a trauma center the Southside

    4. The termination of Detective Dante Servin without pension, the killer of Rekia Boyd

    5. Publicly support comprehensive bail bond reform in the state's attorney office.

    6. The immediate allocation of $5 million to restorative justice hubs

    7. As the most effective gun violence prevention program on record we request a fully funded youth job program that ends
       unemployment of Chicago’s young people.

    8. No new police hires - instead use the money saved to invest in effective gun violence prevention strategies


Mayor Rahm Emanuel has committed to “preventing another lost generation of our city’s youth” during his second inaugural speech. Mayor Emanuel devoted much of his speech to expressing what he felt necessary to support young people in Chicago who live in poverty, and as he describes, “lack the spark of hope in their eyes”. Despite his sentiments, Mayor Emanuel did not speak about the specific actions his administration would take to expand resources for young people. It is the intention of us young people at the meeting to provide the Mayor with tangible actions that can make communities a place of freedom, justice and safety.


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