Look, I’m sure cops long for the day when grabbing up the closest Black person in sight and using them as a human stress ball was just a regular-degular part of the job that “Back the Blue” America would wilfully turn a blind eye to.
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Unfortunately for some of these officers of the law, it’s a new day where, well — the same thing is pretty much still happening — but we’ve at least made enough progress that a victim of police brutality can make their city say “I’m sorry” with its wallet.
According to ABC 7, the city of Chicago now owes $280,000 to activist Miracle Boyd, who had at least one tooth knocked out during a protest in Grant Park on July 17, 2020, by former Chicago police officer Nicholas Jovanovich. The Chicago City Council Committee on Finance approved the settlement Monday with a 22 to 7 vote, sending the vote to the full city council, which approved it Wednesday.
“I just really hope that CPD gets itself together and these alders continue to grant justice to all victims and survivors of police violence through the city of Chicago,” Boyd said after the finance committee’s vote.
The protest took place in 2020, during the wave of protests prompted by the murder of George Floyd. The protest at Boyd was involved in occurred near Grant Patk’s statue of Christopher Columbus, which activists demanded the removal of because — why TF are we immortalizing cruel, genocidal colonizers anyway?
So, suffice it to say, the seven finance committee council members who voted against the settlement were displeased that it passed so overwhelmingly as they believed, well — y’all know what bootlickers think when cops start roughing up protesters during civil unrest.
“These people were there to do nothing but wreak havoc, fight with police, tear down a statue, because they don’t agree with the art that’s been up for 90 years,” said 38th Ward Ald. Nick Sposato.
“This protest was anything but peaceful. The culmination of anarchists that set that up, that turned this violent, and frankly, other protesters that joined in,” said 19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea.
Here’s what “Blue Lives Matter” folk are at least pretending to fail to understand: Cops get better treatment under the law than the rest of us.
Jovanovich knocked out the tooth of a protester who hadn’t attacked him. He wasn’t charged with a crime the way a civilian would be if they so much as landed one finger on his uniform. He was afforded the option of resigning before he was fired. It’s easy to simply decide the protesters were the aggressors in every conflict with police while ignoring the myriad of reports and recorded incidences where police officers were clearly escalating and often initiating violence through excessive force and “kettling” tactics that trap protesters and bar them from leaving.
Cops are held to a different standard, and the system is designed to give them the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes, a lawsuit is the only recourse for victims of police violence, and even then, it’s an uphill battle.
“Police officers were hurt that day, but several citizens and young people like me were also attacked and brutalized that day as well, and we deserve justice just as they do,” Boyd said in court.
Exactly.
The post Run Them Cop Coins: Chicago Activist Miracle Boyd Wins $280K Settlement After Cop Knocked Out Tooth During 2020 Protest appeared first on Bossip.
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