CHICAGO 5/7 - The Chicago Alliance Against Racist & Political

 Repression (CAARPR), activist groups and labor union representatives demand  that Mayor Rahm Emanuel support the call for the establishment of an elected  Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) to end the deadly cycle of police  violence that's being disproportionately perpetrated against Black and Latino  people in Chicago. CPAC will abolish and replace the highly biased and ineffective  Police Board and the handpicked Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA).
 As it stands, IPRA investigates police misconduct, like shootings, and IPRA  management is made of six former cops.

  "The community demands real control over the police who terrorize the south and  west sides, murdering our young people without any repercussions. CPAC is a  chance to stop these racist police murders in their tracks and stand up for the  youth," said Mike Elliot, Chair of the Labor Committee of the Alliance.

 The astonishingly unjust acquittal of Chicago Police detective, Dante Servin, for the  cold blooded killing of 22 year old Rekia Boyd, and protests in Baltimore that  were  sparked by the police killing of Freddie Gray, a 25 year old Black man who died in  police custody after being brutally beaten, have intensified a burgeoning national  call for police accountability.
 

 "We commend every person who has struggled alongside us in this long, hard  journey for justice for police violence victims and survivors. The Reparations  Ordinance is an amazing step but the road to ending police violence is far from  over. We demand Mayor Emanuel support civilian police accountability and put an  end to these racist murders," Elliot said. 

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 CPAC press conference attendees: Chicago Alliance Against Racist &  Political  Repression; Dorothy Holmes (mother of Ronald "Ronnieman"  Johnson); Panzy  Bright (Mother of Dakota Bright); BYP 100; Black Lives  Matter - Chicago; US  Palestinian Community Network; SEIU Local 73; Fight  for 15; National Alliance of  Filipino Concerns; Anakbayan; Graduate  Employees Organization at UIC and  more ... 

 Endorsers include: Angela Davis; Author; Black Caucus - American Federation of  Teachers; Campaign to End the Death Penalty; Chicago Torture Justice Memorials; 

 United Electrical; Radio and Machine Workers - Western Region; UIC Graduate  Employees Organization; Project NIA; Emma Lozano; Pueblo Sin Fronteras; Black  People Against Police Torture; National Conference of Black Lawyers; South Side  Chapter - NAACP; St. Margaret Episcopal Church; Kevin Tyson; Trinity United  Church of Christ; Howard Morgan, Mark Clements, and over 50 victims of the  Chicago Police Department (see  http://naarpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Endorsers.jpg)