
Lori
Lightfoot announced she's running for mayor of Chicago.
Chicago, IL - The now-former head of
the Chicago Police Board who suggested getting rid of sworn honesty requirements
in police complaints, is running for mayor.
Lori Lightfoot announced her
candidacy on Thursday and she would run against Mayor Rahm Emanuel, according
to the Chicago
Tribune.
It was Emanuel who appointed
Lightfoot to the head of the independent civilian body that oversees some
aspects of the Chicago Police Department.
Lightfoot resigned her post from the
Chicago Police Board on May 7 so she could run for mayor, according to WLS-TV.
Lightfoot said she didn’t owe Emanuel
anything.
“In order for Chicago to remain a
world-class city, we need to forge a new path, in which equity and inclusion
are our guiding principles. By almost every measure, we currently are headed in
the wrong direction,” Lightfoot said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “All
over Chicago, people feel the effects of the us-versus-them style of
governance. Investing here, but not there. Providing advantages to some, but
not others. Listening to a few, but ignoring far too many. That mentality and
style of governance ends the day I am sworn in as mayor.”
Lightfoot made news
in her tenure as the president of the civilian police board.
She was opposed to mandating that all
people who file a complaint against police sign a sworn affidavit that their
complaint is truthful, to the best of their knowledge.
Complainants could be prosecuted if
it was discovered they intentionally provided false claims against the officer,
and an Obama administration DOJ report said that this requirement resulted in
unsigned complaints being dropped instead of investigated.
Lightfoot also believes that
anonymous complaints against officers should be allowed.
However, even if it is determined an
anonymous compliant about an officer can’t be proven, it could stay on the
officer’s record.