Chicago PD settles claim for $1.6M with group wrongly suspected of looting
They were all aggressively pulled from the car on suspicion of being looters.
A Black woman who was violently yanked from her car by Chicago Police amid national protests over the death of George Floyd received a massive settlement from the city.
As reported by the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago City Council authorized a $1,675,000 taxpayer-funded settlement to Mia Wright and several of her family members who were the victims of police brutality in 2020.
As previously reported by theGrio, Wright told The Chicago Sun-Times that she and several family members visited Brickyard Mall in late May 2020 to discover it was closed amid the civil unrest over the police killing of Floyd.
The group —Wright, her mother, aunt, and cousin Tnika Tate — was sitting in a car when police ran up to their vehicle with guns drawn, breaking windows and ordering them out. They were all aggressively pulled from the car on suspicion of being looters.
Wright said an officer pulled her from the car by her hair and put his knee on her neck.
“For an officer to sit there and put his knee in my neck, the same reason people are protesting nearby in the first place because of what happened to George Floyd, I think it’s all related,” Wright said at the time, per the Chicago Sun-Times. “And I want justice. They should know not to do that, especially not to women. They handled me like I was a man like I was some type of animal or something.”
The women can be heard screaming in a video of the encounter that was posted on Twitter by journalist Adrienne Gibbs, who is Wright’s cousin. The group sued the city in 2020, alleging excessive force by Chicago police. According to the report, eight officers were ultimately disciplined for the incident.
The first attempt to approve a settlement was blocked by four aldermen during February’s City Council meeting, which promoted fierce criticism from local civil rights activists. Per the Chicago Tribune, “Raymond Lopez, Felix Cardona, Nick Sposato, and Silvana Tabares — used a parliamentary maneuver to delay the vote.”
The Chicago City Council voted 34-13 on Wednesday to authorize the $1.7 million settlement to the five plaintiffs.
The other aldermen who voted against the settlement were Brian Hopkins, George Cardenas, Anthony Napolitano, Brendan Reilly, Anthony Beale, Marty Quinn, Ariel Reboyras, James Gardiner, and Ed Burke.
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