Who Do They Work For? A Homeowner’s Reflection on Community and Accountability

Op-Ed

Submitted by Dr. Richard Townsell

member of the North Lawndale Home Owner's Association


Who Do They Work For? A Homeowner’s Reflection on Community and Accountability

On Sunday as my wife and I were driving home from church, a police officer was blocking my street and preventing me from going home.  As I pulled up, he got out of his car and asked us did we live on the block.  We said yes and he asked us to pull out our ID to prove it.  I thought about it and said “I am a homeowner on this block and live at ____.”  He got out of the way and we drove home.  I saw police cars in my alley, neighbors’ alley, and down the street and so I wondered what was going on.  Mind you, last week there was an ICE raid on our block and some Venezuelans living in a home on the block were packed into a van and so I wondered if more of that was happening.  When I went to the alley to throw out the trash, my neighbor told me that there was a shootout between police and a young guy on 18th & Ridgeway.  He said about 40 shots rang out earlier in the morning and a young black man was killed.  No officers were injured in the shootout.  A few minutes later, police officers rang my doorbell asking to see our Ring camera footage.  We can see the footage on our phone, but we had nothing of consequence to show them.   My neighbors tell me that the police were on the block, 18th & Ridgeway for hours and my pastor told me that he cleaned up the blood from the shooting in the alley behind his home.  This was a tragedy.

What I have noticed is that whenever there is a shootout like what happened a few blocks from where I live or even a police officer is harmed/threatened in any way, the level of response goes to Defcon 10.  I’ve seen the wrong peoples’ doors broken down in the search for suspects in our neighborhood, helicopters flying overhead, streets blocked off and all kinds of really amped up responses when something happens to police officers.  The argument that is often brought up is the fact that they put their lives on the line every day.  What I have never seen is a similar response to tragedies that happen to regular citizens who also put their lives on the line every day too.  When explosions happen every day in our neighborhood sound like dynamite sticks going off even though fireworks are supposed to be illegal in Chicago.  When the homicide clearance rate for regular citizens is among the worst in the nation, but when cops are harmed people are in cuffs within 48 hours.  When according to the Civic Federation’s report for 2024, overtime has exceeded the City’s police budget 78% of the time over the past decade.  

My reason for writing this piece is not to be critical of the fine men and women that serve and protect.  This is not a call to “defund the police” or any other gaslighting move that is made when anyone is critical of the job that is being done by the police.  I have some simple questions that I am sure lots of people in neighborhoods like ours want to ask: 

Who do they work for? Do they work for the tax payers of the City or their own interests? Are they accountable to the taxpayers or just their union?”  A group of homeowners in North Lawndale have been trying to get a meeting with our new district commander, Lazaro Altimaro, for many weeks now about issues that are serious problems for us. The police always talk about community policing and needing help from folks in the community because they can’t do it all.  We are trying to help, but our help comes with accountability. We had a meeting with some officers about our problems and they blew us off.  Did not call or did not show up.  They wanted to reschedule at a time that was inconvenient for many of our homeowners and so we declined.  When decided to try to get a meeting with the new commander in the 10th district.  The commander has been unavailable for whatever reason or only wants to meet in the morning when most of our people are at work.  He only appears to want to meet with a few people and always at his office, not where the citizens want to meet.  Our homeowners are frustrated that their tax dollars are not being respected.  We could not imagine something like this happening in Oak Park or Wilmette.  The people who pay taxes there are clear about who works for who.  


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