The City of Chicago’s Commission on Human Relations Advisory Council on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues held its monthly meeting at a different venue than usual: the Block-by-Block Community Center in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. Vida/SIDA (the city’s only HIV/AIDS service organization that specifically serves Chicago’s Latino residents) and ALMA (Association of Latino Men for Action) co-hosted the meeting, which was held Nov. 17. About 40 people attended including community members, the advisory council and members of the Chicago Police Department. This meeting was a follow-up to the resolution passed at the April 29, 2010, city council hearing where Latino community members addressed hate crimes brought on by homophobia and transphobia.
Members of the advisory council were introduced (Reverend Kevin, Tindell, Gaylon Alcaraz, Bill Greaves, Bob Zuley, Beth Kelly, Robert Castillo, Bill Kelley, Cathy Sikora, Gary Chichester and John Pennycuff) and then Kelly, who chaired the meeting, asked the audience members to introduce themselves. Many members of the police force were in attendance, including Sgt. Lori Cooper Commanding Officer Special Activities Section: Civil Rights and School Visitation Groups, police department LGBT liaison Jose Rios, Commander Judy Martin of the 13th District and Commander Linda Flores of the 14th District (which was where this meeting was held) as well as community members and the press. After Kelly spoke about the advisory council’s role and its past accomplishments, it moved to reports from various committees. Then the open forum began, and people expressed their concerns/questions about how the police are dealing with hate crimes in the city.
Although the focus of the meeting was a follow-up on the concerns expressed by the Chicago LGBT community over the 2009 murder of gay Puerto Rican teenager Jorge Steven Lopez, the discussion/questions moved onto the broader topic of all hate crimes in the city. Many topics were addressed, including the number of police officers assigned to the civil-rights section; the method/procedures employed by police in investigating hate crimes; and bullying in schools.
Cooper started the conversation by sharing what the police are doing to foster inclusion in the department as well as addressing how an act can be classified as a hate crime. She remarked that the two groups who are least likely to report hate crimes are the Latino and LGBT communities due to fear of “outing.”
One community member asked how officers are made aware of issues facing different groups in the city. The police responded that every new officer is required to watch streaming videos that provide information about 17 groups of people to complete their training. An internal affairs officer also said that police officers are monitored on how they interact with the community.
Rios addressed the issues of being openly gay on the police force and said that it actually enhances the work he does in the community to address LGBT youth issues. He also pledged to help other areas of the city to provide LGBT youth-outreach programs. Officers said they will work with their Youth Explorers to be the liaisons between students and the police to report incidents of bullying in their schools.
During the discussion there was one heated exchange between police representatives and a male community member who was upset with some of the answers he was hearing from the police that night. Kelly then challenged the crowd to create change by voting because elected officials set the priorities for funding and legislation at the city, state and country level. At the end of the meeting all parties involved pledged to keep the dialogue going so hate crimes issues can be addressed effectively going forward.