When We Work, We Win
CRS co-hosted a prayer vigil in collaboration with the four locations of our member congregation, Urban Village Church (UVC), at Grace Church of Logan Square for our “We Won’t Bury the Slain: Day of Action” on September 18. Together with site pastors Juan Pablo Herrera (UVC, Wicker Park), Rev. Abby Holcombe (UVC, West), Rev. Jonathan Grace (UVC, Edgewater), and Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey (UVC, Hyde Park & Woodlawn) and Black, Brown, white, and LGBTQIA+ communities in Chicago, we embodied the longstanding tradition of acting in solidarity in the pursuit of justice.
We honored the precious lives that have been slain by law enforcement, emphasizing the unjust murders of Beloved Community members Sonya Massey and Dexter Reed. Our prayer vigil was an opportunity to commemorate those we have lost and advocate for police accountability, such as through the campaign to end pretextual traffic stops. The takeaway from our memorial is twofold: We, as people of faith, should act as our great tradition of liberation instructs and turn our anger against injustice into action. As a steering committee partner of the Free2Move (F2M) Coalition, which began the campaign, CRS will end pretextual traffic stops.
Continue reading to learn about the campaign and work that has already been done by CRS and the F2M Coalition to end pretextual traffic stops.
Ending Pretextual Stops
The campaign to end pretextual traffic stops organized by the Free2Move (F2M) Coalition is a prescient push for police accountability through policy change. As detailed in the wonderful report by the F2M Coalition, pretextual traffic stops are racially discriminatory traffic stops carried out by police officers. Any citizen of Chicago, whether on foot, in the car, or on a bike is subject to be followed by a police officer without reason until they violate a traffic law, no matter how severe. With a lack of evidence to demonstrate that pretextual traffic stops decrease violent crime or traffic violence, these minor infractions are simply used as a pretext to stop a citizen and “fish” for criminal violations. Pretextual traffic stops disproportionately impact Black and Brown residents of the city, often leading to wrongful arrests, incarceration, and as we have seen in the instance of Dexter Reed, death at the hands of Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers.
To end the racist and ineffective policing practice of pretextual traffic stops, the F2M Coalition proposes a 3-point policy platform that recommends:
End Pretextual Stops
Limit Stops for Low-Level Offenses
End Suspicion Less Consent Searches
These three recommendations, described in this report, eliminate the possibility of police misconduct arising from pretextual traffic stops. Police Accountability is one of the five issue areas on our Platform for Renewal. CRS endorses the F2M Coalition’s proposed policy platform and has taken leadership in educating and mobilizing our network around oversight of the CPD and improved public safety.
Our Contribution
As an initiative to bring together people of faith and goodwill to decisively transform society, the CRS Organizing and Policy Team hit the streets to canvass and spread the word about the campaign to end pretextual stops. From June to July, we hosted eight tabling and canvassing sessions, where the team talked with community members who were most impacted by racially discriminatory pretextual traffic stops. In addition, along with other organizations in the F2M Coalition, we brought the community to action by collecting over 2,400 signatures that pressured the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) to hold an in-person and virtual hearing. At this CCPSA hearing, we packed public comment and Commissioners asked leading experts, academics, and practitioners questions about the nuances of police reform regarding ending pretextual traffic stops. After successfully securing the hearing with the CCPSA, CRS met with our member congregations to further build power.
Our Prayer Vigil
Our prayer vigil with UVC began as an idea to commemorate lives lost to police brutality and push for police accountability. We hoped to collaborate with the faith community and invited our member congregations to lead in action with us. Upon our initial ask, the Wicker Park location of UVC, led by Juan Pablo Herrera, eagerly accepted our invitation to co-host a day of action. Over three weeks of planning and ironing out details, we joined the UVC family at Grace Church of Logan Square for a collective memorial. Chicagoans from Black, Brown, white, and LGBTQIA+ communities attended and committed to moving the campaign to end pretextual traffic stops forward. We had an excellent time!
What is the status of the campaign?
As of September 2024, the campaign is reaching for the entities outlined in the 2019 Consent Decree by implementing the F2M Coalition’s 3-point policy platform. CRS and the F2M Coalition are dedicated to achieving greater police accountability and justice. We urge you to get involved in our efforts to end pretextual traffic stops in Chicago. We are called to activism and know that when we do the work, we win.