Mayor Hagerty, we understand that you met with over 300 mayors across the country in June of this year and talked about policing’s good and evil and agree on pledges that you feel will address the problems with the policemen and the citizens in our community. It is good that you are pulling plans and pledge together to change some of your police department’s policies.  But you did not include the groups suffering at the hands of the policemen. It is terrible that you and your fellow mayors came back home and did not share this information with the group of citizens who suffered the most at the hand of your policemen’s hand. You sat down with individuals like you and one or two people from a class that closely resembles what you see as proper and the right people of color or low-income white people.

You, Mayor Hagerty, are not addressing the people directly affected by the BAD police behaviors.  Mayor Hagerty, when will you schedule the meeting with the Black, Hispanic, Asian,  and all other minorities in the community to get their input on the issues that face them.     We purchase the policemen’s services by the taxes we paid on the property we use (own or rent). It seems that you, Mayor Hagerty, are only concerned with the plan that you put forth in the community as a whole, but you are not addressing the low-income and minority people in the city.  When will you address the issues for those residents that were left out?

The continued use of stop and frisk, harassment, the overuse of the “NO KNOCK WARRANT,” the use of reasonable suspicion, the use of force, and “I was afraid for my life.”  Did you and your fellow mayors ever examine the evidence to see if the policemen were in danger of losing his/her life?  So, until you sit down with the group that suffers the most from the policemen’s actions, nothing will change, and the Black Lives Matter sign posted in the yard is to make you feel good so as not to deal with the problem. To make changes, you have to speak out about what you think and know to be wrong, and you cannot stand with any of the other mayors’ agreements and pledges as they do not address the inequities of treatment of the Black and brown people.

So, Mayor Hagerty, when can we (the constituents) who are affected the most, have a meeting with you and the Evanston Police Department to discuss the issues that affect us the most

Betty Sue Ester
President/Co-Founder
Citizens Network of Protection
Betty@CitizensNetworkofProtecion.com