PHOTO BY TROY GUENO
Who’s Keeping the Peace?
Mediating the conflict between police and residents after the police shot Latrell Allen BY CORDELL LONGSTREATH
This piece is part of a series that explores the various perspectives around defunding the police. Around 7pm on Sunday, August 9, I started seeing Facebook Live videos of a familiar scene: Black male voices, a phalanx of cops, and the disjointed yells of humans under duress. The first two videos were from people I didn't directly know, but what I did know was the location that was tagged on each video—Moran Park at 57th and Racine. Realizing something big was happening, but not knowing what, I started searching online for other friends who happened to be there. Joseph Williams is a millennial who ran for 15th Ward alderman in 2019. He entered my brain during that election cycle, and my work this year as a member of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood has put me in close proximity with him often—at RAGE's end of the year party and then volunteering with him during the emergency relief food distribution. When I saw his Live that Sunday he was cool, calm, and collected. What stood out most was when he stated he would turn off his livestream to focus on mediating the conflict that was happening between police and residents after the police shot Latrell Allen. I felt his purpose and wasn’t surprised when his video went viral. When I saw the South Side Weekly team was looking for on-the-ground recounting of the story, I knew I could raise a voice in Englewood. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. I think something that the mainstream media and just any media has been missing about what happened at 57th and Racine is understanding the social media impact. Could you recap how social media gave you your call to action to even go over to 57th Street? Absolutely. I was in the bed with my son. We were about to watch a movie. It just so happened my Facebook was [open] on my phone and I saw a Live, and I'm like, “What is this? That's down the street!” So I just like flew out the door and went straight over there. 14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
¬ AUGUST 19, 2020
My wife was like, “Where are you going?” I'm like, “Hey, I got this. I got to get over here and try to help out in some way.” You could see that the tension was high. You can see that the police were not being as responsive as they could have been to the community by showing them respect back or communicating with them. And I just kind of started to assess the situation. One person was saying, “A guy got shot this many times.” Another person was saying, “They just beat up my cousin and pulled him.” You get the chance to just hear all the different stories. I went to [Chicago Police Department director of community engagement] Glen Brooks, and asked him, "Hey, what's the condition on this young man?” And I was able to tell the community he's stable, really, to try to calm it down. Because you've got community, police—everybody's aggressive towards one another. It was a really tense situation. The police had a crime scene that they were supposed to be behind, and they put yellow tape in front of them. And what I noticed them do was reach past that crime scene and pull individuals in. And after pulling them in, they beat 'em up! And one guy, I watched him pull his shirt and rip his shirt up, but why they was doing that...it caused more friction. It was just a blessing that…when I first went on my Live, [other organizers] got a chance to see where I was at and they started to respond to the call. They started coming out. And when the organizers started to come out, they helped me organize a little bit better. We were able to build a link chain, build a wall up with each other to protect the community. And then the community stayed behind us, the police stayed on their side, and nobody crossed paths. And it was to keep everyone protected and safe. Eventually, a bullhorn came out, and… I was able to [say], “I need all women and children [to get out] because more police are flowing into the community,” while I'm on the bullhorn. I'm talking about at least an extra 200 additional police were coming out, running down the streets with batons in their hands, assault rifles strapped to their chest.
