Discussion about CPD and the Black community inspired by Lyric Opera's 'Blue'

by Suzanne Hanney

“Roll Call: Policing in Chicago’s Black Community, Then and Now,’” was a virtual conversation on the evolving relationship between the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and Chicago’s Black community. Chicago Tribune reporter and the Field Foundation’s Lolly Bowean led a discussion with Howard Saffold, retired CPD officer and founding member of the African American Patrolmen’s League and Sgt. Jermaine Harris of CPD’s Community Policing Division.

There was undisguised prejudice when Saffold joined CPD in November 1965 after serving in the U.S. Army, but it paid a few thousand dollars more than driving a CTA bus. Working in a predominantly white district for 2½ years, he saw police do good work in the community they came from, but elsewhere, “so much stuff that made me sick to my stomach. Some officers were so individually hateful.”

No one wanted to work with him, so he had a different partner every day. Late night phone calls to his wife, telling her he was dead, had him on the verge of quitting when formation of the AAPL gave him the spirit to fight, he said.

Founded in 1968 after Mayor Richard J. Daley’s “shoot to kill” order regarding looters in the wake of riots after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, the AAPL documented and investigated police brutality on behalf of community members.

Harris grew up on the West Side with good memories of police and after serving in the Marine Corps, joined CPD in 2002 during a hiring push for Black officers. It was a “unique gift being part of the community I serve,” he said. The same relationship Safford saw between white cops and their communities is missing and “We gotta get it back,” he said. Harris is passionate about working with youth and was officer of the month after he raised $15,000 for his Little League Baseball program. Street outreach, he said, is key to preventing violence and improving the community.

How did their military experience inform their police work? Bowean asked.

Saffold recalled a domestic disturbance where a young, white, Vietnam veteran, his eyes glaring, turned over a grill in his backyard and wielded a poker in front of his wife and babies. “I hadn’t had a conversation about how to deal with a man with a mental disturbance. All I said was, ‘What’s the matter, man? This is your kids, your wife. You see how frightened they are. Don’t make me hurt you in front of the kids.’ I had the compassion for what I saw.”

Harris recalled Marine leadership lessons and the need to be courageous – “to see something that needs to be done, to go against something unpopular. Who’s willing to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others? The role of a police officer – that’s the core root of it.”

The African American Police League’s early work included training open to all CPD members on law enforcement with sensitivity and without bias. Founded as the Afro-American Patrolmen’s League, it was previously known as the Afro-American Police League. Its archives – annual reports, court files, correspondence, police brutality reports – are at the Chicago History Museum.

Sponsored by Lyric Opera of Chicago, WFMT and WTTW, the December 8 “Roll Call” conversation was inspired by the opera “Blue,” by composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tazewell Thompson. The opera tells the story of a Black family living in 21st century America whose teenaged son is killed by a white police officer. The mother and father, a “Black man in Blue,” (police officer) turn to their church and their community when their deepest fear comes true. Due to the ongoing public health crisis, performances of “Blue” have been postponed. You can still view the "Roll Call" video at https://www.facebook.com/ lyricopera/videos/401678477618509.