The police handcuffed me to a wall for 7 hours like I was a dangerous and common criminal. They forced me to go before the media so I would be humiliated in the public – and I was. I have suffered tremendously emotionally and psychologically because of these false accusations. The newspapers, the radio and the TV cameras – in the process of doing their job – splashed me all over the news in lead stories. But when the court gave me my license back only the Chicago Tribune was there to report that I had been inappropriately arrested – and it wasn’t a front page story. And when the case was finally dismissed for good, NO press was present. Now that it has been shown that I was inappropriately arrested and a victim of injustice, I repeat, the overriding question for me remains – how do I get my good name back?
I’m a public elected official, the Alderman of the 24th Ward. And if this can happen to me, can you imagine what chance the average citizen has of overcoming such formidable odds? This has cost me a lot of money, time (nine court appearances), effort, inconvenience, prestige, public humiliation and embarrassment. The ordinary citizen doesn’t usually have a lot of money and time, or often the internal strength to go up against police authority, the law, the City, the State, deal with the media and overcome the humiliation and embarrassment of such an episode. I’m still wrestling with a lot of questions, “How do I get my good name back? How do I restore my emotional equilibrium? How do I help others avoid being the victim of similar injustices?” That is the task that continues before me.
Finally, even as I struggle with those questions, there’s another task that I have assigned to Attorney Lawrence Jackowiak and that’s to file a lawsuit against the Chicago police officers who falsely arrested and humiliated me.
This Article First Appeared in The Black Truth News Volume 2 Issue 3 March 2011