About 20 people weathered a cold rain in Elgin Wednesday afternoon to protest alleged incidents of racial profiling and brutality against African-Americans.
Leaflets were distributed in front of the Police Department and City Hall, calling for people to join with Concerned Citizens of the Northwest Suburbs and asking people to boycott a local newspaper, the Courier News, that they allege works with the police to “malign African-Americans and Hispanics.”
Rev. Walter Blalark, pastor of the Living Gospel Church and the group’s organizer, said he has a list of 20 incidents of police misconduct that he will give to the Illinois attorney general’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice. Allegations leveled against Elgin officers also will be forwarded to the Elgin Human Relations Commission, he said.
“We want to file the complaints all together,” he said, adding that the group will finalize its plan at 7 p.m. Monday in his church, 1515 Dundee Ave., Elgin.
Blalark also alleged that police leaked information from Lt. Henry Smith’s personnel file. Smith, an African-American, is on a 30-day suspension for insubordination.
“Since the reports of bias-based policing have been made public recently in the media, no specific incidents of racial profiling have been brought forward to the police administration,” said Tamara Welter, police spokeswoman.
Welter said the Police Department did not give the newspaper information about Smith’s disciplinary record.
Maurice X, an Elgin resident who is a member of the Nation of Islam, said he lived in public housing in Chicago and left to find a better life. He said his son recently was stopped on the street because he was black, and police asked to see what was in his backpack.
