CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Opponents of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to sue street gang leaders to seize their assets seem to be growing in number ahead of a possible vote Wednesday.
The revised ordinance from Lightfoot would allow the city of Chicago to file civil lawsuits to seize the assets of people identified as gang leaders. But Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell said there’s a lot it doesn’t do. For one thing, he said, it doesn't define what a gang leader is nor does it guarantee the subjects a right to counsel because it's a civil proceeding.
The plan narrowly cleared a City Council committee, but 49th Ward Alde. Maria Hadden said officials have failed to show evidence it will work.
Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the Illinois American Civil Liberties Union, said this is based on a state law around since the 1980s. And he said most of the entities that called for the power to sue street gangs no longer use the tactic.
At a virtual news conference, Pastor Bill Ellis of Apostolic Pentacostal Church of Morgan Park said the law will target the African-American community and not just gangs.
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Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain agreed, calling the “deceitful" and “immoral.”
Bates-Chamberlain said officials deceive people into thinking that the tactic would be effective and it's immoral to waste time on such a measure instead of working to attack the root causes of gang violence.
Hadden said they’ll do everything they can to block the ordinance.
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