Chicago Cops Terrorize Naked Woman In Her Home For Crime Of Watching ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Past Season 10
Can we at least agree not to fund this?
Anjanette Young had settled in at her Chicago home for a relaxing night of TV. “Grey's Anatomy" was on, which could place this event any time in the past 30 years, but it was actually Feb. 21, 2019. The sister enjoyed her Thursdays with Meredith Grey.
YOUNG: My friends and family know: don't call, don't text. This is my night to myself.
The police disagreed, as they often do when a Black person is existing.
Young had just undressed in the bedroom when she heard what she described as loud slams (it was in fact a battering ram). She hastily threw on a jacket to cover herself when the door burst open and Chicago police entered with guns drawn.
YOUNG: Before I knew it, there was a swarm of police officers... They had these big guns, long guns with scopes and lights… I thought they were going to shoot me.
The cops were executing a search warrant but they'd broken into the wrong house. A confidential informant had tipped them off to a young man in unlawful possession of a handgun and ammunition, which could've been any motherfucker. This country's gun laws are appalling. However, it couldn't have been Young, who is a 49-year-old woman and not the 23-year-old man they were looking for.
Regardless, the cops demanded that Young put up her hands, and when she complied, her jacket fell off, exposing herself to everyone present. They also handcuffed her while she was naked, apparently not thinking enough of her humanity to let her put on clothes. Police will likely claim that's “procedure," because no amount of cruelty fails to qualify as their “procedure."
YOUNG: I can just remember crying and yelling, "Please let me put my clothes on … you have the wrong place ... I can see it all over again … I can see them walking around my house and feeling like, feeling humiliated.
If the police are going to break into someone's house and wave guns around, they should probably make sure they have the correct address. They also reportedly failed to verify much of what their Huggy Bear informant told them, such as the suspect's address. We keep coming back to this, but it's important. They broke into the wrong fucking house.
In a statement, police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said the department "has instituted in-service training for officers on best practices to reduce the risk of error and ensure the accuracy of information when applying for and executing criminal search warrants."
“Instituted" implies “new" training, but this was the same old, shoddy ass training with some GED “refreshers" thrown in.
Young filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the bodycam footage from the botched search. The police denied the request, but the courts ordered them to release it as part of Young's lawsuit against police. It is horrific.
YOUNG: I feel like they didn't want us to have this video because they knew how bad it was. They knew they had done something wrong. They knew that the way they treated me was not right.
Yes, it's obvious why Mayor Lori Lightfoot's legal department tried to prevent CBS 2 in Chicago from airing this video: The cops, 10 in total, are utterly devoid of feeling and humanity. They callously dismiss the trauma they're actively inflicting on Young. One officer says, "Okay. Okay. You don't have to shout," as if Young is freaking out because the waiter told her the restaurant was out of creme brulee. While a nude, distraught Young sobs, another cops says, "Ma'am, ma'am, just relax, all right?"
“Try to relax" was a funnyrunning gag in The Matrix . Under these circumstances, it's monstrous.
This wasn't the Chicago police's first fucked-up rodeo. During a year-long investigation, CBS 2 discovered dozensof innocent people the police had similarly traumatized. The horror show is detailed in the documentary [un]warranted .
Young works as a clinical social worker and has spent more than 20 years helping victims of violence. She's trained to care about the people, unlike the officers who tormented her last year.
YOUNG: It's one of those moments where I felt I could have died that night ... Like if I would have made one wrong move, it felt like they would have shot me. I truly believe they would have shot me.
Oh, yeah, they would have shot her. And thought nothing of it.
'[un]warranted,' a CBS 2 News Documentary www.youtube.com
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I can't watch the video. Note how the police statement pretends their only error was to enter the wrong house.
I have watched the video several times, and it makes me more furious each time.