The crowd control tactics of the Chicago Police Department — notorious for their botched response to protests following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 — are under scrutiny after accusations of excessive force used against student protesters and a recently unveiled mass arrest policy. Three excessive force complaints were recently filed against at least five officers over the removal of activists protesting outside the Art Institute of Chicago, according to Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) records obtained via open records request, USA Today reports. “I was very concerned that CPD’s well documented historical animus towards protesters was on full display,” said Sheila Bedi, a professor at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, of the tussle between cops and students protesting the Israel-Gaza war in downtown Chicago. “CPD officers appeared to be escalatory, they appeared to be using force that was unnecessary and only heightened the risk for both protesters and police alike.” The criticisms of the department’s tactics come as tensions build over the Democratic National Convention in August, where protesters fear they won’t get a chance to be heard by President Joe Biden and other party leaders. Democrats also fear a potential repeat of 1968 where raucous clashes between police and protesters diverted eyes away from the convention and on to TV screens, leaving a blight on Chicago's reputation for holding political conventions.
The complaints came during a crackdown on students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago calling for the institution to divest from Israel outside of its namesake art museum on Michigan Avenue on Saturday, May 4. Police arrested 68 protesters, a department spokesperson said. The arrests come amid a fight over a new Chicago police mass arrest policy revealed in February that critics say would allow for stronger crackdowns on protesters. Bedi, the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and others filed a motion in federal court in April alleging it “eviscerates protections required by the First Amendment” and asking a judge to scrap it before the DNC. The proposed policy allows police responding to "crowds, protests and civil disturbances" to make mass arrests, according to the draft directives. Critics say a vague definition of civil disturbances will allow cops to squash protests. They also say the mass arrest procedure loosens requirements for documenting uses of force against a member of the public and will allow police to get away with harming protesters.
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