A recent article in Chicago Magazine mulled the idea of Chicago establishing a truth and reconciliation commission to help address longstanding issues of violence and distrust of police, especially in Chicago’s Black and Latinx communities. The piece referenced examples of similar efforts across the world, including one in South Africa, initiated in 1995 as part of a deal between the former white minority regime and the African National Congress.
There is no single format for a truth and reconciliation commission, but most involve a series of discussions in which grievances are aired openly and without fear of reprisal. The findings and recommendations of commissions are supposed to inform efforts to redress past abuses and prevent new ones from occurring, according to the International Center for Transitional Justice:
A truth and reconciliation commission seems like a logical step in Chicago’s healing process after months of pain and frustration manifesting on Chicago streets. But the wrongdoings of police and city leadership have already been documented. The transgressions have already been discussed. Yet the systematic wrongs have not yet been corrected.
Reconciliation—the end of estrangement—without reparation and restoration, is hollow at best and breeds deeper cynicism at worst. We know that the root causes of Chicago’s endemic violence stem from generations of systematic, sustained, and sanctioned disinvestment by the dominant power structure that has ravaged the city’s Black communities. The same neighborhoods bear the brunt of police racism and brutality. Justice is not in the rehashing of this knowledge.
There has been no shortage of dialogue between police and residents in Chicago, and the police department has, at times, been vocal about seeking out such dialogue. The last two CPD superintendents launched “listening tours” early in their tenures.
The reality is that community members who have been involved in these sessions for years are fully aware of the limitations and frustrations that arise when dialogue begins to feel like an exercise in futility. In the past, when the community emoted at police board hearings, some were threatened with arrest. When others worked to put together comprehensive proposals for public safety and community control of the police, their proposals were ignored.
Recently, when protests erupted and calls rang out to “defund the police”, instead of dialogue, protestors and non-protestors alike were met with raised bridges and blocked public transportation to protect the hallowed corridors of downtown while the very neighborhoods that many of the protestors live in, were left to fend for themselves.