Young’s settlement is now added to the already nearly $67 million in Chicago Police Department (CPD) misconduct settlements made in 2021, according to an ABC Chicago news report. Between 2009 and 2019, the city has paid more than $524 million to settle lawsuits against the police, which taxpayers fund.
On Feb. 21, 2019, Young, then 49, was getting undressed and preparing for bed after work when CPD officers burst into her home with guns drawn.
CPD went to Young’s home near the West Loop to execute a search warrant, acting on a tip from an informant. But police were at the wrong house, according to a 2019 CBS Chicago news report.
On Dec. 14, 2020, CBS Chicago was the first news outlet to broadcast police body-cam video showing a number of police officers busting into Young’s home with their guns pointed at her. During a December 2020 interview with CBS Chicago, Young said she didn’t have time to put on clothes or answer the door before the officers rushed into her home.
Despite Young’s repeated pleas that the officers had the wrong address, police continued to search her home while she was handcuffed and naked in a room full of male officers. The police officers initially ignored her requests for clothing.
In February 2021, Young filed a federal lawsuit against the city and police department, saying that the incident left her emotionally scarred and traumatized.
After the CBS Chicago news video went viral, Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued a public apology, a pivot from her earlier statements on Dec. 15, 2020 about Young’s case, where she claimed to have not been aware of the raid until December 2020. Instead, it was revealed that she knew about the incident back on Nov. 11, 2019.
Additionally, since the CBS Chicago video, there’s been multiple high-profile city resignations and an attempt for reform through a proposed ordinance — named after Young — that’s being backed by Black women in Chicago City Council’s Progressive Caucus.
Here are five takeaways from Young’s traumatizing ordeal.