Hip-hop artist Chance the Rapper attended a city council meeting in Chicago Wednesday to speak out against a proposed $95 million police academy slated for development in the West Garfield Park section of the city.
When Chance, a Chicago native born Chancelor Johnathan Bennett, took the microphone, Mayor Rahm Emanuel stepped out of the room. The artist addressed the politician's abrupt departure saying, "I guess the mayor had to step out when I came up. But it’s cool. It’s cool. It’s cool because I’m here to talk to you." According to the Chicago Sun Times, Rahm later explained that he left the chambers to call his mother for her birthday.
"We should understand that financially, this proposed plan doesn’t make sense," Chance said of the development. "We don’t have $95 million. They’re just asking for $10 million today to purchase the land. He added, "But we don’t have the rest of the money to do it, so why let them go ahead with this right now? There’s a lot of different services that need to be funded."
"There's a lot of ways to transform the city that don't have anything to do with police training," Chance added, referencing mental-health services and education as two areas which could use the funds that the new academy would require.
In the past, Chance has shown support for improving Chicago public schools through statements and his own funds. In March of this year, he donated $1 million to the cause and met with Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner to discuss the issue. Earlier this fall, Chance announced that his non-profit SocialWorks organization had raised $2.2 million to be distributed among 20 Chicago public schools for arts education.
Ultimately, though, Chance's efforts on Wednesday were unsuccessful, as the council voted 48-1 to allocate $10 million to pay for the vacant lot that is the proposed future site of the academy.
Rahm hailed the decision during a news conference. "All the aldermen on the West Side voted for this, because they understand — they have felt forgotten from the type of public investments that can spur economic growth." He added that the development "will have its own value of safety for the entire city. It will have its own value of safety . . . to the West Side. And it will be an investment in the kind of economic activity we want to see."
Plans for a new police academy first surfaced after the Justice Department evaluated the Chicago Police Department and found patterns of deadly force and civil-rights violations. The investigation took place after the release of dash-cam footage revealed that Laquan McDonald, a black teen, had been shot 16 times while first walking away from and then being incapacitated by officer Officer Jason Van Dyke. Van Dyke has since been charged with murder.
Obviously frustrated by the vote, Chance responded on Twitter saying, "This whole thing is illogical."
WE KNOW. THIS WHOLE THING IS ILLOGICAL. LETS JUST STEP BACK AND FIGURE OUT THE THINGS WE REALLY NEED. #NoCopAcademy https://t.co/81V43IeeLC
— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) November 8, 2017
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