Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has reportedly pulled out of a virtual roundtable hosted by Crain’s Chicago Business because she does not want to be on the same platform as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Frey, a civil rights lawyer, promised to fix the broken relationship between the community and the police in 2018 when he was first elected. But just two years later, the shocking killing of unarmed Black man, George Floyd, showed just how little had been done to bridge the gap.
Minneapolis residents called on Frey to defund, downsize or abolish police departments in the city.
A move Frey could not get behind.
Protesters marched to his home and asked him to state whether he would support defunding the police — he said he did not and was promptly booed.
A spokesperson later told CNN that Frey was “unwavering in his commitment to working with Chief (Medaria) Arradondo toward deep structural reforms and uprooting systemic racism. He does not support abolishing the police department.”
Lightfoot has been incredibly vocal about the need for reform.
“It’s impossible for me as a Black woman who has been the target of blatant racism over the course of my life not to take the killing of George Floyd personally,” she said last month. “Watching that poor man beg for his life and for the ability to breathe and then watching the life leave him there in the streets I felt angry, I feel sickened, and a range of other emotions all at once. Being Black in America should not be a death sentence.”
