Elgin, Illinois: Anti-Police/Attica Solidarity Action

Submitted to It’s Going Down

A large banner was dropped from a parking garage in the middle of downtown Elgin that reads “The police originated from slave patrols & now serve as the armed militia of state repression protecting white supremacy. KNOW YOUR ENEMY”

Anti-police and anti-prison stickers and information were put up everywhere in the downtown Elgin area as well as in the surrounding neighborhoods, parks and public transit stations.

To the Elgin Police Department. We see what you are doing. “Pokemon Go Elgin – Catch’em with a Cop”. Your involvement in the Elgin Unity Peace Walk which attempts to bond Black Lives Matter with Blue Lives Matter. Or how about that short and secret Blue Lives Matter march that you nervously guarded a month ago? The All lives matter vs Black lives matter discussion event that glorified you was also another joke to us, but a clever and strategic attempt to keep the people in Elgin in good relations with you. But you aint foolin all of us. Some of us know your history too well. Good job quickly taking down that mural depicting an Indiana lynching from the 1930s to avoid any possible outrage in the streets. But we wonder what the people of Elgin would think if more of them knew about the Elgin police officers, Lt. Sean Rafferty and Internal Investigator James Barnes. These two, posed in front of a monument in Indiana that makes mention of the Ku Klux Klan and with their hands forming a “K” said “If you are looking for the Klan, we’re right here,” This incident was documented along with a laundry list of other things including accusations of racial slurs used daily, discrimination towards other black EPD officers and a hostile work environment. These accusations were made by Elgin Police officer Phillipp D. Brown in a federal lawsuit against this city and the Elgin Police Department. We can understand why you are working overtime in your attempts to cover up your racism, especially when someone from your own gang files a suit against you.

Elgin police officers, Lt. Sean Rafferty and Internal Investigator James Barnes.

Elgin police officer Jason A. Lentz

That was swift action firing Elgin police officer Jason Lentz after his blatant racist facebook post related to the murder of Michael Brown. And then (not surprisingly) you hired him back with back pay, full seniority and his pension intact. Do the people of Elgin know that EPD’s racism even dates back to 1925 with KKK members being exposed in its department during a funeral proceeding for a dead officer? Whether the people of Elgin knew before or not, they might know now. We have decided to disrupt your “friendly community police” campaign in memory of those murdered at the hands of police, and also in solidarity with The Attica Prisoner uprising and every other prison revolt. We know who our enemies are. All eyes on you and the prison world you protect.

– Elgin Anti-Police Brigade