On Wednesday, Chicago City Council members voted 34-15 to approve a $280,000 settlement for GoodKids MadCity (GKMC) youth leader Miracle Boyd. She was assaulted by a Chicago police officer during a 2020 summer protest in Grant Park.
“I stand on my truth because it has already been determined that we deserve this. The city has determined that I deserve this, and I just hope that the rest of the alders grant me justice, too,” Boyd said Monday ahead of today’s vote.
During the public comment portion of today’s City Council meeting, Jasmine Smith, an organizer with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), stood in solidarity with Boyd. Smith criticized Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) over an unconfirmed rumor that he planned to delay the settlement vote, saying “he knew he didn’t have the votes.”
“In 2020, during the rebellion, police attacked her and knocked her teeth out,” Smith said. She added that Boyd’s settlement was passed by the City Council’s finance committee by a 22-7 vote on Monday. and criticized Lopez’s alleged attempt to delay the vote.
“Do y’all Black people know that?” Smith asked the room rhetorically. “Y’all here to smile and get photo ops with these aldermen, but they are not helping our communities. We are suffering. A lot of people in this [City Council] body that’s supposed to protect and serve, they not doing a damn thing.”
Lopez did not motion to delay the vote, and the settlement vote proceeded without debate.
The 15 alders who voted against the settlement include Lopez, Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward), Anthony Beale (9th), Peter Chico (10th Ward), Marty Quinn (13th Ward), Derrick Curtis (18th Ward), Matthew O’Shea (19th Ward), Silvana Tabares (23rd Ward), Felix Cardona (31st Ward), Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward), Samantha Nugent (39th Ward), Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward), Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward), James Gardiner (45th Ward) and Debra Silverstein (50th Ward).
Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) attended today’s City Council meeting but did not vote. However, he had voted in favor of the settlement during Monday’s Finance Committee meeting. Burnett left the meeting early to attend a viewing for his mother, who recently passed away, according to Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th Ward). Toward the end of Wednesday’s meeting, Coleman asked council members to stand for a moment of silence in support of Burnett.
Boyd was filming an arrest during the Decolonize Zhigaagoong protest on July 17, 2020. Then-Chicago police officer Nicholas Jovanovich swung his arm, knocking her phone from her hand. The phone hit her face, causing several injuries, according to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA). The impact knocked out one of her front teeth, and the force was so severe that she required root canals before getting six veneers. She also suffered nerve damage.
For Boyd, now 23, reparations mean access to ongoing mental health services and the ability to experience joy and peace. She told reporters that she is expecting her first child, a daughter, in May and reflected on the world she’s bringing her child into, along with the ongoing challenges in the fight for accountability and justice for other survivors and victims of police violence.
As an abolitionist, Boyd said that jail time was never the solution she wanted. Instead, she advocated for Jovanovich to participate in a series of restorative justice circles—a process she believes would have given her more closure.
“So if I gotta be a freedom fighter for life, then that’s what I’m going to be,” Boyd said. “I feel like there’s way more things we need to accomplish. As I said, like, this journey never ends. It’s not something that just happens overnight; it’s a continuous fight. So that’s what it’s going to be.”
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