On Feb. 23, grassroots organizations, community members and elected leaders gathered at Bethel New Life in Austin for the second People’s Town Hall. The discussion centered on police district council initiatives and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new task force addressing extremism within the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and other city agencies.
The town hall was hosted by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), and led by CAARPR’s leading organizer Faayani Aboma Mijana.
Bethel New Life is part of the CPD’s 15th district, where police officer Matthew Bracken — one of nine active CPD officers linked to the far-right Oath Keepers — remains on the force. Meeting attendees expressed frustration with the city government and CPD because the agency didn’t take any disciplinary action against the officers and because they remain on the police force.
“Every day that goes by, where they collect a check on Chicagoans’ backs, that’s a further stain on [CPD Supt. Larry] Snelling and CPD,” Mijana said. “They are complicit in the proliferation of white supremacist extremism within the ranks of CPD.”
The Johnson administration’s task force was announced last week. In a follow-up interview with The TRiiBE on Feb. 24, Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Garien Gatewood, who co-chairs the task force, said it would take a holistic approach to examine the city’s hiring practices and better understand extremist affiliations within all of the city government agencies.
“We want to make sure we are doing everything to make sure our folks in the city of Chicago feel protected, feel safe and feel welcome,” Gatewood said.
The task force will be examining the more than 32,000 people who work for the city of Chicago, according to data from the city’s Inspector General’s Office. However, community members would like for the city to prioritize looking through the more than 11,000 sworn officers in CPD and root out officers who have ties to extremist or hate groups.
“There’s so much hatred towards folks because of the color of their skin, and it is important that we address all of them, and that’s going to be a part of some of this work we’re doing,” Gatewood explained. “Understanding what is happening throughout the city, understanding these affiliations, and better yet, making sure we put practices and policies in place to protect the city from people who want to do us harm.”
As previously reported by The TRiiBE’s Corli Jay, CPD Supt. Larry Snelling has the authority to fire the officers after following the proper procedures.
“We are demanding that those police officers who are Oath Keepers be fired,” CAARPR executive director Frank Chapman said.
Speakers at Sunday’s town hall included Gatewood, Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez (25th), Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) Commissioner Aaron Gottlieb.
Several Police District Councilors (PDC) also participated, including Leo Quintero (12th), Arewa Karen Winters (15th) and Deondre Routes (15th). Other speakers were Healthy Hood co-founder and CEO Tanya Lozano and Anton Adkins of the 290 Independent Political Organization.
During the town hall, Quintero shared that he and 25th PDC Saul Arellano submitted a proposal demanding that the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) investigate officers with ties to hate groups and for CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs to be removed from that process. Forty-one PDC members have signed on to support their proposal.
“We know what happens when police police themselves,” Quintero said. “We’ve seen officers with affiliations, like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, remain on the force despite being racist and in violent hate groups.”
Attendees argued that the city must prioritize rooting out CPD officers with extremist ties because President Donald Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters, including 53 from Illinois, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“If they take their time to go through every city department, every minute that they wait to expose this in the police department puts us all at risk,” said 17th District PDC member Elizabeth Rochford. “The police department needs to be moved initially, and then we can look at the other departments.”
Rochford said that police officer Alberto Retamozo, one of the nine CPD police officers linked to the Oath Keepers, regularly attended 17th District PDC monthly meetings before the membership list was made public. Retamonzo served as a community policing liaison for the 17th District; however, his presence at the district council meetings raised concerns among residents.
In July 2024, community members called out Retamozo’s presence at the meeting, according to Rochford. Then, in October, they confronted 17th District Commander Jesse Alvarez about the issue. Alvarez has not attended a PDC meeting since.
Attendees also asked questions about the task force’s makeup, whether meetings would be held publicly and whether or not the task force would include community members.
Carla Kupe, the city’s chief equity officer, will co-chair the task force with Gatewood. Other agencies in the task force include CPD, the city’s law and human resources departments, the Office of Public Safety Administration, and CCPSA commissioners. The task force currently does not include community members, Gatewood said.
The task force has been meeting since last summer and had a series of meetings in January 2025, according to Gatewood. The group will meet over the next few months to develop recommendations and present its findings to community members, who can weigh in and offer suggestions.
For now, CCPSA commissioners will share updates from the task force with city residents during their monthly meetings. Gatewood told The TRiiBE that its goals are to align recommendations with city agencies and open the process to public feedback, similar to the Johnson administration’s People’s Plan for Community Safety.
Gatewood acknowledged community concerns and emphasized the need for lasting change.
“Because it’s not just about a task force. It’s about how we change policies and practices in the city of Chicago for the foreseeable future,” he said. “And that is one of the ultimate goals: making sure we set the city up for long-term success and also ensuring we protect the people in Chicago.”
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