Chicago Police Sergeant Fired for Role in Botched Raid on Black Woman’s Home

By Stacy M. Brown

NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent gather at Daley Plaza in Chicago after marching from Federal Plaza to commemorate the National Day of Protests on Oct. 22, 2021. A Chicago police sergeant has been fired for his role in a botched 2019 raid at the home of a Black woman who was handcuffed while naked after police officers were sent to the wrong address. The Chicago Police Board voted 5-3 Thursday, June 22, 2023, to fire Sgt. Alex Wolinski for multiple rules violations and “failure of leadership” in the raid at the apartment of Anjanette Young, according to a 31page written ruling, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune via AP,

Chicago, IL – The Chicago Police Board voted 5-3 on Thursday to terminate the employment of Sergeant Alex Wolinski due to his involvement in a botched raid in 2019.

The incident involved a raid on the home of Anjanette Young, a Black woman who was wrongfully handcuffed while naked after police officers were sent to the incorrect address.

According to a comprehensive 31-page written ruling, Wolinski was found to have committed multiple rules violations and displayed a “failure of leadership” during the ill-fated operation at Young’s apartment on Chicago’s Near West Side.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the ruling cited the sergeant’s actions as grounds for his dismissal.

Young, a social worker, was preparing for bed in February 2019 when several officers armed with a noknock warrant forcefully entered her residence to pursue a man believed to have an illegal firearm.

Police body-camera footage from the raid revealed that officers handcuffed Young, who was completely unclothed at the time, despite her repeated assertions that they had arrived at the wrong location.

The city’s law department acknowledged that Young remained naked for approximately 16 seconds as officers claimed they struggled to keep a covering on her before finally allowing her to dress several minutes later.

The mishandling of the raid and subsequent actions by the city administration triggered widespread outrage among the clergy, lawmakers, and civil rights activists, who vehemently condemned the incident as racially motivated and an affront to the dignity of a Black woman.

Consequently, Young filed a lawsuit against the city, ultimately leading to the Chicago City Council unanimously approving a $2.9 million settlement in December 2021.

In response to Wolinski’s termination, Young, through

Griner was ruled out roughly 20 minutes before tipoff. It’s the first game she has missed this season since returning from her imprisonment in Russia.

Griner was nevertheless embraced by opponents in the nation’s capital down the road from many of the folks in the U.S. government who worked to get her home. She was freed in December as part of a high-profile prisoner exchange after spending eight months in jail on drug charges, when Russian authorities said Griner carried vape canisters with cannabis oil into the country.

Jayland Walker’s Family Sues Officers and City, Alleging Excessive Force

By SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON Associated Press/Report For America

AKRON, Ohio (AP) - The eight police officers who shot Jayland Walker last summer used excessive force when they fired 94 bullets at him during a foot chase and participated in a “culture of violence and racism” within Akron’s police department, according to a lawsuit filed in Ohio federal court Friday.

Months after a grand jury declined to indict the unnamed officers in the death of Walker, a 25-year-old Black man, his family is seeking at least $45 million in damages from the officers, the city of Akron and city officials, according to a press release.

“Jayland Walker’s death has been mischaracterized as his fault,’’ Bobby DiCello, an attorney for the Walker family, said in a press conference Friday. He called that mischaracterization “repugnant.”

During a routine traffic stop on June 27, 2022, police officers fatally shot Walker after he fired a single bullet from his vehicle, then ran from the officers, according to a state investigation. He left the gun in his still- moving car.

His death gained national attention and roiled yet another city amid heightened tensions with police over the killing of a Black man that started with a traffic stop.

The officers fired the nearly 100 bullets at Walker in less than 7 seconds when he refused to put up his hands and appeared to reach into his waistband, believing him to be armed and a “deadly threat,” the state investigation said.

Police officers violated Walker’s rights to freedom from excessive force under the fourth amendment when they shot him in a hail of gunfire even though Walker was unarmed, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit further alleges that for years, and without consequences, the city of Akron, Mayor Daniel Horrigan and Chief of Police Stephen Mylett have knowingly allowed Akron police officers to engage in “violent behavior” that “disproportionately involves African Americans.’’

The lawsuit goes on to list several alleged instances of Akron police officers using excessive force. It also includes a 1998 newsletter disseminated in the police department that repeatedly refers to Akron residents as animals, and states that a past internal investigation found that police officers currently employed by the department “read, received, circulated or found humorous” the newsletter.

“The story of how Jayland Walker died begins in that year, when this newsletter was circulated,” DiCello said, calling the content “hateful, violent porn.’’

The city of Akron and the mayor’s office declined to comment about pending litigation. The Akron Police Department did not immediately respond to request for comment.

New Hampshire Prosecutors Appeal Dismissal of Complaints Against White Nationalists

BRENTWOOD –

The New Hampshire

Department of Justice has asked a judge to reconsider the dismissal of trespassing complaints against white nationalists accused of displaying “Keep New England White” banners from a highway overpass.

The New Hampshire attorney general’s office had said the men were motivated by race and trespassed on public property when they displayed the banners in Portsmouth last July. They are members of a group known as NSC-131 or the Nationalist Social Club, which the Anti-Defamation League describes as a New England-based neo-Nazi group founded in 2019 that “espouses racism, antisemitism and intolerance.’’

Rockingham County Judge David Ruoff dismissed the state’s case earlier this month, ruling that the government was relying on an overly broad interpretation of the law and infringing on the group’s free speech rights.

In the appeal filed Friday, state prosecutors argued the judge misapplied the law. They said while there is general right to access public roads, and sidewalks, “there is no unfettered right to affix and a highway overpass.”