I have been a member of the On The Table Steering Committee since its inception. I am very proud of my connection to this central community engagement model for The Chicago Community Trust, my employer and the place where Smart Chicago is based.
I believe in the power of bringing regular Chicago residents together to plan our collective future. I also believe it’s easy to have easy conversations— to create a private space among friends to talk about and celebrate our shared work.
But we just can’t afford to do that in Chicago today. We are in the middle of a series of crises around policing, education, the use of public space, and how to pay for the things we need. On The Table is far too important a tool to use for discussions that don’t go to the core.
So we’re hosting a dinner at an important place to talk about important things. Here’s details: Surveillance in Chicago: A Conversation at the Burger King on S. Pulaski Road
The October 20, 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald at 4100 S. Pulaski was a seminal event in this city. The reverberations are still being felt in the publication of recommendations from the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, in the Pattern or Practice Investigation being conducted by the Department of Justice, and in continued protests in the streets and at the doors of power. This conversation will focus on one aspect of power: video surveillance. Our venue will be the Burger King where 86 minutes of recording went missing on the morning after McDonald’s death.
We hope you can join us. If this event fills up, we encourage you to host your own On The Table as well.
Meantime, here are some resources to help move the conversation along:
- Burger King surveillance video section of the Wikipedia page devoted to the Laquan McDonald shooting
- Surveillance Cameras in Chicago: Extensive, Pervasive and Unregulated
- Recommendations for Reform: Restoring Trust between the Chicago Police and the Communities they Serve
Questions, comments, additions? Write / call / tweet Daniel X. O’Neil (773) 960-6045 @smartchicago @danxoneil.
