Nov 13, 2023
Cop Caught ASSAULTING Black Middle Schooler Outside School
- 10 minutes
We need to warn you that the reason
we don't have video on this is
because it involves a minor.
So a Chicago cop charged after
shoving Black teen in the throat.
Craig Lancaster, a Chicago police officer,
is facing charges of aggravated battery
[00:00:15]
involving an eigth grader outside of
Walter G Grimson Elementary School.
The officer was also
relieved from his duties.
Charges were filed almost six
months after the incident occurred.
Now, according to Atlanta Black Star,
Williams legal Guardian filed a lawsuit
against Lancaster and
the city of Chicago last month.
[00:00:32]
During the morning of May 18,
Williams, who was 14 at the time,
finished playing a game of
basketball with a friend and
was walking into the school
before the bell rang.
Simultaneously, a teacher was standing
in front of the door on school property
[00:00:48]
talking to Officer Lancaster,
identified as her personal companion.
The filling says Williams tried to walk
inside the building when the physical
encounter occurred.
He just slammed his hand right into,
I think it's JaQuwaun,
throat and he stepped toward him.
[00:01:05]
Talking about this police officer,
let me remind you all,
this man is probably wearing
a gun because he's in uniform.
He stepped to a 14 year old,
jammed his hand right into this kid's
throat, and he stepped towards him.
Then the officer stared down
this young man and said,
[00:01:20]
I'm going to beat the f out of you,
that's according to the attorney.
Marsh said according to the teen's
account, as Lancaster was leaving,
he was stopped by a security guard.
He flashed his police star and
gun holster, entered his car and
exited the premises.
[00:01:36]
The court documents shed light on
Lancaster's alleged misconduct while
working for the city's police department.
Lancaster has been accused of off
duty excessive force on several or
seven occasions and
has received two 30-day suspensions for
off-duty misconduct, the lawsuit states.
[00:01:53]
The City of Chicago has been on notice for
years of Lancaster's penchant of
off-duty violence and misconduct,
this is according to Atlanta Black Star.
The Chicago Police Department declined to
come in on this incident, saying only that
is under investigation by the Civilian
Office of Police Accountability.
[00:02:10]
Lancaster is due to make the first
court appearance on November the 16th.
Here's my problem with this story,
and my God, there are a lot of them.
Jackson first of all, the charges
didn't come until six months later.
He was relieved, that means six months he
was allowed to carry on with this racist
[00:02:26]
behavior of mistreating people.
They said seven times, I'm promising
you it was more than seven times.
It's only seven times documented,
allegedly.
This idea that you can behave in this
manner, seven times you can do something.
You could be suspended 30 times,
I mean, 30 days, twice.
[00:02:43]
30 days, twice, and still wear a badge.
Showing your badge is
flashing your colors.
This is gang behavior.
Let me explain it to you.
Showing your badge is
flashing your colors.
Showing your gun is showing that what you
will do if you disrespect those colors,
[00:02:59]
that is law of the street,
that is not how police should behave.
Unfortunately, we're talking about
what's allowed to happen to young Black
teenagers at the hands of police.
How is this different than what
happened to Tamir Rice and
any other young Black man at
the hands of police department?
[00:03:15]
Jackson.
>> Speaker 2: Yeah, you're 100% right.
Seven times that it was documented.
But seven is a lot, which, I mean,
if you get caught seven times,
clearly you're just habitually doing it as
if it's just a playground for his sadism.
[00:03:30]
But hitting somebody in the throat,
that's a really dangerous
place to touch somebody.
You could break this, and then it's over.
It's the worst place to hit somebody
in the face pretty much anywhere, and
he has no regard for that.
And he said, I'll beat the f out of you.
[00:03:48]
So this is pretty common.
Actually when I was in the sixth grade,
I'm from St.
Louis, Missouri, I live in New Jersey now.
But you know what's up with St.
Louis or any place like that, but people
be fighting after school and stuff, and I
remember police would get out the car and
be ready to fight, talking all this stuff.
[00:04:06]
And looking back, I'm like, in the sixth
grade we was 11, 12 years old,
I'm 31 now, just imagining
myself beating up a kid is just.
That's pretty scary that law
enforcement kind of regularly
[00:04:23]
attracts people who look forward
to doing these things, so, yeah.
>> Speaker 1: What about policing in
this country attract these people?
And it can't be said one bad apple,
because guess what we know?
We know that it's happened so
often, right?
Seven times, two, suspension for 30 days.
[00:04:40]
Then to continue this behavior in
a schoolyard, flash your badge,
flash your gun, and hop in your car,
like, yeah, it is what it is.
This behavior is unbelievable.
It is the base.
What's wrong with the hiring
process in policing departments?
What's wrong with the institution
that we don't flush these cops out?
[00:04:58]
Why aren't other cops treating
this guy like he has the plague?
Why aren't they staying away from him?
Because it is common nature to protect
the blue, back the blue at all costs.
And that, too, to me, represents part of
this bad actor scheme where people want
you to believe that it's a one off thing
or one bad apple, when in actuality,
[00:05:15]
the institution is broken,
and we got to name that.
We have to name that for the sake of 14
year old's like this young man in this
situation, but also because where's
the trust in any institution when
Black people can be treated like this,
Jackson?
>> Speaker 2: It's nowhere to be found.
[00:05:31]
I mean, oftentimes you don't call the
police just because it could be a hassle,
you know what I'm saying?
Unless something's really crazy,
then ain't nobody calling the police.
If you live in a certain income
neighborhood, that's kind of how it goes.
But this always brings up the point
that I raise, local elections,
[00:05:46]
local elections, local elections.
There's not gonna be some federal sweep,
it really can't be no time soon
because it's too complicated.
And at the end of the day, a lot of people
who get elected into positions to do
something about these municipalities
happens in local elections.
[00:06:02]
So that's a lot of what my work
in politics will continue to be,
is getting people to realize
the power of city council.
>> Speaker 1: Yeah,
I'm glad you said that.
As a mayor,
city mayor in a town that has a problem,
I think this is absolutely correct.
[00:06:18]
I think also what happens is we buy
into how politics are sold to us.
People tell you all the time that
the presidential is the most sexist or
the sexist election in this country,
when in actuality, not voting or not
participating in your local elections is
probably gonna have larger ramifications
than electing a president and
it's gonna affect your life immediately.
[00:06:36]
The policies, when I tell people every
day, if there's a racist police chief,
you need to fire your mayor.
In most cities,
the police chief and the board,
the town board is in charge
of hiring the police chief.
So the racist police chief might create
the culture where it exists, but the mayor
[00:06:53]
and the town board allows that person to
keep their job, doing harm to residents.
So I'm telling people all the time,
regardless of what they tell you in this
election or what's most important in this
election, your local elections, your
school board determines which books will
be banned in your child school, right?
[00:07:09]
Your city council tell you
which streets will be fixed,
which neighborhoods will have
sidewalks and successful green spaces.
All of that matters in the quality of life
that we don't even think about and we just
blame the president blanket, writ large
about what's going on in our communities.
[00:07:24]
And not really holding people accountable
because we bought into this idea that
every four years we need to
be worried about elections.
If this country really cared about
elections, they'd have put presidential
elections the same time they put mayor
elections, so people don't drop off in
the manner that they do and
they call them off year elections.
[00:07:40]
There's nothing off about elections
in the uneven years, except for
the fact that less people to participate
because we've been sold this idea that you
need a president and
the 400 people in Washington, DC,
when in actuality in this country, we have
over 50,000 elected officials, Jackson.
[00:07:57]
>> Yep, 100%.
And that's kind of reminiscent on why,
when you really take a step back,
the media, ain't nobody, they really not
talking about nothing it's just Trump,
Trump, Trump, Trump.
Poll came out, there's a year
until the election, let's all.
But there's so much more stuff going
on actually in politics, in America.
[00:08:15]
So, I think that was the way you just
laid that out was perfect, absolutely.
>> Speaker 1: I'm glad you said
something about polls, brother.
And I don't wanna go on
a tangent too much, but
my other job is blackmail voter project.
And I feel comfortable
that I need to say this.
The New York Times put out this poll about
20% of Black men supporting Republicans.
[00:08:32]
That is dastardly, I'm gonna tell you why.
Because it's based in nothing, right?
There's no 20% anywhere in this country of
Black men supporting Donald Trump, period.
And what happens is people will forget
this because our mind is trained to be
short, right?
They did the same thing in 2020,
in January,
[00:08:48]
there was a poll that said 20% of
Black men are gonna vote for Trump.
They did the same thing
when Clinton was running,
saying 20% are gonna
support the Republican.
They did the same thing when
the first Bush was running.
And guess what happened each election,
not that.
Never has 20% of Black men voted for
a Republican candidate since the switch
of parties when racist left because Black
[00:09:07]
people were allowed to sit
at the Democratic Party.
So this idea, this false narrative,
is meant to do exactly what you said,
sell wolf tickets.
And the media is making tons of money
off this idea of Trump, Trump, Trump,
and what's gonna happen
with the scary Black man.
And the sad part about it is you have
Black people on social media and
[00:09:25]
other news outlets running with this false
story, and it does harm to our community.
So I don't want people to think that it's
just disconnected that I'm talking about
Black men and this problem with policing.
But when you keep telling a demographic
that shows up in a different way,
that majority of them support something
they don't, people are gonna tune you out
[00:09:43]
as fake news regardless what Trump
is talking about fake news is.
You sound like fake news whenever
you're telling Black men that 20% of
them support Trump and
they know it's false, man.
They act as if we live in a bubble and
don't know that the very issues plaguing
us are political issues, i.e policing,
[00:09:58]
the problems with over policing us,
i.e education, under educating us.
All of this, they're built in
discriminatory practices in the hiring
process as it pertains to Black men,
whether it be our hair or our names and
everything else, the microaggressions.
People are playing games with what it
means to be Black men in America, when in
[00:10:16]
actuality, the true problem is, Jackson,
the true problem is they don't see us.
And that is not a request from me
to say that Black men are vain and
need to be seen,
I'm talking about in the human aspect.
When you think about when we were hunters
and gather, to be unseen was to be dead,
[00:10:31]
to be left behind by your people,
your clan is to be dead.
And that's exactly what happened
when you look at the social markers,
Black men are dying many deaths,
not just physical death.
The fact that we could be the only
demographic born rich and
experience poverty in our life, the fact
that we have so many white consultants
[00:10:48]
telling people what best for
us is absolutely ridiculous, brother.
>> Speaker 2: Man, we at church right now,
I don't even think I
can say anything else.
We just gonna have to leave it at that.
[LAUGH]
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