Evanston’s police chief last week condemned last fall’s Northwestern University student protests, saying students violated the spirit of the Black Lives Matter movement and triggered an $88,000 emergency response during a pandemic.
Aldermen to discuss use of out-of-town cops
When anti-police protesters took to the streets in Evanston in the fall, many of the police officers brought in for crowd control were not from Evanston.
A still frame from a police body camera video that Evanston officials say shows protesters throwing fireworks at police during a defund police demonstration on Halloween.
When anti-police protesters took to the streets in Evanston in the fall, many of the police officers brought in for crowd control were not from Evanston.
Instead, they were part of a multi-agency, mutual-aid collaborative designed for anything from natural disasters, to riots, to SWAT-like incidents and large protests.
Northwestern “disturbed” by NIPAS threats against student protesters
Northwestern released an official statement saying it was “disturbed” by threats of violence toward student protesters by police officers from the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System.
The threats emails and texts by NIPAS officers, made public via Freedom of Information Act requests included discussions of the use of chemical munitions against protesters on Halloween. Several texts mentioned pava powder, a synthetic riot control agent fired from pepperball weapons.
“My trigger finger was jittering,” one text read. “As much as a shattered kneecap woulda been nice alas I was not ten feet away. Pepper ball did just fine.”