McHenry Times

The solution to systemic racism within law enforcement is reform, not defunding the police force, according to State Rep. Dan Ugaste (R- 65th District).

“I do not support defunding or the elimination of police departments,” Rep. Ugaste told the McHenry Times. “I do, however, look forward to working with my colleagues in the House to craft police reforms that improve every police department in our state.”

Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters have gathered daily nationwide ever since Minneapolis Policeman Derek Chauvin pinned an unarmed black man named George Floyd to the ground and strangled him to death with his knee on May 25, 2020. 

In Chicago alone, 85 people were shot last week after the protests, resulting in 24 fatalities, according to media reports.

Rallying cries that started as "No Justice No Peace" have since evolved into chants of "Defund the Police.”

“The City of Chicago is not in my district, and as a 'home rule' community the legislature has almost no authority to stop Chicago from doing as it sees fit with their police department,” Rep. Ugaste said in an interview.

The fact that Chicago is a 'home rule' community means that it does not require a state charter in order to authorize its own network of self-government.

Rep. Ugaste’s 65th House District encompasses suburbs of Chicago, including Batavia, Elgin, Geneva, Hampshire, South Elgin and St. Charles.

Calls to defund the police come at a time when Chicago public schools, students, teachers and other community members were rallying at Lincoln Park High School, requesting that the city allocate less money to the Chicago Police Department and instead replace it with a Civilian Police Accountability Council, according to media reports.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, however, dismissed the idea of lowering the police budget.

Alderman Anthony Napolitano (I-41) proposed an alternative to entirely defunding the police in the form of a resolution that would remove police personnel from districts that don’t want policing, re-allocating them to those that do. Fifty alderman represent 50 wards within the districts of Chicago.

Napolitano tweeted about the resolution from his @aBlueCanary Twitter account on June 10, 2020.

“Outstanding. If you don’t want police in your ward, agree to reallocate them to a ward that wants them,” he said.

As previously reported in Chicago City Wire, the temporary initiative will be submitted to the city council next week to be positioned as an experiment.

The resolution states, “We, the members of the City Council of the City of Chicago, gathered here this 17th day of June do hereby call upon Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) David O. Brown to develop and submit for approval to the Committee on Public Safety a one-year CPD personnel and resource reallocation pilot program.”