A town hall meeting was held to address the presence of Oath Keepers in the Chicago Police Department (CPD). This meeting was held by the Chicago Policing Advisory Panel (CPAP) and Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression (CAARPR) on Nov. 10th at the Movement On Montrose building in Albany Park.
The Oath Keepers, an extreme right-wing militia group, started in 2009 after the election of President Barack Obama in response to debunked allegations that Obama was not born in the United States. The Oath Keepers are best known for a 2010 plot to occupy the Tennessee Courthouse and their role in the January 6th insurrection.
In 2021, a data breach of The Oath Keepers’ website revealed the identities of nearly 40,000 members. According to a National Public Radio (NPR) article, the data breach identified nine active CPD officers as former or current members of the Oath Keepers. One former member of the Oath Keepers is an officer currently serving in the 17th District, which includes NEIU. The CPD’s Bureau of Investigation Agency (BIA) interviewed the officers named in the NPR article, other than one who had retired, but concluded that there was not enough evidence to charge the officers with misconduct.
When Mayor Brandon Johnson took office in 2023, part of his campaign promise was to remove corruption in CPD. “Our mayor ran on [a] promise to rid CPD of extremist groups, but because the police are investigating themselves through the Bureau of Internal Affairs, unsustained allegations are letting officers with extremist ties stay on the floors.” Ashley Vargas, 14th district councilor of the Chicago Police District Council said.
According to the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG), the BIA concluded the investigation of several officers associated with the far-right extremist group The Oath Keepers was closed without adequate action taken as stated in the Advisory Regarding Chicago Police Department Member Affiliation With Anti-Government and Extremist Groups report by the OIG. Yet in August of 2024, the OIG urged them to reopen the case and take action against the police officers who are part of The Oath Keepers in the name of upholding the Chicago Police code of conduct in their analysis of the investigation.
However, despite some police members acknowledging that they were part of the Oath Keepers while on duty, in the BIA investigation, no action was taken. In his response letter to the OIG’s report, CPD Superintendent of Police Larry Snelling said, “A thorough investigation conducted by the CPD’s Bureau of Investigation Agency (BIA) found no evidence that any of the eight officers whose names appeared on a leaked Oath Keepers membership list actively participated in that group.”
“The fact that there are oath keepers still serving at our police department shows there is still so much more work for us to do.” Alderperson for the 35th Ward, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said, “And particularly in this moment when we have a president who has promised revenge on his perceived internal enemies, particularly in this moment when we know the history of what right-wing governments have done locally, nationally, and across the globe to target the people who fight for freedom and justice, right, to use the arm of law to go after the people who are simply working to make a better world.”
“We know that in 2009, 2010, 2011, the only way that the federal government achieved record deportations was by casting a wide dragnet that included local police officers and anyone that had any type of arrest, for jaywalking, for driving without a driver’s license, for not showing up to a court date, because maybe they couldn’t take the day off to show for that routine matter, those people were classified as criminals and they were deported and rounded up.” Alderperson Ramirez-Rosa said.
Due to the lack of action by Johnson and Snelling, CAARPR and CPAP proposed a new referendum that would create a community-based organization that would have several powers over the CPD.
These powers would include the power to fire officers, weigh in on CPD budgets, and be included in negotiations between the police and Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the union representing the CPD officers, and influence what type of language is used to close loopholes, as a representative who works with both CPAP and CAARPR said.
If the proposed referendum were to pass, it would give the community the power to reduce police patrols in certain areas. One attendee, who lives in Rogers Park said, “Our community doesn’t like the police officers. They are often around and the fact that we have a lot of mental health services feels like they focus here a lot more unjustly.”
The officer who serves in the 17th district was a former member of the Oath Keepers ending in 2012. However, Officer Alberto Retamozo has a settlement on record listed on the Chicago Reporter website for an incident in which he went to a scene and used excessive force on a civilian, insulting several civilians on the scene and shooting a fleeing dog. This resulted in a $5,000 payout to the victim for excessive violence when finally settled in 2011.
“We have got to get these police fired,” Frank Chapman, the Educational Director of CAARPR said, “and we’ve got to get Snelling and the mayor, and the city council and everybody lined up correctly on this…Fire those bullies.”
