One of the country’s most influential civil rights organizations has sent a scathing letter to city officials insisting a Chicago police officer be fired for associating with members of the far-right Proud Boys and then lying to investigators.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, whose history stretches back to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 70s, said the police department also must do a better job rooting out extremism in its ranks.
“Any individual who is tasked with protecting the public cannot be trusted to do so equitably when they associate with an openly racist, bigoted, and misogynistic organization,” wrote Jeff Tischauser, a senior research analyst for the law center.
The bruising criticism directed at Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Police Supt. David Brown comes as three alderpersons are seeking a public hearing into the case of Officer Robert Bakker, who was suspended after two internal investigations into his ties to the Proud Boys.
Bakker began serving out a 120-day suspension in November, according to records obtained by the Sun-Times. He will return to active duty by March 1.
Lightfoot’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The police department released a statement saying it conducted “a thorough investigation” into Bakker and added, “if any information leading to new allegations in the case becomes available, it will be investigated.”
The statement said the department “has zero tolerance for any of its members associated with or being members of hate groups ... Per CPD policy, all members are prohibited from engaging in any illegal discrimination against an individual or group on the basis of any protected class under federal, state, and local law.”
In his letter to Lightfoot and Brown, Tischauser described the Proud Boys as “an authoritarian, ultranationalist hate group that has a long history of violence.” They are known for “using law enforcement agencies to legitimize and promote their bigoted ideas,” he added
Tischauser accused the police department of “neglecting its commitments to protect and support Chicago communities by allowing Bakker to continue in his role as a law enforcement officer.”
“Allowing Bakker to retain his role can create an environment of impunity for other officers who may associate with violent groups and contribute to the erosion of trust between the public and law enforcement authorities,” Tischauser argued.
He urged the mayor and the superintendent to devise policies and procedures to bar officers from engaging in “white supremacist and extremist activities.”
Antifascist activists outed Bakker as a Proud Boys associate in May of 2020, publicly releasing private communications between him and known members of the group.
Police investigators later learned that Bakker had failed to notify the department about FBI agents coming to the Central District four months earlier and questioning him about his ties to the group.
He was initially handed a five-day suspension for failing to disclose the interview, but other allegations centering on his association with criminals and members of the Proud Boys were not sustained.
The case was eventually reopened at the request of city Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, who penned a letter in November 2020 saying investigators had overlooked incriminating evidence and noting that Bakker had made “inconsistent statements” to the FBI as well as the department’s internal affairs bureau.
Investigators ultimately sustained five new allegations, including that Bakker had made “contradicting statements” about his activity in Proud Boys’ chat channels and had made a “false statement” about attending a barbecue linked to the group.
After he agreed to the 120-day suspension, acting Deputy Inspector General Megan Carlson asked Brown to look into whether Bakker’s testimony amounted to a violation of a department rule prohibiting false statements, which can lead to dismissal.
Brown never responded but the decision to keep Bakker on the police force continues to draw scrutiny.
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), the most vocal critic of the decision, introduced a resolution last month calling for a Public Safety Committee hearing on the investigation and the “ultimate disciplinary course of action.”
“We cannot have such ties in any public institution, especially the Chicago Police Department,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
Alds. Chris Taliaferro (29th), the committee chair, and Jeanette Taylor (20th) have signed on as co-sponsors. The resolution calls for testimony from Brown and Internal Affairs Chief Yolanda Talley. It also asks Witzburg and Andrea Kersten, chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability to “be present to provide further context.”
The push for a hearing comes after Brown and Talley spoke about the issue to members of the City Council in October, offering sometimes puzzling responses.
Brown claimed investigators didn’t have enough evidence to prove Bakker “was a member of, or was associated with Proud Boys or any other hate group.”
He insisted the 120-day suspension was as far as the department could legally go, though Talley claimed the officer actually recommended the penalty himself.
Perhaps most notably, Talley claimed the probe “would have looked totally different” had the FBI labeled the Proud Boys as a hate group.
The FBI doesn’t use that label, but investigatory records obtained by the Sun-Times show the agency provided the police department with an equally alarming designation.
Just over a month after the investigation into Bakker was opened, an email between FBI officials was shared with the police department regarding “the Proud Boys and their association with the Racially Motivated Violent Extremism (RMVW) threat that the FBI works.”
“Racially Motivated Violent Extremism encompasses threats involving the use or threat of force or violence, in violation of federal law, in furtherance of political or social agendas which are deemed to derive from bias, often related to race, held by the actor against others, including a given population group,” states the email from FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Jeffrey Rauch, who was focused on “violent gangs.”
He went on to describe the Proud Boys as a “western chauvinist, alt-right group” with members who “identify as white nationalists and espoused white pride rhetoric.”
Detective Sergio Velazquez, who led the internal Bakker probe, later wrote to a supervisor that the document “did not provide any concrete information” about when exactly the Proud Boys were labeled a “Racially Motivated Violent Extremist organization.”
By then, the Proud Boys were already a notorious force in American politics.
As a member of the group, Jason Kessler organized the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Va. Enrique Tarrio, the group’s embattled former chairman, was among the Proud Boys in attendance.
Tarrio and four lieutenants are now facing trial on seditious conspiracy charges for their alleged roles in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A former Proud Boys leader already pleaded guilty to the same charge in October.
Tischauser, with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the group has “instigated street fights across the country” and is now “engaged in a campaign to harass and demonize LGBTQ people.”
He pointed to the targeting of a kid-friendly drag show last July at a bakery in Lake in the Hills, which allegedly culminated in a Proud Boys associate vandalizing the business.
Lightfoot has firmly defended the decision not to fire Bakker. At the same time, her office has insisted “there is no place in our police department — or any other city department, for that matter — for white supremacists or other extremist ideology.”
But according to Tischauser, there’s apparently no policy in place that “prohibits city employees or CPD officers from active involvement in white supremacist or extremist activities.”
Cops across the country have mostly avoided any discipline from their association with the Proud Boys, Tischauser noted in his letter, but some federal and state officials have begun to take steps.
“We urge you to reconsider the mild discipline of temporary suspension for Officer Bakker,” Tischauser wrote. “And we urge city officials to adopt prohibitions against active participation in white supremacist or extremist activities that are both clear and understandable and appropriately protective of First Amendment speech rights.”
