Lightfoot’s anti-gang ordinance put on slower track

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to use the threat of civil lawsuits to target Chicago’s most violent street gangs was shunted off to the City Council’s Rules Committee on Tuesday.

That committee is the traditional burial ground of legislation opposed by the mayor. But this time, Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd) used the tactic against Lightfoot. At the least, it adds an extra step to the legislative process, forcing the Rules Committee to hold a preliminary meeting to refer it to, presumably, the Committee on Public Safety.

Rodriguez Sanchez explained her reasoning to the Sun-Times.

“It’s bad policy. And plenty of civil rights groups are opposed to it,” the alderman wrote in a text message.

Former mayoral challenger Ja’Mal Green couldn’t agree more.

Green argued young people who are not gang members but simply associate with gang members would be unfairly targeted because their names are in the police department’s deeply flawed gang database.

“You’ll lodge claims against people who are affiliated with folks who may be in a gang. And then, everybody has a lawsuit,” Green said.

“If we’re able to just sue folks and lodge claims against a lot of innocent folks, then these folks in these communities should be able to file a class action lawsuit for their quality of life in their neighborhoods.”

Chicago doesn’t have a gang problem. It has a “quality of life problem that translates to folks creating gangs,” Green said.

During Tuesday’s Council meeting, Lightfoot introduced a separate ordinance empowering the Police Board to hear appeals by Chicagoans who feel their names have been incorrectly included in the database. Undaunted by the parliamentary maneuver, Lightfoot said aldermen who dare oppose her plan to target gang leaders and “go after their blood money” will have to “answer to their constituents for that.”