UChicago group demanding abolition of campus police announces fall schedule featuring 'White Ally Workshop'
#CareNotCops (CNC) fall lineup includes events like 'Radical Reading Circle,' 'Radical Walking Tours,' and 'Policing, Gentrification, Abolition Workshop.'
CNC was founded in 2018 as a subsidiary of UChicago United, a campus group of “students of color committed to racial justice at The University of Chicago and the surrounding Chicago area.'
Amid Chicago’s ongoing violent crime problem, the #CareNotCops (CNC) movement at the University of Chicago remains committed to abolishing the school’s campus police force.
Boasting an Instagram account with over 4,000 followers, the group announced on Sept. 7 that “We’re back, b*tches,” with a caption that read “the tea is brewing.”
A Sept. 18 post revealed the group’s fall 2023 “dis-orientation” schedule, which includes events such as “Radical Reading Circle,” “Radical Walking Tours,” “Policing, Gentrification, Abolition Workshop,” “White Ally Workshop,” and “UCAD Letter Writing Event.” UCAD, or UChicago Against Displacement, is a student organization demanding $1 billion in reparations from the university.
CNC was founded in 2018 as a subsidiary of UChicago United (UCU), a campus group of “students of color committed to racial justice at The University of Chicago and the surrounding Chicago area,” its website says.
Per the UCU website, the organization has disbanded and all that remains is the CNC campaign it once oversaw. That campaign’s goal is still to abolish the campus police department.
After the UChicago Police Department’s 2018 shooting of student Charles Soji Thomas, an incident UCU described as taking place while he “was experiencing a mental health crisis,” protests erupted across campus.
But that characterization lacks a few key details. Thomas was shot in the shoulder and survived after he charged at police officers with a metal pipe, while purportedly undergoing a psychiatric episode. After the shooting, he was charged on eight felony counts, which included aggravated assault of a police officer and property damage.
[RELATED: UC students explore ‘alternatives to calling the police’]
However, none of those facts deterred UChicago student activists’ anti-police sentiment.
In August 2020, Campus Reform reported that students from Chicago-area universities, including UChicago, formed a group called “Solidarity Street” to demand their schools cut ties with the Chicago Police Department.
A month later, a UChicago protest group made up of CNC members camped out for seven days outside the home of then-Provost Ka Yee C. Lee, with the demonstration being labeled an “occupation.”
According to WGN9, Chicago murders are still up 23% compared to the pre-pandemic level of 2019, and violent crimes, including sexual assault, burglary, battery, and car theft, are up 36% over last year and are 55% higher than 2019.
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Chicago, the university police department, and CNC for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
