Is Mayor Lightfoot lying about Anjanette Young? [thread]

The body cam footage from the Chicago Police Department’s raid on Anjanette Young’s apartment in February 2019 that CBS2 first aired last Monday night was horrifying, but according to Mayor Lightfoot it was a horror that she was surprised to wake up to the next morning.

That same day, Mayor Lighfoot claimed her city had not requested Ms. Young’s FOIA request and defended the city’s decision to go to a federal judge to try and stop CBS2 from airing the footage.

Mayor Lightfoot admitted the next day that she was wrong about the FOIA denial, that she was actually first informed of the incident in November 2019, and that she had not been aware of the Law Department moving to block the video’s release and would have stopped it if she had.

Corporation Counsel Mark Flessner resigned at the Mayor’s request on Sunday “because of the firestorm around the whole tape thing”, and said that he is “being accused of trying to hide it, which is not true.”

On Monday, the departures of Deputy Corporation Counsel Caryn Jacobs and Director of Public Affairs Kathleen Fieweger followed, and the officers involved in the raid were all put on desk duty.

The Mayor is taking action as if she's telling the truth; that this happened under her nose and she’s going to hold those in her administration responsible. But the Mayor’s story is contingent on people she chose to lead the Law Department actively working to undermine her.

While that may not look as bad as the Mayor herself sanctioning the city’s response to Anajette Young, if it’s true it means Mayor Lightfoot lacks full control over her administration as chief executive.

Let’s imagine Mayor Lightfoot is telling the truth. The Mayor claims to have first learned of the incident in November 2019, the same time COPA finally opened an investigation into the raid. If this is true it means that the Mayor proceeded to forget about the whole incident.

It must have not seemed important enough to stick. Mayor Lightfoot apparently didn’t think about Anjanette Young again till last Tuesday morning.

The footage from the raid aired at 10PM the night before. You’d think with a PR budget and campaign chest as well funded as Lightfoot’s that one of one of her aides would have rang the alarm and informed the Mayor of the situation that night.

The alternative is that Mayor Lightfoot is lying. This could also be true. Lightfoot has already gone back on some of what she claimed initially when the video was released. Either scenario is an indictment of Lightfoot’s leadership. [end]