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Authorities in the US city of Chicago face strong criticism after the release of a video recording showing police handcuffing a naked African woman after a raid on her home in a case involving misidentification.
Police raided the African-American woman’s home on February 21, 2019, but the video was not released until recently.
Police camera footage shows police officers smashing through the door of Anjanet Young’s home and handcuffing the 50-year-old social worker while she was naked in the living room.
In the recording, broadcast on CBS2 Chicago, the woman’s voice is heard shouting “What’s going on?”, Reiterating her statement, “What are you looking for?” And “you’re in the wrong house.” “Oh my gosh, that can’t be true” and “How is this legal?”
Young told the television network that he had just returned from work and was undressing in his room when police stormed the scene.
Police eventually left the scene after making sure it was in the wrong direction, and one officer apologized to Young while others tried to fix his broken door.
The same channel reported that the police were looking for a suspect who resided in the same apartment complex where Young lives and obtained from a reporter the address that turned out to be incorrect.
Chicago Mayor Laurie Lightfoot said she was “disgusted” after viewing the video and described the raid as a “catastrophic failure.”
The African-American mayor added, “It could easily have been me,” stating that “we can improve our performance as a city,” as city attorneys tried to prevent the video from being released.
Young’s attorney, Kenan Salter, who filed a lawsuit against the police department, said a young white woman would not have faced the same treatment. He told CBS2 that the police “viewed Young as inferior to humans.”
Observers compare Young’s case to the death of Briona Taylor, the young African American, who was shot to death in Louisville, Kentucky, in March during a failed raid on her home.
Taylor’s name was chanted during protests against racial injustice this summer after the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis last May.
