An ongoing trend of Chicago police officers wrongfully arresting lawful Black gun owners on firearms charges despite the fact that they have valid FOID and CCL licenses is turning some heads.
According to a report at CBS News Chicago, several instances have occurred in which police stopped Black gun owners for minor traffic violations and then charged them with felonies—even though they had legal firearm licenses.
One Black Chicagoan victimized by police was 46-year-old Louis McWilliams, owner of a local cheesecake company. When McWilliams was stopped on his way to a business meeting for not having a front license plate, he told the police he had a concealed weapon and showed them his concealed carry license.
The arrest report acknowledged that McWilliams was in possession of his card at the time of the stop. He can even be seen handing it to the officer in the video.
However, officers claimed that they couldn’t find the license in the state database and arrested McWilliams anyway, causing him to miss his meeting. McWilliams was subsequently charged with two felony charges. He had to spend months in court, missing more work and paying for legal representation, to finally get the felony charges dismissed.
McWilliams’ case and several others like it drew the attention of the National African American Gun Association.
“Outrage, anger, frustration, not again,” NAAGA President Phil Smith told CBS News Chicago. “Those are the conversations and statements that are going in my head when I hear about another Black person being stopped illegally, being arrested illegally, when they’ve had all their stuff together.”
McWilliams is now pursuing legal action against the city and the officers who arrested him. And NAAGA’s Smith is encouraging others who have received similar treatment to also file lawsuits.
“We are not sub-Americans. We’re not discounted folks. We have earned the right, more than anybody in this country, to carry a firearm,” Smith told CBS News Chicago. We fought for this country when we weren’t even citizens.
“File a lawsuit and follow through on the lawsuit. If a police chief has four or five lawsuits, $4 or $5 million with different law enforcement officers, they’re going to get a call from somebody to say, ‘Hey, start treating those people differently.’”
It’s important to note that most “mainstream” media are decidedly anti-gun, and CBS News is now different. Som kudos go out to CBS News Chicago for breaking this story and running numerous follow-up reports.
Sure, it’s likely the news station only got involved because the infringement on rights was occurring with minority gun owners. But when it comes to “mainstream” media, any discussion of Second Amendment rights being infringed is a welcome one.
