Chicago’s proverbial knight in shining armor, Chance the Rapper, arrived at a local city council meeting on Wednesday (Nov. 8), regarding Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s controversial $95 million proposal for a police training academy. Its construction site will be within the Garfield Park neighborhood.
Chano, born Chancellor Bennett, arrived at the meeting alongside a slew of activists from organizations like Assata’s Daughters, For The People, and the VOYCE Project.
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Though Emanuel reportedly left before Chance expressed his thoughts, he managed to speak to the city’s aldermen to provide alternative ideas to better serve Chicago’s underprivileged south and westside communities, The Chicago Tribune reports.
“I guess the mayor had to step out when I walked in…but it’s fine,” he said to the aldermen. “I’ll just speak to you: what are you doing? I’ve been asking for money for school for years and now you have $95 [million] for a cop academy?”
The Tribune also reports that the rapper/activist spoke to the aldermen about the urgency of allocating money toward building new schools and mental health clinics, an ongoing fight led by Chicago’s activist community after Emanuel closed a record number of schools and mental health clinics across the city during his tenure.
“Schooling is my big thing,” he tells the aldermen “There’s a lot of ways to transform the city that don’t have anything to do with police training.”
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Chance continued with, “What is y’all doin’? It doesn’t make sense. I’m very confused. But like I said, you guys have a lot of power, and that’s why I showed up at 8 a.m., because I feel like it’s — maybe if you guys just hear me say it. I’ll take pictures with everybody afterward if you want me to.”
Later that afternoon, the aldermen were then expected to vote on spending $10 million worth of “special taxing district money” to purchase 30 acres of land located in the city’s 37th Ward. Emanuel stated that it is part of a mission to “reform the scandal-plagued police department.”
Chance took to Twitter with a light thread to announce his frustrations with the city council’s move to spend $10 million on the land to build the proposed academy.
City Council aldermen voted to approve $10 million in spending to buy land for the mayors new state of the art police training facility
— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) November 8, 2017
Ask how their communities responded, how we wanted the money to be spent, how we wanted the money to be spent a longh time ago.
— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) November 8, 2017
— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) November 8, 2017
Watch highlights from the meeting below.
Chance the Rapper at city hall speaking against Rahm’s $95 million cop academy: “There’s a lot of ways to transform the city without policing.” @ChanceUpdate pic.twitter.com/bZYdsQZokh
— Sarah Lazare (@sarahlazare) November 8, 2017
.@chancetherapper says Chicago should be spending millions on underfunded schools, not on a new $95M police academy that he says the city can’t afford. Mayor Rahm Emanuel left the chamber before his remarks. pic.twitter.com/G2npZCr32l
— Bill Ruthhart (@BillRuthhart) November 8, 2017