After botched raid, Anjanette Young a step closer to serving on Chicago police oversight board

CHICAGO -Anjanette Young, a leading Chicago police reform activist since cops stormed her home in a botched raid, could soon have a key role overseeing the Chicago Police Department.

Aldermen on Wednesday advanced Mayor Brandon Johnson's appointment of Young to the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability.

Young, who has led a push to ban "no-knock" warrants like the one that saw her handcuffed naked in her home by officers who had the wrong address, argued the police failure that harmed her makes her well-suited for the civilian oversight body.

"My lived experience does not compromise my ability to be fair," she told aldermen in the Police and Fire Committee. "It actually strengthens my ability to be just."

But before City Council members voted 13 to 3 to approve the appointment, some questioned Young's fitness for the role.

Ald. Derrick Curtis, who ultimately voted in favor of Young, said a phrase came to mind as he wondered if her mistreatment would allow her to treat police unfairly.

"It's not fun when the rabbit has the gun," he said. "Because there's going to be a situation where, you got me this time, I'll get you this time."

If approved in a full City Council vote, Young would join the seven-person commission that has a range of powers, including helping to set CPD policy, reviewing the police budget and playing a central role in selecting and removing police superintendents and several top leaders in other police oversight bodies.

Ald. Silvana Tabares, 23rd, criticized Young for previously stating that the police returned "excessive" fire when officers shot and killed 26-year-old Dexter Reed in 2024.

Reed fired at police first during a traffic stop, shooting an officer in the wrist, before four officers fired nearly 100 shots at Reed, including three as he was lying motionless on the ground, according to investigators.

"I don't think that this is the perspective of somebody who can be objective," Tabares said. "We need individuals who are avoiding dangerous anti-police rhetoric that incites violence."

The commission, created in 2021 by a City Council vote, is "born out of the same movement that also saw the skyrocketing of attacks on police since its creation," Tabares said. "The CCPSA's existence is unnecessary, and tax dollars could be better spent elsewhere," she added.

Other aldermen quickly fired back after Tabares' speech, a prelude to potential disagreement ahead of the final vote later this month.

Young has "all the right in the world to be screaming at every single one of us" after police accidentally stormed into her home, guns drawn, Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, said.

"If the majority of people here went through the scenario you went through, they would not have the patience and the integrity to even go through a process," he said. "I don't think they would want to interact with the city."

There are "good and bad on both sides," argued Jeanette Taylor.

"We don't talk about the numerous police officers who have killed innocent people. Where is that conversation?" Taylor said. "Let's not act as if we ain't spending millions of dollars in police settlements."

Young won $2.9 million from the city in 2021 to settle a lawsuit tied to the 2019 raid, when police made her stand naked and handcuffed as she repeatedly insisted they had the wrong place.

Following the vote, Young said that she had a "responsibility" after she survived that ordeal.

The appointment "is an opportunity for me to show the public, the community, the police department that there's someone who's committed to changing my experience, changing what happened to me in a way that it never happens to anyone else again," she said.

Aldermen also advanced the appointment to the commission of Angelique Guzmán. Johnson nominated the Mather High School senior to serve in one of the commission's two seats earmarked for people under the age of 25.

Guzmán, who previously interned in Vasquez's 40th Ward office, helped organize a February student walkout in protest of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign.

Several members of police district councils on the North Side called on aldermen to delay voting during the meeting's public comment portion. The commission's makeup requirements - at least two members must be under 25, and two members must come from the city's North, South and West sides - would leave the North Side represented by two youth members, they said.

An outcome leaving the North Side represented by youth and other parts of the city by "experienced adults" would be "not reflective of the community," argued Karen Kane, a member of the 18th Police District Council. She urged aldermen to slow down and reconsider the requirements.

"This is not a progressive issue. This is not a conservative issue," she said. "This is a good governance issue."

But Sam Schoenberg, a member of the 19th Police District Council, also on the North Side, urged aldermen to move ahead with the vote. The commissioners represent the whole city, not just the areas they come from, he argued, citing a letter signed by 13 members of North Side district councils.

A delay would "potentially hamstring the work of the commission, while doing nothing to change the requirements of the ordinance," he said.

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This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 4:37 PM.