This weekend, thousands marched in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood to demand justice for 13-year-old Adam Toledo. A Chicago police officer shot and killed the seventh-grader on March 29. Body camera footage of the shooting was released to the public last Thursday.
In a story about the community’s reaction in Little Village, WBEZ’s María Inés Zamudio spoke with Kim Wasserman-Nieto, the executive director for the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization.
“There’s this idea that leads us to believe that, if you come to America and you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you can make it. But we know that you can’t do this on your own,” said Wasserman-Nieto, warning others not to blame Adam’s family.
“This wasn’t a question of his mother not loving him. His mother loved ‘til death. She filed a police report because he was missing. They genuinely loved that child,” Wasserman-Nieto said.
And while many teens in this community have fought for better living conditions, education and environmental justice, they are constantly under a microscope, Wasserman-Nieto said.
“At every turn, somebody is judging you. At every turn there’s somebody telling you that you’re doing it wrong. You’re too brown. Or your name is too ethnic. Or you look at somebody the wrong way and five-0 is coming at you. Or you have to help your family with translations. You have to help your family and you miss school, and you’re considered a dropout,” the Little Village native said with her voice rising.
We talk with WBEZ’s Patrick Smith about the police shooting of Adam Toledo and how Chicago has responded.
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