A run-in with an Illinois state trooper with extremism ties altered one man’s life
Jyran Mitchell was injured when he was wrongfully detained by an Illinois state trooper with ties to extremism. The officer was one of a dozen outside Chicago whose names appeared on an Oath Keepers membership list.
A dozen police officers from around Illinois appeared on a leaked membership list for the Oath Keepers, an anti-government extremist group.
They include a state trooper, a state university campus cop and an officer for a village known as “America’s First Black Town.” These officers are in addition to the more than two dozen current and former Chicago police officials found on the leaked list.
Many elected leaders say those officers should have no place in law enforcement and are pushing for new rules to be adopted to bar police participation in hate and extremist groups.
An investigation by WBEZ, Chicago Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found police departments have been reluctant to push cops with extremist connections out of their ranks. Reporters also spoke with people who said their lives were impacted negatively by officers with ties to the Oath Keepers.
Read more about the investigation into police with extremism ties at wbez.org/extreme.
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A run-in with an Illinois state trooper with extremism ties altered one man’s life
Jyran Mitchell was injured when he was wrongfully detained by an Illinois state trooper with ties to extremism. The officer was one of a dozen outside Chicago whose names appeared on an Oath Keepers membership list.
A dozen police officers from around Illinois appeared on a leaked membership list for the Oath Keepers, an anti-government extremist group.
They include a state trooper, a state university campus cop and an officer for a village known as “America’s First Black Town.” These officers are in addition to the more than two dozen current and former Chicago police officials found on the leaked list.
Many elected leaders say those officers should have no place in law enforcement and are pushing for new rules to be adopted to bar police participation in hate and extremist groups.
An investigation by WBEZ, Chicago Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found police departments have been reluctant to push cops with extremist connections out of their ranks. Reporters also spoke with people who said their lives were impacted negatively by officers with ties to the Oath Keepers.
Read more about the investigation into police with extremism ties at wbez.org/extreme.