Lori Lightfoot Biography
Lori Lightfoot is an American politician who has held various government positions in the city of Chicago, notably having served as President of the Chicago Police Board from 2015 to 2018. Lightfoot has also worked in private legal practice as a partner at Mayer Brown.
She is a candidate for mayor of Chicago in the 2019 Chicago mayoral election. Lightfoot was the top vote-getter in the first round of the election, advancing to a runoff election which will be on April 2, 2019 against Toni Preckwinkle.
Lori Lightfoot Age
Lori Lightfoot was born on August 4, 1962 in Massillon, Ohio, U.S. She is 56 years old as of 2018.
Lori Lightfoot Spouse
Lightfoot is married to Amy Eshleman. The two have one daughter.
Lori Lightfoot height
Lightfoot’s height is not known.
Lori Lightfoot family
Lori Lightfoot Net Worth and Salary
In 2017, Lightfoot earned $173,236 as a Dentist Iv for Cook County Ambulatory/Community Hlth Ntwk. She had worked in this position since November 01, 1999.
Lori Lightfoot Parents
Lightfoot is the daughter of a healthcare aide and school board member mother and a factory worker and janitor father.
Lori Lightfoot Education
Lightfoot is a graduate from Washington High School in Massillon, where she was class president. In 2013, her high school alumni association named her a “Distinguished Citizen”. Lightfoot received her bachelor’s degree from University of Michigan, working seven jobs to afford her education. She took jobs working for Congress members Ralph Regula and Barbara Mikulski before matriculating at University of Chicago Law School, where she was awarded a full scholarship. Lightfoot first gained fame as a law student at UChicago when she, as president of the student body, led a successful movement to ban a law firm from campus after the firm sent a recruiter who made racist and sexist remarks towards a student. She also served as a clerk for the Michigan Supreme Court. In 1989, she graduated from law school.
Lori Lightfoot Career
Lightfoot became a practicing attorney at Mayer Brown after graduating law school. She first entered the public sector as Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Lightfoot cites several reasons for entering public service, inclusive of a desire to represent the African-American community, a sense of injustice based on the murder of a family member in the 1920s by a Ku Klux Klan member and her older brother’s struggles with the law.
While working as an assistant U.S. attorney, she assisted with Operation Silver Shovel, an FBI investigation into Chicago corruption. Lightfoot helped to convict alderman Virgil Jones. Lightfoot was issued a warning for misconduct by judge Richard Posner based on a 1999 case where she allegedly misled a judge about the status of an order to extradite a suspect. She denied the allegation and she was exonerated after a Justice Department review.
Lightfoot was appointed in 2002, as the chief administrator of the Chicago Police Department Office of Professional Standards, a now-defunct governmental police oversight group, by Mayor Richard M. Daley. Lightfoot held the position for two years. Whille in the position, she was charged with investigating possible cases of police misconduct, including police shootings of civilians, though Lightfoot says her recommendations were often rejected by the Chicago Police Department.
Lightfoot went against Police Department orthodoxy in one notable case, by recommending the firing of officer Alvin Weems, who shot and killed Michael Pleasance, an unarmed man. Initially Weems was believed to have accidentally shot Pleasance, but after video evidence contradicting the initial claims was revealed, even Weems himself expressed feeling that the shooting was unjustified. Chicago Police Department did not fire Weems but the city was eventually forced to pay a settlement to the Pleasance family. Weems later committed suicide.
In another controversial case where officer Phyllis Clinkscales shot and killed unarmed 17-year-old Robert Washington, Lightfoot determined that the shooting was justified. In doing so, Lightfoot reversed the order of her predecessor, who had called for Clinkscales’ firing. Clinkscales’ account of the events of the shooting had been found to contain untrue statements in an investigation.
Later, Lightfoot worked with the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications. She then moved on to work as deputy chief of the Chicago Department of Procurement Services, where Lightfoot and her boss, Mary Dempsey, investigated Chicago corruption, drawing Mayor Daley’s ire in the process. Their investigations included probes of Blagojevich associate Tony Rezko and prominent Daley donor Elzie Higginbottom. Lightfoot worked at the Department of Procurement Services for a few months before subsequently returning to Mayer Brown.
Lightfoot defended Republicans as an attorney at Mayer Brown, in two cases protesting Democratic gerrymandering. She has also served on the boards of the Illinois chapters of NARAL and the ACLU. Lightfoot was a finalist in 2013, for the position of U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, but the job went to Zachary T. Fardon.
Lori Lightfoot Chicago Police Board and Police Accountability Task Force
In 2015, Lightfoot returned to the public sector, when Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed her to replace 19-year incumbent Demitrius Carney as President of the Chicago Police Board. The main responsibility of the board is to make recommendations for or against disciplinary action on certain disputed cases of police misconduct. Under the leadership of Lightfoot, the board became more punitive, firing officers in 72% of its cases.
In the wake of the controversy over the murder of Laquan McDonald, Lightfoot was appointed by Emanuel as Chair of a special Police Accountability Task Force. The Task Force, led by Lightfoot, filed a report critical of the Chicago Police Department’s practices in 2016. In May 2018, Lightfoot resigned from the Police Board, just before announcing her mayoral run
Emanuel.
Lori Lightfoot 2019 Mayoral Candidacy
Lightfoot announced on May 10, 2018, her candidacy for Mayor of Chicago in the 2019 elections. If Lightfoot wins, she would be the first gay mayor and first black female mayor of Chicago. She is the first openly-lesbian candidate in the history of Chicago mayoral elections. Lightfoot is a first-time candidate for public office in the 2019 elections. The Chicago Sun-Times endorsed Lightfoot’s candidacy.
On February 26, 2019, after the first round of the mayoral election, Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle advanced to the runoff election. As of early February 27, she was the overall top vote-getter in the first round of the election. The runoff election between Preckwinkle and Lightfoot is scheduled to be held on April 2, 2019.
Lori Lightfoot Policies
In order for Chicago to remain a world-class city, we need to create a new path. A path in which fairness and inclusion are our guiding principles. As our mayor, I will respect the experiences of all Chicagoans and ensure our city government works to uplift the quality of life for everyone.
We can, and we must, do better. We must do better to address the taxes and fees that burden middle- and low-income families. We must do better to halt the declining conditions of our neighborhood schools. We must do better to change an education policy that does not view parents, teachers, principals, staff or other stakeholders as valued partners. We must do better by insisting on a comprehensive plan to invest in families and neighborhoods, and to end the violence that plagues too many communities. We can do this, together. This is my commitment and my promise to you. Please join me.
Lori Lightfoot Campaign Manager
Lightfoot’s team has hired Manuel Perez, the campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, as campaign manager. It’s a strategic hire as Perez is seen as the progressive force behind Garcia, who hasn’t made an endorsement in the race. Hiring Manuel suggests Lightfoot is targeting the Hispanic vote. Manuel also ran Garcia’s 2015 campaign against Mayor Rahm Emanuel and more recently ran Tanya Patino’s campaign for the 14th Ward seat won by disgraced Ald. Ed Burke.
Lori Lightfoot Interview
Lori Lightfoot’s News
Mayor Lori Lightfoot writes open letter to President Trump decrying ICE raids
Source : chicago.suntimes.com
Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote an open letter to President Donald Trump for the Washington Post about why Chicago police would not aid ICE raids that had been slated to begin in the city this weekend.
“I ordered my city’s police department not to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on any activities within the city of Chicago and not to allow ICE agents access to our police databases,” Lightfoot wrote in the op-ed that was published Sunday evening.
“I took these steps in response to a set of policies from your administration that don’t make us safer or stronger as a nation,” Lightfoot wrote.
“There are approximately 180,000 undocumented people living in the city of Chicago, working, riding the public transportation system, sending their kids to public schools and attending City Colleges,” Lightfoot wrote.
The mayor said immigrants she meets express “fear, confusion and anxiety” about threats Trump has made to round up and deport certain illegal immigrants in nationwide sweeps by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Such raids were set to begin in Chicago this weekend, but immigrant advocacy officials said Sunday night they could not confirm or verify reports that ICE activities occurred in Chicago.
“Fear of families being separated, confusion about the scope of their rights and anxiety that the next knock on the door, the next traffic stop could irreparably upset the lives they have built for themselves in our city,” Lightfoot wrote.
Lightfoot praised immigrants’ contributions toward local economy, business and infrastructure, and criticized Trump’s plan for raids as misguided. “The threats and realities of stepped-up enforcement have not had the deterrent effect you intended, because the people you are targeting are not actually the problem.”
The mayor urged the president to “rethink the harmful policies that your administration is promoting … ” and said her “wonderful, diverse and uniquely American city” would not be silent as raids commence.
“Any such efforts by ICE in our city will be met with fierce resistance from Chicagoans who have been organizing tirelessly in their communities, and with an unshakable resolve to stand with, and never against, our immigrant neighbors.”
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