A then-18-year-old activist hit in the face by a Chicago police officer as she livestreamed demonstrators facing off against cops at a 2020 protest is close to receiving $280,000 from the city.
Miracle Boyd said she was leaving the rally, where demonstrators were demanding the removal of a Christopher Columbus statue in downtown Chicago, when she noticed an officer beating a woman with a baton.
After she began filming, an officer approached Boyd and knocked the phone out of her hands. The phone smacked her in the face and knocked a tooth out. The incident was captured on video.
“I felt that my tooth was gone and I felt like I was going f—ing crazy,” Boyd said after the unprovoked attack. “This happened in like five minutes — from me saying I’m leaving to me getting my teeth knocked out.”
The unidentified officer who left Boyd battered and bruised resigned before receiving any discipline. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended his dismissal, finding that the officer involved in the incident used excessive force and made false statements in his report.
“To this day, I remember it like it was yesterday. For some reason, I can’t get over the harm that was caused to me,” Boyd told the Chicago Council Finance Committee on Monday. The board voted 22-7 to award her the money, with the full council scheduled to vote on the matter Wednesday.
“Two-hundred-and-eighty-thousand dollars ain’t enough to fix what was broken that day. It’s just, it’s not,” said 20th Ward Alderman Jeanette Taylor.
But, as others on the council pointed out, it wasn’t just protesters who were injured at the 2020 rally. Many cops were also injured, attacked by unruly protesters who threw rocks, tossed firecrackers and defaced property.
“This protest was anything but peaceful. The culmination of anarchists that set that up, that turned this violent, and frankly, other protesters that joined in,” said 19th Ward Alderman Matt O’Shea.
Nick Sposato, 38th Ward Alderman, said the protesters “were there to do nothing but wreak havoc, fight with police, tear down a statue, because they don’t agree with the art that’s been up for 90 years.”
But as 37th Ward Alderman Emma Mitts argued, Ward can’t be held responsible for the conduct of the other protesters.
“It wasn’t her fault, Mitts said. “The phone got knocked out and ended up knocking out her teeth. That was an error. She had to have medical and surely, she had to be treated for that.”
Boyd wasn’t the only person at Grant Park that day to run afoul of police.
CBS Chicago journalist Marissa Parra said her phone was knocked out of her hand by a baton. Linda Lutton, a journalist who works at WBEZ, claimed her daughters were pepper sprayed and the police then stole their belongings.
Journalist Colin Boyle said one cop threw him off his bicycle even after he had shown the office his press badge.
“I yelled ‘help’, he said ‘you’re going to need help’ before throwing me,” Boyle posted on X the day of the rally.
Boyd, in her remarks to the finance committee, acknowledged that officers were hurt that day but pointed out that, “several citizens and young people like me were also attacked and brutalized that day as well, and we deserve justice just as they do.”
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