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Top Cop Faces Tough Questions From West Side Residents

 Chicago Police Supt. Eddie  Johnson answers a question Wednesday evening from the audience at a town hall meeting on the West Side.
Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson answers a question Wednesday evening from the audience at a town hall meeting on the West Side.
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DNAinfo/Evan F. Moore

AUSTIN — Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson met with West Side residents at a town hall meeting Wednesday in hopes of mending fences between the community and the Police Department. 

The town hall meeting, which took place at Hope Community Church, 5900 W. Iowa St., was packed with concerned residents from Austin. 

Johnson was peppered with questions from concerned citizens on topics including police brutality, rebuilding trust between the police and the black community, the viability of contact cards and the recruitment of minority police officers.

A handful of residents were allowed to ask Johnson questions. The first came from the mother of Courtney Copeland, a 22-year-old who was killed in March, who pushed for the release of all dashcam videos related to police-involved shootings.

Then resident Pamela Hunt asked Johnson about Mayor Rahm Emanuel's comments about police officers going "fetal" in fear of getting in trouble for their actions during an arrest. 

Johnson, 28-year veteran of the Police Department, told the crowd that he going to make sure his officers were going to learn the cultural nuances of the people in the communities they work in.

"When cultures don't understand each other, they fear each other," Johnson told the crowd. "I don't need the Department of Justice to tell me what's wrong with CPD."

Johnson also made a plea to community residents to become allies with the police.

"I will do everything I can to restore faith in the Police Department," Johnson said. 'We can't solve this alone. We need the community. We need the police."

The meeting was attended by Cook County Commissioner Richard R. Boykin (1st), Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th) and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-7th). 

The Rev. Steve Epting Sr., Hope Community Church's pastor, served as the moderator. 

Many of the people who attended the town hall were impressed with Johnson but said they were taking a wait-and-see approach.

Barbara Palmer left the meeting in an optimistic mood. She said she was willing to cut Johnson some slack.

"He can only do so much. Until we start to help ourselves, this how it is going to be," Palmer said. "We've got to start with our kids at an early age."

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