Chicago’s Top Cop Fails In Bid To Save Job Of Officer Who Punched Protester In Face

Chicago, IL – The Chicago police superintendent failed in his bid to save the job of an officer who punched an activist during a riot at the Christopher Columbus statue in 2020.

Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said that he agreed with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability’s (COPA) assessment that Chicago Police Officer Nicholas Jovanovich used unnecessary and excessive force when he punched GoodKids MadCity activist Miracle Boyd, Chicago Tribune reported.

However, Superintendent Brown disagreed with COPA’s determination that Officer Jovanovich had made false or misleading statements when completing his report about the incident.

He also disagreed with the civilian panel’s assessment that the officer took Boyd’s phone without justification and failed to inventory it, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Superintendent Brown said he disagreed with COPA’s recommendation that Officer Jovanovich be fired and said he thought the officer should receive a one year suspension instead.

Chicago Police Board member Nanette Doorley, a retired agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), reviewed both arguments and determined that the police superintendent had not overcome COPA’s recommendations on Officer Jovanovich’s termination, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The officer’s case will next go before the Chicago Police Board for a disciplinary trial that could end with his firing.

COPA also recommended that an officer who witnessed the incident and failed to report Officer Jovanovich’s use of force should be suspended for 60 days, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Superintendent Brown has argued that Chicago Police Officer Andres Valle only deserved a 30-day suspension.

Doorley agreed that a 30-day suspension was more appropriate for Officer Valle but she has to recuse herself from that case per police board policy, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Boyd’s altercation with police began on July 17, 2020 while she was part of a violent mob who were trying to get through a line of police to tear down a statue of Christopher Columbus, WBBM reported.

Boyd filmed a video with her cell phone as she screamed and yelled at police officers for more than four minutes while officers were trying to push back violent protesters who wanted to attack the statue.

In the video, she repeatedly hurled insults and obscenities in various officers’ and officials’ faces as she tried to breach a perimeter officers had set up back from where they were making arrests at the base of the statue.

“P—y a–,” Boyd called one officer. Then she yelled “f–k the police” at another multiple times, the video showed.

Then she verbally attacked a black police officer for doing his job.

“And then y’all got black police too,” the young woman screamed in the video, clearly offended.

“Y’all be mad cuz y’all got some s–t thrown at y’all,” Boyd tried to antagonize the officers.

The video showed she repeatedly approached officers and got into their faces to try and force them to back up.

At one point, Boyd stood screaming at an officer, drawing a crowd, til the sergeant intervened and told everybody to back up, the video showed.

So the video showed she got into the sergeant’s face instead, screaming about his “white shirt” used to designate police officials.

The sergeant told the woman repeatedly to back up, the video showed.

“And if I don’t? And if I don’t? And if I motherf–kin don’t, then what?” Boyd screamed outraged, inches from his face. “Whatcha motherf–kin gonna do? Not a goddamn thing to me. Know that, know that, know that.”

Then she filmed herself trying to break through the line of police to intervene in the arrest of another protester.

The video showed she went from officer to officer screaming and threatening but then the camera appeared to be knocked out of her hand by one of the officers she approached.

That’s when somebody filming from across the street captured a clip of an officer hitting Boyd in the face.

Boyd said the punch knocked out one of her front teeth.

Her friend told WBBM they thought the officer had been attempting to knock the cell phone out of Boyd’s hand when he struck her.

A GoFundMe was set up to support Boyd but was taken down quickly after the woman filmed a video with a girlfriend bragging about how her altercation with police was going to make her rich and posted it to social media.

“These white people love a sad sob story,” Boyd said in the video.

“Yeah, my friend really did get rich as hell off this s–t for real,” her girlfriend said. “The police really didn’t do s–t but just make her rich as f–k for no reason.”

“They lame as hell,” Boyd added.

“They lame as f–k though,” her friend agreed.