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Anjanette Young continues push for change 6 years after botched raid at her home

It has been exactly six years since heavily armed Chicago police officers broke through Anjanette Young's front door and raided her apartment by mistake.

On Friday, in memory of that botched raid, she continued to fight for search warrant reforms at the Chicago Police Department.

"This is important to me. We're six years in. I'm going to continue fighting this fight," Young said. "The fight is bigger than me. It has always been about protecting every Chicagoan from the fear of powerless and traumas that I've endured. … Our families and our children cannot afford for another year to feel safe in their homes."

Young said she's still waiting on Mayor Brandon Johnson to make good on a promise she says he made to her during his campaign to pass the Anjanette Young Ordinance, creating strict rules on how and when police raids can be executed.

"Police accountability is not an option, it is mandatory," Young said.

On Feb. 21, 2019, police barged in on an innocent and unclothed Young, but officers should have known they were in the wrong apartment. The suspect police were looking for, based on a tip from a confidential informant, was living in a different apartment, and was wearing a police tracking device while awaiting trial for a recent arrest.

Video from the raid revealed officers handcuffed Young while she was naked, as she repeatedly told police they were in the wrong place. Although one officer tried to cover Young with a jacket shortly after police broke in, and then tried to cover her more fully with a blanket, she was handcuffed for nearly 10 minutes before police let her get dressed.

"Today marks six years since the night my life was shattered by a wrongful police raid in my home; six years since I was left humiliated, violated, and traumatized by a system that refused to see me as being human," Young said.

Young sued the city and settled her wrong raid lawsuit for nearly $3 million, but she's been fighting ever since to create an ordinance that would require police to give people at least 30 seconds to answer their doors when being served with a search warrant.

She was given no time to do that when police raided her apartment.

"They broke down her door like they were in downtown Baghdad looking for a terrorist," said her attorney, Keenan Saulter.

Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) has led the effort to pass the Anjanette Young Ordinance since 2021, stressing the 30-second minimum before breaking down doors, and language that would strictly prohibit police from pointing guns at children during raids.

"Give people 30 seconds. We're just asking for 30 seconds. We think it's unconscionable to have to fight to ask somebody to not point guns at children," she said.

Young stressed what the CBS News Chicago Investigators exposed during a years long series on wrong raids in Chicago; exposing case after case where children said guns were pointed at them in the process, including Peter Mendez, who was 9 years old at the time his family's home was raided by mistake.

"On that day, officers pointed guns and ordered him to the floor. Eight years later, and Peter is still carrying the trauma and the fear of losing his life," Young said.

Young said she will be in court to support Peter when his lawsuit against the city finally goes before a jury in April. She hopes the latest version of her ordinance is introduced by then, after a previous version stalled under the Lightfoot administration.

"We must explain why they are opposed to limiting guns at young children. These are not just ideas, they're real people – I'm a real person, this happened to me – real people who are being harmed, and continue to be harmed, because this current administration and others are not acting," Young said.

The ordinance also would limit police raids to between the hours of 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Proposed legislation in Springfield also would require all police agencies statewide to follow similar rules, including requiring paramedics or emergency medical technicians be present for a raid.

CBS News Chicago's series on wrong raids led to sweeping police reforms involving oversight of search warrants, body camera requirements, and a mandate that at least one female officer must be a part of every raid.

Mayor Johnson's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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