David (pronounced Daveed) Lemieux joined the Police Department in 1982. “A lot of Negroes, and I use that word deliberately, were afraid to join the League,” he said. “I joined right away.”
A year later, Harold Washington became the city’s first black mayor. There was an immediate difference in the department, said Lemieux, an actor who gained acclaim for his role as Pretty Willie in the 1973 film “
The Spook who Sat by the Door.”
Washington made a concerted effort to increase the number of African-American police supervisors. His actions, Lemieux said, prompted many white officers to transfer from the 3rd District, where he was stationed and later where Evans was a commander, to other districts. He said the white officers who remained had always been respectful of the residents in the district, which encompasses 60th to 75th streets and the Dan Ryan Expressway to Lake Michigan.
Previously, the white officers were assigned east of Stony Island Avenue in what Lemieux described as an informal policy. “They called that the ‘safe part’ of the district,” he said chuckling.
The remainder of the white officers who didn’t want to work in the district transferred when Washington was reelected.
“That eliminated police going out hunting black boys. That eliminated the contempt that so many [black residents] held for the police who were occupying an area,” said Lemieux.
Long before they met, Lemieux and his long-time police partner, Gerald Hamilton, shared a commitment to advocating for African-American residents and mitigating the abuse so many were experiencing at the hands of white officers.
“When we worked in the community, you might be having Sunday breakfast with your family at Army and Lou’s,” he said, referring to a former soul food restaurant on East 75th Street. “Using commonsense you shouldn’t mess over people you are going to see. I am not afraid of my own people. I love my people.”
Hamilton said many African-American officers didn’t agree with Lemieux. “When I joined, I said I am my brother’s keeper.” But for many of his peers, he said, “The blue often overrode the black.”