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Speaker 1: Yes, every day. No fis not.

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Speaker 2: No, that's right.

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Speaker 3: Hey, it's Chapearl. Somebody came out about three years ago,

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Speaker 3: and since then, there's a lot of things that has

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Speaker 3: been happening in Courtney's case. So to make sure I

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Speaker 3: catch you up to date. Since this podcast came out,

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Speaker 3: one of Courtney's sisters got married and now I'm a

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Speaker 3: grandmother of two. One name is Josiah and the other

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Speaker 3: one name is Justice, saying I love you, I love

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Speaker 3: you so much.

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Speaker 4: Justice.

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Speaker 3: As a family, we've been going places that I know

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Speaker 3: Courtney would love. Hey, babug, we are on our cruise,

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Speaker 3: Go j Admin, go Abbax, and we were having so

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Speaker 3: much fun. But I was always thinking of Courtney in

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Speaker 3: the background because I know that this is what he

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Speaker 3: loved to do. The water so beautiful here. Every year

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Speaker 3: we have the Courtney Copeland Memorial Foundation gala.

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Speaker 5: That's good.

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Speaker 2: And Courtney Copeland's grandmother. We're still one justice for Courtney,

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Speaker 2: and that's where we're focusing now now to find the

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Speaker 2: individuals who did this to him, to change the power

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Speaker 2: is with the Chicago Police Department, and even change the

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Speaker 2: laws regarding transporting gunshot victims to the hospitals it needs

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Speaker 2: to be a change.

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Speaker 3: Here's my husband, Brent.

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Speaker 6: It's like a club that no one wants to get into.

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Speaker 6: But the sad reality is that what we're in it.

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Speaker 6: But let's lean on each other or support to help

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Speaker 6: us get through this together.

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Speaker 3: Because of somebody, a lot of people became interested in

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Speaker 3: his story.

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Speaker 4: My prayers go out to you, guys.

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Speaker 5: I hope that you are able to find peace of

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Speaker 5: mind and know that your son, Corney, is looking down on.

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Speaker 4: You, smiling for everything that you've done for him so far.

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Speaker 4: I love this woman, tell her to keep up the

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Speaker 4: good work.

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Speaker 7: I admire her, and may God bless her and her family.

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Speaker 4: I just wanted to let you know that you're being

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Speaker 4: heard everywhere. We hear you, We hear your son's story

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Speaker 4: and the heartbreak.

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Speaker 7: I am speaking on behalf of our family. My older

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Speaker 7: sister was murdered in nineteen eighty nine, and I just

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Speaker 7: really appreciated the honesty of the podcast and the openness

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Speaker 7: that this family shared.

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Speaker 5: Having this story out there brings awareness. I just hope

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Speaker 5: she knows there's a lot of us that support her

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Speaker 5: and will think of her and will continue to fight

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Speaker 5: for the racial injustice that happens here in our own city.

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Speaker 5: There's people all over that are going to be fighting

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Speaker 5: with you.

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Speaker 8: You understand that in this country there is almost no

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Speaker 8: family of any homicide victim who believes that the police

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Speaker 8: are doing enough. Everybody wants to see more of an effort.

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Speaker 3: Believe it or not, I was even on Dateline. I

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Speaker 3: don't think that a lot of families have access to

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Speaker 3: the evidence that I had. I was able to tell

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Speaker 3: the whole world about what happened to Courtney that night

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Speaker 3: because of the exposure that Dateline gave us. Even the

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Speaker 3: local stations like Channel eleven highlighted Courtney's story.

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Speaker 9: Not only does schapearl Well want to know who killed

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Speaker 9: her son, but she also wants to know why Chicago

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Speaker 9: police officers didn't do more to assist her wounded son

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Speaker 9: and why he died well handcuffed after asking officers for help.

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Speaker 3: The city of Chicago's Inspector General actually took a look

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Speaker 3: at the case just to try to see if the

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Speaker 3: Chicago Police Department did what they were supposed to do.

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Speaker 10: Talking for one minute to the Inspector General's report, it's weird.

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Speaker 10: The whole thing is weird.

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Speaker 3: It's not weird, it's very strategic I believe on CPD.

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Speaker 3: So the Inspector General report came out approximately about a

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Speaker 3: year ago. In that four paragraph summary, it gave important information.

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Speaker 3: It validated a lot of what our investigation uncovered. It

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Speaker 3: definitely said, without a doubt, Courtney Copeland was handcuffed by

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Speaker 3: Chicago police. It also stated whoever handcuffed him needed to

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Speaker 3: be with him in the ambulance, and because they weren't,

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Speaker 3: that violated CPD policy. The Inspector General recommended that the

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Speaker 3: sergeant be disciplined for his actions. But here's what the

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Speaker 3: police said.

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Speaker 10: CPD stated that it does not agree that the Office

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Speaker 10: of the Inspector General proved by a preponderance of the

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Speaker 10: evidence that the victim was in fact handcuffed prior to

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Speaker 10: being transport of the hospital. How did you feel when

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Speaker 10: you read that?

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Speaker 3: I was pissed off. I was literally upset because I'm like, dang,

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Speaker 3: My thing is that you took all of my son's

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Speaker 3: dignity in the final moments of his life. You made

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Speaker 3: a mistake, and even almost six years later, you can't

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Speaker 3: admit it. So basically, even the IG recognized that Courtney

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Speaker 3: was indeed handcuffed, but CPD still denies that fact to

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Speaker 3: this day. And instead of disciplining the sergeant, they gave

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Speaker 3: him a simple reprimand they didn't take him off the force,

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Speaker 3: they didn't put him on death duty. They gave him

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Speaker 3: a Reprimand another thing that the IG report highlighted was

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Speaker 3: a treatment that I received from the detectives at the

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Speaker 3: police station. Y'all remember this, well here, no, no.

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Speaker 6: No, you're saying a lot of things.

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Speaker 1: Tell me, I'm going to give you.

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Speaker 3: I was upset the way they treated me because here

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Speaker 3: I am a grieving mother asking what happened to my son,

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Speaker 3: and this is how I was treated.

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Speaker 10: Whether you thank me or tell me to get fucked

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Speaker 10: a d end all of this, it doesn't matter.

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Speaker 7: It doesn't matter.

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Speaker 3: I'm definitely gonna thank you because that's my goal.

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Speaker 7: Yeah I.

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Speaker 2: Was murdered, Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Why but no apparently white.

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Speaker 6: But as far as this whole black, brown, green shit,

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Speaker 6: it doesn't matter.

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Speaker 3: The IG agreed with me that I was being disrespected.

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Speaker 3: But by the time that they said that the detective

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Speaker 3: had already retired. The IG said that if the detective

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Speaker 3: tried to re enlist with the Chicago Police Department that

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Speaker 3: he shouldn't be rehired, and they wanted that put in

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Speaker 3: his file. But guess what, CPD also refused to do that.

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Speaker 3: Now I'm going to turn this over to Alison so

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Speaker 3: she can give you further updates.

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Speaker 11: Hey Alison, Hey Chaperl. You know, there was one thing

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Speaker 11: that came out of this report that has the potential

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Speaker 11: to do a lot of good. A change in policy

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Speaker 11: that the Inspector General recommended based on the very circumstances

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Speaker 11: of Courtney's death. Now this may seem like common sense,

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Speaker 11: but the recommendation is this, the department should review its

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Speaker 11: policies about providing first aid to injured people they encounter

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Speaker 11: and transport them to hospitals. You remember Scoop and Run

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Speaker 11: from the podcast Stop. When officers scoop up people who

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Speaker 11: are hurt and run them to the hospital, it saves lives.

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Speaker 11: But at the time of Courtney's death, the only thing

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Speaker 11: officers were required to do was call an ambulance. That's

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Speaker 11: the bare minimum, and that's exactly what they did back

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Speaker 11: in twenty sixteen. If you can believe this, police only

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Speaker 11: had to provide first aid to people who they had

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Speaker 11: shot themselves, not people like Courtney who came to them

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Speaker 11: with a gunshot wound.

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Speaker 3: To think that they had the choice is unbelievable to me.

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Speaker 11: CPD agreed to review their policies about all this stuff

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Speaker 11: the Inspector General exposed, but it appears that the department

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Speaker 11: has taken no action to update anything.

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Speaker 3: A grieving mother is looking for answers and the full

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Speaker 3: report by the city's Inspector General into the killing of

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Speaker 3: her twenty two year old son, Courtney Copeland.

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Speaker 11: And above all, Chapel wants to know who handcuffed Courtney.

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Speaker 11: The city's law office has refused to turn over the

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Speaker 11: full report. It's like a black hole where investigations go

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Speaker 11: to die in secret. See Chaparle got the final denial

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Speaker 11: a couple of weeks ago.

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Speaker 3: This Sunday morning, I'm sitting here at my dining room table,

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Speaker 3: and it took me a while to actually even think

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Speaker 3: about recording something because I just feel so drained about

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Speaker 3: not being able to find out the truth about what

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Speaker 3: happened to my son.

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Speaker 10: It is official.

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Speaker 11: Chicago has elected a new mayor.

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Speaker 10: Progressive Democrat Brandon Johnson defeated fellow Democrat Paul Vallas in

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Speaker 10: a close runoff.

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Speaker 11: Phrase He will now take mayor Lori lightfoot seat. Johnson

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Speaker 11: is a teacher. These past few weeks, Chapearl's been feeling

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Speaker 11: more hopeful, and that's because Chicago's getting a big change.

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Speaker 11: Brandon Johnson is a former teacher and county commissioner, and

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Speaker 11: Chapparl campaigned for him.

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Speaker 4: Hey Schapearl, Hey Alisea, how are you. I'm good, how

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Speaker 4: are you.

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Speaker 11: As soon as I heard Johnson committed to releasing inspector

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Speaker 11: general investigations, I called Chapel.

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Speaker 7: That's great, I know, after all this fighting, all it

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Speaker 7: takes is a new mayor to just promise to do

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Speaker 7: that in a questionnaire.

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Speaker 4: So it's so important, you know that we actually get

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Speaker 4: this information now, not just for me, but you know,

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Speaker 4: any other these other cases that they're holding back giving

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Speaker 4: us all the details. I think it's, you know, so

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Speaker 4: crucial for the public to really find out what's actually

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Speaker 4: happening in Chicago.

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Speaker 3: There's another development I want to tell you guys about

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Speaker 3: as well. So I'm sitting in the car right before

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Speaker 3: I'm going to meet the new sergeant that's handling Courtney's case.

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Speaker 3: Courtney's case is now out of the cold case unit.

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Speaker 11: Okay, We're back in the car.

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Speaker 3: Yes, And I would say that. You know, I felt

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Speaker 3: this time, for the first time meeting with CPD, that

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Speaker 3: they actually listened to the details of the case and

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Speaker 3: what we had did in our investigation. And so I'm

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Speaker 3: hopeful I think that they realized that I'm not going

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Speaker 3: anywhere and that I'm going to keep pressing forward and

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Speaker 3: trying to get justice for Courtney. Well, he asked about

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Speaker 3: three or four times if we were recorded. I'm like, no, right,

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Speaker 3: I'm like, you know, you're thinking we're recording, and you

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Speaker 3: know he's worried about, you know, being on a hot mic.

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Speaker 3: This is Sergeant Keller. He was very very careful in

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Speaker 3: what he stated and how he said things, and he

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Speaker 3: is basically listened. But you know, I shouldn't have had

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Speaker 3: to record the police. I should have been treated with

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Speaker 3: dignity and respect. They never expected me to be the

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Speaker 3: type of parent that will continue to ask questions and

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Speaker 3: follow up. And I made it clear to Keller and

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Speaker 3: Perez that I'm gonna be in your face. You know,

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Speaker 3: you have this case. Now I want to follow up.

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Speaker 3: I don't want to. That was a year ago, but

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Speaker 3: I can say that the detective has been given me

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Speaker 3: regular updates on Courtney's case. He's actually even reinterviewed some

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Speaker 3: of the people that we interview during the podcast. So

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Speaker 3: right now I feel hopeful that maybe in the future

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Speaker 3: will get some answers. I don't know if Courtney will

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Speaker 3: receive justice, but I know I won't stop fighting for

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Speaker 3: justice for him, and I'll continue to fight until my

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Speaker 3: last bro.

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Speaker 1: Every Bye d songby every Day.

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Speaker 3: No Boys, No, We'd love to hear from you. Email

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Speaker 3: us at info at Somebody podcast dot com or leave

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Speaker 3: us a voicemail at seven seven three two seven zero

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Speaker 3: zero one two one. Somebody is a co production of

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Speaker 3: Topic Studios, The Intercept, The Invisible Institute, and iHeartRadio in

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Speaker 3: association with Tenderfoot TV. This bonus episode was produced by

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Speaker 3: Alison Flowers, Arisa Apentaku, Bill Healey, and Sarah Geys for

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Speaker 3: The Invisible Institute. Jamie Calvin is executive producer for Topic Studios.

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Speaker 3: Christy Gressman is executive producer for The Intercept. Roger Hodge

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Speaker 3: is supervising producer and editor in chief. Legal review by

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Speaker 3: David Brailow and special thanks to Laura Flynn. Sound design

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Speaker 3: and mix by Bart Warshaw at Cocoon Audio, and our

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Speaker 3: theme music is by Chance the rapper. Original music for

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Speaker 3: this podcast is by Eric Butler and Nate Fox of

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Speaker 3: The Social Experiment. To learn more about this case and

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Speaker 3: links to additional materials, go to our show page at

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Speaker 3: topicstudios dot com. Slash Somebody