Fundraising Effort Started For Victim Of Wrong Police Raid

Anjanette Young, who was handcuffed while naked by Chicago police during a wrongful police raid in 2019, is using her traumatic experience to help others.

After a professor from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration saw a local news report about Young’s story, she reportedly asked if she could set up a GoFundMe page. Young agreed, but said she doesn’t want the money to go to her. Instead she’s donating all the proceeds to the social justice and counseling ministry at Progressive Baptist Church where she is a longtime member.

“I’ve had so many people reach out to me offering support,” Young told CBS 2. “It’s been somewhat overwhelming.”

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She continued: “I want to be able to honor the code of being a social worker, advocating and supporting others, uplifting the community.”

Young said if it wasn’t for her church and its social justice ministry, her healing process would have been very different. That’s why she’s paying it forward.

“I want to be intentional on what I do with this experience that God has given me,” she said to the news station. “I don’t like it. I wouldn’t have asked for it. But now I have it, and what do I do with it? I was like the church that I’m a part of has a social justice and counseling ministry. It’s how I got connected to my attorney.”

Senior Pastor Charlie Dates says the money will go to offering legal clinic services to the public and said he didn’t believe Young would need the support of the justice ministry.

Young said she wants the money to help those who may feel helpless or alone. It’s how she felt after her home was wrongly raided while she was naked and afraid. Her pastor was the one who helped her immensely during the aftermath.

“I want to make sure that people in the city of Chicago know that it exists and know that it’s not about the church. It’s about us helping the community. That’s what we really want to be about and that’s what I’m about as a social worker. I want to give back. I want to help,” she said.

The police bodycam of footage of the police raid of Anjanette Young’s home in  2019 sparked outrage last week when it was released. In the video, Young, who stands handcuffed and naked, can be seen pleading with the officers, trying to convince them they had the wrong address. After several minutes, they determined that they had made a mistake and eventually threw a blanket over her body while they determined what went wrong.

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot later apologized publicly for what happened to Young and vowed that an investigation into the incident would move forward.

“It makes me angry that I didn’t know about it. It makes me angry that decisive action wasn’t taken,” Lightfoot told CBS Chicago in an interview. “People saw this video. They watched it,” she said.