A Chicago activist who just received a $280,000 settlement after she was struck in the face by an officer during a 2020 protest received a racist death threat just one day after the city council granted her the payout.
Miracle Boyd was 18 when she attended a 1,000-person protest at Grant Park where demonstrators were trying to knock down a Christopher Columbus statue.
As tensions flared during the protest, Boyd began filming an officer making a violent arrest. The cop saw Boyd, knocked her phone out of her hand, and then hit her in the face so hard that the blow knocked out one of her teeth.
The city’s civilian police accountability committee found that the officer used excessive force and made false statements about the assault, stating that he “grossly mischaracterized” what happened when he filed an incident report.
The cop resigned from his job in 2022 after the civilian board recommended he be terminated from his position.
Boyd filed a lawsuit against the assailing cop and two other officers in federal court last year.
The Chicago City Council approved a settlement to resolve the complaint for more than a quarter-million dollars on March 12.
The day after, the social justice organization GoodKids MadCity (GKMC) where Boyd works received a letter addressed to the activist.
According to The Triibe who obtained a copy of the letter, the first line read, “Miracle Boyd deserves to be knocked unconscious and be hanged from a tree,” adding that she “got what she deserved,” referring to the officer attack in 2020.
The letter also included slurs and profanities aimed at Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“F—k that n—r mayor Brandon Johnson! Hopefully [President Donald] Trump puts that piece of s— in a cage just like the ape in the movie Trading Spaces,” the letter reads, an apparent reference to the 1983 Eddie Murphy comedy “Trading Places.”
The threat didn’t have the sender’s name or a return address. A postmark indicated that the United States Postal Service received the mail on March 11 in the Chicago suburb of Carol Stream, Illinois, The TRiiBE reports.
“The letter is talking about modern-day lynching, speaking of my partner when they don’t even know him, and essentially naming the mayor too,” Boyd told The TRiiBE. “So I feel like this has just become, like, a political game because now that they’ve mentioned the mayor, the mayor needs to make a statement on this, and so do all the people that voted in favor of this police misconduct settlement.”
GKMC organizers said this isn’t the first threat the organization has received. Executive Director Carlil Pittman said the group has received roughly 10 calls in the last year from “anonymous racist folks calling to voice their opinions.”
The most recent phone call happened the day the city council voted on Boyd’s settlement.
Boyd said that she won’t let the vitriol affect her, especially when she’s preparing to give birth to her first child in May.
“I’m not letting it get to me because I’m strong and brave. I’m brave enough to know to make smart decisions, but it seems like my safety is on the line, and I’m about to bring a child into the world that people just are not going to accept,” Boyd said. “I still have a whole community of folks who will support me, my first child, and everything else that comes with it.”
