My Name IS Anjanette Young

February 21, 2019, changed Anjanette Young’s life forever. Like most hardworking people, Anjanette Young was returning home from her job as a social worker.  Tired and ready to decompress for the evening, Young looked forward to her weekly Thursday nights.  Thursdays were her “self-care” nights where she would enjoy one of her favorite TV shows, “Grey’s Anatomy” and just relax. As she proceeded to undress and prepare to get comfortable, Chicago Police officers struck the front door of her West Loop home with a battering ram repeatedly until the door gave way.  Not having enough time to get dressed, a naked and terrified Young stood with her hands up in her living room while male officers entered her home shouting with their guns drawn. 

The officers handcuffed her naked as she repeatedly pleaded with officers telling them they were in the wrong house.  She begged them to let her know what was going on, who they were look for and to see the search warrant all while undressed in a room full of police officers.  This happened for more than ten minutes until a female Officer arrived and took Young to a bedroom to get dressed.  They handcuffed her again and questioned who she was and if she had guns in the house. A confused Young continues to shout and tell the officers they were in the wrong house.  Moments passed and officers and the sergeant on duty stepped outside.  Their body cameras mysteriously are turned off. 

When they returned, the officers removed the handcuffs, apologized for the damage, and attempted to fix her front door. They eventually wedged a side table and ironing board behind the door and left.  Dehumanized, humiliated, and traumatized, Anjanette Young was left to pick up the pieces of a night that changed her life forever. 

Anjanette Young was right. She was innocent and the police did indeed have the wrong house.  A CBS2 Chicago investigation found that Chicago police failed to do the basic due diligence to confirm the address on the search warrant was correct.  Going off a tip from a confidential informant, the police were looking for a 23-year-old male felon.  The suspect lived near Anjanette Young and could have easily been tracked as he was wearing an electronic monitoring device. 

What do you do when you have been violated, dehumanized, and traumatized by those who swore to “serve and protect”? Anjanette Young made the decision to fight back and in the process she is healing, redirecting her energy to a greater purpose and finding her voice again. 

This is her story…

“I FELT INVISIBLE”

Anjanette Young says it was not only that the police raided the wrong house, but it was also the way she was treated by police officers that is seared in her memory forever. “I wasn’t angry that they got it wrong. I was angry at how they treated me.  Yes, they got it wrong and that’s a problem. That’s a systemic issue.  However, once they crossed my door, the way they treated me was dehumanizing. I felt invisible.”

Young describes a chaotic scene with her home filled with “police with big guns” and lights shining on her naked body.  Exposed in the most literal sense, Young says the police in the room, particularly the sergeant in charge “looked through her”, even as she asked for her basic rights.  “They never engaged with me. I remember looking at the sergeant asking him what was going on.  He had a piece of paper in his hand, and he said it was a search warrant.  I asked to see it and he tells me “I’ll give it to you later”. I’m standing naked in this room full of cops with guns and he tells me I need to shut up and calm down. I’ll never forget how dismissive he was towards me.”

“ANGER MOTIVATED ME”

On November 12, 2019, the world learned what happened to Anjanette Young. The decision to go public with her story was not an easy one.  The world would see her at her most vulnerable moment.   Anjanette Young says it was anger that motivated her to act.  “The anger I felt would not allow them to get away with this.  I was going to tell my story…my way.  I was going to show the world what they did and expose them”, Young said. 

Overnight, Anjanette Young went from living a wonderfully quiet life to being thrust in the national spotlight.  Initially overwhelmed by the intense media attention, Young says it took some time for her to find her voice. “The week the video came out, my attorney and I did 15 to 20 interviews. It seemed like everyone wanted to talk to us.   Because of the pandemic, many of these were via zoom which made it a little easier. However, when we held our press conference in front of police headquarters, it was my first time speaking publicly about the incident in front of a crowd. I was nervous and anxious.”

She says it wasn’t until January 2021 while speaking at a MLK rally held by her church that she found her voice and understood her new purpose.   “I remember standing there in front of a crowd of people who were there because of what happened to me.  They cared and wanted to show me love and support.   That’s when I found my voice and from that moment on, I told myself, I’m ready to do this”. 

TAKING ON CPD, MAYOR LIGHTFOOT AND CITY HALL

When Anjanette Young’s story broke, the outrage spread across the city and nation like wildfire.  Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a press conference calling the incident a “colossal failure”. Holding back tears, Lightfoot said, “I have an obligation to make that wrong, right. It’s been painful and upsetting.” Initially Lightfoot said she learned of the incident around the time the story was published but later admitted she knew about the incident prior to that moment.  She signed an executive order making changes to the search warrant police and ordered a review of how the incident was handled.   She said she wanted to apologize and meet with Young personally. 

Young thought the mayor she voted for a supported would work with her to obtain justice and accountability for the officers involved but that was not the case.  She met with Lightfoot in Dec. 2020 to accept her apology but later accused the Mayor of breaking her promise in June 2021 when the city rejected Young’s settlement offer.  Young was eventually awarded a $2.9 million settlement from the city.  Young insists it was never about the money. She says it was always about justice and police reform.  She said her experience dealing with Mayor Lightfoot and the city made her feel invisible all over again. 

“The settlement doesn’t make me feel safe at night. This could happen again to me or to anyone.  The settlement doesn’t take away the PTSD, trauma, and depression I’ll carry for the rest of my life. There is no amount of money that will take that away.  If they hadn’t given me a dime, but punished those offers and made policy changes, I’d be fine with that.  To me justice is about holding those officers responsible and making changes within the system”. 

Two months after her story went public, members of Chicago’s city council introduced an ordinance pushing for search warrant reforms and police accountability.  The “Anjanette Young Ordinance” was not supported by the mayor and failed to pass in city council.  Young says Lightfoot refused her requests to meet and discuss the ordinance.  “The mayor did what she wanted to do. We drafted the ordinance and even if she didn’t agree with every bullet point, why couldn’t we come to the table and discuss it. We could have drafted something that worked for everyone to get it passed”, Young said.  

The mayor often responded to Anjanette Young’s criticism callously at times refusing to say her name and referring to her as “that woman”.  Young says Lightfoot failed to empathize with her as a human being and missed an opportunity to rebuild trust.  It’s a failure, Young says, that may have contributed to her loss in the February 2023 election. 

“She was unable to empathize with me as a black woman, to empathize with the experience that I had. She was in a place to make a real change and it’s unfortunate. She was in a unique space to do something great with a bad experience.  Her strong fist approach to everything did not serve her well.  I don’t have anything bad to say about her other than she didn’t utilize the people around her and she was not open to working with others,” says Young. 

Young continued saying the irony that a black woman made her feel as invisible as the officers who raided her home added insult to injury.

JESUS + THERAPY=HEALING

Anjanette Young was ready to fight for justice, police reform and accountability but most importantly Young was fighting for her healing.  As a social worker for over 20 years, Young knew the benefits of therapy and was connected with a therapist before the incident because of the work she does daily.  Understandably, the incident left Young with an incredible amount of trauma.   Young said, “When this first happened, it was hard for me to function on a daily basis. There were days when I couldn’t get out of bed because the depression was so heavy.  It literally felt like a weight was on my entire body.”

Young says her strong faith, the love and support from her church and therapy was an intricate part of her healing journey. “If it were not for my faith and support from my church, I don’t believe I would be standing as strong as I am.” Young says she is thankful she was connected with her therapist prior to the incident.  She says she contacted her therapist the day after the incident to begin the work of understanding the trauma she experienced. Young says it was both faith and therapy that helped her through.  Utilizing both allowed her to approach her healing from multiple vantage points. 

“I tell people all the time. Jesus +Therapy=Healing because it wasn’t one or the other. It was both. Just because I go to therapy doesn’t mean I lack faith.  I’m going to pray and trust God to heal me on the inside and get the tools I need to understand and cope from my therapist.” She says her pastor counseled her on forgiveness and her therapist helped her come to a place of acceptance. 

“My pastor told me I had to get to a place of forgiveness. I had to forgive what happened to me otherwise, I would be stuck in this trauma.   My therapist on the other hand was telling me what I needed to do to get to a place of acceptance.  It was about accepting what happened to me and managing that.  I was stuck in the middle.  I wasn’t ready to forgive, and I struggled with acceptance.  I couldn’t forgive because I was too angry about what happened, and I struggled with acceptance because I couldn’t believe the God I served and prayed to would allow this to happen to me. I struggled in that space for a long time.”, Young said.

THE FIGHT FOR POLICE REFORM AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Anjanette Young says her experience drives her to fight and advocate for police reform.  However, she says there’s a difference between “Law and Order” and “To Serve and Protect”. She says Chicago needs both.  “Chicago has a crime issue. That’s not lost on me. We need law and order, but we also need officers committed to serving and protecting the community while doing the job law and order requires.  

Young is still hopeful the Anjanette Young Ordinance will pass the city council but is prepared to take it to the state level if need be. She hopes to see the ordinance pass with a new administration and city council. 

“I LEARNED MY VOICE MATTERS”

From weighing in on the mayoral election to speaking engagements across the country, Anjanette Young says using her voice has been an integral part of her healing. She says she is ready to use her voice to help others.   Two years after the raid on her home, Anjanette Young founded the “I AM HER” foundation.  Young says her foundation was inspired by Breonna Taylor.   “When I saw Breonna Taylor’s story, I saw myself in her and understood what she experienced. Initially it was just a slogan that I put on a shirt but the more I spoke out about what happened to me and owned my story, I decided I needed to do more.”.  

Young continued, “I will always be an advocate and activist for policy changes, but I was a social worker before that incident.  I’ve been caring for others and advocating for women for more than 20 years. There’s more to me than what happened to me with the city and the police.”

The “I AM HER” foundation addresses mental health, wellness, and self-care for black women. Young says Black Women and girls endure so much trauma and rarely take time to heal.  Their mission is to allow Black women and girls a space where they are seen, heard, and helped. “I understand that “I AM HER” when I look at my sister.  This is for Black women and girls. We have all experienced traumas that are invisible to the world and society. Now is our time to stand up and say, I am being seen in this space. I don’t have to be a victim of what’s happened to me. I can speak my truth.”

Young says she wants to continue raising money through her foundation to give back to the community.  “I want to send students to school who want to become social workers and mental health counselors. I want to partner with organizations to provide free therapy for women who don’t have access.”

LIVING ON PURPOSE

Anjanette Young has come a long way from that day in 2019.  From feeling invisible by the Chicago Police Department and Mayor Lightfoot to speaking around the country and forming a foundation to help others, Young says she is still a work in progress.

She says she accepts the fact that her life will never be the same and still struggles with the loss of some of life’s pleasures.  While she moved out of the location where the incident happened, she says sleeping peacefully and finding sanctuary in her own home is difficult.  She no longer enjoys her Thursday night self-care routine, and the sound of fireworks is triggering.  Anjanette Young continues to reclaim her power.  “When I continue to speak about police reform, restorative justice, or mental health, it’s all part of my healing.  In those spaces, I’m not a victim. I’m speaking about policy changes, what went wrong and how we can do better. I’m speaking my truth and telling my story.  It’s a place of strength and power instead of feeling like a victim when I’m defending myself against the city. 

Young says she continues to do the work seeing her therapist regularly and still leaning on her faith.  For Young, the fight for change continues. She continues to advocate for policy reform and change but is also focused on growing her foundation and working on her upcoming book.  More importantly, Anjanette Young is living her life on purpose.

“I’m speaking my truth while living on purpose.  Yes, that experience happened to me, but I did nothing wrong. I get up every day very intentionally, no matter how bad the day is.  I get up and make something purposeful from what this situation did to me.  That’s how I’m living now. Speaking my truth and living on purpose.”