A video that emerged this week shows a contentious situation involving Chicago police as they detained two men, one of whom took a swing at an officer on camera. The twist to this incident is that the individual who threw the punch identified himself as one of the city’s “peacekeepers.”
The incident began when officers from the Chicago Police Department noticed 30-year-old Douglass Simmons driving a stolen Hyundai Santa Fe without a front license plate. They attempted to pull him over near the intersection of Campbell and Jackson at 1:10 p.m. on a Monday.
According to police reports, Simmons exited the vehicle and attempted to flee but was apprehended. During this altercation, the so-called peacekeeper, Chester Alexander, who was wearing a red shirt emblazoned with a large “V,” intervened.
As the scene unfolded, Alexander, 30 years old, attempted to rally the crowd by yelling “let him go,” and proclaimed that he was a peacekeeper. The arrest report later clarified that he was a part of the “violence interrupter” program operating in Chicago.
The situation escalated as police reported a growing crowd that appeared hostile. Officers observed Alexander nearby with clenched fists, prompting them to instruct him to step back. One officer, in an effort to maintain a safe distance between the police and the increasingly aggressive gathering, pushed Alexander back onto the sidewalk.
At that moment, Alexander allegedly swung his fist and struck an officer while immediately taking an aggressive fighting stance. The report detailed that the officer responded by delivering closed-hand strikes to Alexander’s chest and knee strikes to his stomach while fellow officers worked to handcuff him.
Following this confrontation, officers discovered 24 pills, suspected to be ecstasy, in Alexander’s pants pocket.
Alexander now faces serious charges, including felony aggravated battery of a peace officer, felony resisting, and felony possession of a controlled substance.
Simmons, who was already under pretrial release for a previous felony narcotics case, has been charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, driving with a revoked license, operating an uninsured vehicle, and resisting police.
Efforts to reach the organization associated with Alexander’s peacekeeping role have been unsuccessful thus far.
Incidents involving peacekeepers have increasingly drawn attention for negative reasons in recent weeks. Just four days before Alexander’s altercation with the police, a “peacekeeper” who had posed with Governor JB Pritzker was charged with murder after being implicated in a smash-and-grab burglary that resulted in a death on the Magnificent Mile.
In a separate incident last month, footage surfaced showing men asserting themselves as violence interrupters interfering with police as they tried to arrest an individual accused of carrying an illegal firearm equipped with an extended ammunition magazine.
Earlier this year, another self-identified peacekeeper received a nine-year prison sentence for his role in a mob attack that left a motorist severely injured in Little Village. An official associated with the previous administration defended his actions by stating that he “mishandled the stress” associated with his work in violence prevention.
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Tim Hecke is the managing partner at CWBChicago. His career commenced at KMOX, a revered news radio station in St. Louis, followed by stints at various stations in Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York City. He developed syndicated radio news and content services that served all of America’s top 100 radio markets. Tim became CWBChicago’s managing partner in 2019. His email address is tim@cwbchicago.com.
