Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – After last week’s city council meeting ended in chaos – with former police chief Michael Walton allegedly using a racial slur against a Black alderman – members of the PURPLE Coalition said Monday it’s just another example of how the city has two sets of rules.

At a news conference outside city hall, frequent protestor Ken Pacha (pictured, left) said he would be banned from participating in public comment had he acted as Walton did. “We all know that the distribution of justice is uneven, but it seems that their attitude is making it even clearer to all of us,” said Pacha,” and it’s not only problematic. It’s disturbing that the mayor, on the news, said she couldn’t have done anything different (in not silencing Walton). Nothing? Not a thing? Not a single thing different.”

The city’s communications director did not respond to a text Monday evening asking what sanctions, if any, have been levied upon Walton.

The PURPLE Coalition was formed after the police killing of Sonya Massey to attempt to heighten police accountability. Pacha said that has not happened under recently appointed police chief Joe Behl, calling the 28-year SPD veteran “fruit of thin e poisoned tree.”

Coalition members are upset Behl is defending an officer who, in an incident caught on his body camera, punched suspect Promyss Davis in the head while trying to subdue her. “If Chief Behl believes that training that justifies punching a 19-year-old girl in the head is appropriate, then the policies and training standards themselves are deeply flawed,” said the PURPLE Coalition’s Tiara Standage (pictured, right). “Officers act within the culture and standards that their department creates, tolerates, and protects.”

Criticism of the police department and city leadership as a whole has been an almost-weekly subject during the council’s public comment time since Massey’s death in July 2024.

Meanwhile, Massey’s cousin, Sontae Massey, said he is exploring a run for public office.