“There has to be an in-depth conversation about what we want our police officers to do. Because, one, we give them the authority to police us. And two, they deserve and must have clear expectations of what their job is.” McMahon said.

“We’ve asked them to be social workers for 20-plus years. They’re not social workers. We’ve asked them to be mental health professionals for 20-plus years. They’re not mental health professionals,” McMahon said.

In the 1970s, the state stopped funding mental health services and just put people with a mental illness back into the community, he said.

"The General Assembly has done almost nothing for nearly 50 years to address an issue they’ve known has existed for five decades,” McMahon said.

He described the barriers that people with mental illness face when applying for Medicaid, having assistance in managing their medication, where and how to get prescriptions filled.

“And the people who sit in Springfield, year after year, do nothing about this, have nowhere to look except in the mirror. That is where the root of this problem lies,” McMahon said “I talked about the lack of (equal) funding in education. There is one party that holds a supermajority in this state. It’s time that they step up and do something about the fundamental unfairness of the way they fund education in this state.”

In his letter, McMahon had called for equalizing school funding, where children on Chicago’s north shore get a different education than those in Auburn Gresham.

"The General Assembly must equalize school funding and classroom sizes across our state so children in Chicago, the suburbs, central Illinois and southern Illinois receive a similar education," McMahon wrote. "Children in some parts of Illinois play on multi-million dollar athletic fields while kids in the Austin neighborhood worry about getting safety to and from school."

As to a change in police training, especially regarding the use of force, McMahon said he recognized that there are circumstances where “police officers have to put hands on an individual to effectuate an arrest.”

“Sometimes that involves the use of force,” McMahon said. “There’s lethal force that a police officer is allowed to use when necessary in certain very limited situations. But a law enforcement officer is allowed to use other types of non-lethal force."

When police use force, he said, it must be necessary – and what is necessary should be viewed on a objective basis.

McMahon also called on police unions not to protect officers who have track records of misconduct.

If these officers cannot be held accountable, “the entire organization (union) is going to crumble under the bad conduct of a small percentage. And that is what is happening around this country,” McMahon said. “At some point, you have to protect the entire union over one or two or a small handful of individuals.”

Ultimately, he said, the decision to reinstate or terminate an officer is going to fall to arbitrators.

“I have just seen, over and over, arbitrators who will reinstate a police officer who has a track record of misconduct,” McMahon said. “And those arbitrators are appointed by our political leaders in this state. Either hold the political leaders accountable … or get rid of the system and come up with a new system.”

McMahon said the video of George Floyd’s death first caused shock and disgust, then collectively, the nation transitioned into anger.

And the anger was not just over George Floyd’s death – but those of Tamir Rice, Laquan McDonald, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Breonna Taylor – “who have been victimized by somebody in a uniform,” McMahon said.

“We need to move into the next phase of a dialog of about what has to change,” McMahon said. “And the challenge is will that dialogue turn into substantive changes. That is the challenge to the General Assembly. They are the ones that make the law. They are the ones who have to put the funding behind the law to give meaning to the laws that they pass.”

McMahon called laws passed without funding “window dressing.”

“Without money and significant reform – then it’s more window dressing,” McMahon said. “And next year, we’re going to see this again.”