Two crooked Chicago cops who falsified and planted evidence on perhaps hundreds of victims have been convicted and sent to jail
Now the fallout from their extortion.
Tag Archives: Chicago
Violent Trumpazoid Gets Butt Kicked and Arrested After Racist Tirade & Punching Innocent Bystander
Couple of good shots in there at then end when the crowd takes this clown down.
Understand the guy being upset that he had coffee spilled on his cheap, ill fitting suit. Most intelligent people settle it with an offer to pay for cleaning the suit. Of course, intelligence and racist Trumpazoid aren’t words you usually find in the same sentence.
Had a similar situation on an airplane while flying to Dallas on a day trip. The Flight Attendant dumped the entire breakfast tray on my chest when the aircraft hit turbulence. Being a day trip, where I expected to return that evening, I had not packed any spare clothes. Having taken my suit jacket off prior to sitting, the damage was to my shirt and tie. Explained the situation to the Flight Attendant. When arriving in Dallas, not having time for a dry cleaner, I bought a new shirt and tie. The Airline reimbursed me for the inconvenience (this was back in the day when they still gave a shit about passengers). A straightforward solution for everyone concerned.
The difference between normal people and Trump inspired racist assholes.
Second Black Judge Found Dead…Ethnic Cleansing of the Courts?
Two black Judges found dead in two days. The second under mysterious circumstances.
To tell the truth, after the sleazebags went to extremes to force the illegitimate Gorsuch on the Courts, and with the appointment of Sessions as AG…
I really don’t doubt the possibility of their murdering Judges to whiten the Courts.
Cook County Associate Judge Raymond Myles
Chicago Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal Shooting of Judge, Others Sought
Chicago police have arrested a man in connection with the shooting death of a Cook county judge in what police described as a “targeted robbery.”
Joshua Smith, 37, turned himself in to answer detectives’ questions Wednesday and was later charged with first-degree murder and other charges in the death of Associate Judge Raymond Myles, who was shot multiple times outside his home at around 5 a.m. on Monday.
Ballistics evidence matched a gun used in a January robbery where a victim was shot and wounded, and surveillance video captured the license plate of a vehicle seen leaving the scene, Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples said at a press conference.
“The motive of this crime is robbery, which we do not believe is random — nor do we believe Smith acted alone,” she said.
A female friend who worked out with Myles had first encountered the gunman on Monday morning. Words were exchanged and she was shot in the leg, police said. Myles was coming to her aid when he was fatally shot, although he was not the target of the robbery, NBC Chicago reported, citing police.
Smith was convicted of armed robbery with a firearm in 2003 and served six years in prison, Staples said.
Staples at Wednesday’s press conference would not say who the target of the robbery was or how many other people may have been involved, citing the ongoing investigation. She said more details could emerge at a bond hearing scheduled for Thursday.
First African-American Female Judge On New York’s Top Court Found Dead
Associate Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, the first African-American woman to be appointed to New York’s Court of Appeals, was found dead on Wednesday in the Hudson River.
She had been reported missing from her home in Harlem.
The New York Times reports:
“Officers with the New York Police Department’s Harbor Unit responded about 1:45 p.m. to a report of a person floating by the shore near West 132nd Street in Upper Manhattan.
“Judge Abdus-Salaam, 65, was taken to a pier on the Hudson River and was pronounced dead by paramedics shortly after 2 p.m.
“The police were investigating how she ended up in the river, and it was not clear how long Judge Abdus-Salaam, who lived nearby in Harlem, had been missing.
“There were no signs of trauma on her body, the police said. She was fully clothed.
“A law enforcement official said investigators had found no signs of criminality. Her husband identified her body.”
Abdus-Salaam became the first female Muslim to serve as a U.S. judge when she joined the New York State Supreme Court in 1994, according to Zakiyyah Muhammad, the founding director of the Institute of Muslim American Studies, as quoted in The Times.
In 2013, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., appointed her to the state’s highest court, known as the Court of Appeals.
In a statement, Cuomo said Judge Abdus-Salaam was a pioneer with an “unshakable moral compass.”
Her nomination was part of a push by Cuomo to diversify the court.
When Judge Rowan Wilson joined the court this year, it was the first time the state’s highest court had two African-American judges serving on it.
In a statement, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said Abdus-Salaam’s “personal warmth, uncompromising sense of fairness and bright legal mind were an inspiration to all of us who had the good fortune to know her.”
The Court of Appeals has been on recess since the end of last month. The court is due back in session in less than two weeks.
What Segregation Costs Chicago
The most segregated places in America are oddly northern midwest cities. In that list are Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland.
According to a Study by Johns Hopkins a a few years ago, racism in America quite literally lops off about $2 trillion of our GDP. Just the loss of GDP due to racism in America is larger than the GDP of all but 10 countries in the world.
Racism has other impacts on the social fabric and economic activity in this country, some of which are discussed below in the attached article.
China is now the world’s largest economy. The US is number 2. And it will remain so indefinitely until we make better use of our resources. The racist Trump, and his supporters in the white right, including the Republican Party value their racism more than their country… Which means we could soon be #3. Wow! That’s a “great” way to “Make America Great Again.”
What segregation is costing Chicago
The Chicago area is the fifth most racially and economically segregated region in the nation. A new study by the Metropolitan Planning Council and the Urban Institute examines how segregation affects the region financially and the price that all residents pay in “lost income, lives and education.”
The Cost of Segregation argues that reducing Chicago’s segregation could result in higher incomes, greater educational achievement and fewer homicides across the region. Incomes for African-Americans would rise an average of $2,982 per person per year and the Chicago region’s gross domestic product, a key indicator of economic performance, would jump by $8 billion.
Alden Loury, director of research and evaluation for the Metropolitan Planning Council and an author of the study, talked to the Reporter about its findings.
What makes this study unique is that it explores how segregation affects economic growth and the quality of life for an entire city and region. We’ve read stories about Back of the Yards, Austin and other communities of color defined by high poverty rates. What prompted researchers to frame the inequality in those communities from a regional and citywide standpoint?
The Metropolitan Planning Council a couple of years ago, long before I got there, embarked on this journey with essentially two questions. [First], we’re very aware that we are a very segregated region. We’re a segregated city within that region. … There also was an understanding that in order for us to really address segregation and really commit ourselves to addressing segregation maybe the region needed more people to feel impacted.
“So is there a way we can kind of quantify those costs?” That was the first question. The second question was, “So what do we do about whatever we find?”… That kind of launched us on this path. We reached out to the Urban Institute, which had done similar work.
The premise of the study is that the region would do better if we addressed segregation in three areas: lost income, lost lives and lost opportunity, with a focus on education. Let’s start with the city’s homicide rate, which ranks 8th out of the 10 U.S. cities with the highest murder rates. The study states that the Chicago area could have boosted its economy simply by being “a safe place to live.” How is that?
When [the Urban Institute] conducted its analysis, it found a statistically significant relationship between Chicago, and between all of the metro areas, their level of black-white segregation and their rate of homicides.
If the Chicago region were to fall from 10th, which is where it ranked [in black-white segregation] to the median between 50 and 51, the Urban Institute determined that we would see a 30-percent reduction in homicide. That’s based on the lower levels of homicides that are generally found in regions that have less segregation than Chicago.
We wanted to find out what does that actually mean in real-life costs in the Chicago region. So we leaned on supplemental research, in particular research done by the Center for American Progress just a couple of years ago, where they actually asked that question: “What would happen if eight major metros saw a 10 percent or a 25 -percent reduction in the levels of homicide?”
For Chicago what the Center for American Progress found was lower policing costs, lower corrections costs and earnings [that would have occurred] if there were fewer victims of homicide. And there would also be a boost in residential property values based on research that the Center for American Progress conducted, which found that growth in homicides equated to a decline in residential property values. We took those numbers that the Center for American Progress developed and extrapolated them based on the Urban Institute’s prediction that the Chicago region would see a 30-percent reduction in homicides. … What that equated to was $65 million of policing and fewer policing cost, $218 million fewer corrections cost and the $6 billion bump in the residential property values for the entire region.
Between 1990 and 2010, two-thirds of the nation’s largest regions reduced their economic segregation more than Chicago did. Chicago declined by 10 percent, but to keep up it would have to decline by 19 percent in terms of economic segregation, 28 percent in terms of Latino-white segregation and 36 percent in terms of African-American and white segregation. Why did other cities make more progress than Chicago in reducing segregation?
The analysis gives us more of the what than it does the why. And so in the second phase of our work, we are seeking input from a whole host of experts and stakeholders around what policies and strategies we should recommend to address the segregation. We also want to take a look at some places that have seen a sharper drop in economic segregation, that have seen stronger progress in terms of mostly black-white segregation. And then also looking inward because Chicago has seen declines across the board and is in fact the only metro area of those 100 metro areas that saw from 1990 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2010 minor drops in all three of those measures of segregation.
There’s a difference in the segregation gap between African-Americans and whites and Latinos and whites. Why does it vary so much in Chicago?
The level of black-white segregation is measured by something the Urban Institute used called the spatial proximity index. In Chicago in 2010 that number was 1.87. That number was 1.5 for the Chicago region in terms of Latinos and whites. And so there are differences. And across the nation, generally speaking, the levels of black-white segregation were higher than the measures for Latino-white segregation.
It’s not 100 percent clear at least from the research why that is. [Surveys in Chicago] have shown among the white respondents that there is a greater willingness to live next to Latino neighbors than to African-American neighbors. Some of the other things that may play a part in that is that as Latino migration has increased dramatically over the past 40 years or so, there are greater entry points and perhaps more opportunities that have been explored by Latinos.
In Chicago the way that’s played out is Latinos initially were migrating to the city. But increasingly over the last 20, maybe 30 years or so, that destination has trended toward the suburbs. As a result, that has produced a kind of a lessening of segregation because Latinos are found throughout the suburban regions of Chicago far more often than you’ll find African-Americans. African-Americans are largely in two clusters to the south and to the west in suburban Chicago. Latinos are far more spread out, and their numbers are higher in the suburbs and in more places.
To some degree, at least through the surveys that we’ve seen, there is perhaps less of a reaction to Latino neighbors. But that’s not to say that there isn’t white flight in response to Latino migration or other challenges. … While we don’t present any statistically significant findings of the cost of Latino-white segregation [in the study], we see greater amounts of gentrification in Latino neighborhoods that are seeing an influx of white residents. And while Latinos are more suburbanized, they, generally speaking, are more likely to be segregated in more deindustrialized and declining communities in the suburbs. And Latino children are more likely to be in largely Latino schools serving low-income students.
Laquan McDonald Murderer Cop Charged With 16 More Counts
New prosecutors are trying to clean up the mess made by the previous crew’s attempt at coverup of the Police murder of McDonald.
Ain’t it funny how every time a black man is murdered the “find” drugs in his system to justify the murder? Oh! He was a “serial offender!” – he got 4 Parking Tickets and a Jaywalking charge in the last 20 years!
Jason Van Dyke charged with 16 new counts in shooting death of Laquan McDonald
Jason Van Dyke
A new indictment unsealed Thursday in the murder case against Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke added 16 counts of aggravated battery — one for each time the officer shot Laquan McDonald in 2014.
Joseph McMahon, the Kane County state’s attorney who was appointed special prosecutor in the high-profile case, had previously said his office believed that none of the rounds fired by Van Dyke was legally justified.
In the indictment returned March 16 by a new grand jury, Van Dyke is still charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of official misconduct as well.
Van Dyke, who has been suspended without pay since soon after he was first charged in November 2015, pleaded not guilty Thursday to the new indictment through his attorney.
McMahon denied in court that he sought the new indictment to correct what Van Dyke’s attorney, Daniel Herbert, had labeled fatal errors in the initial charges.
“I disagree with Mr. Herbert,” said McMahon, who made it clear, though, that he believed the issues raised by Van Dyke’s motion to dismiss the original indictment “were now moot.”
Herbert had alleged prosecutors misled the original grand jury by instructing them to consider Van Dyke’s actions only under the state’s first-degree murder statute, not under a separate law that governs an officer’s use of force.
He also alleged that prosecutors improperly presented to the grand jury statements that other officers at McDonald’s shooting were required to give by police disciplinary officials. And he also said grand jurors were wrongly told that the 17-year-old McDonald was shot first in the back.
The autopsy report showed that McDonald was shot 16 times in the scalp, neck, both sides of his chest, his back, both arms and his right hand and leg. But authorities have never publicly divulged — if they know — where he was first shot.
Herbert said he planned to file a similar motion to dismiss involving the new indictment after reviewing grand jury testimony given before the indictment was returned March 16.
Through his attorney, Van Dyke again entered a not guilty plea before Judge Vincent Gaughan.
The fallout over the dashboard camera video of the white police officer shooting the black teen has caused the most severe crisis for Mayor Rahm Emanuel in his time in office and led to a blistering report by the U.S. Department of Justice that portrayed a broken Police Department in which officers commit misconduct and use excessive force with little fear of repercussions.
The video showed Van Dyke opening fire within seconds of exiting his police SUV as McDonald walked away from police with a knife in his hand in the middle of the road shortly before 10 p.m. Oct. 20, 2014, contradicting many of the officers’ written accounts that the teen had lunged at police with the knife.
As McDonald walked away from him, Van Dyke took at least one step forward and fired 16 rounds at McDonald in about 14 seconds and was reloading when another officer told him to hold his fire, prosecutors have said.
Hundreds of pages of Chicago police reports showed that Van Dyke and at least five other officers claimed that the McDonald moved or turned threateningly toward officers, even though video of the shooting showed McDonald walking away.Authorities said McDonald had PCP in his system at the time of his death.
Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson is seeking to fire Van Dyke and four other officers whose accounts did not match the video.
McMahon has asked that the Chicago Police Board, which will decide on the firings, to hold off on hearings until after Van Dyke’s criminal trial to minimize publicity that could affect the trial’s jury selection.
However, most Chicago police officers charged with misconduct have opted to put their fate in the hands of a judge, not a jury.
At Thursday’s hearing, an attorney for the police board said the board has agreed to hold off on an evidentiary hearing in Van Dyke’s case until Gaughan, who is presiding over the officer’s criminal trial, rules on the issue.
Gaughan, who has routinely held lengthy off-the-record discussions with the attorneys in the case in his chambers at each status hearing, held to form Thursday, meeting privately with the attorneys — without a court reporter present — for about 45 minutes. The public discussion in his courtroom then lasted about 15 minutes.
WTF! 4 Black People Arrested for Videoed Beating of Disabled White Man on Facebook
Not sure that this pod of retrogressed morons were attempting to prove – other than to get their asses locked up in jail.
Dumb arsed Kneegrows – If your objective is to punish Trump supporting white nationalists then you need to adhere to three simple enough even for dumb fuck evolutionary dead end wall smackers like yourself rules:
- Make sure the object of your ire is actually a Trump supporter/white nationalist racist and not some innocent defenseless white person who hasn’t done shit to anybody. That’s their game to attack women and children.
- Leave no witnesses – or put it up on Facebook or social media, clowns.
- Bury the body deep somewhere it will never be found – AKA Mafia style – or if you aren’t going to kill them, make it so they can’t identify you…wear a mask, moron.
While I really don’t give a fuck if you do in one (or more) of those Trump white nationalist KKK scum – It is sick (and not in slang way) to see some innocent, defenseless person abused and hurt so your chicken shit punk ass can look tough to your video retard buddies.
Lastly the rest of us don’t have to put up with this racist shit –
Hate crime charges filed after ‘sickening’ video shows attack on mentally ill man in Chicago
Authorities in Chicago charged four people with hate crimes Thursday following the emergence of a disturbing video appearing to show them shouting obscenities about President-elect Donald Trump and white people while abusing a man authorities say has mental health problems.
The footage, which Chicago’s top police officer labeled “sickening,” quickly went viral online. In the shaky video, a terrified young man in a gray hooded sweatshirt and dark pants is seen crouching in a corner, his wrists and neck bound with orange bands, his mouth taped shut.
A young woman films as two young men slash the sleeves of his shirt with knives, then take turns punching him, slapping him and stomping on his head. At one point, one of the men can be seen cutting the victim’s hair and scalp with a knife, and the victim is later shown bleeding from his injuries.
As the victim cowers with his back to the wall, someone can be heard repeatedly shouting, “F‑‑‑ Donald Trump” and “F‑‑‑ white people.”
Throughout the 28-minute video — which focuses mostly on the young woman behind the camera — the group laughs, jokes and listens to music as the victim sits motionless on the floor. About halfway through, someone says the man “represents Trump,” and threatens to put him in the trunk of a car and “put a brick on the gas.”
It’s unclear what happens to the victim when the video cuts off.
A Terrorist Squirrel! Attack of the Squirrel ISIS Puts Alderman in Hospital
Posted under “You Know Its Bad When….
Even the squirrels in Chicago are tough cases as this brotha found out the hard way.City Alderman Howard Brookins found out that messing with the city’s “squirrel ISIS” can have brutal consequences!
Wishing the Alderman a speedy recovery!
‘Suicide bomber’ squirrel hospitalizes Chicago politician who spoke out against squirrels
Howard Brookins Jr., the alderman for Chicago’s 21st ward, had publicly spoken out about a toothy menace plaguing the city’s garbage carts: urban squirrels, which in Brookins’s view were “aggressive,” and aggressively damaging the trash cart lids.
He now has another reason to dislike the rodents. One recently sent him to the hospital with a skull fracture in a “freak bicycle accident,” as the alderman wrote on Facebook.
Brookins was biking along Cal-Sag Trail on Nov. 13, when a squirrel darted into his path. The squirrel cut Brookins’s bike trip short by wrapping itself in the spokes of the alderman’s bicycle. The alderman flipped over the handlebars and landed with such a severe impact that he fractured his skull, broke his nose and knocked out a handful of teeth, the Chicago Tribune reported. A woman who passed by called 911. Brookins was only able to leave the hospital Thursday.
“I can think of no other reason for this squirrel’s actions than that it was like a suicide bomber, getting revenge,” the alderman said to the Tribune on Monday. He told the newspaper a full recovery was expected to take months.
Brookins had denounced the eastern gray squirrel just a few weeks before the accident. In mid-October, Brookins complained that “aggressive squirrels” were undermining the effort to overhaul the city’s trash carts, reported the Chicago Sun Times. The squirrels were gnawing through the garbage cart lids at a cost of $300,000 to the city.
“It’s a pet peeve. It does invoke some giggles. But we are spending too much money on replacing garbage carts because the squirrels continue to eat through ’em,” Brookins said at a city council meeting on Oct. 21, according to the Sun Times. The alderman said that residents were repeatedly asking for replacement garbage cans, as the squirrels could chew through the lid within as little as two days.
After the accident, Brookins wrote on Facebook that he was okay, but he added he will undergo several surgeries “to recover from damage to my face and upper body.” His chief of staff, James Ramos, told Chicagoist that Brookins was “in very good spirits” despite his “heavy damage.”
The squirrel, however, was destined for the great Chicago garbage cart in the sky.
Grandson of US Representative Danny Davis Shot and KIlled
Condolences to Rep Davis and his family….
WTF can’t these scumbag hardheads murder some Trump supporters aand do something of value for the community?
Grandson of U.S. House member fatally shot in Chicago home invasion
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., said his 15-year-old grandson, Jovan Wilson, was shot in and killed in a home invasion, possibly over a pair of gym shoes. The teen was at home when two assailants broke into the home and shot him in the head
The 15-year-old grandson of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis was shot in the head and killed Friday, possibly in a dispute over gym shoes.
Chicago police said Jovan Wilson was in his home in Englewood when two armed assailants forced their way into the home about 6:45 p.m. The teen and the assailants argued, police said. The teen was shot in the head. Davis, a longtime House member who represents Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, was not at the home.
“That dispute escalated and turned physical and one of the offenders pulled out a gun and shot the victim in the head,” said Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, adding the incident may have sparked in a dispute over sneakers.
Davis had just returned to the Chicago area from Washington, D.C., when he learned of the shooting. He said a 17-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy were behind the home invasion. No arrests have been made.
“Initially it was that he had been shot and then actually the police commander called me and indicated that, there during a home invasion, he had been shot and it didn’t look good,” Davis said.
“Immediately I simply left and came out to the area where it had taken place,” Davis said. “It’s totally disconcerting.”
Davis said his grandson was a typical teen who loved sports and music.
“He liked basketball. If you listened to him he was a basketball star, but he liked basketball and music. All those kinds of things. He was an avid sports fan, he knew all about, you know, the stats of different players,” he said.
Gun violence has increased in the Chicago area in 2016 to levels not seen since the 1990s. The city has had 643 murders through Nov. 6. That’s a 55 percent increase over the same period last year.
Chicago – Paul O’Neal Murder By Cop
Another unarmed black teen shot in the back by Police…
Chicago police officer shot Paul O’Neal in back, autopsy shows
Paul O’Neal, the black teenager who was killed by Chicago police, died of a single gunshot wound to the back, the Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed in an autopsy report released Wednesday.
The teen did not have any illegal drugs in his system, CBS Chicago reports.
A Chicago police officer shot and killed O’Neal July 28, in an incident that was partly captured on video. The medical examiner’s office report stated that O’Neal was seen driving a 2002 Jaguar, a vehicle that had been reported stolen.
O’Neal, 18, reportedly refused to stop the vehicle and “rammed head on” into a marked squad car, injuring two officers. After the impact he got out and ran.
“During the foot pursuit shots were fired by other unidentified officers on the scene and possibly by O’Neal,” the medical examiner’s report says. However, investigators have determined that O’Neal was unarmed.
An officer, allegedly believing shots were fired by O’Neal, fired his “Glock 9mm handgun five times in an attempt to stop the threat,” the report states.
O’Neal was struck by a single bullet in the right side of his back, according to the report.
Unarmed Teen “Executed” By Chicago Cops
Same old story – same old bulls*it…
Lawyer: Paul O’Neal was “executed” by Chicago police
A family lawyer said Friday that 18-year-old Paul O’Neal was “executed” when he was fatally shot by Chicago police after a July 28 confrontation over an alleged stolen car.
Chicago authorities released video Friday of the moments before the shooting and the incident’s aftermath. The shooting itself was not captured on video because the body camera worn by the officer who fired the fatal shot wasn’t recording.
“We just came from watching Chicago police officers execute Paul O’Neal,” Family lawyer Michael Oppenheimer said. “We just watched the family watch the execution of their loving son.”
Autopsy results show that O’Neal, of Chicago, died of a gunshot wound to the back. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office have classified the death as a homicide, reports CBS Chicago.
Oppenheimer and family spokesman Ja’Mal Green said O’Neal, who was unarmed, was running away from officers when he was fatally shot.
“What I saw was cold-blooded murder,” Oppenheimer said, calling the video “beyond horrific.” “You don’t shoot dogs that are running away.”
The video shows officers firing into the Jaguar in which O’Neal was allegedly fleeing police. It also shows officers handcuffing and searching O’Neal after he was shot as he lay on the ground bleeding.
The family was set to speak to the media Friday morning, but were too distraught after viewing the video, Green said. O’Neal’s mother, he said, broke down in tears.
“This is amazing to me how this officers come into our neighborhood and treat us like savages,” Green said. “If he did steal that car that was for the courts to decide. Instead, the police decided to be the judge and execute him the way they did.”
The department’s current superintendent, Eddie Johnson, relieved three officers of their police powers after the shooting after officials said a preliminary determination concluded they had violated department policy.
Johnson has said he doesn’t suspect the body camera that wasn’t recording had been tampered with. Friday, Green called on him to hold officers accountable and enforce the use of body cameras.
“Every time a shooting happens, something’s wrong with the body camera,” Green said. “It’s like, the dog ate my homework.”
O’Neal’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority, the body that investigates police misconduct, expects to complete an investigation within 60 days.
“Becomming a Man” – A Program Successful at Cutting Youth Crime in Chicago
Something is working to at least slow the violence in Chicago down. It also will never be covered by most of the MSM because it is.
Inside The Chicago Program That Is Slashing Youth Crime Rates
“They learn that the kid sitting across from them in the circle has those same fears, has those same anxieties and that it’s OK.”
The Chicago-based program Becoming A Man is the type that allows rival gang members to sit together, just days after one group killed a member of the other, and calmly talk about their issues, according to John Wolf, senior manager of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab.
“The kids weren’t saying whether or not they specifically knew who did it. But you had these two groups of people — where they knew someone from their group of friends had just killed someone from the other group of friends — and they were able to sit down in this group and have a conversation back and forth about what had just transpired,” Wolf said. “They were talking through ways of finding peace and ways of making sure it didn’t escalate further.”
For the past few years, Wolf and his colleagues have been studying the impact of the Becoming A Man program, which targets at-risk male students in Chicago public schools. The program, run by the non-profit organization Youth Guidance, allows students to participate in weekly group sessions that teach them how to be more conscious of their decision-making processes. A recent two-year evaluation of the program showed that between 2013 and 2015, there was a 50 percent decline in violent crime arrests for the 2,000 participants as compared to a control group. The results of this evaluation are being shared Monday at the National Summit on Preventing Youth Violence in Baltimore.
By teaching these adolescent males how to slow down their decision-making processes and avoid knee-jerk reactions, the program aims to improve students’ abilities to make appropriate judgments in high-stakes situations.
Wolf spent many days observing the participants in the program. He watched as the boys became more willing to open up about their personal lives to other students in the group and speak about their emotional vulnerabilities.
Students in the program often face difficult life circumstances. Many of them live in poverty or in dangerous neighborhoods, surrounded by violence. Just getting to and from school can be a harrowing experience.
Counselors push participants to describe “what are you actually nervous about, what are you actually scared about, what are the things that you’re dealing with in your everyday existence, walking home, walking to and from school,” Wolf said. “You’re not allowed to say that you’re fearful or worried about things, but in the BAM circle they’re able to uncover those feelings.”
“I think a big part of it is, they learn that the kid sitting across from them in the circle has those same fears, has those same anxieties and that it’s OK,” he went on. “It’s a human condition to show those things and it’s a common experience.”
The program does not tell students how to behave, or instruct them as to the “right” thing to do, instead leaving it to the students to decide that. The program emphasizes only that the students carefully consider their decisions instead of rushing to act….Read the Rest Here...
Getting Away With Murder – Reka Boyd Killer Retires
American Justice…Better for some “special” people – bad for everyone else.
Rekia Boyd – Murder victim.
Dante Servin Quits, Set To Collect Pension 4 Years After Killing Rekia Boyd
The police detective who shot into a crowd while off-duty and killed teenager Rekia Boyd in 2012 has resigned, saving his pension as well as the indignity of getting fired.
Dante Servin’s resignation Tuesday came two days before an “evidentiary hearing” before the Chicago Police Board, said Max Caproni, the police board’s executive director. Any charges against Servin, a 24-year police veteran, will now be dropped.
Servin’s resignation comes about a year after he was acquitted of all charges related to the death of Boyd, a 22-year-old woman who was with a group of near Douglas Park when Servin pulled a gun while off-duty and shot into the crowd, striking Boyd in the head.
By resigning, Servin is now eligible to collect his pension and any other outstanding benefits he stood to lose if fired, angering the activists who called for his ouster.
Dante Servin
“The best union to be in in this country is the [Fraternal Order of Police] because you can get away with murder and still get paid,” community activist and anti-violence organizer Father Michael Pfleger said.
Martinez Sutton, Boyd’s brother, said he found out about Servin quitting Tuesday morning and wasn’t at all surprised. He said he figured the process would drag on until Servin walked away with his pension.
After four years of fighting for “justice” for his sister, Sutton said he wasn’t sure what “justice” was anymore.
“It destroyed a family. Rekia was light,” he said. “I don’t know how it affects [Servin], but he has to live with that. He has to live with it on his conscience.”
Servin was found not guilty on manslaughter charges in Boyd’s shooting death just over a year ago. A judge’s ruling suggested he should have been charged with murder instead, which was “unusual” according to legal experts.
Servin’s continued employment drew infuriated protesters and figured in Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s defeat in the March primary. Former top cop McCarthy last year recommended to the Police Board that Servin be fired.
Servin “should’ve been fired and instead he can resign and make money and that’s an insult,” Pfleger said. Trina Reynolds-Tyler of Black Youth Project 100, an activist group that called for Servin’s ouster, said his resignation is “disrespectful.”
“He just took an early retirement,” Reynolds-Tyler said. “It’s ridiculous that this process has taken so long to get to a firing hearing.”
Page May, another local activist, said “it ain’t over” till Servin loses his pension.
Chicago Priests Attempt Exorcising Trump
Getting rid of the Devil….
Chicago priests cast out Trump effigy’s demons during May Day exorcism in Chicago
Chicago priests prayed for Donald Trump’s soul and exorcised his effigy during Sunday’s May Day demonstrations. The video, which is in Spanish, appeared today after reports on the exorcism were tweeted out from @Aaroncynic’s account.
The march began at Chicago’s Union Park and proceeded to Trump Tower, May 1st, which is not only International Workers’ Day, but is also commemorated in Chicago as the anniversary of the Haymarket Affair, where a rally for workers’ rights turned deadly, resulting in the death of eight people. Labor union members were charged in the affair, with eight of them convicted, and four later hanged. Their convictions were considered to be politically motivated, and the four who died are often referred to as “martyrs.”
During this May Day celebration, the priests identified Trump as the current threat to workers’ rights.
“We ask that you bring out the demons and demonic forces of our brother, Donald Trump,” spoke the lead priest. “We ask, oh gracious God, to take away the hatred, bigotry and racism and the forked speaking tongue that he’s had and replace it with a powerful tongue and care,” the Chicagoist reported.
Chicago Twins Accepted to 56 Colleges
Congrats to Shaprice Hunt and her twin brother Deprice Hunt who together have been accepted to a phenomenal 56 Colleges and offered scholarships in total worth $1.6 million.
Shaprice has been accepted into 35 colleges, two of which have offered her a full-ride scholarship while five schools have scouted her to play basketball.
Deprice, who is a youth activist in Chicago, has been accepted into 27 schools. He earned $300,000 in scholarships and received two full scholarship offers.
An Amazing set of twins!
Phenomenal Twins Get Into 56 Colleges, Earn $1.6 Million In Scholarships
Chicago twins Deprice and Shaprice Hunt have set an extremely high bar for other high school seniors. The twins were recently accepted into a combined 56 colleges and have earned about $1.6 million in scholarships.
Kemitashi Austin brought the Hunt siblings’ huge accomplishments to the forefront on Facebook when she shared a screenshot of a conversation between her and Shaprice.
Of the 56 schools, Shaprice has been accepted into 35 colleges, two of which have offered her a full-ride scholarship while five schools have scouted her to play basketball. She told The Huffington Post that she earned $1.3 million in scholarships. Shaprice wants to attend either Illinois State University or Eastern Illinois University and dual major in Education and Psychology.
Deprice, who is a youth activist in Chicago, has been accepted into 27 schools. He earned $300,000 in scholarships and received two full scholarship offers.
“My motivation was to make sure [my mom] didn’t have to come out of pocket,” Deprice told HuffPost, echoing his sister’s sentiments.
His top choice is HBCU Morehouse College, which he said is his dream school. He also told HuffPost that he wants to study Performing Arts and Political Science.
In addition to their acceptance letters and scholarships, the twins boast perfect attendance and a total of 48 awards throughout their high school years, according to Deprice’s Facebook.
The Hunt twins credit their family, teachers and guidance counselors for their successes. They told HuffPost that it’s easy, especially in Chicago, to let negative stereotypes about black youth get the best of someone. That’s why, with the help of Austin, Deprice reached out to local news outlets to tell their story with the hope of inspiring others.
“A lot of people say you can’t do it because of where you’re from,” Deprice said. “Don’t listen to them.”
The twins said they know financial issues, among other factors, hold a lot of teens back. But it’s important to be persistent, Shaprice told HuffPost.
“Never give up,” she said. “Picture your future. Not only to make yourself proud but make your family proud.”
Somebody at home was supporting these kids, through preparation of applications to paying the Application Fees. The article doesn’t say how many schools they applied to, or why they applied to so many, instead of targeting the group they really wanted to attend.
Another $4.9 Million Tax Bill For Chicago’s Bad Cops
Been saying this for a while …At some point the expense of bad policing become unsustainable by the tax base. $250 million buys a lot of road repairs and upgrades to schools. $250 million is the payout Chicago is now on the hook for in lawsuits due to police brutality and misbehavior. And it is rising every day.
Chicago To Pay $4.9 Million To Family Of Man Dragged In Handcuffs
Philip Coleman died at a hospital in 2012, according to court records.
The city of Chicago has agreed to pay the family of a black man who died after being dragged by handcuffs from a cell in a police lockup and down a hallway more than three years ago, an attorney for the family said on Monday.
Philip Coleman, 38, was arrested for domestic battery against his mother on Dec. 12, 2012.
After he refused to go to court the next morning, several police officers struggled with Coleman inside a cell, and he was Tasered, court records showed. In an incident caught on video, an officer dragged a motionless Coleman by his handcuffs.
Coleman later died at a hospital, according to court records. The Chicago Tribune reported that an autopsy showed he died of a reaction to an antipsychotic drug and also had bruises and abrasions on his body. Reuters was not able to confirm the cause of death.
Ed Fox, a lawyer for the family, told Reuters by phone that Coleman’s family and the city of Chicago had reached a settlement over the family’s civil rights lawsuit, but declined to confirm media reports that it was for $4.9 million.
The city’s law department declined to comment.
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