Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Former police officer Anthony Napolitano said on Tuesday that the notion of defunding the police is ‘ridiculous’ and communities, especially in Chicago, need to ‘step up’ to address crime in their own neighborhoods.” Fox 32 Chicago reports.

“I want to see more outrage. Where is the outrage for the hundred-plus people shot in the street and these kids that have been killed?” Nothing. It is silent here,” Napolitano told Fox & Friends First.

Such a well-worn trope of the right. Let me tell you something, Ald. Napolitano: If you don’t see the outrage all around you, you aren’t looking very hard. Maybe get out of the house – or stay in and read a newspaper or visit a website (and skip John Kass, who has propagated the same notion for years despite an exhausting number of marches, rallies, pleas and protests against gun violence and all manner of crime that courses through some of our neighborhoods). The outrage is in your face. The only way you can miss it is if you insist on turning away.


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In fact, if Napolitano and Kass don’t think the outrage of the current BLM protests extend to the kind of weekends we just saw in Chicago, they’re missing the big picture, and particularly a big piece of what the ‘defund the police’ movement is all about.
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I can’t help but recall when Rahm, too, was on the no-outrage bandwagon, though maybe understandable because he was new to the city . . .


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“Napolitano said that cops hold each other accountable, contrary to popular belief.”
He’s right – if by “holding each other accountable” he means accountable to the code of silence.
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Better:


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“This is on parents. Raise your kids. Teach them what is right and what is wrong.”
Now he’s making sense. I hope the parents of police officers do this and their kids follow their advice.
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Meanwhile, here’s Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White not being useful:
“I’ve experienced discrimination most of my life, but I’ve never bought into it and never let it keep me from doing what I wanted to do. Whenever I experienced it, I let it roll off my back.”
Do you hear that, kids? Just let it roll of your back. Or your neck as it’s being crushed. Or your back where you’re being shot. Don’t buy into it.
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And here’s someone else I’d rather not hear from, seeing as how he’s the only police chief in U.S. history to leave two departments under federal consent decrees for widespread civil rights violations:

Former Chicago Police Commissioner Garry McCarthy told The Story Monday that he has heard from police officers who are “devastated” by the current anti-law enforcement climate in several cities across America, which has been accompanied by a surge in violence.
“I’m talking to my colleagues across the country, I’m talking to rank-and-file police officers here and in New York City and in Newark, New Jersey where I worked,” he told host Martha MacCallum. “They are devastated.”
“To a man and a woman, they say that policing is dead in this country,” McCarthy added. “I don’t think we can come back after this.”

Looking forward to Rahm Emanuel’s next ABC appearance to explain it all to us.
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Revolving Door
“The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) of Illinois issued the following statement regarding Phase 4 reopening guidelines released by Gov. JB Pritzker’s office, which allows for movie theatres to reopen beginning June 26 with a maximum capacity of 50 people.”
I don’t much care about that, but this:
“I asked the group’s spokesperson Monique Garcia what the theaters were doing about the viral load issue,” Rich Miller writes.
That would this Monique Garcia, who used to be this Monique Garcia.
I’m sorry, but if you’re going to leave the business, go work for a homeless shelter or teach, don’t do work that is hostile to journalism and its core values.
Beyond that, we should be immediately suspect of the work of those who are found acceptable and even desirous to be hired into such positions.
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GOP vs. FOP
I understand that the Illinois GOP would like to flip the state supreme court seat of Thomas Kilbride to their side, but I find it notable nonetheless that in trying to do so they are on record opposing the FOP’s position on their latest case to reach that bench. Perhaps that sliver of an opening could widen into a wedge.
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Fireworks Frenzy
“The city has received more than 7,000 emergency calls for fireworks disturbances so far this year, compared with only 842 last year during the same time period, a 736% increase, according to data provided by the Office of Emergency Management and Communications,” the Tribune reports.
“The numbers mirror increases in cities throughout the country, which those in the fireworks industry say can be traced to the cancellation of organized shows because of the coronavirus pandemic. There has been a surge in complaints about fireworks in New York, Boston and Hartford, Connecticut. Residents of other cities, including Los Angeles and Baltimore, have taken to social media to vent their frustration.”
I’m glad the Trib included that national context, which is so often missing in stories that describe decidedly non-local phenomena, like, say, pothole season and overburdened unemployment offices.
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Anyway, apparently the massive increase in fireworks use is due to cooped-up folks feeling stir crazy – which, by the way, is the reason behind the massive number of shootings last weekend, according to one alderman.
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Illinois’ Amazingly Awesome Unemployment Office
Speaking of overburdened unemployment offices . . .
“The Illinois Department of Employment Security is opening up about the significant hurdles they faced with the COVID-19 pandemic. Thursday was the first time the Illinois Employment Security Advisory Board met since Gov. J.B. Pritzker started the state’s stay-at-home order,” downstate WGEM-TV reports.

People filing for unemployment are frustrated by busy phone lines and a website prone to random crashes. IDES Acting Director Thomas Chan says the department wasn’t staffed for such an event. Chan explains the federal government didn’t provide funding for better staffing. He says IDES has also seen a large number of employees retire, meaning there are less experienced members working right now.
For example, in 2014 86.1% of the staff had over five years of experience. That dropped to 67% by this year. Internal documents show seasoned employees with 20 or more years with IDES dropped by nearly 11%. Chan says they need to fill 170 jobs as soon as possible.
“If you look at the statistics, you can see that we’re receiving around 200,000 calls from unique claimants each week,” Chan said. “Even though our capacity is expanding, we’ve only ever been able to answer about 15% of those calls.”
He feels criticism of the call center is justified since people expected the Department to be prepared for the major increase in unemployed Illinoisans.

Nice of you to say so now, Director Chan. Almost two months ago Pritzker preposterously claimed there was no backlog at IDES.
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See also, from CNN: Unemployed Kentucky Residents Descend On Capital, Demand Help After Months Of Waiting For Benefits.
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New on the Beachwood today . . .
Dear High Schoolers And Recent Graduates . . .
Our very own E.K. Mam would like a word with you.
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How Grant Split The Confederate Nation At Vicksburg
He fucked up them Rebs but good.
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Soul Survivors
Black reality TV stars discuss their Tribes and Tribulations.
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40 Years Of Laibach
The most controversial band of all-time?
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ChicagoReddit

Has anyone had success lowering their rent when they signed a new lease during the pandemic? from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram

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Writing on the Wall | The Wall of Respect was a mural first painted in 1967 by the Visual Arts Workshop of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC). The mural represented the contributions of fourteen designers, photographers, painters, and others, notably Chicago muralist William Walker. Some of the artists would go on to found the influential AfriCOBRA artists collective. The work comprised a montage of portraits of heroes and heroines of African American history painted on the side of a building at the corner of Chicago’s 43rd Street and Langley Avenue, an area called the Black Belt. Notable images included Nat Turner, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Gwendolyn Brooks, W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Aretha Franklin, and Harriet Tubman. Wall of Respect was an example of the Black Arts Movement, an artistic school associated with the Black Power Movement. The scholarly journal Science & Society underscored the significance of the Wall of Respect as “the first collective street mural,” in the “important subject [of] the recently emerged street art movement.” The Wall became famous as a “revolutionary political artwork of black liberation”. The Wall became a source of inspiration and pride for the black community. #arthistory #blackliberation #africobra #jeffdonaldson #chicago #mural #artactivism #wallofrespect

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Art Collective (@auc_artcollective) on


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ChicagoTube
The $300 Million Cable Between New York City And Chicago.

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BeachBook
Experts Call For Regulation After Latest Botched Art Restoration In Spain.

This can’t be fucking real. Really?
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TweetWood
A sampling of the delight and disgust you can find @BeachwoodReport.


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Dear complainers: You’ve benefited mightily from intentional, structural racism for quite a long time. Think of how devastating this system has been to Black wealth . . .


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Soda taxes are good and proper, though execution can be complicated.


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I mean, there’s a lot going on here . . .


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The Beachwood Quip Line: Quip it good.

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Posted on June 23, 2020