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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Posted on June 23, 2020

Stay-at-home memes featuring the mayor sure gave Lori Lightfoot an image boost, but since what may have been a peak in her popularity she’s been on a bit of a substantive losing streak. And now her credibility is crumbling – at least with me.
To wit:

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Posted on June 22, 2020

By Steve Rhodes

“Chicago police misconduct records that are five years old and older will remain available to the public, according to a ruling from the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday,” the Tribune reports.
“The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police had sued the city contending that such records should be destroyed after five years under the city’s police contract. An arbitrator had called for the city and the FOP to come to an agreement on the issue, but the city had successfully challenged it at the appellate level.
“The state’s high court found . . . that the arbitration award violated clear public policy in the state’s Local Records Act.”
So the state supreme court ruled that state law trumped the police union contract. I wonder if that sets a precedent for other contract clawbacks.

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Posted on June 18, 2020

By Steve Rhodes

“In the midst of an almost deafening national and local outcry over police abuses, the Illinois Supreme Court may order the City of Chicago to destroy all records of complaints against police officers that are more than five years old, potentially undermining attempts to identify problematic officers,” WBEZ reports.
“A decision is scheduled to be issued Thursday in a legal challenge brought by the union representing Chicago police officers, asserting that their contract with the city requires the destruction of old complaints.”

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Posted on June 17, 2020

By Steve Rhodes

Grinding my gears:
The media (and others) talk about police unions as if they are an entity in and of themselves, apart from actual police officers, when in fact police union leadership are elected by the rank-and-file. Police union leadership, almost universally repugnant across America, reflect the views of the majority of police officers. Let that sink in.

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Posted on June 16, 2020

By Steve Rhodes

You know who else protected it? The mainstream media, which for years ignored the deep reporting of the Chicago Reader: https://t.co/BWg9sH1GbA That part always goes unmentioned, probably because the media hasn’t learned anything about itself from Burge: https://t.co/Prlh5DnsHp https://t.co/3jP3KaZBnJ

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) June 15, 2020

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Posted on June 15, 2020

By Steve Rhodes

“Illinois Republicans held a virtual state convention Saturday with Chairman Tim Schneider declaring President Donald Trump ‘a man for our time’ and contending the COVID-19 pandemic has helped Democrats move the country toward socialism while trying to win the White House,” the Tribune reports.

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Posted on June 13, 2020

By Steve Rhodes

Lori Lightfoot was at her best today when she absolutely ripped a handful of Chicago police officers caught on video inside the burgled office of U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush making popcorn, taking naps and lounging about while the rest of the city burned. Follow the A.D. Quig’s thread:

Mayor Lori Lightfoot talking now about a piece of information Congressman Bobby Rush brought to her attention that “shocked” her and her team, “and frankly enraged us.” https://t.co/67oudhhetN

— A.D. Quig (@ad_quig) June 11, 2020

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Posted on June 11, 2020

By Steve Rhodes

Inbox:

Chicago Field Museum Workers Join National Movement Demanding Management Protect Their Livelihoods During COVID Pandemic
Museum Workers Organize & Fight Decision to Fire Workers Rather Than Trim Executive Compensation
Chicago – Hundreds of Field Museum of Natural History workers escalate their fight to save their jobs by coming together, delivering a petition with over 1,000 signatures to management, and going public to stop the museum from slashing jobs and cutting wages during the COVID pandemic and historic unemployment.
Even though the museum received CARES Act dollars, and Field Museum workers have donated over $200,000 in vacation time to support struggling co-workers, employees’ calls for executives to share in the collective sacrifice to save working families’ incomes have fallen on deaf ears.

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Posted on June 10, 2020

By Steve Rhodes

Inbox:

After Four Taco Bell Workers Test Positive for COVID-19, Chicago Fast-Food Cooks, Cashiers to Protest Employers’ Failure to Keep Workers Safe
Taco Bell workers first raised the alarm over a lack of proper PPE in their store weeks ago
Employees file public health complaints alleging managers failed to inform them of positive COVID-19 cases or properly sanitize stores
CHICAGO – Chicago fast-food workers on strike over their employers’ failed COVID-19 responses will hold a caravan protest Tuesday, as Taco Bell workers file two public health complaints spotlighting conditions that pose an “imminent danger” at a Lincoln Park location where four workers have tested positive for COVID-19.

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Posted on June 9, 2020