Chicago Board of Ed. continues CPD contract

Ald. Roderick Sawyer (Ward 6) discussed this issue last week and I would say he made some good points as far as why police are in CPS schools and what CPS could replace police with in their schools. It's interesting that even the 2nd City Cop blog seemed to support removing police from CPS schools at one point.

Then Wednesday's Board of Education vote and the contract continues [VIDEO]

And 2nd City Cop discusses this some more

The obvious answer is that the four votes don't want to face the political fallout when schools become uninhabitable for the good kids along with the three or four hundred teachers who would resign instantly should their last modicum of safety was removed. That makes them reasonably intelligent....for public school employees that is.

Also from the above video, Miguel del Valle noted that LSCs can make the decision as far as whether they want police officers or school resource officers in their individual schools. I suppose if each school can make that choice then so be it as opposed to making this a system wide mandate. It was noted in this article that Minneapolis' schools made their decision to end their contraction with Minneapolis police. They also voted to abolish their police department.

I wanted to show you this video of the protest on Wednesday in downtown Chicago. I drove right through it at least before Dearborn Street got shut down. Even saw a car with "Defund the police" in big letters and a huge figure of a pig on top of it - fill in the blank on that one though no need in this case I know their point. In this 1 min 30 sec video I don't see that car but we do see the protest. [VIDEO]

We are entering Phase 4 in Illinois

From NBC Chicago:

Phase four of the "Restore Illinois" plan allows for the reopening or expansion of several industries, including indoor dining at restaurants, health and fitness, movies and theaters, museums and zoos and more. This next phase also increases the size of gatherings that are allowed from 10 people to a maximum of 50 people.

All four regions of Illinois are on track to enter phase four on Friday, Pritzker's office said, with the state's average 7-day case positivity rate falling to 2.5 percent as of Saturday.

"Over the last four months, Illinoisans have pulled together with the common mission of keeping each other safe. By staying home and practicing social distancing, the rate of new COVID-19 cases continues to drop and each region throughout the state is prepared to move to Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan," Pritzker said in a statement. "Science and data are the overarching guardrails for how Illinois will keep moving forward. By continuing to wear face coverings and following the guidance from health experts we can continue to safely reopen our economy and move forward together."

Here's a tweet from Gov. Pritzker.

Over the last four months, Illinoisans have pulled together with the common mission of keeping each other safe.

By staying home and practicing social distancing, every region of the state is on track to move to Phase 4 this week.

Here's how we're going to do that safely: https://t.co/oXFL7up8m2

— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) June 22, 2020

If you want to know about the city's move into Phase 4, I will share this Sun-Times link.

CapFax: Black and brown people are being hit coming and going

Not only about positive rates of infections when you read this post from Rich Miller they also talk about jobs. The economy took a hit due to the lockdowns and while it seems this state had regained jobs guess there were some groups who didn't appear to benefit?

Black and brown people are being hit coming and going https://t.co/cd8AotfGrZ

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) June 19, 2020

Tribune: CTA and Pace buses will begin collecting fares again, as riders slowly return to public transit

If you've gotten used to boarding the rear of a CTA bus during the course of this coronavirus pandemic, that time is ending. If you enjoyed avoiding paying your fare, especially for those of you who prefer to pay with cash as opposed to using a ventra card those days are about to end.

In another sign that things are getting closer to normal in the Chicago area, the CTA and Pace will start collecting bus fares again, and the CTA will end rear-door boarding.

The CTA will require customers to enter buses via the front door and pay fares starting Sunday, while the Pace suburban bus service resumes fare collections Monday.

Both agencies had waived fare collection as a way to protect operators and passengers from the coronavirus. But since the agency started rear-door boarding in April, the state and the agency have adopted other ways of keeping people safe, including providing masks for all drivers, requiring that passengers be masked, and implementing new cleaning technology, said CTA spokesman Brian Steele.

The agency limits the number of passengers on buses to no more than 15 people on a 40-foot bus and no more than 22 on a 60-foot bus. The CTA also has a ridership information dashboard on its website that shows when buses are the most crowded to help people choose a better time to travel.

Keith Hill, president of the bus drivers’ union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241, said his group agreed with the resumption of front-door boarding. Hill noted the CTA had agreed to increase the “standee line,” or how far passengers have to stand back from drivers, to more than six feet.

In addition to outdoor dining, opening the lakefront, even allowing businesses that provide such services as barbers, pedicures, tatoos, etc to reopen it's a start!

Starting Sunday, rear-door boarding on CTA buses will end. As we begin to welcome people back, riders will return to boarding at the front as we’ve taken many steps to provide the healthiest environment possible for customers and employees. Learn more: https://t.co/VDccvU5ct2 pic.twitter.com/SuRgcZfCwr

— cta (@cta) June 19, 2020

Does CPS need police at schools? #6WardChicago

[VIDEO] Alderman Roderick Sawyer (Ward 6) speaks with WGN on a proposal to remove Chicago Police (CPD) from CPS schools.

A couple of things that resonate with me from this discussion. First, should students be concerned that some minor mischievous actions could quickly turn into a police situation. Ald. Sawyer noted that a student spent a night in jail for mouthing off to a police officer. One shouldn't get smart with police anyway, however, was it worth a night in jail?

Second, while police were stationed at schools initially to keep out bad influences could the schools find other resources to help students. Let's say CPD or CPS ended the contract for police at the schools, perhaps they could find a way to bring in resource officers. We've heard a lot about bringing in nurses, psychologists, social workers, etc into our schools. So let's say we do take police out of our schools, we can replace them with resources for our students.

What do you think?

Chicago's lakefront will reopen soon

[VIDEO] The above from CBS 2 shows that bars will be allowed to reopen on Wednesday and the lakefront will be opened next week. This isn't exactly breaking news, however, I'm glad that the coronavirus hasn't entirely ruined summer.

Of course with this in mind, authorities are still concerned about the coronavirus. As you see in the video from Mayor Lightfoot on twitter you still have to maintain social distancing for example or take any other precautions necessary.

Lori Lightfoot has had a rough period the last two or so weeks, but I have to admit this video you're about to see is pretty hilarious. At the end a cutout of a stern mayor in earth tones replaced by a more relaxed mayor in summer white.

We each did our part to flatten the curve, and now we are slowly reopening the City. Let's keep up the good work—let's #BeSafeChicago. Thank you for being in this together. pic.twitter.com/cHg1cFZ1G0

— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) June 15, 2020

I'm happy that our city is taking one more step towards returning to normal after two months of lockdown and after a brief period of civil unrest.

CBS Chicago: Some Aldermen Furious With Mayor Lightfoot Over How Looting Was Handled

[VIDEO] Ald. Anthony Beale (Ward 9) and Ald. Raymond Lopez (Ward 15) should be commended for calling into question Mayor Lori Lightfoot's response to the chaos in the city that spilled over from downtown into the neighborhoods on the city's south and west side on May 30 & 31. We see how the communities of both the 9th and 15th ward and other parts of the city was very devasted by the civil unrest that resulted in looting and vandalism.

I'm glad that the measures put in place in response to the unrest caused by the death of George Floyd when he was arrested by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota last month are being lifted. The civic unrest occurred just as the city was about to reopen after just about two months of shutdown due to the coronavirus.

While the city began to reopen on June 3, 2020 as planned I'm glad that the curfew has been lifted. Hopefully traffic in the city's downtown area will begin to return to normal once the bridges downtown are lowered (they were raised in an effort to control traffic into and out of downtown). Hopefully there will be further efforts to get things back to as close to normal as possible in the city's neighborhoods, especially on the south side.

BTW, I want to especially note the clash between Ald. Lopez and Mayor Lightfoot that resulted in a profanity laced argument between both on a conference call. I've heard Lopez on the radio over the past week as far as the looting in his neighborhood and I could tell he wasn't very happy with the response.

Meet the Dreadheaded Cowboy

With the unrest in downtown Chicago and in the neighborhoods I was all over social media looking for postings (usually fb, ig, and twitter) about the . Thankfully instances of looting, vandalism or violence has tamped down a bit, it does sound like it still goes on in the neighborhoods, however, peaceful demonstrations are still on going throughout the city in the past week.

I do want to talk about the Dreadheaded Cowby - real name Adam Hollingsworth - whom I seen on social media and the videos that were out there usually had a caption "This man stole a horse from the police". Some would point out that they've seen him in the neighborhoods and that police horses are usually uniform in color unlike any videos of this man on his horse which is brown and white. That's not quite a uniform in color horse.

The great thing about social media is that everyone has a platform the bad thing about social media is that everyone has a platform. If you want to know what's going on now, you really do have to vette a social media user's credibility and I do think that's hard.

The alleged theft was a joke by Hollingsworth in the heat of a moment. Unfortunately some people took that comment and ran with it and sadly tagged his car with spray paint urging him to return the horse. He spoke to Block Club Chi about that night and about the vandalism of his vehicle:

But people have snapped videos of Hollingsworth riding at protests in Chicago and posted them on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, claiming he stole Bella from a mounted police officer. One Twitter post, which read “Breaking: Protester stole a horse from police,” was retweeted more than 8,000 times and watched more than 1 million times.

The video, shot by an unknown person, shows Dreadheadcowboy galloping on his spotted horse, Bella, Downtown during the protest.

People have threatened Hollingsworth and someone even egged and spray painted his car, writing, “Return the Horse Bitch.” Hollingsworth lives in suburban Crete but his car was parked at his sister’s house in Englewood, and she first noticed the damage Tuesday morning.

“I’ve been getting people inboxing me, telling me to return the horse and don’t come to Chicago,” Hollingsworth said Tuesday. “I want to let people know that I’m out here to bring the positive back to the community, and they’re making it even harder than what it is.”

People even edited a video Hollingsworth recorded to spread the fake news. He was recording a lengthy Facebook Live of his ride during one protest when other people at the event joked he stole the horse. He joked back, “I stole it from the police,” and he laughed.

But someone edited the more than 29-minute live video into a 32-second snippet, proclaiming again Hollingsworth stole the police horse, and shared the truncated video on a different social networking site.

It was reshared by people, including a comedian, on Facebook. People accused Hollingsworth of theft, demanding he return the horse as others tried to correct the misinformation, sharing news articles about him.

Via Block Club Chi

Become part of the solution

I'm very dismayed at the unrest that unfolded over the weekend here in Chicago. I witnessed the demonstrations in downtown Chicago and unfortunately the vandalism of Chicago's streets and businesses having seen graffiti on not only streets and buildings and buses also. Even seen streaks where it was apparent someone threw something at a window on some buildings.

I get that people are upset about what happened in Minneapolis, Minnesota with Mr. George Floyd. It's generally agreed regardless of your political affiliation or even ethnicity that the police officers involved in his arrest and death had a very callous disregard for that man's life. It's great that people are demonstrating another instance of police mistreatment of yet another citizen.

What bothers me is the destruction not only of downtown Chicago which I know the city itself will do its best to take care of. It's the destruction in looting in south side neighborhoods. An area of the city which could ill afford it.

I've seen people bring up 1968 - there were riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. - there are parts of this city that never recovered from those riots sadly. And I'm definitely concerned that those areas hard hit by the recent looting and violent may take a long time for recovery.

I've seen reports of the Walmart in Chatham on 83rd & Stewart was not only looted, it was also on fire. I've not been up there to see what's been going on with that, however, I'm sure many of us assume it's still standing and will be repaired.

I remember the debate over bringing a Walmart to that location. The debate was over the rate of pay for Walmart workers. Another debate unfortunately was racial as people were concerned about who'd shop there as people of many backgrounds will shop there. Some of those comments were seen on this blog at that time.

Ald. Howard Brookins was eventually successful in getting a Walmart on 83rd and it's sad to see that in a matter of days his hardwork to bring new stores and jobs into the community has suffered a reversal. As of now it appears that this Walmart will be reopened in the near future, I did start off pessimistic on this and I'm glad the recent unrest wont close any Walmarts in the city.

Just about 13 years ago J.P. Paulus and I started this blog. My goal was to create something of a community blog akin to blogs such as the now defunct Broken Heart of Roger's Park, Uptown Update, Sloopin' and even Edgeville Buzz. I don't know if this blog had fully fulfilled that mission over the years though by some accounts whether second hand or personally it seems that we have.

I don't consider myself a community activist or even a journalist though some have argued as such over the years. I do know that as of now, my goal is to be part of the solution.

My goal is to continue updating you all especially with our fb page. You all stay safe out there