chicagotribune--2020-09-04--The Rev. Leon Finney Jr., longtime South Side activist and developer, dies

Finney led The Woodlawn Organization and its development arm , the Woodlawn Community Development Corp .
The Woodlawn Organization became @ @ @ @ @ built a network of social programs , but in the last decade came increasingly under @ @ @ @ @ the use of some of the millions of dollars of public funds the development group @ @ @ @ @ of misusing public housing funds , including using government money for private pursuits .

Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, is greeted by the Rev. Leon Finney Jr., right, during a community barbecue in support of the Obama Presidential Center, at Leon's BBQ and Grill on June 14, 2019, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
The Rev. Leon Finney Jr., a longtime South Side pastor and activist, who came to prominence in the 1960s by fighting slumlords and helping guard the Woodlawn neighborhood against University of Chicago expansion plans, died Friday at the University of Chicago Medical Center, a longtime friend said.
He was 82.
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Founder of The Woodlawn Organization, Finney made his name opposing the encroachment of the University of Chicago on areas south of the Midway Plaisance.
The Rev. Leon Finney Jr. gives a tour of the Woodlawn neighborhood on Dec. 9, 2011. He pointed to several projects, such as a residential housing development on East 63rd Street that he and the Woodlawn Organization helped bring to the area in the last several decades. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush described Finney as an “organizer’s organizer” who was on the front line of change.
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“Dr. Finney’s life and legacy have left his fingerprints on the throttle of change in our city, state, and nation,” the Democratic congressman said in a statement.
Rush, who was taught by Finney at McCormick Theological Seminary, credited Finney for training countless Black pastors after establishing an African American leadership program at the institution.
“He was an absolute friend and an inspiration,” he said. “I alone, with countless others, are in mourning due to his transition, but we all remain committed to furthering his life’s pursuit.”
When thousands of residents fled Woodlawn after fires ravaged the neighborhood in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Finney worked to develop a revitalization plan to help restore the community.
“I think his biggest contribution to the society was his skills as a community organizer,” Jim Montgomery, Finney’s cousin, said.
“He developed the template on how to organize a poor community.”
Rikki Jones, Cook County Democrat Women president and founder of Christ Apostolic Church, called Finney “a great community man” for the Woodlawn neighborhood.
“His death took me by surprise,” she said.
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Jones explained that in recent weeks she was unable to reach him. “That was not in his character, to not get back with you. He never stayed out of the loop. He was always in the middle of everything.”
Jones recounted working with Finney and mentioned the late Mayor Harold Washington’s campaign, noting Finney’s love of politics.
She hopes someone will pick up where Finney left off, someone who cares and loves the community as sincerely as Finney, she said.
Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, is greeted by the Rev. Leon Finney during a community barbecue in support of the Obama Presidential Center at Leon's BBQ and Grill on June 14, 2019, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
A native of Louise, Mississippi, Finney took pride in being a protege of both radical organizer Saul Alinsky and Bishop Arthur Brazier, pastor of the Apostolic Church of God, the founder of The Woodlawn Organization.
Finney led The Woodlawn Organization and its development arm, the Woodlawn Community Development Corp. The Woodlawn Organization became a national model as it built a network of social programs, but in the last decade came increasingly under scrutiny because of questions about the use of some of the millions of dollars of public funds the development group controlled. He was accused of misusing public housing funds, including using government money for private pursuits.
Finney earned three master’s degrees and two Ph.D.s, including a doctorate of theology from McCormick Theological Seminary.
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After serving as a Marine in the 1960s, Finney worked as a commercial paper trader for the First National Bank of Chicago, then as executive director of The Woodlawn Organization, often known by the acronym TWO, by the late 1960s.
Finney went on to become the pastor of three churches, including the Christ Apostolic Church, which later took over and restored the Metropolitan Church in Bronzeville and became the Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church.
Finney had a long-standing career in Chicago politics.
He sat on the city planning commission for more than 30 years. He served as the chair of the Chicago State University Board of Trustees for years, and in the 1980s, he was a Chicago Housing Authority board member for five years.
“Leon is one of those leaders of the community who was busier than anyone I ever encountered,” Montgomery said.
“I, like everyone else, will absolutely miss him.”
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Tribune reporter Javonte Anderson contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Coronavirus at Illinois long-term care facilities: 27,738 confirmed cases and 4,445 deaths

The Illinois Department of Public Health is releasing information on COVID-19 tied to long-term care facilities in Illinois .
The @ @ @ @ @ at 824 long-term care facilities in 73 counties .
Of those , 517 facilities have @ @ @ @ @ , defined as a positive test result in the past 28 days .
In all @ @ @ @ @ be tied to long-term care facilities , with 4,445 deaths , as of Sep. 4 @

The Illinois Department of Public Health is releasing information on COVID-19 tied to long-term care facilities in Illinois. The data shows outbreaks have occurred at long-term care facilities in 94 counties. Of those, 1,003 facilities have an “active” outbreak, defined as a positive test result in the past 28 days. In all, 71,103 confirmed cases can be tied to long-term care facilities, with 9,263 deaths, as of Jan. 22.


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Best friend remembers Daniel Prude: ‘He challenged me and inspired me. ... That’s the main reason wh

Best friend remembers Daniel Prude: ‘He challenged me and inspired me. ... That’s the main reason why I can’t be silent.’

“ He was a loving brother , ” Allen said , his voice dipping as he tried to maintain his @ @ @ @ @ the things that he endured and went through throughout his life , disappointments on all @ @ @ @ @ to survive all of that and live through that , and then die by the @ @ @ @ @ , I mean , it ’ s just terrible .
”

Jim Allen, who runs consulting organization One Business Chicago and grew up with Daniel Prude, talks about his friend near his home in Chicago on Sept. 4, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
On a chilly day in 1994, Daniel “Rell” Prude invited his best friend to hop inside the first car he ever owned.
They were both around 16, and the two ogled the sleek car before setting off from their home in the Lawndale Gardens housing complex and cruising up California Avenue. Along the way, they bumped Tupac and Jodeci on the radio while chatting about girls they had recently seen and making silly quips at each other.
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Jim Allen recalls the entire West Side seeming open for exploration as they coasted on the newly acquired wheels. They did not venture far and were careful not to speed. They did not want to attract the attention of police, he said Thursday.
An undated photo of Daniel Prude. Prude, 41, suffocated after police in Rochester, N.Y., put a "spit hood" over his head while being taken into custody. He died March 30, 2020, after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter with police. (Roth and Roth LLP/AP)
Prude had a hard life, but Allen said that didn’t stop him from being generous with his good fortune, quick to crack jokes and possessing a Chicago-style resolve to find joy.
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Allen said his childhood friend certainly did not deserve to die the way he did in March at the hands of police in Rochester, New York: His head wrapped in a hood, his face pushed to the pavement until he couldn’t breathe, according to video released this week. Prude was 41.
“He was a loving brother,” Allen said, his voice dipping as he tried to maintain his composure. “All of the things that he endured and went through throughout his life, disappointments on all sides, and being able to survive all of that and live through that, and then die by the hands of law enforcement is, I mean, it’s just terrible.”
Prude was a young child when one of his brothers was killed in a car crash, Allen said. In his adult years, another brother was murdered. His mother Dorothy Prude died. The trauma instilled Prude with a fierce pledge to protect his loved ones.
Junera Prude, 25, said her favorite moments with her father were her lavish birthday parties. He invited all her cousins to a house brimming with decorations and gifts, and brought out multiple cakes for her to choose from when it came time to blow out the candles. He would hold her and do a dance to her favorite song.
“He was very loving,” Prude said. “He can light up a room with just his personality or his presence. He was very family oriented. He just loved to like smile and make people laugh.”
Allen said his and Prude’s mothers were close friends as well. The two families lived in a two-flat near Roosevelt Road and Francisco Avenue before they both moved to Lawndale Gardens.
Prude and Allen enjoyed watching “New Jack City,” “King of New York”, “Boyz n the Hood” and other crime thriller movies “even though we’ve seen it a thousand times.”
Prude worked at a factory before his death and had an ambitious interest in business, similar to Allen. Now 42, Allen runs a consulting organization, One Business Chicago, and he reckons Prude could have surpassed him and become a “serial entrepreneur” had he continued on his path.
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“He inspired me as it relates to toughness,” Allen said. “He challenged me and inspired me as it relates to personal ambition, and long-suffering strength, loyalty and love. That’s the main reason why I can’t be silent and not say anything in his honor and in his absence.”
When video of Prude’s fatal encounter with police was released Wednesday night, Allen said he was sleepless. And numb.
“As African Americans, especially African American men around my age and Daniel’s age, at a certain point we’re just numb to seeing Black lives be taken by Black people and by law enforcement,” Allen said. “Not that I’m not sympathetic about it, but it happens so much that I’m just fatigued. … It’s a different type of pain.”
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 22 Protesters stand amid clouds of chemical irritant released by police outside the Public Safety Building in Rochester, New York, Sept. 3, 2020. Seven police officers involved in the suffocation death of Daniel Prude in Rochester were suspended Thursday by the city's mayor, who said she was misled for months about the circumstances of the fatal encounter. (Adrian Kraus / AP)
Prude died when he was taken off life support March 30. That was seven days after officers who encountered him running naked through the street put a hood over his head to stop him from spitting, then held him down for about two minutes until he stopped breathing.
Seven police officers involved in the encounter were suspended Thursday by Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, who said she was misled for months about the circumstances of the death.
Hours after the announcement, a crowd of protesters unswayed by the suspensions demonstrated late into the night outside Rochester’s police headquarters.
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Officers doused some protesters with a chemical spray and repeatedly fired an irritant into the crowd to drive activists away from metal barricades ringing the building. Protesters protected themselves with umbrellas, dashed for cover, then returned to be fired on again.
Allen believes the encounter demonstrates how unconscious bias in policing, as well as qualified immunity for officers, needs to be addressed. He thinks too often, officers nurture false notions of Black people and their culture, and as a result treat them as less than human.
“They’re coming into the job with institutional racism,” Allen said. “They don’t understand our pain. And so they do things like put their knee on your neck, put a bag around your head and literally lie on the cold ground because, hey, this is something that was allowed in this country.
“ ‘Black lives do not matter’ was in every facet of American life, interwoven into the society. It’s still a very young society as it relates to viewing African Americans as full citizens.”
[ Police officers in suffocation death of Daniel Prude followed training, union says: ‘If there’s a problem with that, let’s change it’ ]
ayin@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Bus contractors, uniform suppliers, trophy makers: Many Chicago-area companies feel the pain as scho

Bus contractors, uniform suppliers, trophy makers: Many Chicago-area companies feel the pain as schools begin with remote learning

“ Unfortunately ... you only hear about schools not going , but there are so far grade schools , high @ @ @ @ @ going .
If the special education students can go , then certainly everybody else can @ @ @ @ @ to get better , ” he said .

The Illinois School Bus Co. lot is seen Sept. 3, 2020, in Crestwood. The company is part of the Cook-Illinois Corp., an Oak Brook-based bus contractor to suburban schools. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Billy Hinton is normally busy this time of year, fulfilling orders made by schools in the spring for medallions, plaques and trophies from his shop in south suburban Dolton.
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But with many Chicago-area schools closed since mid-March and the return of school sports in question, business has been down about 75%, said Hinton, owner of Trophys Are Us.
Schools make up the bulk of his clients, with athletic directors making orders ahead of each sport season. Each year, Hinton relies on those orders to keep his business running.
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“How do you make up for a loss when your business heavily relies on school orders? You can’t do it in a snap of a finger,” he said.
With students largely beginning the year from home, school districts are cutting back and canceling services from photographers, bus companies, trophy makers and food service providers. Some vendors have shifted operations, taking first-day pictures outside and creating boxed meals for students attending class remotely this fall in order to weather the financial challenges.
But if remote learning creeps into next year, it might send some companies to the brink of closure.
“I could lose everything,” Hinton said.
Hinton updated his company’s website hoping to attract business from other events that need trophies. But the demand isn’t there, he said.
Trophys Are Us employs three full-time workers, which Hinton kept on after receiving a $28,000 loan from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, created by Congress to aid small businesses and keep people working during the pandemic.
“It’s kept my employees working, but I’m still not making money,” he said.
As federal aid runs out and Congress remains at an impasse on additional relief funding, school vendors are hanging on to the little revenue coming their way.
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Cook-Illinois Corp., an Oak Brook-based school bus contractor, is running about 15% of its regular daily routes, John Benish Jr., president and chief operating officer, said.
The company serves more than 70 school districts in the suburbs and operates 18 school bus subsidiaries, including Cook County School Bus Co., Kickert School Bus and RichLee Vans - Aurora.
More than 100 school buses are parked on the Illinois School Bus Co. lot in Crestwood on Sept. 3, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Busing students to and from school is just part of Cook-Illinois’ business. The company makes additional revenue from transporting sports teams to games and taking students on field trips, Benish said.
“This time of year we would normally be busy, but none of the sports, after-school activities and field trips — I’m talking none of those services — have been provided,” Benish said.
Over the summer, the company served a limited number of school districts, and it’s transporting a few special education students this fall, Benish said. “It’s been a very tough year,” he said.
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Before March, Cook-Illinois had 3,000 employees but furloughed thousands of workers and cut employees’ salaries, Benish said. Now, the firm has about 500 workers, including bus drivers, bus aides who help students with disabilities board the bus, mechanics and administrative staff.
Another segment of workers affected are crossing guards.
Chicago crossing guards are employed by the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, a city public safety agency that includes the 911 dispatch center and helps coordinate the municipal response to severe weather and big events.
Science Meles, executive vice president at SEIU Local 73, a union that represents public sector workers and publicly funded employees in school districts, said hundreds of crossing guards it represents in Chicago are at risk of losing their health insurance benefits if they don’t return to work by Nov. 30.
“These workers, who are low-wage earners, are the backbone of society. Schools count on them to take care of certain things and keep kids safe,” Meles said.
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In a statement to the Tribune, the agency said about 600 crossing guards are not working as Chicago Public Schools starts the year online. The agency said it brought back a few workers as private and Catholic schools reopen.
“The city is currently in discussions with union representatives concerning the status of the crossing guards’ health insurance benefits,” the agency said.
The beginning of the school year is a critical time for many vendors, including photographers who take first-day pictures of students.
Color Portraits, a school photography firm in Barrington, has taken first-day photos for about 10% of the roughly 300 north suburban schools it serves, David Burns, vice presidents of sales, said.
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Many schools are delaying those services as uncertainty remains about when schools might bring back students.
“We haven’t interacted with schools until the last couple of weeks. Schools can’t commit to when they’ll reschedule,” Burns said.
For the few schools getting pictures taken, Color Portraits implemented a number of safety measures, including shortening lines, spreading out students and photographers, and requiring photographers to wear face masks.
The company, which also prints ID cards for schools, shifted the process for students beginning the school year at home to allow parents to take photos of students and send to the company.
Some schools, including ones with strict visitor policies, are requesting that photographers take photos outside, Burns said. But the coming colder weather will make it harder.
“It is a stressful situation not knowing. ... With schools pushing back into October or November, being outside is going to be a challenge. There’s a lot of variables,” he said.
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Since March, Burns said about 50 photographers were furloughed between the sister companies Color Portraits and Van Gogh School Photographers, which serves south suburban schools. As business has picked up, about 35 photographers were brought back, he said.
Some vendors have adapted to new services requested by schools as campuses remain closed.
DAI Creative, an apparel and branding shop in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood, is heading into the new school year with about 80% fewer orders from schools, said co-owners Pierre and Linda Papillon.
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The company makes school uniforms as well as promotional and marketing materials for the back-to-school season and graduation ceremonies.
In the spring, the company made yard signs, banners, T-shirts and face masks for high school graduations to replace the promotional items schools normally request. At this time of year, DAI would usually be making brochures, physical education and school uniform apparel for students. Now, it’s making “heroes work here” banners to hang outside of schools and appreciation plaques for principals.
“You have to be able to do more than one thing. If we were specialized, we wouldn’t be able to survive,” Linda Papillon said.
The pandemic has also changed how school meals are delivered and prepared.
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Contract food service company Elior North America continues to feed schoolchildren, including 80% of 200 Chicago-area schools that are resuming classes online, K-12 President Barbara Timm-Brock said.
“We pivoted a lot of our organization to developing the capabilities to pack meals,” Timm-Brock said.
Typically, the company delivers prepackaged meals to schools from its Berkeley facility. But with students at home, the company is making those prepackaged meals into portable cases schools can hand out in bulk for families to pick up, Timm-Brock said.
The company also made cooking instructions in Spanish for some students taking meals home, she said.
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Still, with many schools closed, Elior went from serving 250,000 meals each day at 1,900 schools in the U.S. before the pandemic to 130,000 meals per day at 900 schools.
Despite the challenges brought on by school closures, school vendors are hopeful business will pick up. Benish, with Cook-Illinois, said bus routes will be added as more schools return to in-person learning.
“Unfortunately ... you only hear about schools not going, but there are so far grade schools, high schools and everything in between going. If the special education students can go, then certainly everybody else can. It’s going to get better,” he said.
abjimenez@chicagotribune.com
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Twitter @abdel1019


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--R. Kelly asks again to be released from federal custody after inmate says he beat the R&B singer in

R. Kelly asks again to be released from federal custody after inmate says he beat the R&B singer in Chicago jail

The allegations are the latest twist in an ongoing effort to free Kelly on bond pending trial on sexual abuse-related @ @ @ @ @ was also mentioned during oral arguments Friday in the 2nd U.S .
Circuit Court of @ @ @ @ @ where Kelly ’ s attorneys are trying to reverse the trial judge ’ s decision @ @ @ @ @ danger and should be locked up pending trial .

A courtroom sketch shows defense attorneys Ashley Cohen, from left, and Jennifer Bonjean with singer R. Kelly at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Sept. 14, 2022. (Cheryl Cook / Chicago Tribune)
Lawyers for indicted singer R. Kelly filed a motion Friday seeking to question under oath a reputed gang member who said he violently attacked Kelly at the federal lockup in Chicago because he wanted to expose government corruption.
Jeremiah Shane Farmer, a convicted member of the Latin Kings, outed himself as Kelly’s attacker in a court filing earlier this week in Hammond, where he’s facing a mandatory life sentence for racketeering conspiracy involving a 1999 double murder.
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Farmer, 39, claimed he attacked Kelly “in hopes of getting spotlight attention and world news notice to shed light on” wrongdoing by the government.
According to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons report attached to his filing, Farmer was able to slip away from an employee at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Aug. 26, enter Kelly’s cell and beat him repeatedly in the head while Kelly was in the lower bunk. The attack stopped only after a jail security officer pepper-sprayed Farmer, the report states.
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In the Friday court filing, Kelly’s attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber for an evidentiary hearing giving them and the judge the opportunity to question Farmer under oath about the alleged beating, “including, but not limited to the role that any MCC personnel played in that attack.”
“It appears that MCC personnel simply followed Mr. Farmer, allowed him to carry out the attack, and then only intervened after Mr. Kelly had already sustained serious injuries,” Kelly’s attorney Michael Leonard wrote.
In his handwritten motion filed Monday, Farmer claimed he committed the attack “due to the most blatant corruption in Farmer’s case and being (on) lockdown for Robert Kelly protest.”
Kelly’s lawyers have said that when the singer’s supporters previously demonstrated in front of the MCC, the facility went on lockdown — making Kelly’s fellow inmates angry at him.
The allegations are the latest twist in an ongoing effort to free Kelly on bond pending trial on sexual abuse-related charges. The Farmer incident was also mentioned during oral arguments Friday in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, where Kelly’s attorneys are trying to reverse the trial judge’s decision there that Kelly is a danger and should be locked up pending trial.
“Mr. Kelly was the victim of an unprovoked attack while incarcerated at the MCC because of who he is,” attorney Thomas Farinella argued. “It’s clear the Bureau of Prisons cannot adequately accommodate the need to keep him safe.”
Jeremiah Farmer (Lake County Sheriff's Department)
Farmer, of Hammond, was convicted last year in the June 25, 1999, slayings of Marion Lowry, 74, and Harvey Siegers, 67, who were beaten with a small sledgehammer at their business, Calumet Auto Rebuilders. He’s facing a mandatory life sentence and is housed at the MCC in Chicago while his appeal is pending.
Court records show Farmer, who is representing himself, has a history of mental issues. In 2017, prosecutors requested that Farmer undergo a psychiatric or psychological examination after he made filings on his own behalf and discussed “suffering from a variety of mental illnesses,” according to a motion.
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Farmer was later found competent to stand trial, however, according to court records.
The indictment against Farmer alleged that sometime between 1999 and 2001, he “tattooed his own face with two teardrops, to commemorate having killed” Lowry and Siegers. A recent mug shot shows Farmer’s face festooned with tattoos, including teardrops, crowns and other gang insignia.
In a motion earlier this week, Kelly’s attorneys said Farmer has since gotten a new face tattoo that reads “f--- the feds.” They said he was able to enter Kelly’s cell while the singer was sleeping and stomped on his head repeatedly.
The general population is not safe for Kelly, his attorneys argue, and there is little chance he will go to trial anytime soon because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During arguments in New York on Friday, the three-judge appellate panel sounded skeptical that Kelly deserved bond, given the seriousness of the charges.
“It seems to be a blunderbuss approach to just release him,” one judge said. “If we didn’t have coronavirus, I don’t think you’d be here.”
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Kelly, 53, faces two federal indictments in two states on charges related to sexual abuse. He has been held without bond since his arrest in July 2019.
Federal prosecutors in Chicago accuse him of conspiring to rig his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by paying off witnesses and victims to change their stories. The indictment also alleged Kelly and his co-defendants paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover child sex tapes before they fell into the hands of prosecutors.
The longtime R&B superstar faces racketeering conspiracy charges in U.S. District Court in New York alleging he identified underage girls attending his concerts and groomed them for sexual abuse.
Kelly’s attorneys have repeatedly argued for his release on bond and have been repeatedly rejected. Even if a judge in Chicago granted the most recent request, Kelly has also been ordered held without bond on the charges in New York, so he would still remain in custody pending the appeal before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Kelly also faces charges of sexual abuse and sexual assault in Cook County, and charges in Minnesota related to solicitation.
He has denied all the accusations against him.
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jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Police officers in suffocation death of Daniel Prude followed training, union says: ‘If there’s a pr

Police officers in suffocation death of Daniel Prude followed training, union says: ‘If there’s a problem with that, let’s change it’

ROCHESTER , N.Y. — The police officers involved in the suffocation death of Daniel Prude were following their training when @ @ @ @ @ his head and pinned him to the ground for two minutes before noticing wasn ’ @ @ @ @ @ of the officers ’ union said Friday .

Protesters stand amid clouds of chemical irritant released by police outside the Public Safety Building in Rochester, New York, Sept. 3, 2020. Seven police officers involved in the suffocation death of Daniel Prude in Rochester were suspended Thursday by the city's mayor, who said she was misled for months about the circumstances of the fatal encounter. (Adrian Kraus / AP)
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The police officers involved in the suffocation death of Daniel Prude were following their training when they put a hood over his head and pinned him to the ground for two minutes before noticing wasn’t breathing, the head of the officers’ union said Friday.
“To me, it looks like they were watching the training in front of them and doing step by step what the training says to do,” said Michael Mazzeo, president of the Locust Club. “If there’s a problem with that, let’s change it.”
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The police officers were in a difficult position trying to help someone who appeared to have mental illness, and they didn’t intend to cause Prude harm, he said. The hood, he said, was standard equipment intended to protect officers from germs.
The mayor suspended seven Rochester police officers Thursday, pending completion of an investigation into their roles in the death of Prude, a Black man who had just arrived in the city to visit family.
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Prude, who was 41, died in March seven days after officers encountered him running naked through the street, handcuffed him, then tried to stop him from spitting by putting a mesh bag called a spit hood, or a spit sock, over his head.
An undated photo, provided by Roth and Roth LLP, of Daniel Prude. (AP)
One of the officers then held his face to the pavement while another put a knee into his back until Prude stopped speaking or moving. Waiting medics started CPR when the officers realized Prude wasn’t breathing.
Mayor Lovely Warren announced the suspensions at a news conference Thursday amid outrage that city officials had kept quiet about Prude’s death for months.
While denying a cover-up, Warren acknowledged that Prude “was failed by the police department, our mental health care system, our society, and he was failed by me.”
Hours after the announcement, protesters demonstrated late into the night outside police headquarters in the city of 210,000, New York’s third-largest.
[ Best friend remembers Daniel Prude: 'He challenged me and inspired me. ... That’s the main reason why I can’t be silent.' ]
Officers doused some protesters with a chemical spray and repeatedly fired an irritant into the crowd to drive activists from metal barricades ringing the building. Protesters protected themselves with umbrellas and dashed for cover but returned and were fired on again.
Journalists were among those hit by pellets during the confrontation, which came on the second day of peaceful demonstrations over Prude’s death.
A medical examiner concluded Prude’s death was a homicide caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.” The report lists excited delirium and acute intoxication by phencyclidine, or PCP, as contributing factors.
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Police officers “absolutely” need more help in dealing with people who are mentally ill or on drugs, Mazzeo said.
“It wasn’t that long ago when New York state mental health facilities were closed and people were put out on the street, and who was the only other agency who was able to deal with them? The police,” he said. “We definitely need changes and help.”


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital da

COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital data in your area

Among the metrics ( see below ) tracked under guidelines set by Gov .
J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of @ @ @ @ @ , the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses , and the capacity of hospitals @ @ @ @ @ state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics @

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
To assess how different parts of Illinois are handling the COVID-19 pandemic, officials look at the state through the 11 regions of Emergency Medical Services. The city of Chicago is one region, for example, and the rest of Cook County is another.
Among the metrics (see below) tracked under guidelines set by Gov. J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of coronavirus tests that return positive, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses, and the capacity of hospitals to take in new patients.The state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics. (Cases, deaths and tests data is as of Dec. 31).
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus.
• Other Chicago, suburbs and Illinois COVID-19 metrics.
• See how the governor’s plan to manage the regions works.
Source: Illinois Department of Public Health
Created by the Chicago Tribune dataviz team. On Twitter @chitribgraphics


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood

Search below by street address , ZIP code or city , then click on the map to see the number @ @ @ @ @ state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer .

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
Illinois releases the number of positive COVID-19 cases by ZIP code daily. The map below shows the cumulative cases for each area as well as other analysis of the data.
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Tracking daily Illinois coronavirus deaths, cases and tests.
Search below by street address, ZIP code or city, then click on the map to see the number of confirmed and probable cases. The state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer.
Data as of June 10.
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Note: Because of a coding error this map was displaying the incorrect rates for new cases in the last 7 days per 100,000 people — the issue should now be resolved.. The Tribune adjusted the data shown on the map below to focus on new cases, those the state tracked in the last 7 seven days. The totals for the entire pandemic are still available, but in the pop-up after tapping or clicking on a ZIP.


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 29 new deaths, 5,368 new confirmed cases and 149,273 new test res

Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 29 new deaths, 5,368 new confirmed cases and 149,273 new test results

Illinois announced 5,368 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Friday for a total of 245,371 .
The state also announced 29 @ @ @ @ @ of 8,143 and 149,273 new test results for a total of 4.31 million .

Johns Hopkins University & Medicine tracked coronavirus cases, deaths and test totals from Jan. 22, 2020 through March 10, 2023, but is no longer providing this data. These charts will no longer be updated.
Check the Illinois Department of Public Health for the most up-to-date data for Illinois.
[ Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus ]
Can’t see these charts? Go here.


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Chicago aldermen advance ban on sale of flavored vaping products in city; plan moves to full City Co

Chicago aldermen advance ban on sale of flavored vaping products in city; plan moves to full City Council

Facing stiff pushback , however , from retailers who said smokers simply would cross into the suburbs to buy flavored @ @ @ @ @ who have long complained that higher prices and stricter restrictions on tobacco sales in Chicago @ @ @ @ @ in those products , the City Council Health Committee instead voted for the narrower rules @

In this file photo, Frankie Paulino of Chicago uses his vaping device at Dearborn and Jackson in Chicago on Sept. 16, 2019. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Aldermen advanced a watered-down plan to restrict flavored nicotine products in Chicago that would outlaw selling flavored vaping products favored by teens but not curtail the sale of flavored tobacco such as menthol cigarettes.
Southwest Side Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, had hoped to ban the sale of all flavored nicotine products, including flavored cigarettes and cigars.
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Facing stiff pushback, however, from retailers who said smokers simply would cross into the suburbs to buy flavored cigarettes and from some aldermen who have long complained that higher prices and stricter restrictions on tobacco sales in Chicago propel a gang-controlled black market in those products, the City Council Health Committee instead voted for the narrower rules.
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The American Lung Association spoke out against the change, saying menthol cigarettes long have been targeted by tobacco companies at communities of color and that teens prefer menthol cigarettes because their smoke is less harsh to inhale.
In addition to allowing flavored cigarettes and cigars, flavored chewing tobacco also would continue to be allowed for sale under the new regulations.
The full City Council is set to consider the ordinance Wednesday.
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @_johnbyrne


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Chicago Public Schools announces ‘record-high’ graduation rate despite remote learning challenges as

Chicago Public Schools announces ‘record-high’ graduation rate despite remote learning challenges as mayor vows district is ‘not sitting this year out’

“ What ’ s important to note about graduation rates is that these are cumulative , so it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ s performance over eight semesters .
So at the end of their seventh semester going @ @ @ @ @ COVID , those numbers are already baked .
It is highly unlikely that a student @ @ @ @ @ graduate at the end of their seventh semester would fall off track and not complete @ @ @ @ @

Students walk to Lake View High School in Chicago on March 16, the last day before Chicago Public Schools closed all schools to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Officials announced the graduation rate went up this year, despite the pandemic. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
With Latino students driving the trend, Chicago Public Schools students have reached a record-high five-year graduation rate of 82.5%, district leaders announced Friday.
The rate got a boost in part from a new method used to calculate the percentage of graduates. Under the old method, it would have been 80.8%.
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“This record graduation rate isn’t just a statistic, it represents a revolution in how we value education in our city, and how we support our students’ futures,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday.
“Our charge now is to keep this success going as we embark on this unprecedented school year. To every CPS student and parent, I promise you this: We are not sitting this year out. No matter the obstacles ahead, we will continue our march forward until every one of Chicago’s young people finishes high school with a diploma in hand and a plan on what they’re going to do next.”
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CPS also applied the new calculation method to the past three years, effectively raising the previously reported graduation rates for each of those years by about 2 percentage points. Last year’s rate of 78.9% percent, for example, becomes 80.9%.
Though the graduation rates still show racial disparities, the groups representing the majority of CPS students saw the biggest gains. The graduation rate for Latino students increased 2.2 percentage points to 84.5%, while African American graduates increased 1.2 percentage points to 78%.
The 10 schools with the highest rates included seven selective enrollment, two neighborhood and one charter school: Whitney Young, Northside College Prep, Walter Payton, Lane Tech, Jones College Prep, Hancock High School, Perspectives — Joslin High School, Back of the Yards, Westinghouse and Williams.
Asked how much the altered grading policy and the extra grace teachers afforded to students during the pandemic last spring affected the number of students who were able to graduate, CEO Janice Jackson said she “would say no.”
“Chicago Public Schools, as you may recall, had more stringent expectations around grading, which we took a lot of flak for, but as the mayor said, we refuse to sit things out,” Jackson said.
“What’s important to note about graduation rates is that these are cumulative, so it’s looking at a student’s performance over eight semesters. So at the end of their seventh semester going into the school closure for COVID, those numbers are already baked. It is highly unlikely that a student who was on track to graduate at the end of their seventh semester would fall off track and not complete school in June.”
Considering previous performance of the group of students tracked and trends over time, she said this year’s graduation rate was not a surprise.
Along with the rise in the five-year graduation rate, the one-year dropout rate went down to 5.6% from the 6% previous year.
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The five-year rate tracks the same group of students over time, versus the percentage of students who drop out in a single year.
The pandemic did challenge schools in reporting the dropout rate, particularly among students who disengaged with remote learning, district officials acknowledged. Normally, a student who stops going to school is unenrolled and classified as having dropped out, but it’s harder to draw that line in a remote environment, according to CPS.
The district said there was also a “large increase in unverified transfers,” which can mean students are labeled “dropouts” while they could actually be enrolled at a different school.
“The district believes that these two competing factors — delineating between disengaged students and dropouts, which potentially lead to an undercount of dropouts and an overreporting of unverified transfers (which are considered dropouts) — ultimately offset each other,” CPS said in a news release, which also stated those factors didn’t affect the graduation rate.
During the spring, students who did not participate digitally but completed paper work packets were not given letter grades but were graded on a pass-incomplete system. Also, students could raise, but not lower, their letter grades, and if a grade went down during remote learning, they would get a “pass” rather than a lesser letter. Passing grades did not factor into GPA.
Nearly 20% of high school grades in core classes were a “pass,” with close to 75% of grades ranging from A through D and about 5% incomplete, according to CPS data. That compares with 93.5% of passing letter grades and 6.5% failing grades during the prior year.
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High school students without digital access were the most likely to need extra help such as summer school, with about 30% of grades in reading and math marked “incomplete.” But at around 38%, the percentage of A’s was higher than last year.
Looking ahead at a new school year, Jackson on Friday reiterated that grading will return to normal and attendance will once again be tracked.
CPS worked with the UChicago Consortium on School Research to come up with the new method for calculating graduation rates.
Changes include preventing students who drop out and reenroll from being counted twice and giving schools more time to verify student transfers.
“These changes more effectively use the available data and provide a more accurate determination of which students should be included in the graduation rate and counted as graduates,” according to a from the consortium’s deputy director, Jenny Nagaoka.
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Working from home? Out of work? Here’s what you need to know now for next year’s tax season.

“ If you get a document in the mail that you think , ‘ I wonder if I need this @ @ @ @ @ you should keep it , ” Devine said .
“ You can always get rid @ @ @ @ @ you lose it , it will delay the process .
”

Working from home these days? Sorry, but workers who receive a W-2 from their employer can no longer write off expenses associated with a home office. (10'000 Hours)
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, next year’s tax season could bring some unpleasant surprises for people whose work life has been upended by office closures and job loss.
Whether working from home or unemployed, experts say taxpayers should take steps now to avoid confusion come Tax Day.
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“It’s kind of a mess,” said Mark Mazur, the director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. “The (tax) rules that have been in place for a long time didn’t contemplate the current situation.”
Here’s what to know in order to avoid headaches later on.
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Can I write off the desk I just bought?
No. The Tax Credit and Jobs Act, which took effect in 2018, eliminated that deduction for workers who receive a W-2 from their employer. However, small-business owners and the self-employed can claim deductions on their Schedule C form.
“There are real business-related expenditures that wouldn’t be incurred if not for COVID and people won’t get a deduction,” said Julie A. Roin, a tax law professor at the University of Chicago Law School.
W-2 employees can seek tax-free reimbursement from their employer for qualifying expenses. According to Roin, those expenses could include things like computer monitors, USB devices and internet service.
Illinois law requires employers to reimburse employees for necessary expenses, as long as they’re within the scope of their employment and benefited the employer.
But employers do not have to reimburse employees for normal wear and tear on items they use for work, expenses that were the employee’s fault, or if the employee did not comply with the employer’s policy.
I’m self-employed. What can I write off?
Small-business owners and self-employed workers who want to claim deductions for their home office must meet two requirements.
First, the taxpayer must regularly use the home office exclusively for work and not for any other purpose, such as home-schooling children or for hobbies.
Second, the home office must be the main place where the taxpayer conducts business. People who conduct some business activities elsewhere can still qualify as long as administrative or management activities are performed exclusively in the home.
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“You basically have to run your business out of that space,” Mazard said.
Those taxpayers may be able to deduct a portion of their mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs maintenance, depreciation and rent. Or they could deduct a “simplified” amount by multiplying $5 by the area of the home used as an office, up to 300 feet.
Will I have to pay taxes in two states?
Chicago-area employers from Groupon to Uber have told employees to work from home — some indefinitely. Since the pandemic began, some Chicagoans have left their city homes for places like Door County, Wisconsin, or southwestern Michigan. Others have taken jobs with out-of-state employers expecting to continue working from home.
“It gets pretty complicated pretty fast when you have out-of-state income,” said Charlotte Crane, a tax law professor at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. “Different states have different approaches to this issue.”
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Illinois has agreements with Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin that prevent Illinois residents from having to pay tax in those states. They still would have to file in Illinois.
For Illinois workers earning income from the other 45 states, they may be entitled to an Illinois credit for taxes paid to those states.
Are my unemployment benefits taxable?
Yes. More than 1.5 million Illinois residents filed for unemployment insurance benefits between March and July. That income, including any special coronavirus unemployment benefits, is taxable at both the federal and state level in Illinois, Illinois Department of Revenue spokesman Sam Salustro said.
To avoid owing taxes next year, benefit recipients may choose to have taxes withheld from their unemployment check. If they don’t, or if the withholding amount is not enough, recipients can make quarterly payments to the IRS. They also can change their election for tax withholding after benefit checks start arriving.
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The IRS has a tax withholding estimator tool on its website to help users avoid any surprises.
What about stimulus payments?
Stimulus payments issued under the coronavirus relief legislation are not taxable.
Anyone who qualifies but hasn’t received a stimulus payment can enter their information on the IRS website or claim the amount as a credit on next year’s tax return.
What else do I need to know?
One way to make next year’s tax season run smoothly is to keep accurate and thorough records in a safe space.
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Anything claimed on tax returns must be documented in case of an IRS audit or examination. Some documents to look out for are stimulus payment records, coronavirus-related medical expenses, and records of any time spent earning income in different states.
“If you get a document in the mail that you think, ‘I wonder if I need this for my taxes,’ you should keep it,” Devine said. “You can always get rid of it. But if you lose it, it will delay the process.”
ksurma@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Authorities find bones in Illinois based on serial killer’s podcast interview

Colvin , 61 , claims to have killed dozens of women .
He is serving two life sentences in Ohio @ @ @ @ @ two prostitutes and later pleaded guilty to killing four other women in Ohio and New @ @ @ @ @ that the woman in Illinois worked as a prostitute outside the truck stop .

Dellmus Colvin in 2006, in Toledo, Ohio. Colvin, a former truck driver, is serving life sentences in Ohio for the 2003 slayings of two prostitutes. He later pleaded guilty to killing four other women in Ohio and New Jersey. (WTOL-TV)
PERU, Ill. — Authorities are analyzing bones found in Illinois to determine if they are the remains of a woman whom a convicted serial killer imprisoned in Ohio claims he killed about 15 years ago.
Investigators found two small bones that could be human on Wednesday at a now-shuttered truck wash in Peru, Illinois, where Dellmus Colvin said he dumped the woman’s body after killing her, LaSalle County Sheriff Tom Templeton told the Journal Star in Peoria. The bones were taken to an Illinois State Police forensic anthropologist for analysis.
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Colvin, 61, claims to have killed dozens of women. He is serving two life sentences in Ohio for the 2003 slayings of two prostitutes and later pleaded guilty to killing four other women in Ohio and New Jersey. He has said that the woman in Illinois worked as a prostitute outside the truck stop.
Authorities have not found any missing persons cases from that period that match the scenario Colvin described, but there is a possibility that the woman was not from the area and perhaps never reported missing.
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“Individuals who work a high-risk lifestyle tend to move around a lot,” Templeton said.
The discovery of the bones came after Colvin was interviewed by criminal profiler Phil Chalmers during Chalmers’ podcast, “Where the Bodies are Buried.” Colvin told Chalmers that in 2004 or 2005 he met a woman at the Flying J Travel Center along Interstate 80 outside LaSalle. He said he killed, then drove to a truck wash in Peru, where he dumped her body.
Templeton said his detectives then spoke to Colvin. Preliminary results of the tests on the bones are expected to come next week and Templeton said investigators will search the area where they were found next week as well.


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Iowa prosecutor says police killing of Rock Island man in June unrest was justified

Scott County Attorney Mike Walton announced the finding Thursday in the June 1 shooting death of Marquis Tousant , 23 @ @ @ @ @ Illinois , the Quad-City Times reported .
The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation found that @ @ @ @ @ opened fire on an unmarked Davenport police pickup truck that was patrolling the area following @ @ @ @ @ that killed a 22-year-old woman , Walton said .

Police surround a Walmart on June 1, 2020, in Davenport, Iowa. Two people were killed and a police officer was wounded in a round of rioting and violence that occurred that night. (Meg McLaughlin/Quad City Times)
DAVENPORT, Iowa — An investigation into the June shooting death of an Illinois man by an eastern Iowa officer during civil unrest in Davenport has found that the shooting death was justified, according to the local Iowa prosecutor.
Scott County Attorney Mike Walton announced the finding Thursday in the June 1 shooting death of Marquis Tousant, 23, of Rock Island, Illinois, the Quad-City Times reported. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation found that Tousant was among those who opened fire on an unmarked Davenport police pickup truck that was patrolling the area following an earlier, unrelated shooting that killed a 22-year-old woman, Walton said.
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A forensic investigation determined bullets that hit the truck and wounded its driver, Sgt. Scott Lansing, came from a gun found on Tousant. The investigation also found that Tousant was killed by a bullet from the gun of Davenport Police Lt. Greg Behning, who returned fire when the truck came under attack, Walton said.
“It was reasonable for Behning to return fire to limit further injury or death to others and himself,” Walton’s report said.
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The shooting occurred during hours of chaos in Davenport following protests over police killings of Black people prompted by the May 25 killing of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers.


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Column: A plaque on Emmett Till’s house is just a first step. Chicago can do a better job of preserv

Column: A plaque on Emmett Till’s house is just a first step. Chicago can do a better job of preserving Black history sites. Even city’s top planner says so.

If the city had a survey of African American and Latino historic sites — and it used that resource to @ @ @ @ @ were getting into — this little mess might not have arisen .
Without such a @ @ @ @ @ might fall through the cracks and be demolished .

The Commission on Chicago Landmarks has granted preliminary landmark status to the building at 6427 S. St. Lawrence Avenue, where Emmett Till once lived. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
The slipshod manner with which Chicago often treats its African American landmarks was visible for all to see Thursday when the real estate developer who bought Emmett Till’s house let drop that he had no idea the red brick two-flat at 6427 S. St. Lawrence Ave. was once home to a seminal figure in Black history.
The developer, Blake McCreight, was speaking to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, whose members voted unanimously to grant preliminary landmark status to Till’s house. The vote was good news, but sticking a plaque on the house, now a likely outcome, will be a meager victory.
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Visitors who make a pilgrimage to see the home of the 14-year-old who was brutally murdered 65 years ago, helping to spark the civil rights movement, surely will want to step inside and see the three-bedroom, second-floor apartment where Till lived with his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.
They also might expect to look at photographs of the open casket Till’s mother chose for his funeral to show mourners and the world the horror and violence her son endured after he was accused of harassing a white woman while he was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi.
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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 46 Clergy watch the unveiling of of temporary signage for the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument site at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ at 4021 S. State St., Aug. 1, 2023, in Chicago. It was the location of the 1955 funeral of 14-year-old Emmett Till. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Things like that would furnish a house museum that would bring alive a significant chapter in the African American story and could even be part of a trail of Black history sites, including the planned Obama Presidential Center, on the South Side.
Maybe one of the two vacant lots to the north of the house could be part of the house museum, giving visitors a quiet place to contemplate the sad, ongoing relevance of Till’s story.
Could that actually happen? It won’t be easy.
Dreams are often hard to achieve on the South Side, not for a shortage of vision but for a shortage of dollars.
[ Remembering slain teen Emmett Till in his hometown of Chicago via civil rights tourism and a mobile app ]
McCreight, who told the commission he supports landmark status that would protect the building from significant changes or demolition, told me he bought the house last year to renovate and rent it out. Flipping the two-flat, which looks to be in good shape and has one tenant, was another possibility.
McCreight only learned of the property’s connection to Till a few months ago, he said, from Mary Lu Seidel, the community engagement director of the nonprofit advocacy group Preservation Chicago.
“The reality, is we’re taking a step back at this point in time and understanding what our options are and what’s going to be best for the community,” he said.
McCreight is in a pickle he never should have been in. It doesn’t matter that he’s a white developer in a Black neighborhood. A Black developer would have faced the same problem. Dimwitted procedures and policies are equal-opportunity discriminators.
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If the city had a survey of African American and Latino historic sites — and it used that resource to let developers know what they were getting into — this little mess might not have arisen. Without such a survey, an important building might fall through the cracks and be demolished.
That was the point made Thursday by Maurice Cox, the city’s commissioner of planning and development and a member of the landmarks commission.
Cox said the commission should direct his department to document Black and brown historic properties. Such sites are often ordinary, everyday buildings, he correctly noted, more significant for their associations with important figures than for their architecture.
Doing such a survey would be in keeping with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s drive to make Chicago’s monuments and memorials more diverse and equitable. Modest buildings can serve as monuments even though they’re not monumental in scale. You don’t need marble and massiveness to touch the heart.
The Till house is a monument hidden in plain sight, as is the house of Chicago Blues legend Muddy Waters at 4339 S. Lake Park Ave.
The Muddy Waters house is seen July 20, 2020, in the North Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Waters owned and lived in the red brick 1889 house from 1954 until he moved to Westmont two decades later, according to published accounts and interviews. He and other musicians held jam sessions in the basement.
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But the condition of that house, with its boarded-up widows, is worthy of a blues ballad. Its condition is especially galling because the block on which the house sits has some handsomely restored Victorian homes, red brick and greystone affairs that exude solidity and prosperity.
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Yet there’s hope. Plans to give the house new life got a boost in July when the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced grants for projects that preserve African American history. The trust awarded $50,000 to the Muddy Waters MOJO Museum, which is raising funds to turn the house into a museum and recording studio. But $50,000, commemorative plaques and signs only go so far.
An information-packed sign in front of Waters’ house is a Chicago Tribute marker, funded by the Chicago Tribune Foundation and the Chicago Cultural Center Foundation as part of a project to “articulate the connection between the city of today and the historic individuals and events that continue to shape our world.”
The sign was dedicated in 1999. Now it’s bent and rusting.
Plaques and signs are nice. Real restoration, the kind that makes history come alive, is better.
Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
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bkamin@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BlairKamin


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Lake County officials fear holiday gatherings could bring back coronavirus restrictions

Lake County ’ s positivity rate — the percentage of tests for the virus which are positive — was 5.1 @ @ @ @ @ 5.9 percent Wednesday .
Pfister said there are a variety of reasons for the climb @ @ @ @ @ metrics used to determine if an area is placed on alert .

As Labor Day approached, Lake County Health Department Executive Director Mark Pfister worried northeastern Illinois could see some restrictions used to combat the coronavirus pandemic reimposed if this weekend is anything like the days surrounding the July 4 holiday.
The county’s risk level was changed from blue to orange Friday on the Illinois Department of Public Health County Level Risk Metrics Map indicating an increased risk of the disease, according to a press release from the Lake County Department of Public Health.
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With Lake County’s positivity rate sitting at 5.9 percent Wednesday because people are gathering in larger groups without wearing masks or socially distancing, Pfister fears a lack of thoughtful behavior over the Labor Day weekend could bring restrictions not seen since May.
“We were doing well in June, but we had an increase of cases over the Fourth of July weekend,” he said. “With Labor Day coming, people really need to follow three Ws so we don’t have to roll back what we’ve opened up.”
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Wearing a mask or face covering, washing hands and watching the distance between others are the “three Ws” Pfister said he continually suggests to people as the universal response to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Should there be a significant increase in the positivity rate, the number of deaths, the number of cases per 100,000 persons or some combination of those metrics, he said Lake County could be placed on alert. Grundy, Will and suburban Cook counties already are.
“We’re getting to the point where we could be on alert status,” Pfister said. “If it doesn’t improve, there could be mitigation,” like an increase in restrictions at places like restaurants and bars.
Pfister said changes could include elimination of indoor dining, a reduction in hours a bar can operate or both.
“Our goal is not to go backwards,” he said.
Beyond wearing masks, maintaining social distance and washing hands, Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said residents can let the city or the Lake County Health Department know when they see people failing to take those actions in public places like bars or restaurants.
When Cunningham learns about misbehavior at a business establishment, he said he will intercede. Most of the time a conversation or suggested action modifies the behavior of the business. Waukegan officials recently interceded with two bar owners.
“We gave them a warning that we’d take away their license for a week or a weekend,” Cunningham said. “They got the message, and changed their ways. They can’t make people wear masks, but they can refuse service. We all have to work together. We’re open, but it’s not over.”
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Lake County’s positivity rate — the percentage of tests for the virus which are positive — was 5.1 percent Aug. 9, and 5.9 percent Wednesday. Pfister said there are a variety of reasons for the climb which is one of the metrics used to determine if an area is placed on alert.
Another important measurement is the increase in new cases per 100,000 persons. Pfister said the goal is keeping the number below 50. With Lake County recently hitting 82 per 100,000, there is reason for concern.
There are a variety of reasons for the bump.
“Larger groups are gathering in congregant settings,” Pfister said. “These include groups where people are not (socially) distancing or wearing masks. These are gatherings of students, and gatherings like weddings and parties.”
While initially the biggest outbreaks in the county were in nursing homes, Pfister said that has subsided.
“The nursing homes have done an awesome job,” Pfister said. “They’re (testing and) catching cases in people who are asymptomatic.”
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As recruits arrive at Naval Station Great Lakes, he said they are tested. Positive results at the base do impact the positivity rate in Lake County, but those who test positive there are quarantined. The general public is not impacted.
“The Navy quarantines them, and isolates them like we recommend,” Pfister said.
Along with the current permanent test station in Waukegan, Pfister said there will be a temporary test site from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at North Chicago High School.
As of Wednesday, Pfister said Lake County had recorded 14,686 cases of COVID-19 with 448 deaths.


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Chicago ‘Tamale Guy’ Claudio Velez’s COVID-19 condition is improving, family says his restaurant wil

Chicago ‘Tamale Guy’ Claudio Velez’s COVID-19 condition is improving, family says his restaurant will reopen soon

“ Until my dad is fully recovered , I ’ m going to have to pause my life for a @ @ @ @ @ can watch out for my dad ’ s interests , ” said Abad , human @ @ @ @ @ of San Diego County in California .
“ I will continue to work remotely — @ @ @ @ @ , very flexible and understanding — but I ’ ll be up front and looking @ @ @ @ @ ”

Claudio Velez at his new namesake restaurant Tamale Guy Chicago in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood on Aug. 14, 2020. (Louisa Chu / Chicago Tribune)
Claudio Velez, owner of the namesake new restaurant, Tamale Guy Chicago, remains hospitalized with COVID-19. While his condition cautiously improves, a GoFundMe created for medical expenses will end, and the business will reopen soon.
“My dad has made some positive improvement,” said Osmar Abad, Velez’s oldest son, Thursday night. “He’s still in ICU and still connected to a ventilator, but he made a milestone improvement today. We’re hoping that those continue, and that he’s out of the red zone officially soon.”
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Velez sold warm tamales from a familiar red cooler at neighborhood bars on the North Side of the city for roughly 20 years. After the statewide coronavirus stay-at-home order forced the closure of bars and restaurants in March, the city shut down Velez’s continued tamale deliveries due to lack of licensing in May.
Fans raised more than $36,000 through a GoFundMe support campaign that stated, “I don’t know about you, but when life gets back to some kind of normal, I would really like for Claudio and his tamales to be there.”
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Velez used the money to help open his restaurant in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood with longtime friend and chef Pierre Vega, and his wife Kristin Vega. The partners celebrated their grand opening Aug. 13, with lines 10 blocks long and two-hour waits, selling out of thousands of tamales in the first few days.
Two weeks later, Velez was hospitalized. Last Saturday, the business announced that he tested positive for COVID-19, and was admitted to an intensive care unit and placed on a ventilator.
A new GoFundMe campaign, for Velez’s medical expenses, has reached more than double its $20,000 goal, currently totaling over $55,000 from 2,000 donors. “We will probably be closing it in the next few days,” said Abad. “We’re just so humbled and thankful. We don’t want people to think that we’re taking advantage of the situation.
“We will leave the funds there until my dad is able to wake up and make his own decisions,” he said.
All of the restaurant employees and partners have tested negative and received their results Thursday, said Abad. The restaurant will undergo cleaning and disinfection according to CDC guidelines before reopening, as required by the city, he added.
“We’ll probably reopen sometime next week,” said Abad, possibly Wednesday. “Official communication about the restaurant reopening, as well as my dad’s health, will be made available via his business pages on Instagram and Facebook.”
“As of today he is no longer being proned, which is a good sign,” said Abad. The proning position is a medical technique used for coronavirus patients. “It involves flipping the patient on their stomach for a period of time to help with breathing. Since the virus attacks the lungs, when they’re on their stomach, it’s easier on them. He had been proned for 16 hours at a time.”
Velez also remains sedated.
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“Until my dad is fully recovered, I’m going to have to pause my life for a little bit, so I can watch out for my dad’s interests,” said Abad, human resources director for the YMCA of San Diego County in California. “I will continue to work remotely — my job is being very, very flexible and understanding — but I’ll be up front and looking out for the business.”
He’s had some experience with his father’s tamale business.
“Right out of high school, I came here to work with him for about a year or so,” said Abad, “so I could save up some money to go to college.”
His father wanted to teach his son the trade.
“I used to drive him around here in Chicago, from bar to bar. He has a huge personality. He’s a very lovable person and kindhearted so, to me, it’s absolutely no surprise that people learned to love him so much.”
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Velez had married Abad’s mother in Mexico, where he and his brother were later born. The couple divorced, however, and became estranged. “His biggest pain was that he had lost his family,” said Abad.
“His job was really his outlet for his depression and trauma,” said Abad. “It was really what gave him purpose.”
Velez has five children, including two young daughters in Chicago, 6 and 4 years old, who live with their mother Beatriz Bautista.
“That gave him his ultimate lifelong dream of having a family again,” said Abad. “He adores his two little girls. They’re his baby princesses.”
lchu@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--‘We are preparing for the worst’: Chicago-area hospitals brace for flu and COVID-19 to collide

Chicago-area hospitals are taking a number of steps to get ready .
Many hospitals require their employees to get flu @ @ @ @ @ place to free up space for more patients , if need be .
They ’ @ @ @ @ @ numbers of people in their communities get the flu shot , despite a lingering fear @ @ @ @ @ medical offices amid the pandemic .

CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
With a new flu season approaching, Chicago-area hospitals are bracing for a possible onslaught of both flu and COVID-19 patients.
Hospital leaders hope this flu season will be mild, especially because many people are keeping their distance from others, washing their hands more often and wearing masks.
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Another hopeful sign: Experts often look to the Southern Hemisphere, which has an earlier flu season than the U.S., for clues about what to expect, and the flu season there has been light.
Still, there are no guarantees.
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Vicky Olson, 57, receives a flu shot from family nurse practitioner Arti Patel at the MinuteClinic in a CVS in Rolling Meadows on Aug. 27, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
If cases of the flu and COVID-19 rise simultaneously, there are worries that resources at area hospitals could be squeezed. At the height of COVID-19 earlier this year, many Illinois hospitals ran low on intensive care unit beds — and that was after the flu season had subsided.
Chicago-area hospitals are taking a number of steps to get ready. Many hospitals require their employees to get flu shots and have plans in place to free up space for more patients, if need be. They’re also hoping that large numbers of people in their communities get the flu shot, despite a lingering fear many people have about visiting medical offices amid the pandemic.
An influx of flu patients, on top of COVID-19, could “put a lot of strain on the health system,” said Dr. Sanjeeb Khatua, chief physician executive and COVID-19 incident commander at Edward-Elmhurst Health, which has hospitals in Naperville and Elmhurst. “If everyone gets vaccinated for the flu there’s less of a chance of strain on the health systems.”
The last flu season was a particularly rough one in Chicago and across the country.
In Chicago, at least 479 people were admitted to hospital intensive care units for the flu between the end of September 2019 and May — about 36% more patients than the year before, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health. Nationally, at least 24,000 people died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last season was the first time in decades that Type B influenza was so common. It hit children especially hard, and four children in Chicago died.
Severe flu seasons can often occur when the strains that circulate don’t match the ones that vaccines protect against. Last season’s vaccine was 39% effective, according to the CDC. The effectiveness of the flu vaccine has ranged from 19% to 60% over the past 11 years.
Chicago-area hospitals generally didn’t report running out of beds last flu season, but “this past winter there were moments where it was quite bad in terms of hospital congestion,” said Dr. Rachel Rubin, senior medical officer and co-lead for the Cook County Department of Public Health.
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In early October 2019, less than 2% of emergency department visits were for flu-like illnesses in much of suburban Cook County. By the week of Feb. 2, that number had shot up to more than 8%.
During that same week in early February, more than 30 people across much of suburban Cook County were newly hospitalized in intensive care units because of the flu.
During a normal winter, about 80% of the beds at Edward-Elmhurst hospitals are typically filled, partly because of the flu and other respiratory illnesses.
“COVID hit our area, in terms of hospitalizations, right as the flu season was ending, so we were a little lucky from that perspective,” Khatua said.
At this point, Illinois hospitals are reporting far lower numbers of people hospitalized with severe cases of COVID-19, compared with earlier this year.
When COVID-19 was sweeping through Illinois in early May, about 23% of 3,685 total ICU beds were open, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. As of Aug. 31, 44% of 3,808 ICU beds were available.
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The need for ICU beds for COVID-19 patients has likely dropped, in part, because many of the people now contracting the illness in Illinois are younger, and younger people are less likely to need hospitalization, Rubin said.
Health experts fear, however, that those numbers won’t hold in the coming months as the air grows colder and more activities move inside.
Questions also remain about whether COVID-19 could make flu cases worse.
“We don’t know what someone with COVID, and then on top of it, who also gets the flu, what that looks like so we are preparing for the worst,” said Michele Mazurek, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Sinai Health System, which runs Mount Sinai and Holy Cross hospitals.
Hospitals are taking a number of steps to prepare.
Many hospital systems already require all employees to get flu shots each year. The shots will have to be scheduled this year, since it may no longer safe for employees to wait in line.
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Some hospital systems, such as Edward-Elmhurst, are considering drive-up flu shots and/or drive-up flu testing to limit the spread of illnesses and to make sure skittish patients get the vaccinations and care they need.
Hospitals already have had some practice at handling large numbers of patients. Many added beds to their facilities and repurposed spaces when COVID-19 was at its peak.
At one point, Rush University Medical Center added triage stations to its lobby for less severe emergency department patients, to free up room in the ER, if needed.
“We literally developed the playbook during the peak of pandemic,” said Angelique Richard, Rush’s chief nurse executive. “We are going back to that playbook in preparation of a potential surge in the fall in addition to flu season.”
Hospitals are working to make sure they can move patients through their systems efficiently. That means discharging patients who are no longer in need of hospital care as soon as possible, such as by having consultations and ordering follow-up services early in the day, Mazurek said.
Hospitals also are working to ensure they have enough personal protective equipment for this winter.
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Hospital leaders say they know much more about treating COVID-19 patients now than when the pandemic first started. “The Chicagoland area is in a lot better position today than we were five months ago when we were just learning about this,” Richard said.
Health leaders, however, say one of the best ways to avoid hospital overcrowding is to make sure as many people as possible get flu shots this year.
“There are certainly only a finite number of resources available, which is why it’s particularly important that since there are things we can do to prevent and treat influenza, that we are maximizing (those tools),” said Dr. Allison Bartlett, director of the infection control program at University of Chicago Medicine.
The CDC has said that, in the context of COVID-19, “getting a flu vaccine will be more important than ever.”
Family nurse practitioner Arti Patel prepares to bandage Vicky Olson, 57, after she received her flu shot Aug. 27, 2020, at the MinuteClinic in a CVS in Rolling Meadows. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
That’s a big part of the reason why Vicky Olson, 57 of Rolling Meadows, decided to get her flu shot earlier than usual this year, in August, at her local CVS MinuteClinic.
She’s seen several of her family members — an aunt, an uncle, a nephew — develop COVID-19. Her nephew, in his early 40s, fell particularly ill. “We almost lost him,” Olson said. Also, her 89-year-old mother lives with her.
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To her, the shot is just one more way to keep herself and others healthy, like wearing a mask or wiping down doorknobs and light switches.
She wants doctors and hospitals to be able to focus on patients with COVID-19 rather than those with the flu this fall and winter.
“I just think if I can do this as a precaution and it helps, I’m going to do whatever it takes,” Olson said. “I want us to have our lives back the way we used to.”
lschencker@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Girlfriend charged with attempted murder in Highland man’s death; police say she hit him with her ca

Girlfriend charged with attempted murder in Highland man’s death; police say she hit him with her car

Highland Police officers were sent to the 2900 block of Highway Avenue for a domestic disturbance around 7:25 p.m Aug. @ @ @ @ @ man lying unconscious and missing his right shoe , the probable cause affidavit said .
@ @ @ @ @ by him identified herself as McCormick and said she and the man , Brankin , @ @ @ @ @ cream across the street and she was trying to leave , records said , before @ @ @ @ @ ’ t need any assistance from him or EMS , records said .

A Highland woman and business owner was charged Thursday with attempted murder in the death of Valparaiso University’s assistant golf coach.
The charges against Raquel Mendoza McCormick, 48, of the 3300 block of LaPorte Street, could be upgraded to murder pending autopsy results for Thomas Brankin, her boyfriend of 3.5 years, Lake County Prosecutor’s office spokesman Bradley Carter said Thursday afternoon. She’s been initially charged with attempted murder/attempted intentional killing of another, aggravated battery when the assault poses a substantial risk of death and domestic battery by means of a deadly weapon, according to court records.
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Highland Police officers were sent to the 2900 block of Highway Avenue for a domestic disturbance around 7:25 p.m Aug. 11 when they found a man lying unconscious and missing his right shoe, the probable cause affidavit said. A woman who was standing by him identified herself as McCormick and said she and the man, Brankin, had just gotten some ice cream across the street and she was trying to leave, records said, before telling the officer she didn’t need any assistance from him or EMS, records said.
As Brankin continued to lay on the ground unconscious, McCormick told him they’d just returned from going out to eat and started arguing when she wanted to leave, according to the affidavit. She told the officer she wanted to leave, but Brankin “blocked her,” and she ended up hitting him with her 2018 black Chevrolet Equinox, records said.
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A Highland detective then went behind McCormick’s business, Wine House, 2933 Highway Ave., found the car and had it towed, records said.
Two hours later, the detective met with McCormick at the Highland Police Station, and she told him she and Brankin had returned from a day of shopping in Tinley Park, Illinois, when they stopped to check on Wine House, records said.
They then went across the street to get ice cream, but the order was taking long, at which point they’d gotten into a “heated” argument about unresolved family issues, court records said. The couple went back to Wine House, and McCormick said she wanted to leave but he didn’t want her to go, and as he reached into the car, she told him to get out of her way before swerving and hitting him, records said.
Upon further questioning, McCormick told the detective she was cleaning Wine House while Brankin was getting ice cream, records said. The two had been arguing in Wine House’s parking lot, and she got into the car, which was facing the building, records said. Brankin, according to McCormick, was “mocking her” and came to the passenger’s side window holding a hot dog before stepping in front of the car as she was backing up slowly, records said.
McCormick then said Brankin asked her if she was going to hit him and she replied, “Yeah, I’m gonna hit you because you’re standing in front of me. The detective asked whether she pulled forward and hit him, and she confirmed she did, but not hard, records said. She said pulled away but saw Brankin on the ground in her rear-view mirror, so she returned when she saw he wasn’t moving and called 911.
Brankin, she said, was “just moaning, ‘mmmmmm,”’ and she said, “I’m like, ‘Seriously? This is the way you wanna end this?’” records said.
When the detective asked where she struck Brankin, McCormick gave conflicting answers, court records said.
Raquel McCormick (Lake County Sheriff's Department)
The next day, the detective called Community Hospital to check on Brankin and was told he was taken to the Neuro ICU unit with “multiple brain bleeds and facial fractures,” according to the affidavit. He was placed under sedation because the brain injuries made him combative, records said.
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A witness later that day talked to the detective and told him the night of the incident, Brankin was getting food when a woman standing near Wine House yelled, “I’m doing all the work while you eat,” at which point Brankin walked across and argued with her, records said.
The witness said he saw McCormick get in her car behind Wine House, which was facing south, when Brankin walked toward the driver side door and the car cut sharply to the left and pulled forward toward Brankin going southeast, appearing to have hit him.
Brankin then slapped the hood of the car and started walking toward the back of Wine House when McCormick backed up and stopped before accelerating, records said. The witness heard a loud crash but thought she’d hit the building, records said, and then saw the vehicle speed away east down the alley. A woman told the witness McCormick hit Brankin, records said; camera footage obtained from Our Lady of Grace appeared to confirm the witness account, records said.
Brankin suffered fractures to the orbital bones of both eyes, brain swelling, two areas of subdural hematoma/bleeding to the right side of the brain, and significant bleeding/edema to the brainstem area of the head, records said. He died Sept. 1, and an autopsy is pending, records said.
McCormick, who was born in and has traveled to the Philippines in the last three years, is being held without bond in the Lake County Jail, court records show. An initial hearing hasn’t been set.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.


chicagotribune--2020-09-04--Column: Video of Daniel Prude’s death at hands of police is horrifying. But white Americans need to

Column: Video of Daniel Prude’s death at hands of police is horrifying. But white Americans need to  bear witness.

But those videos must be watched .
White Americans need to see what happened to Prude , whose death was @ @ @ @ @ “ complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.
” They need to see @ @ @ @ @ .
They need to see Blake being shot in front of his children .

Protesters stand amid clouds of chemical irritant released by police outside the Public Safety Building in Rochester, New York, Sept. 3, 2020. Seven police officers involved in the suffocation death of Daniel Prude in Rochester were suspended Thursday by the city's mayor, who said she was misled for months about the circumstances of the fatal encounter. (Adrian Kraus / AP)
Video from police body cameras shows Daniel Prude, a 41-year-old Black man from Chicago, being suffocated by police officers on a street in Rochester, New York, on a cold, early morning in March. Prude died seven days later after his family had him removed from life support.
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White Americans need to watch that video.
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Prude’s death happened two months before George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer launched an ongoing wave of national protests against police brutality and racial bias in policing. But the video of Prude was only released this week, on Wednesday, after his family obtained it through a public records request.
The video of what police officers did to Prude, who was naked and handcuffed, is horrifying. The police officers around him are, at one point, laughing and cracking jokes while he’s face down on the street with a fabric bag known as a “spit hood” tied over his head, suffocating.
An image from a police body camera shows a Rochester police officer putting a hood over the head of Daniel Prude, on March 23, 2020, in Rochester, New York. (Rochester police via Roth and Roth LLP)
It’s painful to hear Prude’s final sounds. It was painful to watch video of Floyd slowly dying on the street in Minneapolis. And it was painful to hear the crack of gunshots as a police officer in Kenosha shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back at close range.
But those videos must be watched. White Americans need to see what happened to Prude, whose death was ruled a homicide caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.” They need to see Floyd’s final breaths. They need to see Blake being shot in front of his children.
In the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., are the words of Elie Wiesel, author and Holocaust survivor: “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
We must.
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We can’t understand what we don’t see. We can’t fix what we look away from. We can’t make sure horrible acts aren’t repeated if we avert our eyes.
So watch the video and see how Prude was treated. He was found to have phencyclidine, or PCP, in his system. Did that and his erratic behavior, while cuffed and naked, warrant a death sentence?
The father of five had traveled to Rochester in March to visit one of his brothers. A family member said Prude had been struggling with the recent deaths of his mother and another brother.
On the evening of March 22, he was taken to a Rochester hospital for a mental health evaluation for suicidal thoughts. He was released to his brother, then around 3 a.m. the next day, the brother called 911 because Prude had fled the house.
“I placed a phone call for my brother to get help. Not for my brother to get lynched,” Joe Prude said during a news conference in New York.
When police found Prude he was in the street naked and agitated, shouting nonsensically as a light snow fell. The police asked him to get on the ground and put his hands behind his back, and he quickly complied.
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Police say Prude was spitting, so they put a spit hood on him, at which point Prude became more agitated. Officers then slammed the naked and handcuffed man to the ground, with one white officer holding Prude’s head down on the street with both hands.
Per an Associated Press report:
“Another officer places a knee on his back.”
“ ‘Trying to kill me!’ Prude says, his voice becoming muffled and anguished under the hood.”
“ ‘OK, stop. I need it. I need it,’ the prone man begs before his shouts turn to whimpers and grunts.”
Joe Prude said: “How did you see him and not directly say, ‘The man is defenseless, buck naked on the ground. He’s cuffed up already. Come on.’ How many more brothers gotta die for society to understand that this needs to stop?”
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It’s a good question. How many videos like this have to come out before Americans — all Americans — stand up and say: Enough. This is not fair. This is not justice, in any sense. And this must stop.
For that to happen, I believe, people who look like me must bear witness.
If you can watch the protests happening across the country and shake your head at the anger and chaos, or at the destruction that has sometimes bubbled up from communities enraged, you better be able to watch the raw, painful events that have prompted civil unrest.
You need to feel the visceral pain of watching the life snuffed out of a naked man in need of help and compassion, and figure out if what you’re seeing from the people we count on to protect us seems right. Or fair. Or just.
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Because it’s easy to denounce the outcry if you’re evading the moments that chip away at the souls of those who bear witness. It’s easy, and it’s cowardly.
We shouldn’t look away from videos of these horrible events. Because we need to understand the ghastly weight of these tragedies, no matter how uncomfortable.
We owe it to the dead, and the living. We must bear witness.
rhuppke@chicagotribune.com