Chicago&#8217;s controversial police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, announced his retirement Thursday, stepping down after just three years on the job.
Johnson held a press conference Thursday morning and, flanked by his family and Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, brought an end to his three-decade police career in the nation&#8217;s third largest city.
&#8220;I have given 31 years now to this city, and almost four as superintendent,&#8221; Johnson said earlier this week. &#8220;You know, but I recognize also that at some point it&#8217;s time to create another chapter in your life. And I will tell you all this: When my family and I went to London for the Bears game, that&#8217;s the first vacation like that that I&#8217;ve had since I became superintendent.&#8221;
&#8220;I looked at my family and it made me realize how much of a sacrifice you make for your family when you take on positions like this,&#8221; he continued
He echoed that sentiment in his remarks Thursday, adding that his job left little time for him to spend with his family, <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-chicago-police-superintendent-eddie-johnson-20191107-uegoqlb4qfhl5mjltyhsn56spm-story.html">according to the Chicago Tribune</a>.
Johnson grew up in Chicago and joined the police department at a young age, rising through the ranks until he was selected to help bring an end to Chicago&#8217;s streak of gun violence during the tenure of former mayor Rahm Emanuel, and to help restructure and reform the Chicago Police Department following the police shooting death of teenager Laquan McDonald.
By all accounts, Johnson has done his job; the Tribune reports that homicides and shooting deaths have fallen by around 10% each year Johnson has been on the job, even though Chicago&#8217;s violence still makes headlines.
That violence made national news just last week, after Johnson publicly flouted an invitation to attend the International Association of Police Chiefs convention in Chicago because President Donald Trump, who regularly draws attention to Chicago&#8217;s gun problem, was the keynote speaker. The pair engaged in a war of words, with Trump calling out Johnson in his speech to the IAPC, and again on Twitter.
&#8220;Chicago will never stop its crime wave with the current Superintendent of Police. It just won&#8217;t happen!&#8221; Trump told the IAPC audience. &#8220;All over the world, they&#8217;re talking about Chicago – Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison.&#8221;
&#8220;Chicago will never stop its crime wave with the current Superintendent of Police,&#8221; Trump later tweeted. &#8220;It just won’t happen! Thank you to Kevin Graham and all of the GREAT Chicago Police Officers I just had the privilege to meet. Tremendous crime fighting potential if allowed to do your thing!&#8221;
Johnson might not have retired from his job so quickly were it not for an internal investigation, currently underway, into an incident that found Johnson slumped behind the wheel of a running car, stopped at a stop sign just blocks from his home in the Bridgeport neighborhood on Chicago&#8217;s south side.
Lightfoot addressed that issue earlier this week, saying Johnson told her that he was in the process of switching medication, and did not know his new prescription would leave him sleepy (Johnson had a liver transplant just a few years ago).
“I know what the superintendent told me, which is that he was … changing medication &#8230; He’d been out to dinner with some folks. He told me he was driving home,&#8221; Lightfoot told the Chicago Tribune on Monday. &#8220;He felt ill and pulled over to the side of the road, which he believed was the prudent thing to do.&#8221;
Johnson later admitted that he had a few drinks at dinner with friends before he got behind the wheel. CPD&#8217;s Internal Affairs department opened an inquiry into Johnson&#8217;s behavior this week.

Graduation Ceremony Held For Chicago Police Department Cadets

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson Retires Amid Internal Investigation

Chicago

President Donald Trump may have launched his most scathing insult yet at Democrats during a speech he gave to the International Association of Police Chiefs on Monday in Chicago, comparing them to former &#8220;Empire&#8221; actor and alleged hate crime hoaxer, Jussie Smollett.
The President took aim at several characters in his Chicago speech, excorating the city&#8217;s major and police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, who skipped the conference to avoid Trump, as well as Congressional Democrats currently conducting an impeachment &#8220;inquiry&#8221; behind closed doors in Washington, D.C.
Smollett, of course, is now famous for being the victim of a &#8220;hate crime&#8221; last winter. Smollett claimed that two white men wearing &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221; hats waited for him outside his apartment in Chicago&#8217;s tony Streeterville neighborhood, and accosted him when he returned home with a midnight snack in the wee hours of January 29th. The actor eventually told police that the two men assaulted him, beat him, tossed a &#8220;noose&#8221; over his neck, and then ran away, shouting a host of racial and homophobic slurs, capped off with the declaration, &#8220;This is MAGA country!&#8221;
An extensive police investigation appeared to reveal that Smollett had collaborated with two friends &#8212; both &#8220;Empire&#8221; extras and local personal trainers &#8212; to stage the attack. He was charged with sixteen counts of lying to police officers, but the charges were eventually dropped in a sweetheart deal with Chicago&#8217;s chief prosecutor.
Trump clearly hasn&#8217;t forgotten that he and his supporters were drawn into Smollett&#8217;s alleged hoax, and that, for days, celebrities and media figures assailed President Trump over the attack. And he certainly hasn&#8217;t forgotten that some of Smollett&#8217;s top defenders are now involved in establishing a case for his impeachment.
&#8220;You have the case of this wiseguy Jussie Smollett who beat up himself, and he said MAGA country did it. It’s a crime, a hate crime. That’s a scam, a real big scam just like the impeachment of your president is a scam,” Trump told the room full of police officers.
“And you look what’s going on, Smollett is still trying to get away with it. He would have been better off with his face on [a] $100,000 bill,&#8221; he continued.
The Trump Administration maintains that the President should not be the subject of an impeachment inquiry, but Democrats are pursuing one, regardless, under the theory that Trump made a quid-pro-quo deal with Ukrainian officials: international aid dollars in return for a Ukrainian investigation into whether former Vice President (and current candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination) Joe Biden used his office to pull strings for his son, Hunter, who was doing business in the country.
Trump followed up his criticism of Democrats with criticism of Chicago&#8217;s police.
“People like Johnson put criminals and illegal aliens before the citizens of Chicago,” Trump said, referencing Chicago&#8217;s &#8220;sanctuary city&#8221; policy and the city&#8217;s high murder rate. “Those are his values and, frankly, those values to me are a disgrace.”
&#8220;It&#8217;s embarrassing to us as a nation,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;All over the world they&#8217;re talking about Chicago. Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison.&#8221;
While Trump is generally correct about the Afghanistan numbers, Johnson has presided over a steep decline in violent crime in Chicago, according to the Chicago Police Department&#8217;s own numbers. Shootings &#8212; by far Chicago&#8217;s most public problem &#8212; are down more than 10% year over year, and Chicago has officially lost the title of &#8220;most violent city in America,&#8221; dropping to twenty-first after cities like Baltimore, Maryland, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/experience/america/2018/10/17/25-most-dangerous-cities-america/1669467002/">according to USA Today</a>.
Johnson is also, ironically, the chief motivating force behind an ongoing city of Chicago lawsuit against Jussie Smollett, seeking to recover $130,000 worth of overtime pay accrued by detectives investigating Smollett&#8217;s &#8220;hate crime.&#8221;
&nbsp;

Jussie Smollet

President Trump Compares Impeachment To Jussie Smollett &#8216;Scam&#8217; In Chicago Speech

Donald Trump

Jussie Smollett

The Chicago Teachers Union got a treat as their strike entered its second week: a &#8220;civil disobedience&#8221; training session from a Bernie Sanders staffer.
Monday marks day eight of the CTU strike, <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/10/24/20930111/chicago-teachers-strike-updates-cps-live-blog-day-8">according to the Chicago Sun-Times</a>, and neither the city of Chicago nor the teacher&#8217;s union seem poised to give in on contract negotiations. CTU is demanding not just a raise in pay and an increase in benefits, but jobs for nurses, social workers, and librarians, many of whom are represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which sees the CTU negotiation as an opportunity to demand more union employees be hired into the Chicago public school system.
The city of Chicago and mayor Lori Lightfoot seem increasingly exasperated with the negotiations, suggesting Monday that CTU is not serious about reaching a deal &#8212; something CTU seemed more than willing to underline but <a href="https://www.ctulocal1.org/posts/ctu-educators-invite-the-rev-jesse-jackson-to-mediate-cps-negotiations/">suggesting that Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr.</a>, take over as mediator between the two parties.
Both sides called their Friday and Monday meetings, &#8220;good progress.&#8221;
Despite their optimistic public comments, school remains cancelled for the city&#8217;s 300,000 students for the foreseeable future, <a href="https://wgntv.com/2019/10/24/chicago-teachers-strike-hits-1-week-mark-as-contract-talks-continue/">according to WGN, </a>and, over the weekend, the teacher&#8217;s union sent a clear message to city officials that strike methods may become more extreme if negotiations drag on.
Last week, striking Chicago teachers received a day-long training on &#8220;civil disobedience,&#8221; <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/10/24/20931416/cps-strike-ctu-teachers-support-staff-civil-disobedience-training-arrests">according to the Sun-Times. </a>There, the educators learned how to grind buildins to a standstill, clog intersections, and draw the attention of law enforcement so that any eventual arrest becomes a visible reminder of the strike for city officials, and, hopefully, a national news story.
&#8220;During the presentation, led by an SEIU Healthcare official and a staffer for presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders’ political team, strikers were coached on blocking traffic and shutting down building lobbies,&#8221; the Sun-Times said. &#8220;Despite members agreeing that any protests would remain nonviolent, they were all prepped for being arrested as part of future demonstrations. They were told to avoid carrying anything that isn’t necessary and advised to use the restroom and bundle up in the case they’re locked up.&#8221;
Members of CTU were also advised to dress warmly since &#8220;jail cells can be cold.&#8221;
“We are probably under a consensus and agreement that what we want to do is what is going to advance our message as clearly as possible and put as much possible pressure on the mayor to settle this problem as quickly as possible,&#8221; the Sanders staffer who hosted the workshop told media.
The training, organizers said, was for those “who are ready to step it up a notch…We will learn from the tactics that ended Jim Crow and the Vietnam War&#8221; to end the contract impasse, though reasons for the scale up weren&#8217;t given.
As for when the more visible protests will begin, well, union officials suggested protesting President Donald Trump, who is in Chicago Monday for a fundraiser and to give a speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police holding their annual convention on the city&#8217;s south side, would be a &#8220;productive&#8221; idea, <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-cps-strike-chicago-teachers-union-updates-20191028-kapm3khjobhc5nxr5inuzcswfm-story.html">the Chicago Tribune reports</a>.
“After pickets Monday, the CTU has not planned any afternoon activity,” an email from union leaders to union members, sent Sunday night, read. “Feel free to rest or take part in any productive activity of your choosing. We have heard that President Donald Trump might be in town. If any members were inclined to show up outside his fundraiser in red, that would qualify as productive, in our view.”
Trump did not acknowledge the strike in his remarks to police chiefs Monday morning, focusing instead on immigration and the failures of Chicago&#8217;s police department. He&#8217;s also unlikely to see any protests; since McCormick Place, where Trump is speaking, is out of the way of downtown, and demonstrations there aren&#8217;t likely to draw attention or disrupt city business. Instead, protesters will gather outside Trump Tower.

U.S.-CHICAGO-TEACHERS-STRIKE RALLY

Striking Chicago Teachers Get &#8216;Civil Disobedience&#8217; Training From Bernie Sanders Staffers, Plan To Disrupt Trump Visit

Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, running for the 2020 Democratic nomination, is desperate to craft a public image that includes her time spent as a public school teacher, even if it was undeniably short. To that end, she&#8217;s spent time in Chicago this week, appearing with striking members of the Chicago Teachers Union.
On Monday, Warren released a video of herself calling striking teachers, offering words of support as a &#8220;former public school teacher.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m calling to say thank you for contributing to my campaign multiple times and second, be strong in the Chicago teachers&#8217; strike. I know that this has gotta be a hard time for the teachers and I know that no one involved does this lightly, but that you&#8217;re out there fighting for the future of our children,&#8221; she said in the video, posted to social media.
Warren has been pushing her one year of experience as an unlicensed special education teacher hard over the last month, perhaps in the hopes it distracts from the rest of her biography, which includes high-paid stints as a law professor, house flipper, and, eventually, as a career public servant. She&#8217;s already faced criticism for the focus on her public education career, after she tried to claim she was fired from her job for becoming pregnant, rather than for failing to get a required accreditation.
On Wednesday, Warren headlined a CTU rally, where she choked up a bit talking to a massive union rally in downtown Chicago, while around 300,000 students went without classes for a fourth day.
&#8220;Everyone in America should support you in this strike,&#8221; Warren told the crowd. &#8220;The reason is because when you go out and fight, you don&#8217;t just fight for yourselves. You fight for their children of this city, and the children of this country. I believe in public education. I believe it is time in America to make a new investment in public education.&#8221;
&#8220;I got a plan for that,&#8221; she continued.
She certainly does: an $800 billion plan that would &#8220;quadruple Title I funding for poor students to $450 billion over 10 years, increase funding for students with disabilities by $20 billion, invest $100 billion in so-called &#8220;excellence grants&#8221; for schools to invest in programs and resources they think are the most important for their students and provide $50 billion in infrastructure spending,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2019-10-22/elizabeth-warren-joins-teachers-strike-in-chicago">U.S. News and World Report</a>. It also calls for replacing the Secretary of Education (something that&#8217;s the prerogative of a new president, regardless), and <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2019-10-21/elizabeth-warren-k-12-plan-would-end-federal-funds-for-charter-schools-quadruple-title-i-funding">cracking down on charter and private schools</a>.
S<a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2019/10/21/fauxahontas-clings-to-chicago-teachers-strike-to-play-up-her-public-school-teac-n2555129">he outlined her plan on Twitter on Tuesday</a>, right before she made her call to striking Chicago teachers. There&#8217;s little it doesn&#8217;t include, and most of the elements are a direct handout to powerful teachers unions, who are backing Warren, and will likely provide millions in funding and thousands of hours of labor for her presidential campaign, if she wins the nomination.
&#8220;The unions are how we have a voice. The unions are how we have power,&#8221; Warren said during her speech in Chicago. &#8220;The unions are how we make sure that the needs of every single one of our children are heard loud and clear. So today, I&#8217;m here because the eyes of this nation are upon you. They have turned to Chicago for you to lead the way, for you to show how the power of standing together is the power of making real change in this country.&#8221;
Like the unions in Chicago, though, Warren is tight-lipped on how anyone plans to pay for her massive education spending increase.
Striking teachers in Chicago are calling for pay and benefits hikes, smaller class sizes, and hundreds more employees for the school system, including nurses and social workers (who also happen to be represented by unions affliated with CTU), but Chicago&#8217;s mayor, Lori Lightfoot has made clear that there&#8217;s no money for such a massive hiring binge &#8212; because there&#8217;s no money for, well, anything.
&#8220;There is a finite pot of money. We don&#8217;t have unlimited cash to keep funding the things that are aspirational and maybe things that, on values that we share,&#8221; Lightfoot said in a press conference Tuesday, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/22/us/chicago-teachers-strike-tuesday/index.html">according to CNN</a>. &#8220;We have to live within our means. That&#8217;s what the taxpayers expect of us, and that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re going to do.&#8221;
Striking teachers, no doubt, would like Lightfoot to hike Chicago property taxes, but even that money is spoken for.
Warren is expected to outline how she plans to pay for her huge education package later this week, but she already appears to be at a loss over how to fund the other huge spending programs she&#8217;s proposing, including a student loan bailout, a &#8220;green new deal,&#8221; and a Medicare for All universal health care plan.

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren Butts In On Chicago Teachers&#8217; Strike To Boost Education Plan

Education

Former &#8220;Empire&#8221; actor Jussie Smollett and his attorneys lost their bid, Tuesday, to toss out a civil case, filed by the city of Chicago seeking to recoup around $130,000 spent investigating Smollett&#8217;s alleged hoax hate crime.
A Federal judge told Smollett&#8217;s attorneys that the case can move forward into discovery and the court set a loose timeline for trial, tabling litigation until early 2020.
The city of Chicago filed the civil suit against Smollett after he failed to pay a $130,000 bill, levied by the city&#8217;s Finance Department, to recoup dozens of overtime hours accrued by Chicago Police Department detectives while the chased down two racist, homophobic individuals who, Smollett said, attacked him outside of his apartment in the city&#8217;s tony Streeterville neighborhood in the wee hours of January 19th.
Smollett claimed that two white attackers wearing &#8220;Make America Great Again Hats&#8221; accosted him as he made his way back home from a nearby Subway sandwich shop. According to Smollett, the two men assaulted him, punched him in the face, tossed a noose around his neck, and doused him with a chemical before yelling, &#8220;This is MAGA country!&#8221; and taking off, leaving him lying in the street.
Smollett filed two police reports, one almost immediately after the incident and a second one later in the day after being released from the hospital, where he&#8217;d gone for treatment for minor injuries.
It later emerged, following an intense, multi-week investigation by Chicago Police Department detectives, that Smollett may have orchestrated his own hate crime, paying two former &#8220;Empire&#8221; extras &#8212; a pair of Nigerian-American brothers who also served as Smollett&#8217;s sometimes-personal trainers &#8212; to stage the attack in order to elevate his profile (which he thought could earn him more on &#8220;Empire&#8221;).
Following these revelations, which came alongside surveillance footage, further police interviews, and sworn testimony from the two brothers, Smollett was charged with 16 counts of filing a false police report &#8212; one count for each crime he alleged.
Smollett was eventually let off the hook, inking a de facto plea deal with the Cook County States Attorney, who dropped all charges against Smollett in return for two dozen hours of community service, which Smollett had previously completed, and Smollett&#8217;s $10,000 bond deposit. Smollett was not &#8220;cleared&#8221; of the charges, but the deal effectively ended the city of Chicago&#8217;s involvement in the case. An FBI and United States Postal Service investigation, into allegations that Smollett sent himself a noxious substance through the mail, has yet to conclude.
The city of Chicago then filed their suit seeking reimbursement.
Smollett&#8217;s attorneys argued Tuesday, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2019/10/22/jussie-smollett-chicago-lawsuit-actor-still-facing-130-k-civil-suit/4000512002/">USA Today reports</a>, that Smollett should not be forced to pay because &#8220;Smollett himself did not direct Chicago police to spend weeks investigating his claim and could not have known how much time and money would be spent.&#8221;
The judge did not agree, noting that &#8220;if someone was going to falsely claim a racist and homophobic attack, it isn’t unreasonable to think the Chicago Police wouldn’t spend the hours necessary to investigate it,&#8221; according to local <a href="https://twitter.com/RaferWeigel/status/1186658483896229892">Chicago reporter Rafer Weigel</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Judge Kendall denies <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JussieSmollett?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JussieSmollett</a> lawyers request to dismiss the case. Saying, if someone was going to falsely claim a racist and homophobic attack, it isn’t unreasonable to think the <a href="https://twitter.com/Chicago_Police?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Chicago_Police</a> wouldn’t spend the hours necessary to investigate it. Moving to discovery. <a href="https://t.co/Qv6t9GwioL">https://t.co/Qv6t9GwioL</a>
&mdash; Rafer Weigel (@RaferWeigel) <a href="https://twitter.com/RaferWeigel/status/1186646829263400960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
When asked why Smollett wanted to pursue the case, despite the likelihood that his legal fees will total more than the original $130,000 fine, <a href="https://twitter.com/RaferWeigel/status/1186658483896229892">his attorney told Weigel</a> that “my client has maintained his innocence and he believes you don’t put a price tag on that. He’s willing to spend what it takes to prove his innocence because, unfortunately, he has been proven guilty in the media more than proven innocent.&#8221;
His attorney later added, “(Jussie) has always maintained his innocence and is happy to have this decided on the facts and when the facts come out they will show his innocence.”
The judge opened the case up to discovery and pre-trial motions. A trial on the merits of the case is likely to wait until summer of 2020.

Actor Jussie Smollett

Jussie Smollett Loses Bid To Boot Civil Suit From Chicago Finance Department

Police in Chicago were warned not to cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on issues of immigration.
The Chicago Police Department (CPD)sent a memo, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-police-dont-cooperate-dhs-immigration">obtained by Fox News</a>, to officers in late September telling them to wait for a supervisor to arrive before assisting DHS. Upon arrival, the supervisor will direct CPD officers to leave the scene, “if the request is to assist with an immigration arrest or detention. Fox News confirmed the authenticity of the memo but could not determine whether Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was behind the directive.
Several sources within the CPD told Fox that the new policy puts both departments at risk.
“See what happens when that happens and a DHS agent is injured because of a lack of response by CPD. Sickening what’s happening here,” one source told the outlet.
“You’ll not find a single real police officer that would refuse to assist another agency,” said another.
Chicago is one of at least 36 sanctuary cities in the United States that refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within DHS. In addition to dozens of cities, whole counties and states are also considered to be sanctuaries for illegal immigrants.
A DHS spokesperson told Fox that the memo to Chicago police officers was dangerous.
“The Department of Homeland Security is deeply concerned with the dangerous anti-law enforcement direction given by the leadership of the Chicago Police Department. The men and women of ICE put their lives on the line every day to protect the citizens of this country from dangerous criminals,” the spokesperson told the outlet. “Failing to support fellow law enforcement officers upon request for assistance not only places our heroic police officers in greater danger but keeps criminals on the streets and makes all of our communities less safe, specifically the great City of Chicago.”
The CPD told the outlet that law enforcement would assist a federal agent who is in danger but would not assist in the arrest. Instead, they will “advise and leave the scene.”
The new policy for CPD came around the same time that a Virginia police officer was suspended <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-officer-suspended-after-cooperating-with-ice">for cooperating with ICE</a>.
The officer was suspended after responding to a vehicle crash. During routine license checks, the officer discovered that one of the drivers had a warrant out for his arrest for failing to appear for a deportation hearing. The officer notified the ICE contact listed on the notification of the warrant, who was nearby. The officer then arrested the driver and turned them over to the ICE agent.
Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. said in <a href="https://fcpdnews.wordpress.com/2019/10/01/chief-roesslers-statement-on-officers-custodial-detention-and-ice-notification/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">a statement</a> that officer violated a department order requiring them to ignore such a notification unless the person in question is “being taken into custody for any other violation of law.” Roessler emphasized in his statement that officers are extensively trained on this distinction and that the suspended officer “deprived a person of their freedom, which is unacceptable.”
The arrested driver spent three hours in custody and was released.

Police

Chicago Police Officers Told Not To Cooperate With DHS On Immigration Issues: Memo

Department of Homeland Security

Illegal Immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Speculation about whether “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett may yet be charged for orchestrating a hate crime hoax intensified after the two brothers who say the actor hired them to attack him met with the special prosecutor working on the case.
Abel and Ola Osundairo said earlier this year that Smollett hired them to attack him while he was out in Chicago one early, frigid morning so that he could negotiate a higher salary on “Empire.” TMZ <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2019/10/05/jussie-smollett-osundairo-brothers-meeting-special-prosecutor/">reported</a> this weekend that the brothers met with Special Prosecutor Dan Webb, who was assigned to look into the deal that allowed Smollett to get off the hook for faking the attack by paying $10,000 and performing 16 hours of community service.
“Sources close to the case tell TMZ &#8230; Abel and Ola met with Dan Webb&#8217;s team this week because the special prosecutor wanted to hear their full story &#8212; their version of Jussie&#8217;s alleged attack,” TMZ reported. “Our sources say the brothers each spent a couple hours with the special prosecutor&#8217;s team.”
Smollett was original indicted on 16 felony accounts for allegedly making up the attack. Smollett had claimed in late January that he went to a Subway sandwich restaurant at two in the morning during a polar vortex. As he was returning home, he claimed, two white men wearing pro-Trump hats attacked him, poured bleach on him, tied a noose around his neck, and shouted racial and homophobic slurs. This account required people to believe there are Trump supporters in Deep Blue Chicago who spend their nights trawling for someone to attack – and that these same people watch “Empire” and knew who Smollett was.
The charges against Smollett were dismissed by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said she had recused herself from the case due to a conflict of interest yet <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chicago-prosecutor-kim-foxx-deputies-subpoenaed-emily-zanotti">her influence was still seen</a> in the plea deal. Then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the office’s decision to drop the charges a “whitewash of justice.”
A special prosecutor was appointed to look into how the case unraveled. The City of Chicago is also still looking into ways to force Smollett to repay them for the time and resources spent on investigating the alleged hoax.
TMZ also reported that Webb has his own conflict-of-interest issues, but a Chicago judge ruled Friday that it does not appear as though Webb is biased. Webb had donated $1,000 to Foxx’s campaign and hosted a fundraiser for her.
Page Six <a href="https://pagesix.com/2019/10/05/special-prosecutor-meets-with-nigerian-brothers-in-jussie-smollett-probe/">reported</a> that Webb has the power to reinstate charges against Smollett.
Last week, Smollett <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jussie-smollett-lashes-out-after-being-compared-to-girl-who-faked-hate-crime-i-havent-lied-about-a-thing">lashed out</a> at a self-help guru who compared him to 12-year-old Amari Allen, who had claimed white boys at her school held her down, cut her dreads, and hurled racial slurs at her. After the media incredulously reported her crimes, Allen admitted she made up the story and her grandparents apologized on her behalf.
Smollett claimed he was nothing like Allen despite the similar stories:
<blockquote>With all due respect brother, y’all can clown me all you want but my story has actually never changed and I haven’t lied about a thing. Y’all can continue to be misinformed, internalized sheep, who believe what actual proven liars feed you or you can read the actual docs. Either way, I’mma be alright. I know me and what happened. You don’t. So carry on. All love.</blockquote>

Jussie Smollet May Still Be Charged Over Hate Crime Hoax

Hate Crime

Hoax

A suburban Chicago man who drove his black SUV through Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois, is facing terrorism charges, according to the Cook County state&#8217;s attorney&#8217;s office.
<a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-09-29/terrorism-charge-suv-chicago-mall">The Los Angeles Times reports</a> that local police announced the charges, leveled against 22-year-old Palatine, Illinois resident, Javier Garcia on Sunday. Garcia was also charged with &#8220;felony criminal damage to property.&#8221;
The terrorism charge is local. The Federal government hasn&#8217;t yet announced if they will seek charges. They were on the scene, a week ago Friday, when Garcia plowed his Chevy Trailblazer through an entrance to the Sears department store, turned a hard right into the mall itself, and drove past several stores, plowing into kiosks, destroying a window display at Forever 21, and eventually hitting a pole near the mall&#8217;s center court.
For Illinois, though, the terrorism charge isn&#8217;t necessarily related to Garcia&#8217;s motive (though a motive has yet to be specified).
<a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/09/29/terrorism-charge-woodfield-mall/?fbclid=IwAR2nEpVMTANV6yxq0A9YnQpv5vnegsRA-NZ-EEoKqqlKZh4Rs8erlcgB8TM">Local news reports</a> that Cook County authorities can charge someone with &#8220;terrorism&#8221; if they cause more than $100,000 worth of damage to certain structures. The law itself specifies that &#8220;terrorism&#8221; includes “any act that causes substantial damage to any building containing (5) or more businesses of any type. Substantial damage means monetary damage greater than $100,000.”
Initially, police indicated that they believed Garcia was suffering from a &#8220;medical condition,&#8221; and Garcia&#8217;s father reported to media that his son was on medication for an unspecified illness and that family members have been trying to get Garcia into treatment. Garcia&#8217;s lawyer told media that he believes his client suffers from &#8220;bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and paranoia.&#8221;
After being arrested, Garcia was taken to a behavioral health facility but has since been released into police custody. He was denied bond in a hearing over the weekend.
The incident, which saw Garcia bypass security barriers and go far into the mall before crashing and being apprehended (by an off duty police officer and several mall patrons, not mall security or law enforcement) was bizarre in its own right, and police were initially reticent to ascribe a motive to Garcia. But further investigation seems to indicate that Garcia planned some sort of attack.
Chicago&#8217;s CBS affiliate &#8220;learned Garcia searched &#8216;Woodfield Mall&#8217; 124 times, including aerial views of the mall and stores including Sears. Included in the total searches, &#8216;Sears,&#8217; specifically, was searched 35 times.&#8221; He also spent time inside Sears the day of the attack. He was caught on security camera wandering around the store. He eventually left without buying anything, returned to his car, and then drove his car back to &#8212; and through &#8212; the Sears entrance.
Three people received minor injuries in the attack, none from the attacker himself or his car. Authorities say Garcia did come close to doing major bodily harm to several children, however; the SUV narrowly missed a children&#8217;s train ride that operates in the open space directly outside the Sears mall entrance.
Authorities aren&#8217;t sure what Garcia was trying to do, though, even if he had planned the attack ahead of time.
“Police have no reason to believe Garcia was targeting any specific person and/or store within Sears or Woodfield Mall,” a spokesperson told local media Sunday.
Garcia&#8217;s attorney maintains that his client is not a &#8220;terrorist&#8221; and that he finds the charges surprising.

Woodfield Mall

Man Who Drove SUV Through Chicago Mall Charged With Terrorism

Terrorism

Last week, Chicago&#8217;s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, engaged in a Twitter war with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) over the city&#8217;s ongoing gun violence problem. Monday, she published an op-ed in the Washington Post blaming pro-gun Republicans like Cruz for the city&#8217;s sky-high murder rate, claiming the lenient GOP could save Chicago by instituting more stringent federal gun measures.
The social media interaction between Lightfoot and Cruz didn&#8217;t go well for Lightfoot, who stepped in after the Texas Republican claimed Chicago&#8217;s persistent gun problem was a perfect example of why more gun control laws don&#8217;t necessarily mean less crime. Lightfoot responded by telling Cruz that 60% of illegal firearms in Chicago come from outside the state of Illinois, and warned Cruz and &#8220;coward Republicans&#8221; to &#8220;Keep our name out of your mouth.&#8221;
Cruz fired back, pointing out that Chicago&#8217;s prosecutors are lenient on gun offenders and that Chicago&#8217;s policy to allow weapons law violators to return to the streets after posting as little as $1,000 bail leaves Chicago residents exposed to violence.
Lightfoot appeared to back off — until Monday, when <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-ted-cruz-really-cares-about-chicago-shootings-he-should-go-there-and-prove-it/2019/09/08/cdd356da-d17a-11e9-8c1c-7c8ee785b855_story.html?noredirect=on">she published an op-ed in the Washington Post</a>, accusing the gun law-shy GOP of making Chicago a haven for gun violence.
The article, titled &#8220;Ted Cruz and others should stop using Chicago as a punching bag,&#8221; essentially claims that lax federal gun laws allow bad guys in Chicago to buy guns without a background check, reiterates that most of the guns used in Chicago shootings come from out of state, and blames Republicans in Congress for failing to enact universal background checks and to close the &#8220;gun show loophole.&#8221;
&#8220;Sixty percent of firearms owned or used illegally recovered in Chicago come from outside Illinois,&#8221; she writes. &#8220;These guns don’t recognize state lines or city boundaries. Cruz said the five U.S. cities with the highest murder rates &#8216;have had Democratic mayors for decades and aggressive gun control policies — none seems to be working.&#8221; He’s making my case for me: As long as people can drive from Illinois to Indiana and purchase a personal arsenal without a background check, Chicago’s gun laws will always be as weak as those of the closest permissive state.&#8221;
That state, Lightfoot says, is Indiana. But there are a few problems with her argument. For starters, trafficking guns over state lines is already illegal, as are straw purchases. Although Democrats in Chicago like to claim that offenders often buy their guns at gun shows in Indiana, where they can simply purchase weapons from other private individuals, most gun show sellers are also gun retailers who have to pass inspection and be licensed by the federal government.
And if 60% of guns come from out of state, that still means 40% of guns are coming from Illinois. And Indiana still has state-mandated background checks, and gun retailers must obey federal guidelines for all legal gun purchases. Illegal gun purchases would likely remain illegal even if the laws changed.
Lightfoot tries to use the example of a man arrested for the murder of a child in Chicago, whose weapons were purchased illegally and shipped to him from New Mexico, as an example of how the federal laws &#8220;allow&#8221; violence in Chicago to continue, but the man actually obtained his weapons illegally — he violated existing state and federal law.
The mayor goes on to invite Cruz out to Chicago to speak to people on the street — especially on the city&#8217;s south and west sides — about how gun violence has impacted their communities. Oddly enough, Lightfoot didn&#8217;t encourage Cruz to speak to Chicago&#8217;s police, but they may hold the actual key to Chicago&#8217;s ongoing violence problem.
Gun offenders in Chicago are routinely released with little or no bail, only a day or two after they&#8217;re arrested. Although the guns are often confiscated, gang members and other violent individuals are quickly returned to the streets where they usually offend again. The problem has gotten so bad, <a href="https://www.cwbchicago.com/2019/08/monday-gunday-police-website-to-detail.html">local blog CWB Chicago reports</a>, that Chicago police are launching a website to track arrested gun offenders, how long they spend in jail, and how little they&#8217;re required to post for bond.
Cruz has not yet responded to Lightfoot&#8217;s request.

Chicago&#8217;s Mayor Claims REPUBLICANS Are Responsible For City&#8217;s Violence

Gun Control

Gun Laws

Republican Party

In a last-ditch effort to get a $130,000 lawsuit filed by the City of Chicago dismissed, the lawyers of Jussie Smollett filed a motion Tuesday night that tries to make the case that even if a suspect files a false police report, as authorities say Smollett has done, that person can&#8217;t be held liable for the bill of a &#8220;sprawling&#8221; investigation.
Despite significant evidence indicating that he staged a fake hate crime against himself with the help of two of his acquaintances, who confessed as much to authorities, Smollett and his lawyers have adamantly maintained that he is innocent of all charges and that &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51162/jussie-smollett-pr-team-every-iota-hate-crime-paul-bois">every iota</a>&#8221; of his claim to police is true. Smollett told authorities he was attacked by Trump-supporting racists who doused him with bleach, assaulted him, and put a rope around his neck, a story he also told the public and his former &#8220;Empire&#8221; co-stars.
In a 12-page court filing Tuesday night, his legal representatives declared his &#8220;innocence&#8221; again and accused the city of engaging in a &#8220;vindictive&#8221; lawsuit. But they also added a new argument.
&#8220;This unprecedented civil case was filed simply because former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel disagreed with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s decision to dismiss the false police report charges against Mr. Smollett,&#8221; Smollett&#8217;s lawyer William Quinlan said in the motion, as reported by <a href="https://pagesix.com/2019/09/04/jussie-smolletts-lawyer-calls-chicagos-130k-lawsuit-vindictive/">Page Six</a>.
&#8220;Mr. Smollett has always maintained and continues to maintain his innocence,&#8221; the filing asserts. &#8220;Yet the City’s claims and purported damages are a vindictive effort to prosecute charges that the State’s Attorney pursued and then chose to drop.&#8221;
While their adamant insistence on his innocence is nothing new, Smollett&#8217;s team added a new wrinkle on Tuesday, as pointed out by <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2019/9/4/20848715/jussie-smollett-chicago-police-probe-lawsuit-gay-homophobic-attack">The Chicago Sun-Times</a>&#8216; Michael Sneed. &#8220;[T]he latest court filing contends even if Smollett did make a false report, there is no way the city can assert he would have known the city would investigate — and investigate it to the extent cops did,&#8221; Sneed notes.
&#8220;The mere fact somebody filed a police report doesn’t presume the investigation will be done and certainly not to the extent of what the city is claiming,&#8221; Quinlan argues in the filing. &#8220;Smollett has no control over that.&#8221;
&#8220;The filing of a police report, in and of itself, does not necessitate a sprawling investigation nor does it, as a practical matter, usually result in an investigation as extensive as the one the CPD chose to undertake in this case,&#8221; reads the motion, as highlighted by Sneed, adding: &#8220;The City has failed to allege that Mr. Smollett was similarly &#8216;well aware&#8217; that his statements to police would result in 1,836 hours of police overtime, or any other reasons why he should have known this would have been the case.&#8221;
Quinlan makes sure to maintain a sense of optimism about the case, declaring that it&#8217;s &#8220;going to be very difficult for the city to prevail in making a case my client should pay for overtime for a case ultimately dismissed by the state’s attorney,&#8221; and that it&#8217;s &#8220;ridiculous and a stretch to require him to do so.&#8221;
The city, which has made clear its determination to follow through on the case abruptly dropped by Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx, apparently feels otherwise. As for Foxx, two weeks ago, Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed a special prosecutor, former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, to lead the investigation into how Foxx&#8217;s office handled Smollett&#8217;s case.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50967/breaking-special-prosecutor-appointed-jussie-ryan-saavedra">Special Prosecutor Appointed In Jussie Smollett Investigation</a>

jussie_smollett_gi

Smollett Lawyers Make New Last-Ditch Argument To Try To Get Lawsuit Dismissed

Rahm Emanuel

Three Chicago teachers and a union organizer used a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a trip to Venezuela. The teachers, all members of the Chicago Teachers Union, wrote public blogs and social media posts casting the socialist government of the country in a favorable light.
The Chicago Tribune <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-teachers-union-venezuela-trip-20190819-tbpa3lhjifduxgupdxfs3mosr4-story.html">reported</a> Monday that the educators have been criticized for their trip and praise of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro. The Chicago Teachers Union also distanced itself from those who went on the trip, putting out a statement that it was not an official union trip and was not funded by the union.
“Members go all kinds of places in the summer. This was neither an official trip nor something that was funded by the union,” CTU president Jesse Sharkey told WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight.” “This is a group of people who are members of the CTU who decided to go to Venezuela.”
Another union member, Karen Moody, told the Tribune that she was “appalled” by the delegation.
“I am appalled a delegation representing themselves as CTU went to Venezuela, not to support striking teachers, not to object to human rights violations, but to go on what appears to be a state-chaperoned propaganda tour,” she told the outlet.
The CTU retweeted some of the group’s tweets regarding their trip, including one from teacher Sarah Chambers who praised the lack of homeless people she saw while traveling in the struggling country.
“While staying in #Venezuela, we didn’t see a single homeless person. USA is the richest country in the world; yet, there are homeless people everywhere. Over 17k CPS students are homeless &#8230; This is why @CTULocal1 is fighting for fair housing #CTUAgainstVezIntervention.&#8221;
Though the CTU distanced itself from the travelers, they clearly used the CTU to solicit donations. Their GoFundMe campaign was called “Sent CTU Strikers to Venezuela,” and they wore CTU hats in the photo they used to accompany the fundraiser.
In one blog post, the group also called itself the “CTU Delegation to Venezuela” and described the blog as representing “the members delegation of the Chicago Teacher’s Union that are currently in Venezuela to learn from educators and activists on the ground.” The blog also explained: “We are three rank and file charter school teachers and one CTU organizer. We organized this delegation ourselves and fundraised for the trip independent of the CTU.”
Chambers also compared Maduro to former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The comparison was meant as a compliment.
“Through major economic hardships, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro never closed a single public school or a single health clinic. This stands in stark contrast to our experience in Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 public schools and several mental health clinics in a single year,&#8221; Chambers told <a href="http://www.fightbacknews.org/2019/7/23/chicago-teachers-show-solidarity-venezuela">Fight Back! News</a>.
The Tribune described some of the group’s trip:
<blockquote>In the latest post, one member of the group wrote that she’d wanted to observe a method for teaching reading that combines numeracy and literacy skills. She was also curious about if and how educators incorporated the country’s social movements into their curriculum, she wrote.
They visited a commune and talked to educators involved with Misión Robinson, a social welfare program to improve literacy started under former President Hugo Chavez.</blockquote>
The group’s blog was named “Radical Educator Collective.”

Charter Schools Of Chicago Teachers Hold Rally Ahead Of Proposed Strike

Chicago Teachers Crowdfund Trip To Venezuela, Come Back Praising Socialism

Teachers Unions

Venezuela

Over the weekend, 42 people were wounded and 5 people were killed in the Windy City as a result of shootings, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/another-violent-chicago-weekend-leaves-5-dead-nearly-50-injured">Fox News</a>. The deaths come amid a national debate on guns after the recent tragedies in El Paso and Dayton.
<a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/tag/weekend-shootings/">CBS Chicago</a> reports that last weekend 7 people were killed and 46 were wounded from shooting-related incidences. The prior weekend 8 people were killed and 39 were wounded. The weekend before that, 9 were killed and 32 more were wounded. During fourth of July weekend, nearly 70 people were shot, five of which would eventually succumb to their injuries. This trend continues week after week, month after month, year after year, and decade after decade.
So far this year, 309 people have been killed in Chicago, as reported by the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-homicides-data-tracker-htmlstory.html">Chicago Tribune</a>. That figures averages out to 1.6 murders per day since January 1st. The city is also on track to nearly match the body count of Detroit and Baltimore combined. If the average rate of murders keeps up, then 587 people in the city will die from gunfire in 2019.
The demographics of the deceased are not evenly distributed among the races. A preponderance of those killed are black, as 75 percent of the victims are African American. While Hispanics make up the second-largest group, they make up only 18 percent of all victims. The percentages are not consistent with the demographics of the city, as only 30 percent of the city is black. This means that black people are disproportionately hit by a factor of 2.6. Men are also over-represented on the list of the dead, accounting for 90% of the victims. These numbers are according to the most recent data released from the <a href="https://home.chicagopolice.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2011-Murder-Report.pdf">Chicago Police Department</a>.
Although these statistics are horrible, the homicide rate is significantly lower than it was in 2016 and 2017. The reason for this is mainly the subsidence of the so-called &#8220;Ferguson effect.&#8221; The &#8220;Ferguson effect&#8221; is the feeling of distrust and resentment towards the police by local racial minorities. This occurred nationwide after a white police officer shot Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri — a shooting the Obama Department of Justice determined was justified after an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50601/washington-post-shreds-democrats-claim-mike-brown-james-barrett">extensive review</a> of the evidence and 40 witness testimonies. The fracturing of the bond between local communities and their constables, along with federal pressure applied to local police, weakened the effectiveness of law enforcement. The diminished capabilities of the police created a vacuum that criminals exploited.
The country at-large witnessed a rise in violent crime, with Chicago especially experiencing a huge surge in gun-related homicides.
Chicago has been a violent city for a long time and is notorious for being a hotbed of illegality, going back to the days of bootlegging by characters such as Al Capone in the 1920s. A crime wave hit the city in 1965 and it never truly subsided. Shootings would reach their peak in 1994. The violence was so great that Congress was forced to act. The federal government passed the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which is known as the “1994 Crime Bill.” Since the bill was passed, crime has decreased significantly. While shooting remains the highest of any city across much of the Western world, the situation has significantly improved. (See the graph below.)
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Chicago&#8217;s top cop laments violence as 66 shot, 5 fatally, over long Fourth of July weekend

5 Dead And 42 Wounded From Shootings In Chicago Over The Weekend

Guns

Shooting

While the mainstream media has justifiably reported voluminously about the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend, they have glaringly omitted the usual kind of news in Chicago, where another bloody weekend saw seven people murdered and roughly 60 people wounded by gun violence.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Weekend gun violence across the City of Chicago has left 7 people dead and 59 wounded, according to data released by police.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) <a href="https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1158371183345229825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
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ABC News reported, “Shootings across the city of Chicago this past weekend have left seven people dead and another 44 people wounded.”
According to the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-weekend-gun-violence-shootings-20190805-rjdbnceupnat7me4z3yjsvfe5y-story.html">Chicago Tribune</a>, “About two hours after seven people were shot in Douglas Park in the Lawndale neighborhood, eight more people were wounded, one fatally, in a nearby shooting, according to police … Since Friday evening, at least 48 people had been shot, including a 5-year-old boy. Five were killed.”
Anthony Guglielmi, chief communications officer for the Chicago police, tweeted, “Below is the sound that Chicago needs to change its ways on how we handle gun offenders. Audio from the tragic shooting at 18th and Kildare yesterday shows that criminals have no deterrent to carrying illegal guns in our city and this is what residents and police are up against.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Below is the sound that Chicago needs to change its ways on how we handle gun offenders. Audio from the tragic shooting at 18th &amp; Kildare yesterday shows that criminals have no deterrent to carrying illegal guns in our city and this is what residents and police are up against. <a href="https://t.co/VwixZwR0Vb">pic.twitter.com/VwixZwR0Vb</a>
— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJGuglielmi/status/1158354367944245248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
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In the beginning of June, Chicago experienced a weekend in which 52 people were shot and 10 people were killed, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chicago-sees-52-shot-10-killed-weekend-despicable-violence-officials-n1013236">according to NBC News</a>. As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47988/chicago-sees-most-violent-weekend-2019-52-shot-10-emily-zanotti">The Daily Wire </a>pointed out, “Chicago is not the country&#8217;s most violent city — by far. In fact, it doesn&#8217;t even crack the top ten most dangerous cities in America, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/experience/america/2018/10/17/25-most-dangerous-cities-america/1669467002/">according to USA Today</a> and the FBI&#8217;s Uniform Crime Report. Chicago ranks well behind cities like St. Louis, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; Baltimore, Maryland; and Memphis, Tennessee. In fact, the city is currently listed as the 21st most violent, based on per capita homicides and the violent crime rate.”
In August 2018, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/34734/60-shot-8-killed-chicago-despite-mayors-new-plan-emily-zanotti">The Daily Wire</a> reported, Chicago suffered two weekends in which at least 60 people were shot; the first weekend of the month, more than 70 people were shot and a dozen killed. Later in the month, in less than three days, <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/59-shot-6-fatally-in-weekend-shootings-across-chicago/4006842/?sf195870383=1">60 people were shot in the city</a> and eight people were killed.
In May 2018, The Daily Wire<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31198/chicago-celebrates-memorial-day-weekend-rash-emily-zanotti"> noted</a>, “Eight people were killed and more than two dozen were wounded over Memorial Day weekend in Chicago, as cops struggled to maintain peace and order in some of the city&#8217;s tourist destinations. <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/28/8-people-killed-25-wounded-in-bloody-weekend-in-chicago.html">According to Fox News</a>, the victims were mostly young adults, including one young mother who was shot on her front porch steps during her two-year-old&#8217;s birthday party.”
In December 2017, according to a Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/murder-in-america-what-makes-cities-more-dangerous-1514293200">analysis</a> of the FBI’s annual 2016 publication, <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/ucr-publications">Crime in the United States</a>, one-third of the increase in murders nationally came from just a few neighborhoods in Chicago. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/25092/one-third-us-homicide-spike-coming-just-few-jared-sichel">reported</a>, “In Chicago last year, homicides jumped to 771, 58% higher than in 2015, and more than the number of murders in Los Angeles and New York combined. Half of that increase, the analysis showed, came from just five neighborhoods, and is largely attributable to gang warfare. In a ‘roughly four-mile radius of West Garfield Park,’ for example, there are at least 30 gangs.”

Meanwhile, Chicago Has Another Weekend Of Violence. Seven Dead, 59 Wounded.

On Wednesday, during a Chicago City council meeting, new Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was caught on a live mic calling the vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police a “clown.” As <a href="http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/local/microphone-catches-mayor-lightfoot-calling-police-union-leader-a-clown-">Fox 32</a> reported, “As Patrick Murray got up to speak, Lightfoot could be heard saying, ‘Oh, back again, this FOP clown.’&#8221;
The FOP released a statement calling Lightfoot’s remark &#8220;a misguided and dangerous thing to say to a 30-year veteran police officer, particularly at a time when the city is facing such chronic violent crime.&#8221;
Murray was attempting to support officers accused of a cover-up in the 2014 death of Laquan McDonald; those officers were fired on July 18 by a city oversight board. Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder and sixteen counts of aggravated battery in the shooting.
According to the <a href="https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cpb/PoliceDiscipline/16PB29082912Decision.pdf">July 18 decision</a>, “Van Dyke’s immediate superior that night (Sergeant Stephen Franko) and three of Van Dyke’s fellow 8th District officers (Officers Ricardo Viramontes, Janet Mondragon, and Daphne Sebastian) who were on the scene when Mr. McDonald was shot … the Police Board finds that Sergeant Franko and each of the officers violated important Department rules and discharges each of them from the Police Department.”
The decision also stated:
<blockquote>The reports approved by Sergeant Franko contained several demonstrable and known falsehoods, including, among other things, that Officer Van Dyke was injured by Laquan McDonald, that Officers Van Dyke and Walsh were victims, and that Mr. McDonald assaulted and committed battery against them by attacking them with a weapon, using force likely to cause death or great bodily harm. Second, Sergeant Franko failed to ensure that the officers he supervised were utilizing the audio component of their in-car video systems, thus depriving the Department of a critical source of information about police conduct in connection with the killing of Mr. McDonald.</blockquote>
Of the three other officers, the decision stated, “Each of the three officers failed in their duty—either by outright lying or by shading the truth.”
Murray <a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/video/4131196-mayor-lori-lightfoot-calls-fop-vice-president-pat-murray-a-clown-at-city-council-meeting-im-sorry-that-i-said-it-out-loud/">stated</a> on Wednesday:
<blockquote>I’m here to talk about the police board hearing that I went to last Thursday. I knew walking in that those police officers had no chance of getting their jobs back. This is a politically put-together forum that was put together by the last mayor (Rahm Emanuel), and as a result of that I knew there was no chance, but let me just talk about the mayor. The problems that occurred with this case occurred on the fifth floor. They were concealed from the beginning and just made this worse and worse and these officers took the brunt of it. They did their jobs; they responded to the call and they did their jobs the way that they were.
The code of silence, like I said, started upstairs; the police officers, let’s talk about them. Four police officers: one’s a sergeant, three P.O’s. They served the city of Chicago for seventy years. In seventy years they had 177 honorable mentions; two department commendations, nine physical fitness awards; they had 13 other awards for attendance. They had one sustained (unintelligible) for a lost radio in seventy years of police work. They came to work every day; they’re pillars of their society; now what happens to them? What happens to these people? They’re fired; they can’t get their credentials; they’re not going to get their work and do what they want. This stigma is going to follow them forever. We are going to fight this.</blockquote>
He added, “Police officers across the city are looking at this message that was sent out by this board that you know what? If you’re going to respond to a scene, there’s a good chance you’re going to get fired if you’re not backed up.”
After she was caught, Lightfoot apologized, saying, “I’m sorry that I said it out loud,” according to <a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/video/4131196-mayor-lori-lightfoot-calls-fop-vice-president-pat-murray-a-clown-at-city-council-meeting-im-sorry-that-i-said-it-out-loud/">CBS Chicago</a>.
Video of Lightfoot’s remark here:
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WATCH: Chicago Mayor Caught On Live Mic Calling Police Union Leader A ‘Clown’

Former &#8220;Empire&#8221; star Jussie Smollett filed a motion Friday requesting that the court nullify an order last month assigning a special prosecutor to look into the handling of his case after its sudden dismissal by embattled State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx.
&#8220;Jussie Smollett, by his attorneys, Geragos &amp; Geragos, respectfully requests that this Court grant his Motion, vacate the June 21, 2019 Order, and deny the Petition to Appoint a Special Prosecutor,&#8221; reads the filing submitted by his attorneys, Mark Geragos and Tina Glandian, as reported by <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/07/jussie-smollett-opposition-filing-special-prosecutor-hate-crime-attack-empire-1202649049/">Deadline</a> Friday.
Last month, Judge Michael Toomin ruled that Foxx&#8217;s decision to appoint a member of her own office to oversee the case after she &#8220;withdrew&#8221; over potential conflicts of interest was not legal. Toom also empowered the special prosecutor to potentially bring charges against Smollett if the prosecutor has &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48708/breaking-special-prosecutor-approved-smollett-case-ryan-saavedra">reasonable grounds</a>&#8221; to suspect that the actor was guilty of criminal conduct.
In another passage of the filing highlighted by Deadline, Smollett&#8217;s lawyers state that if their request to drop the prosecutor altogether is denied, they want the scope of the investigation to be narrowed. &#8220;In the event the Court is not inclined to grant the Motion, Mr. Smollett, by his attorneys, Geragos &amp; Geragos, respectfully requests that the Court modify the June 21, 2019 Order to clarify that the special prosecutor may investigate and prosecute potential misconduct only, and may not further prosecute Mr. Smollett for the charges that were previously brought and dismissed against him,&#8221; the motion reads.
Toomin&#8217;s decision to appoint a special prosecutor came after Foxx abruptly — and without warning to other city officials — dropped all 16 felony charges against Smollett without requiring an admission of guilt or any additional recompense to the city. The move stunned other officials, including the chief of police and the mayor, and prompted rebukes from legal experts and other state&#8217;s attorneys.
Foxx&#8217;s office later admitted that they still believed the initial charges against Smollett were warranted and that they had confidence in the investigation of the Chicago Police Department, which determined that the actor staged a fake attack on himself.
But Smollett&#8217;s laywers now lay the blame fully on the two brothers, Ola and Abel Osundairo — with whom police say he &#8220;orchestrated&#8221; the faux hate crime against himself — describing their testimony to police in the court filing as &#8220;self-serving.&#8221;
The actor&#8217;s lawyers also suggest that another potential conspirator might be involved. Deadline underscores that the actor&#8217;s lawyers &#8220;cite a possible helper of sorts in an unidentified and previous[ly] unmentioned third man, who witnesses supposedly claim was at the early morning scene.&#8221;
Meanwhile, Smollett&#8217;s two high-profile attorneys are facing a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46316/brothers-who-helped-carry-out-alleged-hate-hoax-emily-zanotti">defamation suit</a> brought by the brothers, and Smollett faces a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45888/city-chicago-files-civil-suit-against-jussie-emily-zanotti">civil suit</a> from the City of Chicago for the $130,000 they say they wasted on investigating the staged &#8220;attack.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48820/chicago-police-release-footage-jussie-smollett-amanda-prestigiacomo">WATCH: Chicago Police Release Footage Of Jussie Smollett Post-&#8216;Attack&#8217; With Prop Noose</a>

Smollett Tries To Get Special Prosecutor Dropped, Blames Brothers, Makes New Claim

The University of Chicago is one of the world&#8217;s preeminent institutions of higher education. It boasts an affiliation with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_university_affiliation#University_of_Chicago_(4th)">fourth-most Nobel laureates</a> of any university in the world, and its historically free market-oriented economics department — where luminaries such as F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman once roamed the halls — has the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120908194351/http://www.uchicago.edu/about/accolades/nobel/#economics#economics">most Nobel laureate affiliations</a> of any economics department in the world. The University of Chicago Law School produces <a href="https://www.bcgsearch.com/article/900047770/Law-Schools-That-Send-the-Most-Attorneys-to-United-States-Supreme-Court-Clerkships/">more U.S. Supreme Court law clerks</a> than any law school besides Harvard and Yale. UChicago&#8217;s Booth School of Business perennially ranks in the top five business schools in the U.S.
The university&#8217;s commitment to free speech principles, furthermore, is laudably ironclad: The so-called <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chicago-school-of-free-speech-1448231860">&#8220;Chicago principles&#8221;</a> represent the academic <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/12/21/chicago-principles-are-gold-standard-freedom-expression-campuses-opinion">&#8220;gold standard&#8221;</a> for freedom of expression in the American academy. Three years ago, the school even went so far as to <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-university-of-chicago-safe-spaces-letter-met-20160825-story.html">mail a letter to all incoming college freshmen</a> to tell them that the school does not condone &#8220;trigger warnings&#8221; or &#8220;safe spaces.&#8221;
The foregoing makes me a very proud UChicago alumnus. But it also makes even more painful the tale that follows.
Steve Jacobs graduated a few weeks ago with a Ph.D. from UChicago&#8217;s interdisciplinary <a href="https://humdev.uchicago.edu">Department of Comparative Human Development</a>. And Jacobs, who went through hell on earth over the course of a stress-inducing decade to procure that illustrious academic capstone, spoke exclusively with The Daily Wire to tell his story.
Jacobs, a white Christian, decided to touch the ultimate third-rail issue for the culturally militant progressives who <a href="https://americanmind.org/feature/whats-wrong-with-education/">dominate the American academy</a>: Abortion. But Jacobs, who has a background as a certified mediator, did not pursue his Ph.D. as a cudgel to wield in this preeminent culture war struggle. On the contrary, he hoped to &#8220;produce research that can become a contribution to a contentious debate that is harming our body politic,&#8221; and to &#8220;help people become informed, so that the competition of ideas can take place on a level playing field.&#8221; A model citizen, Jacobs strove to produce academic research that might better inform the abortion debate in America at-large, and might then be utilized as a means to a broader societal reconciliation on the hot-button issue.
Jacobs&#8217; Ph.D. dissertation, which will soon be public, is entitled, &#8220;Balancing Abortion Rights And Fetal Rights: A Mixed Methods Mediation of the U.S. Abortion Debate.&#8221; The dissertation has many components, including a wide-ranging international survey of academic biologists to inquire, from a biological perspective, &#8220;when life begins.&#8221; Jacobs published an <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3211703">intermediary paper last summer</a> that explained why this section of the dissertation is so important: Out of 2,899 American adults surveyed, a whopping 81% majority selected biologists as the group &#8220;most qualified to answer the question of when a human’s life begins.&#8221; Furthermore, Jacobs&#8217; own research suggests that 83% of pro-choicers surveyed believe that support for legal abortion would decrease &#8220;if it became common knowledge that fetuses are biological humans at fertilization.&#8221; And as a historical matter, American society&#8217;s fluctuating ideas about when life begins has often been a primary driver of our abortion legal regime. There is ample reason to believe, therefore, that support for unborn children&#8217;s legal rights might be artificially suppressed, and support for abortion rights artificially inflated, if it were to be revealed that Americans were largely ignorant of the biological reality as to when life begins.
The results of Jacobs&#8217; global survey of academic biologists was <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3211703">astonishing in its consensus</a>: &#8220;Overall, 95% of all biologists affirmed the biological view that a human&#8217;s life begins at fertilization (5212 out of 5502).&#8221; Again, the overwhelming nature of this consensus must be emphasized: The biologically human nature of the fertilized zygote is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42465/hammer-what-alyssa-milano-gets-so-very-wrong-about-josh-hammer">one of two necessary preconditions for the pro-life policy argument</a>, and Jacobs&#8217; research — which had a global reach — forecloses any question as to the biological inquiry. Pro-choicers who arrive at a different &#8220;scientific&#8221; conclusion — and Jacobs&#8217; research indicates that only 23% of pro-choicers recognize the fetus as a biological human being throughout the entire gestational continuum — ought to re-evaluate, accordingly. And as Jacobs told me, his scholarly research should galvanize lawmakers to &#8220;stop debating whether a fetus is a human and start debating whether all humans have rights and, if so, how to balance one human&#8217;s right to abort and another human’s right to life.&#8221;
In a sane world, that would conclude our story. Unfortunately, Jacobs&#8217; suffering on the path to attaining his Ph.D. is something that no young researcher ought to experience — let alone at a world-class academic institution such as the University of Chicago.
Jacobs first arrived at UChicago in 2009. For five years, his expressed desire to produce academic scholarship on the abortion debate was constantly rebuffed. Jacobs&#8217; fellow students, peer mentors, and the professoriate often told him that he was too white, too male, and too Christian to wade into the abortion debate. Finally, in 2014, shortly after enrolling in law school at Northwestern as a means to fortify his abortion-related credentials, Jacobs met a UChicago professor who seemed quite promising. The professor initially assured Jacobs that he would supervise Jacobs&#8217; abortion research after he graduated from Northwestern Law and returned to the UChicago Ph.D. program. After five years of wallowing in obscurity, Jacobs thought he finally had secured a faculty adviser.
After returning to UChicago, Jacobs began to construct his global survey of academic biologists. He spent over 500 hours going through the faculty directories of biology departments at universities all over the globe. Within days of beginning his survey, a biologist accused Jacobs of being a pro-life plant, threatened to sabotage his work, and reported Jacobs to UChicago&#8217;s ethics committee. Jacobs&#8217; adviser, who had shown so much promise of integrity, had him halt all research. When Jacobs ultimately restarted his research, the complaints became too voluminous — and too scathing — for Jacobs&#8217; thesis adviser (himself an ardent pro-choice advocate) to let the research continue. Here is a sampling of the vituperative feedback that Jacobs&#8217; anodyne research — which merely asked biologists for their biological opinions on when human life begins — elicited from the global biologist community:
<ul>
<li>&#8220;Is this a studied fund by Trump and ku klux klan?&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;OUR SOCIETY SHOULD EMBRACE SCIENCE AND NOT RELIGION, WE WILL BE A MORE KINDER AND ACCEPTING SOCIETY ALL PEOPLE AND NOT A TRUMPIAN SOCIETY OF AND FASCISM AND EXCLUSION OF IMMIGRANTS. DIVERSITY IS BUILDS A NATION AND ISOLATIONISM DESTROY IT.&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Sure hope YOU aren&#8217;t a f^%$#ing christian!!&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;I filled the survey, but I thought that many of the questions were highly manipulative &#8230; I believe it’s a horribly manipulative survey and its end is to support the religious patriarchal abuse of women’s rights that has gone on for way too long.&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;This is some stupid right to life thing &#8230; YUCK I believe in RIGHT TO CHOICE!!!!!!!&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Thats a really crap &#8216;survey&#8217;. You have such major political issues in your country, maybe you should focus on raising standards. I am ashamed for Uni of Chicago to see such rubbish disseminated.&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;I do not want to be involved in this blimpish, evangelical roll-back of social achievements. Also, I do not want to receive further emails from you.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
Amidst this onslaught of hatred from the global biologist community, Jacobs&#8217; adviser had him halt all research until he could first successfully defend his research proposal in front of a dissertation committee. Jacobs successfully defended his proposal in front of the committee in September 2017 — but his adviser then reneged yet again and accused Jacobs of conducting unethical research. As Jacobs told me: My adviser &#8220;routinely reminded me that he, himself, was pro-choice and expressed a radical view of abortion rights, but I had believed that he could put aside his personal beliefs for the sake of his academic integrity.&#8221; But, on the contrary, as Jacobs also told me: The adviser &#8220;likened my work to morally objectionable research and acted as if I was working toward a goal that he found morally reprehensible.&#8221; The adviser ultimately drew a hard line and categorically refused to support Jacobs&#8217; research — even going so far as to threaten not to approve Jacobs&#8217; dissertation, were he to remain on Jacobs&#8217; dissertation committee.
Fortunately for Jacobs, he eventually found a noble member of the UChicago Department of Comparative Human Development who agreed to serve as a lead faculty adviser. And ultimately, after his data collection was halted twice more by intensive pushback from the global biologist community, Jacobs finished his research. However, due to the pushback, he was unable to achieve the survey response rate that is generally required for publication in top scholarly journals.
Despite all the setbacks — and one additional accusation of nefarious motivations, from the faculty head of the relevant UChicago ethics committee — Jacobs eventually defended his dissertation successfully.
The whole saga is extremely revealing as to the remarkably biased nature of the American — indeed, global — academy. &#8220;My experience was that [my initial adviser] had difficulty in staying objective in upholding his duties &#8230; when it came to my work,&#8221; Jacobs told me. &#8220;Unfortunately, when it came to my work, he became a political animal, was unable to protect himself from his deeply held beliefs about abortion, and could not stop himself from interfering.&#8221;
When I asked Jacobs why he thought his initial adviser behaved this way, why the faculty head of the UChicago ethics committee questioned the academic sincerity of his motivations, and why the biologists he surveyed reacted so petulantly, Jacobs explained that abortion is the &#8220;crown jewel&#8221; of the modern progressive movement. It&#8217;s a &#8220;quintessential sacred cow,&#8221; he added, and the pro-choice side is deeply concerned about suppressing research that could undermine the presuppositions upon which that &#8220;sacred cow&#8221; is so fragilely constructed. As Jacobs says, it is the <a href="https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=2973067">phenomenon that social scientists call &#8220;identity protective cognition&#8221;</a> that leads to human beings deliberately obfuscating and avoiding the search for truth.
But the truth is that pro-lifers&#8217; biological views on when life begins (59% saying life begins at fertilization) is much closer to the biological consensus (95% saying the same) than are pro-choicers&#8217; biological views (23% saying the same) on the same question.
Jacobs, now a Ph.D., reflects back on his tumultuous time at UChicago with a mix of frustration and thankfulness that someone in his department came to his defense when he needed it most:
<blockquote>&#8220;Academics&#8217; fear of balanced research on the U.S. abortion debate cost me five years of my life. I spent those five years in anguish at the realization that representatives of one of the finest academic institutions were willing to sacrifice their principles of academic freedom to protect their ideology; that they were willing to jeopardize their reputation of open inquiry to kill research that explored the dogma surrounding abortion rights. Despite those bad actors, stewards of the UChicago tradition displayed courage in putting aside their biases, upholding their academic principles, and helping me conduct my research.&#8221;</blockquote>
Alas, leftist domination of the American academy is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/God-Man-Yale-Superstitions-Academic/dp/089526692X">hardly a recent trend</a>. But it is an increasingly brazen, unabashed, and ubiquitous one. What happened to Steve Jacobs is utterly shameful and tragic. It is deeply depressing to think of such heavy-handed suppression at one of the world&#8217;s greatest research universities. But God willing, Jacobs&#8217; research will now hopefully contribute to shifting the abortion debate back toward biological truth — and toward a continued and rejuvenated effort to legally protect the unborn.

HAMMER: A World-Renowned University Suppressed Important Abortion Research. Here’s The Full Story.

Abortion

Leftism

Progressivism

University of Chicago

On Monday’s episode of “The Andrew Klavan Show,” Klavan analyzes the first two Democrat Party primary debates and discusses how the Left is taking advantage of what is dividing America to score political points. Video and partial transcript below:
We know that our country is divided, but I think we’re using an old template to describe how it’s divided. I stopped using the word &#8220;liberal&#8221; a long time ago because there’s nothing liberal about the Left. They oppose free speech, free thought, free markets, freedom of religion&#8230; the only freedoms they support are the unbridled fulfillment of physical desires, which are guaranteed to turn you into a dependent slave. So, I call them Leftists&#8230; but maybe that’s not quite right either.
And what about conservatives? Are they really conservative? Well, sort of, but in America, conservatives aren’t about blood and soil or even really about tradition necessarily, except insofar as our traditions preserve our essential American ideas. Unlike conservatives in other nations, American conservatives are trying to conserve the most radical political document ever written — the Constitution, which guarantees a limited government of specified powers tasked with guaranteeing the individual&#8217;s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So that’s not really &#8220;conservative&#8221; in the usual sense of that word.
In fact, what I think we’re seeing is a division between friends of the founding and enemies of the founding — those of us who believe the creation of the United States in the image of our Declaration and Constitution is the greatest political event in history and therefore worth saving, and those who think, no, we should return to the age-old habit of top-down government or race-based identity politics rather than the radical politics based on our founding ideas.
You can tell friends of the founding because they talk about our founding ideals. They quote Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and Franklin. They wrestle with the original intentions of the Constitution and the underlying principles of the Declaration. They can have passionate but civilized debates about whether a new idea – like gay rights — is antithetical to those founding intentions or in keeping with them. Because we have source materials and writings and foundational ideas, we can compare our arguments and move ahead, abandoning out of date practices or clinging to those that still hold true to the founding.
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But the anti-founders&#8230; all they have is an amorphous sense of their own glowing compassion, tolerance, and virtue. They use empty phrases like “That’s not who we are,” which literally means nothing. They invent mean-sounding words like “Islamophobia” or “Transphobia” which describe utterly non-existent phenomena by way of demonizing legitimate concerns about whether violence is inherent in Islamic theology and whether so-called sexual identity is eating away at morality and sanity. They address issues of high emotion and zero importance like use of pronouns or abortion rights for girls who are actually guys. And they’re guided and manipulated by emotive pictures on the Left-wing news, babies dying at the border is a crisis, but babies dying in Chicago, not so much.
Most of all, the enemies of the founding define everything that opposes them as “hate,” – of course, they do – since they’re defined by their love and virtue, anyone who’s against them must be hateful and therefore can be opposed by any means necessary.
So, the enemies of the founding call the friends of the founding, not just wrong, but evil and they license their own evil in the process. They call us hateful while they seethe with hate. They call us violent while they assault us and scream at us and spit on us. They call us racist while they see everything in terms of race. They call us fascist while they try to undermine every freedom our founding defends.
Momentary issues and the “yuge” presence of Donald Trump distract us from the essential nature of this division, but in each issue, each crisis, each argument, it’s important to remember what exactly we’re fighting for.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1562161616957000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEGtQLqMRIf_tEzotmvIv0wkZfZ0g">Watch more of The Andrew Klavan Show here</a>.
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt=2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt%3D2&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1562161616957000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFRVxfSnjhOjsZpBxiZ0id2YTRxWQ">Listen to more of The Andrew Klavan Show on iTunes here.</a>

KLAVAN: This Is The Real American Divide

American History

Andrew Klavan

Conservatism

Democratic Party

Transgender

A bar employee who was placed on leave after she allegedly spit on Eric Trump now has a GoFundMe established on her behalf.
The unidentified server was immediately detained by the U.S. Secret Service after the encounter. Now, a man claiming to be her friend has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the woman until she finds a new job.
&#8220;My friend allegedly spat on Eric Trump and got fired. That&#8217;s what happens when we bring the crises from our neighborhoods to the people causing/getting rich off those crises,&#8221; wrote the friend, identified only as Brian. &#8220;I want to make sure she&#8217;s good to go until she finds a new job, and that she won&#8217;t have to worry about paying any legal fees etc. Throwdown to support this young badass who wasn&#8217;t going to let some jagoff bully get away with his nonsense.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;re trying to keep her anonymous for now, to keep her and her family safe, so you&#8217;re not going to find her name here. This stuff might all blow up or her name might get leaked or whatever, so this page might disappear. Stay tuned on other social media to keep tabs on what&#8217;s happening,&#8221; Brian added.
There is no evidence Eric Trump, the second son of President Donald Trump, was acting as a &#8220;jagoff bully&#8221; or disruptive in any way.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48871/chicago-bar-employee-spits-eric-trump-secret-james-barrett">previously reported</a> that Trump was at the upscale Chicago lounged Aviary with a group of people when the server allegedly just walked up to him and spit in his face.
Trump <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/06/25/secret-service-take-chicago-bar-employee-into-custody-after-she-spits-on-eric-trump/">told Breitbart News</a> after the incident that the incident was evidence of &#8220;desperation&#8221; on the part of opposition.
&#8220;It was purely a disgusting act by somebody who clearly has emotional problems,&#8221; he told the outlet. &#8220;For a party that preaches tolerance, this once again demonstrates they have very little civility. When somebody is sick enough to resort to spitting on someone, it just emphasizes a sickness and desperation and the fact that we&#8217;re winning.&#8221;
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/restaurant-group-spitting-eric-trump-placed-leave">reported</a> Wednesday that the Alinea Group, which owns the bar where the incident occurred and others, released a statement regarding the minor altercation.
&#8220;Last night an unfortunate incident occurred between an employee at The Aviary and Eric Trump,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;We did not witness the incident and we are just beginning to learn the details.&#8221;
The group also called the response from both sides of the political spectrum &#8220;troubling.&#8221;
&#8220;The online discussion about the incident is troubling. Hundreds of people are calling for the demise of our business, threatening our employees, and posting fake reviews&#8230; they are wrong to do so based on the actions of a lone individual,&#8221; the statement said.
&#8220;So too, however, are those people wrong who are praising this as an act of civil disobedience. We have voices and the means to be heard. A degrading act lowers the tenor of debate. To some it might feel good, but it is unlikely to serve any larger purpose,&#8221; the statement continued.
&#8220;We hope this incident can, at least, serve to illuminate the current absurdity of the discourse in our politics. As fellow Americans and citizens, we should all aim higher.&#8221;
The GoFundMe page has so far raised $5,110 of its $5,000 goal in the past 15 hours.

FRANCE-HISTORY-WWII-DDAY-ANNIVERSARY

GoFundMe Set Up For Woman Who Spit On Eric Trump

Eric Trump

On Monday, the Chicago Police Department released bizarre footage of actor Jussie Smollett that was taken in the hours following his report that he was attacked by two Trump supporters for being gay and black in the streets of Chicago. That claim was eventually dismissed by Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson as an &#8220;orchestrated&#8221; attack.
In the released footage, Smollett is wearing white rope around his neck; the &#8220;Empire&#8221; star claimed his attackers tied a noose around his neck and poured bleach on him. CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jussie-smollett-new-police-video-shows-actor-with-rope-around-neck-in-alleged-hate-crime-hoax/">reported</a>:
<blockquote>
&#8220;I just wanted y&#8217;all to see,&#8221; Smollett is heard saying he touches the rope in the police body camera footage taken as officers respond to his home after the Jan. 29 report. He then begins to unwind the rope and says, &#8220;There&#8217;s bleach on me.&#8221; 
He&#8217;s later heard saying he doesn&#8217;t want to be filmed and the body camera is shut off.
</blockquote>
&#8220;Chicago Police enter Jussie Smollett&#8217;s home after report of racist and homophobic attack on Jan. 29. He&#8217;s still wearing a long white rope around his neck,&#8221; CBS Chicago reporter Megan Hickey captioned a tweet containing a portion of the released video.
WATCH:
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Chicago Police enter Jussie Smollett&#8217;s home after report of racist and homophobic attack on Jan. 29. He&#8217;s still wearing a long white rope around his neck. <a href="https://twitter.com/cbschicago?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cbschicago</a> <a href="https://t.co/OeGIjsT6gb">pic.twitter.com/OeGIjsT6gb</a>
&#8212; Megan Hickey (@MeganHickeyTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/MeganHickeyTV/status/1143281064913375232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
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On January 29, Smollett told police he was targeted in downtown Chicago at around 2:30 a.m. by two white Trump supporters for being gay and black, The Daily Wire previously reported. The actor said the two men recognized him from his show &#8220;Empire,&#8221; physically assaulted him, and called him a &#8220;n*****&#8221; and a &#8220;f*****.&#8221; They also allegedly tied a noose around his neck, poured bleach on him, and told him he was in &#8220;MAGA country&#8221; &#8212; a reference to Donald Trump&#8217;s 2016 campaign slogan &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221; &#8212; Smollett claimed.
About two weeks before the attack, the actor said he received a threatening letter containing suspicious white powder later identified as crushed Tylenol. The letter had the acronym &#8220;MAGA&#8221; written on the envelope and contained a drawing of a curly-haired stick-figure being hanged with a noose by another stick-figure. It also said in cutout magazine letters: &#8220;You will die black f***.&#8221;
The media and prominent Democrats immediately believed the story.
But after new evidence emerged, Smollett&#8217;s claims did not hold up, according to Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson, who told reporters the hate crime was an &#8221;orchestrated&#8221; hoax and the threatening letter was sent by Smollett to himself.
However, after some community service, Smollett was off the hook. That was, until Friday, when a Cook County, Illinois judge ruled that a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate the alleged hate crime hoax, allowing charges to possibly be reinstated, as The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48708/breaking-special-prosecutor-approved-smollett-case-ryan-saavedra">reported</a>:
<blockquote>
CBS News Chicago <a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/06/21/judge-to-appoint-special-prosecutor-to-jussie-smollett-case-prosecutor-could-reinstate-charges/">reported</a> that the judge made the ruling because &#8220;Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx had no authority to hand [the case] off to her top deputy after announcing she recused herself.&#8221;
TMZ <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2019/06/21/jussie-smollett-special-prosecutor-prosecuted-judge-fake-attack/">noted</a> that the judge &#8220;used a nautical metaphor to describe the screw-ups&#8221; made by Foxx&#8217;s office, saying, &#8220;There was no master on the bridge to guide the ship as it floundered through unchartered waters. And it ultimately lost its bearings.&#8221;
</blockquote>
WATCH:
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WATCH: Chicago Police Release Footage Of Jussie Smollett Post-&#8216;Attack&#8217; With Prop Noose

A Cook County, Illinois judge has ruled that a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate the alleged hate crime hoax case involving actor Jussie Smollett, which would allow charges to be reinstated against Smollett.
CBS News Chicago <a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/06/21/judge-to-appoint-special-prosecutor-to-jussie-smollett-case-prosecutor-could-reinstate-charges/">reported</a> that the judge made the ruling because &#8220;Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx had no authority to hand [the case] off to her top deputy after announcing she recused herself.&#8221;
TMZ <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2019/06/21/jussie-smollett-special-prosecutor-prosecuted-judge-fake-attack/">noted</a> that the judge &#8220;used a nautical metaphor to describe the screw-ups&#8221; made by Foxx&#8217;s office, saying, &#8220;There was no master on the bridge to guide the ship as it floundered through unchartered waters. And it ultimately lost its bearings.&#8221;
&#8220;Smollett&#8217;s case in many ways was truly unique,&#8221; Judge Michael Toomin said, according to reporter Megan Crepeau. &#8220;A case that purported to have been brought and supervised by a prosecutor authorized to serve in the stead of the duly elected state&#8217;s attorney but in fact who was appointed to a fictitious office.&#8221;
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&#8220;Smollett&#8217;s case in many ways was truly unique &#8230; a case that purported to have been brought and supervised by a prosecutor authorized to serve in the stead of the duly elected state&#8217;s attorney but in fact who was appointed to a fictitious office.&#8221;
&#8212; Megan Crepeau (@crepeau) <a href="https://twitter.com/crepeau/status/1142084069884354561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Crepeau added: &#8220;The special prosecutor may further prosecute Smollett, and if they have &#8216;reasonable grounds to believe that any other criminal offense was committed &#8230; special prosecutor may commence the prosecution of any crime as may be suspected.'&#8221;
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The special prosecutor may further prosecute Smollett, and if they have &#8220;reasonable grounds to believe that any other criminal offense was committed &#8230; special prosecutor may commence the prosecution of any crime as may be suspected,&#8221; Toomin says
&#8212; Megan Crepeau (@crepeau) <a href="https://twitter.com/crepeau/status/1142085033773207552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Anthony Guglielmi, Chief Communications Officer for the Chicago Police Department, tweeted: &#8220;We stand firmly behind the work of detectives in investigating the fabricated incident reported by Jussie Smollett &amp; #ChicagoPolice will fully cooperate with the court appointed special prosecutor.&#8221;
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We stand firmly behind the work of detectives in investigating the fabricated incident reported by Jussie Smollett &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChicagoPolice?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ChicagoPolice</a> will fully cooperate with the court appointed special prosecutor. <a href="https://t.co/bCDF0NYfzP">pic.twitter.com/bCDF0NYfzP</a>
&#8212; Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJGuglielmi/status/1142097063158718464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
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