Illinois’ top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Kwame Raoul, has tested positive for COVID-19. His office says his symptoms are mild and that he’ll be working from home as he recovers.
Before signing an executive order aimed at encouraging better police practices, President Donald Trump today met with relatives of African Americans killed by police, including Jemel Roberson, a black security guard who in 2018 was fatally shot by a white police officer while subduing an alleged gunman in the parking lot of a suburban Robbins bar.
The president balanced his message of consoling grieving families — “to all of the hurting families, I want you to know that all Americans mourn by your side” — while staying on his GOP law-and-order message, citing law enforcement officers as selfless people and pointing to rescue efforts during the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City.
But the president steered clear of addressing the calls for social justice — and an end to the systemic racism — that has flared anew after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, one in a line of unarmed black men killed by police officers.
And U.S. residents are more unhappy today than they’ve been in nearly 50 years, according to a COVID Response Tracking Study, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. It finds that just 14% of American adults say they’re very happy, down from 31% who said the same in 2018. Read the not-surprising news here.
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“I’ve just concluded a meeting with incredible families. Just incredible families that have been through so much,” President Donald Trump said before mentioning Jemel Roberson and others, adding “it’s so sad, many of these families lost their loved ones in deadly interactions with police.”
Trump made the remarks during a ceremony early this afternoon to sign an executive order establishing a database that tracks police officers who garner complaints about excessive use of force in their records, The Associated Press reported. It would also establish a national credentialing system that would give police departments a financial incentive to adopt best practices.
Just last week, as protesters across the country took to the streets to decry police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last month, activists gathered outside the Midlothian police station to demand justice for Roberson’s 2018 killing, the Daily Southtown’s Zak Koeske reported.
He writes: “Police officials have called the shooting a ‘friendly fire incident’ and said Roberson died a hero, but his family and their supporters want more than kind words and condolences. They want Ian Covey, the white Midlothian officer who shot Roberson, to be fired and charged in his death.”
Prosecutor’s office still weighing case: More than 18 months since the shooting, Covey still has a job and the Cook County state’s attorney has yet to decide whether to bring charges.
Police watchdog agency sacks investigator accused of firing shots at car thieves on West Side: It comes a day after the Tribune reported that authorities were looking into allegations that the 39-year-old employee with the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability fired a gun at car thieves in the Lawndale neighborhood, officials said.
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Attorney General Kwame Raoul tests positive for COVID-19
My Tribune colleague Dan Petrella reports that the Chicago Democrat felt unwell over the weekend and was tested Monday, his office said. Raoul began self-isolating when he began experiencing symptoms.
In a statement, Raoul said: “My symptoms continue to be mild, and I am in regular contact with my staff in order to continue to manage the operations of my office. As I join the countless Illinois residents working from home, the programs and services provided by the Attorney General’s office will continue uninterrupted.”
To date, Raoul is the most high profile Illinois politician known to contract the virus. His illness comes as the state and Chicago begin loosening restrictions tied to the pandemic.
Related: Widely available steroid reduced COVID-19 deaths by up to one-third in severely ill patients, study shows: Read The Associated Press story here.
COVID-19 vaccine testing to start at UIC next month: The Tribune’s Lisa Schencker with the latest here.
Column: Now that the Lakefront Trail is opening, let’s reimagine biking to work in Chicago: The Tribune’s Blair Kamin shares some ideas here.
Illinois Republicans filed a federal lawsuit late yesterday saying Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s attendance cap on gatherings violates First Amendment rights.
Veering from legal points, “Republicans criticized Pritzker last week for attending a march with hundreds of other people June 8 in south suburban Matteson amid the response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer,” the Tribune’s Dan Petrella writes.
For their part, Illinois Republicans held a virtual state convention Saturday to comply with the governor’s executive order, Petrella notes, adding: State GOP Chairman Tim Schneider said during an online news conference this morning that “Gov. Pritzker is ruling Illinois like an unaccountable king, where he only gets to decide which violations of his executive order have his blessing.” Pritzker has defended his decision to participate in the march.
Background: The Illinois Republican Party along with the Schaumburg Township Republican Organization, the Northwest Side GOP Club and the Will County Republican Central Committee are being represented in the lawsuit by the conservative-leaning Liberty Justice Center, Petrella notes. The group is best known for its 2018 U.S. Supreme Court victory in a case that struck down the requirement for fees to public-sector labor unions from workers who choose not to join. The so-called fair share fees were a prime target of then-Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Tomorrow’s City Council agenda
From the Tribune’s John Byrne: “Mayor Lori Lightfoot is facing push back from some aldermen who want promises that none of the money in her proposed $1.1 billion COVID-19 spending plan will go to Police Department costs, part of a crowded Wednesday City Council agenda.
“Lightfoot administration finance officials last week declined to guarantee that none of the federal CARES Act funds coming to Chicago would go to police overtime or other Police Department costs, saying only that none of the money is now earmarked for policing.” Read the full story here.
*Cops out of Chicago schools? South Side Ald. Roderick Sawyer plans to introduce a measure at tomorrow’s meeting that would require the Police Department to end its $33 million agreement with Chicago Public Schools to post resource officers inside schools. Whether it will go anywhere remains to be seen. As the Tribune’s John Byrne writes: “Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said she opposes removing police from schools, an idea that has gained traction among protesters and some elected officials around the country in the weeks since Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, touching off protests. The mayor said officers are needed to make sure schools are safe.” Read the full story here.
*And council members are planning to bring forward their own tenant protection plan after deeming Lightfoot’s “Fair Notice” ordinance insufficient to protect renters’ rights. You can read more about that here.
*Mayor Lightfoot’s tenant ordinance advances after a bureaucratic-political fight: The proposed measure would require more notice and in some cases payments to renters from landlords who are not renewing their leases. Today, council progressives who say the measure doesn’t go far enough to help renters tried to get the measure sent to the Rules Committee – a kind of legislative purgatory – but the mayor had the 35 votes necessary to get it shopped to the Housing Committee for a likely hearing before the July City Council meeting, Byrne notes. All the maneuvering “laid bare a schism in the council between the mayor and frustrated progressive aldermen who say she isn’t living up to a promise to promote free and open debate in the body,” Byrne writes. Read his story here.
Other government news: In letter to Gov. Pritzker, Chicago Ald. Garza pushes to delay General Iron’s move to Southeast Side – “Additional emissions on the Southeast Side only serve to further the environmental injustice, all the more glaring as this facility considers moving from the wealthy and overwhelmingly white North Side to the working-class and majority Latinx South East Side,” Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza wrote in a letter to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency boss John Kim. The Chicago Sun-Times’ Brett Chase has the details — including the fact that Sadlowski Garza “hasn’t opposed the General Iron facility, and, in fact, seemed to initially embrace it” — here.
What you need to know about your day job and activism
My Tribune colleague Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz writes that the First Amendment right to free speech does not apply to private-sector employees when it comes to their jobs, but public-sector employees — those who work for the government — do have free speech protections.
She writes: “All employers are bound by anti-discrimination laws that protect workers from unequal treatment based on race, religion and other protected classes.”
Example: “Starbucks risked running afoul of such laws when it sent a memo to employees warning them not to wear accessories bearing messages of the Black Lives Matter movement, saying its dress code policy prohibits buttons that ‘advocate a religious, political or personal issue.’ The response from some employees was that the company had allowed, and even encouraged, employees to wear LGBTQ buttons and attire supporting marriage equality, according to BuzzFeed News.” Read the full story here.
The Tribune’s Darcel Rockett writes: “In a time when protests for social inequities are everywhere, some Chicagoans are protesting through their daily passions.
“Bronzeville resident Dorothy Burge is protesting through the art of quilting. A member of the Women of Color Quilters Network, the recent retiree is transitioning her hobby of quilting with a message into a full-time endeavor thanks to The Field Foundation‘s Leaders for a New Chicago award, announced Tuesday by the Field Foundation, in partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
“The $50,000 award is divided in half — $25,000 for personal use and $25,000 for their affiliated organization’s general operations. Burge’s organization is Chicago Torture Justice Memorials, a grassroots collective centered on seeking justice and reparations for the dozens of African American men and women who endured torture tactics while in police custody under former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge.” Read about the 10 other recipients here.
The Rockefeller Foundation to invest $10 million in 10 U.S. cities, including Chicago, to promote economic equity: My Tribune colleague Abdel Jimenez writes: “The program, called the Rockefeller Foundation Opportunity Collective, plans to allocate funds to nonprofits, businesses, faith-based organizations and government institutions with the goal of helping minority-owned small businesses gain access to credit and preventing commercial gentrification in communities of color.” Read the full story here.
Lovie Smith’s Illinois staff has 8 black coaches — more than any FBS program. Can it be an example that helps close the racial disparity in college football? Read my Tribune colleague Shannon Ryan’s piece here.
Thousands of Chicago employees will get a day off Friday to observe Juneteenth, in the wake of George Floyd’s death. ‘I don’t think that companies knew until now.’: My Tribune colleague Ally Marotti has the details here.
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