Chicago Sun-Times

Safety is hard to find on Safe Passage routes: Mitchell

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 02:17:09 -0500

I am not a fan of the Safe Passage initiative. I get that the parents of children reassigned from closing schools had safety concerns. But yellow vests and traffic signs won’t stop a bullet. Moreover, the areas where people are being shot on the street are the same as those where children are shuffled. Similarly, an analysis by the Sun-Times found that 48 of 53 Safe Passage routes at schools that took in children from closed schools have sex offenders registered along them or within 1/8 mile. Under Illinois law, registered sex offenders can’t live within 500 feet of a …

Chilly reception for gang summit reflects destructive force in community: Mitchell

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 02:20:30 -0500

Two news events shed light on why Chicago’s African-American community is not prospering. Many neighborhoods on the South and West sides are being blighted by high crime and unemployment, spotty commerce, too many board-ups and failing schools. So, there is no shortage of work for social service agencies and churches. But too often, these groups are so busy competing against each other, very little is actually being accomplished. For instance, on Friday, the Rev. Gregory Tatum, a West Coast minister who grew up in Chicago’s now-demolished Cabrini-Green public housing development, will host a two-day summit in the city to focus …

Civil rights leaders should get involved in gang summit: Mitchell

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 12:51:01 -0500

When 13 people are shot in a city park in a predominantly black area of Chicago, we can’t blame the mayor’s office. We also can’t blame the Chicago Police Department for failing to protect the residents in that community, especially when the mayor has spent more than $42 million in police overtime to patrol the streets. The only people to blame are the people who are involved in gang-related activity that is often behind the street battles. It was a miracle that none of the 13 people injured in the Cornell Square Park shooting died of their wounds. But a …

Is teen caught up in drug case the real victim?

Sun, 22 Sep 2013 02:36:39 -0500

There is an unintended side-effect of the effort to end violence in the black community. Even though Chicago does not have a stop-and-frisk law, the violence undoubtedly has made police officers more aggressive. And in some neighborhoods, it is increasingly difficult to tell the good guys from the bad guys. For instance, take the case of Tremel L. Thomas Jr., 17. Thomas, a Posse Foundation scholar, is an honors student and athlete at Marshall High School. The senior is two credits shy of graduating. He also works part-time at Portillo’s Hot Dogs at Clark and Ontario. But on Sept. 2, …

EEOC suit against Rosebud should serve as warning to eateries: Mitchell

Thu, 19 Sep 2013 02:20:44 -0500

VIPs love to be seen in venues like the Rosebud restaurants. Judges and politicians relax at the white linen-topped tables. Business people sip wine with their important clients. Celebrities drop in after hours. And Rosebud also is where ordinary Chicagoans take their out-of-town guests for a taste of the city’s ambience. So the racial discrimination lawsuit filed against the popular eatery by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday was a bombshell. The suit alleges that Rosebud Restaurants Inc., which operates more than a dozen “Rosebuds” in the Chicago area, has refused to hire African Americans in violation of Title …

Former Sen. William Marovitz, local residents help teen attend Ivy League school

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 02:19:18 -0500

Jason Roberts has a lot of angels. And thanks to them, the Urban Prep Academy graduate is now attending the University of Pennsylvania. After reading about Jason, Sun-Times readers helped raise $22,000 to help defray the annual $60,000 tuition costs at the Ivy League university. Some people wanted to remain anonymous. Other benefactors wanted to keep up with Jason’s progress. All of the people wanted the young man to be successful. “It is truly astonishing the amount of support I received at a time when I needed it the most,” he said in an email. Although swamped with classroom work, …

Stony Island renaming plan looks like sad political ploy: Mitchell

Sun, 15 Sep 2013 02:35:02 -0500

Just about everyone on the South Side has a Stony Island story. But if Mayor Rahm Emanuel gets his way, those stories will soon give way to ones about “Bishop Brazier Avenue.” This week, the full City Council is expected to pass a measure that would change the iconic thoroughfare’s name to that of the late Bishop Arthur Brazier, the longtime pastor of the Apostolic Church of God. Brazier left his footprints in the redevelopment of the Woodlawn community, and played key roles in the fight for equality in education. Still, this is Stony Island we are talking about. “Business …

Accuser in Carl Chatman rape case should be held accountable: Mitchell

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 02:21:47 -0500

What happened to Carl Chatman was such a miscarriage of justice that it demands more than our outrage. It demands that we review the crooked path that led him to a jail cell in the first place. And it demands that the woman whose alleged false testimony put Chatman behind bars be punished. Chatman’s accuser took advantage of a system that is notoriously biased against the poor and the mentally disabled. It didn’t take DNA or physical evidence to convince law enforcement — and later on a jury — that Chatman had raped the woman in an office in the …

Carl Chatman: ‘It’s nice . . . I can live in comfort today in my house’

Wed, 11 Sep 2013 02:22:33 -0500

Mary Mitchell: Carl Chatman walked out of Dixon Correctional Center at about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, a free man for the first time in 11 years. His sister, Dretha Miller, 51, was the first to throw her arms around him and weep. Willie Chatman looked at his older brother and let out a hardy “yeah,” “yeah.”

Theresa Chatman never stopped believing in her brother

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 11:22:15 -0500

When Carl Chatman was swept into the prison system in 2002, he was homeless.

Former homeless man to be freed from prison in 2002 rape case: Mitchell

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 11:30:00 -0500

Mary Mitchell: It took just 30 minutes for a jury to convict Carl Chatman of raping a Daley Center employee in 2002. It has taken the criminal justice system 11 years to conclude that Chatman, then a homeless man, was wrongfully convicted of the charges.

Englewood Film Festival designed to transform community: Mitchell

Sun, 08 Sep 2013 11:38:15 -0500

Everyone is buzzing about the mayor’s plan to bring Whole Foods to Englewood, but I find it hard to get worked up about a grocery store that won’t open for three years. There is, however, something going on in Englewood that we should be buzzing about. The 3rd Annual Englewood Film Festival will open Oct. 24 at the Chatham Theater with the glitz not normally associated with Englewood. With any luck, Wesley Snipes, Darrin Henson (“Soul Food”), and Erica Hubbard (“Let’s Stay Together”) will be in town to walk the red carpet. “I want Chicago to know this festival is …

Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. supports Obama’s decision on Syria

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 16:04:51 -0500

President Barack Obama is in a tough place. Nobody knows that better than the Rev. Jesse Jackson. On Wednesday, Obama was in Stockholm trying to show some diplomacy in the wake of threats to retaliate against the Assad administration for its alleged chemical weapons use in Syria. And Jackson was in Great Britain speaking at a tribute to Operation Black Vote, an organization that advocates for racial justice in the United Kingdom. “We are in tribute to Operation Black Vote, which is directed by a very dedicated team to promote, and in particular, to persuade blacks to engage in the …

Mitchell: Sex trafficking targets girls in child welfare system

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 09:41:38 -0500

The person on the phone sounded scared. “I just moved into an apartment building three months ago,” she told me. “The first week, the girl next door gave a party. I heard a girl just screaming. The following week I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and I heard girls screaming. Someone in the building was hollering for them to shut up,” the woman said. I am not identifying the caller by name because like I said, she’s scared. But the woman claims she often saw young women, who looked terrified, being led by several men in and out of a …

Mary Mitchell: The times have changed — but the fight remains the same

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 14:08:59 -0500

On Wednesday, the nation’s first black president stood in the shadows of the Lincoln Memorial and tried to capture the spirit of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words in his own soaring speech, which walked a fine political line.

Mitchell: Chicago’s ills take center stage at march

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 06:49:47 -0500

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The most impressive speaker at the “Realize the Dream” March on Washington Saturday wasn’t a rising political star, budding activist, or seasoned preacher. It was Asean Johnson, a 9-year-old boy from Chicago who took on the city’s school board and mayor in May when he protested the closing of an elementary school on the Far South Side.

Artist illustrates pain of black-on-black crime

Thu, 19 Sep 2013 09:37:12 -0500

There’s no difference between the gang members that terrorize black communities today and the Ku Klux Klan members that terrorized Southern blacks a century ago. Both groups direct their hatred toward a particular group of people. In the past, the KKK used deadly violence to intimidate blacks. Today, gang members are the ones using deadly force to gain dominance over other blacks in their neighborhoods. When civil rights activists gather in Washington next weekend to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, many of them will recall the horrors that the KKK once inflicted on law-abiding black …

Mary Mitchell: Jackson and his wife got what they deserved

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:05:35 -0500

In the end, former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, Sandi Jackson, got what they deserved. The prison sentences handed down by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson — 30 months for him and 12 months for her — was a humiliating comeuppance for a couple who were often treated like royalty. For weeks, Jackson foes have speculated that the court would go light on the couple because of their political pedigree. But Judge Jackson (no relation) imposed a sentence that fits the crime. Jesse Jackson Jr. will have to go behind the wall for 2½ years. When he …