Tracking homicides in Chicago

New City, South Shore see 3 homicides

By Tracy Swartz posted July 2, 2013 at 12:00 a.m.

 

New City and South Shore each saw three homicides in the last week, a RedEye analysis of preliminary police data found.

In New City, a 5-year-old boy and 31-year-old woman were shot to death Friday in the 5300 block of South Winchester Avenue, police said. One day earlier, a 29-year-old man was stabbed to death in the 1000 block of West Garfield Boulevard, according to officials.
In South Shore, a 24-year-old man was fatally shot Sunday in the 2400 block of East 75th Street, police said. On Friday, a 16-year-old boy was shot to death in the 7500 block of South
Kingston Avenue, according to officials.

Two days earlier, an 18-year-old man was fatally shot in the 7500 block of South Merrill Avenue, police said.

Meanwhile, Washington Heights saw two homicides this week.
A 23-year-old man was fatally shot Tuesday in the 9900 block of South Halsted Street, police said.

One day earlier, an 18-year-old man was shot to death in the 10400 block of South Green Street, according to officials.

Citywide, gunshot homicides were logged in the last week in Englewood, West Lawn and West Pullman, RedEye determined.

June ended this week with 43 homicides, down from 47 homicides in June 2012, RedEye found.
Two homicides have been logged so far this month. Forty-nine homicides were recorded in July 2012, according to RedEye data.

Victims  READ MORE

Mississippi town sued over 'school-to-prison pipeline'

By Terry Frieden, CNN

October 26, 2012 -- Updated 1443 GMT (2243 HKT)

 

In 2009, the Lauderdale County Juvenile Detention Facility in
Meridian was the target of a federal class-action lawsuit.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Federal civil rights lawyers sue Meridian, Lauderdale County, agencies
• They say children at Youth Court are denied rights
• Youth Court sees minorities disproportionately, lawsuit says
• Justice Department had warned officials about lawsuit

Washington (CNN) -- Federal civil rights lawyers filed suit Wednesday against Meridian, Mississippi, and other defendants for operating what the government calls a school-to-prison pipeline in which students are denied basic constitutional rights, sent to court and incarcerated for minor school infractions.

The lawsuit says children who talk back to teachers, violate dress codes and commit other minor infractions are handcuffed and sent to a youth court where they are denied their rights.

 

It's the first time a jurisdiction has been charged under a law designed to protect the due process rights of juveniles in such circumstances.

2010: Feds accuse Miss. county of rights violations

Also among the defendants were Lauderdale County, judges of the county's Youth Court and the State of Mississippi Division of Youth Services.

About 6,000 mostly African-American students attend grades kindergarten through 12 in a dozen schools in the Lauderdale County School District.

About 86% of the district's students are African-American, but all of those referred to the court for violations were minorities, the government suit said.  READ MORE

We Stand With Deric Lostutter: Support the Steubenville Whistleblower Now!

The Steubenville rape case helped spark a national conversation about victim-blaming and rape culture.

But the victim only got justice because Anonymous leaked significant social media evidence implicating the assailants — and for distributing those tweets, photos, and video, 26-year-old Deric Lostutter faces more prison time than the rapists got themselves.

Lostutter faces up to ten years behind bars if he's convicted of hacking-relating crimes.  Now he's gearing up for a costly legal battle — and as he calls for donations, we call on you to give him the nationwide support he needs to win his trial.

The Ohio U.S. Attorney's office and the DOJ are sending a dangerous message to men who stand up : Don't get involved, or else. Let them know we still stand with Deric: Sign your support for his actions and oppose sending him to prison, now!  SIGN THE PETITION AND READ MORE 

UPDATE: ‘Stand Your Ground’ Got Marissa Alexander 20 Years with No Community Outrage

*We are sitting on the precipice of the George Zimmerman trial set to begin on Monday, June 10, but we hope that people remember Marissa Alexander when the trial begins.

Marissa Alexander is the Florida mother and abused wife that fired a warning shot in her home to keep her husband, Rico Gray, from killing her –as he promised– and was sentenced to a mandatory 20 years in prison.

The Stand Your Ground law that she thought would protect her did not…and she didn’t kill anyone.  Her children were present and she was trying to protect herself.

She didn’t pursue him.  She did not kill him.  She was simply protecting herself and she is still waiting to see the community outraged by the extreme punishment.

George Zimmerman, on the other hand, stalked Trayvon Martin and willingly disregarded the authorities instructions for him to leave the 18-year-old alone and let them handle what Zimmerman, in his twisted thoughts, conveyed as a threat.

(more…)

Related News on EURweb:

• Marissa ‘Stand Your Ground’ Alexander Talks About her Case [Exclusive]
• Marissa Alexander Gets 20 Year Sentence for ‘Standing Her Ground’
• Abused Wife ‘Stood Her Ground,’ But Still Faces 20 Years
• Zimmerman Wants Case Dismissed Based on ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law
• George Zimmerman Waives Right to ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law

Former Navy SEAL Comes Out As Transgender

The new memoir by a U.S. Navy SEAL has nothing to do with Osama bin Laden. Instead, Warrior Princess tells the story of Chris Beck, the burly, bearded person on the cover and a "consummate guy's guy," who has since come out as transgender and changed her name to Kristin. After retiring in 2011, Beck decided "to make his body match his identity." (The repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" does not apply to transgender service members.) To Beck's delight, the manly killing machines she used to work with were accepting.

"I am now taking off all my disguises and letting the world know my true identity as a woman," Beck wrote on LinkedIn, alongside a new profile picture of Kristin featuring the American flag. (Also, Navy SEALs use LinkedIn like Facebook, apparently.) "Brother, I am with you ... being a SEAL is hard, this looks harder. Peace," one SEAL commented. Another added, "I just wanted to drop you a note and tell you that Kris has all the support and respect from me that Chris had ... and quite possibly more." America!  READ MORE

Obama Taps Hollywood to Help End Mental Health Stigma

Actress Glenn Close attends the White House Mental
Health Conference in the East Room of the White House
June 3, 2013 in Washington, DC

June 4, 2013 by EURpublisher02 

*President Obama turned to Hollywood for help in raising awareness of mental illness, beginning with a White House summit on Monday with Vice President Joe Biden, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. They were joined by two entertainment industry stalwarts with personal connections to mental health issues: actress Glenn Close and actor Bradley Cooper.

Close, who co-founded the nonprofit awareness group Bring Change 2 Mind, has said she first became aware of mental health problems when she starred in “Fatal Attraction” in 1987. Her sister Jessie grew up with severe bouts of depression and tried to commit suicide several times before being diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. Her nephew Calen has also been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. She’s also the narrator of a PBS documentary that started airing last week in California, “A New State of Mind: Ending the Stigma of Mental Illness.”  READ MORE
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[Why not,  right?  I mean,  were no longer medieval ignorant savages,  so what's the problem?
Brains are organs too,  as we know and organs can suffer damage.  Or are we still thinking the
problem is demons from hell?  Something contagious we might catch?  Or any other tomfoolishness
some shaman wants to peddle.  Then let's get on with the search for a cure.

Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by

James W. Loewen

Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism

From Maine to California, thousands of communities kept out African Americans (or sometimes Chinese Americans, Jewish Americans, etc.) by force, law, or custom. These communities are sometimes called "sundown towns" because some of them posted signs at their city limits reading, typically, "Nigger, Don't Let The Sun Go Down On You In ___." Some towns are still all white on purpose. Their chilling stories have been joined more recently by the many elite (and some not so elite) suburbs like Grosse Pointe, MI, or Edina, MN, that have excluded nonwhites by "kinder gentler means." When I began this research, I expected to find about 10 sundown towns in Illinois (my home state) and perhaps 50 across the country. Instead, I have found more than 440 in Illinois and thousands across the United States. This is their story; it is the first book ever written on the topic.





Search the Sundown Towns Database

READ MORE