Category: Chicago

U of C students demonstrate to defund and disarm campus police; University says “no way”

August 31, 2020 • 1:15 pm

UPDATE: From Block Club Chicago (click on screenshot):

An excerpt:

The action continued into Sunday with yoga, breakfast and organizing workshops. Students will remain there “indefinitely until we hear publicly” from Lee, CareNotCops organizers said in a tweet.

In a statement Monday, organizers said they would remain on the block until Lee agrees to meet their demands.

They’re going to be waiting a LONG time. . . . .

________________

For some time now, I’ve been anxious about my University becoming more and more woke. That’s clearly happening to the student population, and there are signs it’s affecting some of the administration as well. This would break my heart, but I think the tide is unstoppable. I only hope that the highest administrators—the President and the Provost—will hold the line.

The latest instantiation of student wokeness, as reported by the Chicago Tribune (click on screenshot below) is a set of two demonstrations last Saturday for defunding and abolishing the campus police, a large and well trained set of men and women who help keep us safe on the South Side. I’ve met quite a few of them, and have found them professional and efficient. But then again, I’m not a person of color, for a lot of the protestors claim that the police are racist.  As far as I know, while there may have been an occasional case of “profiling”, I haven’t seen evidence to buttress that strong claim. The case that’s always cited (see below) holds no water.

And of course it would be madness to abolish, much less disarm, the U of C campus cops. We are firmly ensconced in the South Side, not a particularly safe area, and there are lots of shootings there. If the campus cops were to go, I doubt that many parents would want to send their kids here, and the University knows that.

Nevertheless, the students demonstrated Saturday in front of the Provost’s house (Ka Yee Lee, a female chemist  ofAsian descent), as well as of President Bob Zimmer’s house at the University, blocking traffic in both places. I was a bit upset at the demonstration at Zimmer’s, as he’s not been well: he had a brain tumor removed and is stepping down as President at the end of the upcoming academic year.

But here’s the Tribune report:

Here are the students’ demands and indictments from the Trib piece:

Those rallying demanded school leaders disclose the university’s police budget — and then cut it in half. The student group additionally wants the university to disband its police force by 2022 and to redistribute the remaining funding to support students of color and ethnic studies.

. . . Members of student groups UChicago United and Care Not Cops as well as the activist organizations Black Lives Matter Chicago and Good Kids Mad City were at the protest.

“I’m angry because the University of Chicago, you know, the one that loves buzzwords like diversity and inclusion, that puts Black kids on their postcards, is the same university that owns and operates one of the largest private police forces in the country,” Wright said.

The crowd shouted back, “That ain’t right.”

The students always cite this incident with Charles Thomas as the reason cops should be disarmed/defunded:

Speakers pointed to the 2018 shooting of fourth-year student Charles Thomas as an example of school police failing to protect the community. Thomas was in the midst of a mental health crisis in the 5300 block of South Kimbark Avenue when a university officer fired a shot and wounded his shoulder as Thomas advanced with a stake in his hand, officials have said.

Alicia Hurtado, another student organizer, said university police also racially profiled Black students and neighbors and upheld what she said was the university’s history of gentrifying Hyde Park and surrounding neighborhoods.

Thomas, a fourth-year student with mental problems, may have had a psychotic break: he went berserk and began smashing car windows with an iron bar (not a wooden “stake”). When the cops confronted him (you can see the video at my post on the incident), he brandished the bar and started running at the cops, whereupon they shot him in the shoulder, which I think was a deliberate disabling but not life-threatening shot. From the student newspaper:

Bodycam and dashboard footage released by the University shows officers confronting Thomas.  As he walks toward them, an officer can be heard shouting, “Put down the weapon!” while Thomas shouts “What the fuck do you want?” and “Fuck you.” About a minute after the officers arrived on the scene, Thomas begins running rapidly toward the individual wearing the body camera, who commanded Thomas again to drop the weapon, and then fired a single shot into his shoulder.”

The cops had every right to disable Thomas, who would have bashed their brains in. Yet this is taken as an example of police “failing to protect the community” and of the University “not addressing mental health adequately”—as if one could prevent all students from having breakdowns. In fact, since the incident Thomas has had other episodes and is now in Cook County jail awaiting trial on felony charges. One can debate whether or not he belongs in jail, but that’s the call of the City of Chicago Police, not the University. What is the case is that without armed cops, Thomas might well have killed a policeman or two. Yet even now the students think the cops didn’t handle the situation appropriately. I disagree.

After Ka Lee (or someone) left the picketed house she lives in but drove off without talking to the protestors, they maturely made her a parking spot in both English and Chinese, labeling her a racist. This is shameful. I’ve never seen a scintilla of evidence that either Zimmer or Lee are racists (to me they seem quite antiracist), and the bandying about of “racist” in a situation like this is absolutely unconscionable. In fact, one could consider the Chinese writing racist since Lee speaks perfect English, and I have no idea if she speaks any dialects of Chinese.

But the good news: the University, which knows what would happen if the campus police force were to be cut in half or disappear, simply said “nope” to the demonstrators:

When asked for comment, a university spokesman referred to an Aug. 12 message from President Robert Zimmer and Provost Ka Yee Lee, who said they believe it’s necessary to examine public safety and how policing can be improved.

The message also said, “The University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) provides a vital service in helping to keep safe and support our campus and surrounding communities — a mission that the University has undertaken with the encouragement of community leaders and in accordance with Chicago City Ordinance. That role will continue.”

And so the students can keep griping, but it’s futile, as nobody running this University who’s in their right mind would bow to the protestors’ demands.

h/t: Luana

Chicago: clearing storm

August 3, 2020 • 7:15 am

It’s been extraordinarily cool in Chicago for the last few days (today’s high will be about 71°F or 22°C), and is expected to remain so until Saturday. It’s good weather for ducks, especially yesterday when it rained on and off. The storm cleared for a while in the evening and then began again. Here’s a photo, showing downtown, during yesterday’s brief period of clearing.  Click to enlarge:

It’s a bird, it’s a plane. . . . it’s Chicago!

April 16, 2020 • 9:30 am

I’m having severe trouble concentrating on writing today, and I’m 100% sure this is malaise from lockdown and all the bad news. I am also getting grumpy.

Here, have two pictures of Chicago that I took yesterday evening from my crib. One has a bird in it, the other a plane. I have to say that the view of downtown is much clearer than usual; perhaps this is due to a lack of air pollution. After all, there’s hardly any traffic.

Spot the bird (extra points if you identify it):

Final approach to O’Hare (spot the plane):

A mirage of Chicago

April 13, 2020 • 12:45 pm

Reader Edward sent this breathtaking photo of a mirage of the Chicago Skyline, just featured as the Earth Science Photo of the Day.  It was taken in 2008 from the Indiana Dunes, a state park 37 miles from the city, and a place from which the city isn’t visible.  It is in fact an inferior mirage, formed only under special atmospheric conditions (see also here). Those distant “puddles of water” that you see far away on a hot highway, for instance, are inferior mirages of the sky. Read more at the first link, including details about the equipment and how the photo was taken.

Today’s lunch

March 14, 2020 • 1:45 pm

It’s supposed to be my day off, and now that my talk in Florida has been canceled because of the Virus, I feel the need to have some fun. So I left work this morning and took the bus to Gage Park, heading west on 55th Street toward Midway Airport. After you leave the University, you first head through an African-American area, which then transitions to a Hispanic area that used to be a Polish area. In the Hispanic part are several good places to eat, but I wanted to try the carnitas (chopped-up braised pork that’s juicy and tender) at Carnitas Uruapan, a highly rated place in Pilsen that just opened a larger branch right on the bus line from Hyde Park to Midway.

The new branch is supposed to be even better than the old because, as Chicago Eater says,

The Carbajals [the owning family] still believe word of mouth is the most important way to attract customers. But they want to expand their base. Marcos Carbajal wants to open more locations after they get their feet under them in Gage Park. Chicago chefs have taken notice. Rick Bayless has worked with the Carbajals on getting heirloom white corn masa imported from Mexico to El Popo, a popular tortilla maker. The Pilsen location already uses El Popo shells. For years, Carnitas Uruapan has been the first stop for El Popo trucks on their delivery routes. At the new restaurant, they use heirloom corn masa to make tortillas. The Pilsen restaurant is limited by space, but they may start making tortillas there, too.

Bayless, a Chicago chef who became famous for making authentic and delicious Mexican food at his Frontera Grill (he now owns several other restaurants), talked about the heirloom masa in a t.v. show he did recently (I sometimes watch cooking shows), and since he mentioned that this is what he serves in the tortillas made in his own restaurants, and that the masa is now at the new branch of Carnitas Uruapan, I couldn’t rest until I tried it at that branch.

And so, my lunch:

Here’s the outside and the inside:

The menu at the takeout line. You buy carnitas by the pound as well as salsas, cactus-and-cheese casserole, drinks, and chicharrones (fried pork rinds). They have Mexican Coca Cola made with cane sugar, guacamole, and those delicious tortillas: only $1.50 per dozen:

Chopping carnitas (you choose what bits you want). I had it all but said “no organs” as they often include tripe and brains (it’s all pig):

I ate in the dining room so I didn’t have to fight the line of hungry locals, and this is what I got: a half pound of carnitas, a dozen tortillas, various salsas with lime and chopped onions, a few chicharrones (best I’ve ever had), and ice water:

Lord, were the carnitas good! No wonder this place is locally famous! The white corn tortillas were soft and flavorful.

The chicharrones went very well with the make-your-own tacos. You take a small bite of the crispy pork rind while chewing your taco, and they’re a good combination. Note the hunks of fried pork adhering to the rind:

The bill (after tax but before tip). I had to take away food, even though this was my only meal of the day, and I have enough for two more meals!

Chicharrones on the way out:

Across the street was a sad, empty chicken restaurant, and no wonder since there’s porky largesse across the street. They’d hired some poor schlemiel to dress up in a chicken suit and wave at passersby (see video below):

Waving Chicken Man!

 

I returned home by way of Botany Pond, since if I ate well, so must my ducks. There are two queens and two Weinsteins today, and I fed them all, feeling generous. Honey’s female friend is still here, and perhaps you might think of a name.

But here’s the real Queen: Honey.

Remember, do not food-shame me as I don’t eat like this very often. Violators will be disciplined.