October 14, 2020

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent non-profit newspaper by and for the South Side of Chicago. We provide high-quality, critical arts and public interest coverage, and equip and develop journalists, photographers, artists, and mediamakers of all backgrounds.

Volume 7, Issue 27 Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor

Jacqueline Serrato Martha Bayne

Senior Editors Christopher Good Rachel Kim Adam Przybyl Olivia Stovicek Sam Stecklow Politics Editor Jim Daley Education Editors Ashvini Kartik-Narayan Michelle Anderson Literature Editor Davon Clark Contributing Editors Mira Chauhan Joshua Falk Lucia Geng Robin Vaughan Jocelyn Vega Tammy Xu Jade Yan Matt Moore Staff Writers AV Benford Kiran Misra Data Editor Jasmine Mithani Radio Exec. Producer Erisa Apantaku Director of Fact Checking: Tammy Xu Fact Checkers: Abigail Bazin, Susan Chun, Maria Maynez, Elizabeth Winkler, Lucy Ritzmann, Kate Gallagher, Matt Moore, Malvika Jolly, Charmaine Runes, Ebony Ellis, Katie Bart Visuals Editor Mell Montezuma Haley Tweedell Deputy Visuals Editor Photo Editor Staff Photographers: Staff Illustrators: Tolentino

Shane Tolentino Keeley Parenteau milo bosh, Jason Schumer Mell Montezuma, Shane

Layout Editors Haley Tweedell Davon Clark Webmaster Managing Director

Pat Sier Jason Schumer

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Cover Illustration by Kane Gilland

IN CHICAGO Yes, prisoners deserve a stimulus check Despite misleading messaging from the IRS, the deadline for jail and prison inmates to file for a stimulus check is now October 30 after advocates found that the fine print in the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act does not exclude incarcerated people. Stimulus funds can be a real relief for prisoners who have no money in their books to pay for hygiene supplies or phone calls—particularly during the pandemic—and will be a crucial resource for those soon to be released. While an online form has been shared widely by the Illinois Prison Project, the Uptown People's Law Center says the IRS may not accept third-party applications (from family members or loved ones) and is fundraising to mail paper applications to all 35,000 prisoners in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

City survey reveals widespread support to defund the police In a public survey about the city budget that more than 37,000 Chicagoans filled out, the majority indicated the need to invest more money in community services. Of the ninety percent who believed funds should be reallocated from other budget items for those services, eighty-seven percent said the money should come out of CPD. Meanwhile, North Side aldermen have proposed creating a trauma response team that would be dispatched to non-violent emergencies instead of the police, to tend to social crises, but the mayor has announced her own safety plan that would include mental health professionals working with the police, and the Chicago Department of Public Health has yet to weigh in.

ICE arrests dozens in Chicago during pandemic Between late August and mid-September, ICE reported that it detained eighty-eight immigrants in the Chicago metro area. The agency claims the immigrants were previously in the custody of CPD or the Illinois State Police and then released—but were not automatically turned over to ICE due to the restrictions of the sanctuary city policy limiting the cooperation between local police and immigration officials. Advocacy groups reported that ICE agents were seen wearing bulletproof vests that only identified them as "POLICE", drove unmarked grey vans, and asked targets for proof of residency and in some cases ran their fingerprints on the spot. In late September, the Trump administration announced a nationwide operation in sanctuary cities; activists advise vulnerable communities to learn their rights and have an action plan.

Five hundred South Side apartments get auctioned off Forty-five brick and stone buildings encompassing hundreds of apartments in Black neighborhoods, including Washington Park, Woodlawn, Englewood, and South Shore, were recently sold to for-profit investment firms. The units had been owned by an affordable housing non-profit, the Better Housing Foundation, that went bankrupt and allowed nearly half of the properties to remain vacant. Hilco Real Estate brokered the bidding process that by design excluded small landlords (the same Hilco that disastrously imploded the coal plant smokestack in Little Village), and more auctions are in the works.

IN THIS ISSUE the show must flow on

“The question of audience, who they are and how to reach them, is a constant one for these theater companies.” jessica eanes......................................................4 taxing the rich for the public good

“From what I read, the fair tax is a tax where everyone will pay their taxes. To me, this seems fair.” alexandra arriaga/city bureau.....................5 broadband on the ballot

Understanding Chicago’s internet access referendum lynda lopez/city bureau.................................7 what you need to know about language access at the polls

A rundown of the laws, old and new, that ensure your access to translated ballots and language resources during elections paco alvarez/city bureau................................8 how to vote in

2020

“If there is one universal piece of advice from the experts, it is this: make a plan to vote ahead of time and vote as early as possible.” amy qin..............................................................9 prosecuting protesters: sa candidates differ on foxx’s ‘progressive’ approach

“We're a very powerful actor within the system, but we are but one of the actors.” kiran misra and jim daley............................11 check your judges

Judicial Election Guide injustice watch..............................................19 the road there is a battlefield

“When reading Weiner’s recollection of the demonstrations, which mostly took place on Michigan Ave. and in Grant Park, one is struck by the similarities between this imagery and the events we’ve witnessed on our own streets in recent years.” malik jackson..................................................29 croSSWord

Vote! jim daley..........................................................31

ART

The Show Must Flow On

South Side theater companies pivot to deal with COVID-19 and explore new options for their work and their communities

BY JESSICA EANES

“T

here’s this hand-drawn piece of art,” said Dr. Marcus Robinson when asked to summarize his year. “Probably with a black Magic Marker on white paper. It’s Bruce Lee doing a Bruce Lee kick, but the caption is ‘Remember to flow like water.’ ” It’s a motto applicable to many aspects of life in 2020, but for Robinson, the executive director of Collaboraction Theatre Company, it has become the touchstone in navigating a year of relentless challenges. Adapt, pivot, do what you can with what you have. These are the themes that emerge in discussions with theater companies across the South Side.

Those, and one more: community matters.

Community is where it starts for many groups, including Fehinty African Theatre Ensemble. In February, the company was wrapping up a residency at the Green Line Performing Arts Center and preparing to open a new production at the end of May.

By March, its members knew they’d have to delay, but according to Adesida they were ready to go with the flow, saying, “[We’re] not going to let COVID defeat our art.”

They didn’t, by checking in with each other and their audiences, and continuing to do what they could do in a time when everything was freshly uncertain. The Fehinty ensemble has its roots in outdoor

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performances staged in the city’s parks.

With other groups seeing that as the best approach to live performance, Fehinty had a potential advantage.

But a systemic crisis gave them pause: not COVID-19, but rather, the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the national response to that killing. “There were so many organizations sending out statements,” said Dr. Olateju Adesida, the ensemble’s artistic director. “We were hurt.

We were pained. We just needed to do a lot of soul searching.” As a group, Fehinty took some time to consider what they were doing, why they were doing it, and how to ensure the stories they were telling and the art they were making engaged with the moment they were in.

Fehinty isn’t funded by grants and none of the people involved depend on their work with the ensemble for their income. That changes the group’s responsibilities from protecting the livelihood of its members and honoring funding obligations to focusing on the wellbeing of the people involved. “Our people have lost people to the virus...other things are still happening in people’s lives that are shaking and rocking their world,” said Adesida. The members of the group were in a position where, even though their work was important, it wasn’t necessarily

clear that the right, respectful thing to do was insist that the show must go on. They didn’t have a venue. They weren’t eligible for the grants and loan programs offered to other arts organizations. Instead, to adjust to the tide of events, they had an important question to answer: “Why are we dancing?”

Collaboraction Theatre Company does have a staff with salaries to pay, so it scaled back to focus on what it could sustain.

Happily, it experienced an outpouring of financial support, where some of its annual givers made their gifts early. “We probably got more $5-per-month supporters than ever,” Robinson said. Collaboraction, which is based in Wicker Park and is the resident theater company at KennedyKing College in Englewood, was already engaged in social justice work. That set it up to ride the currents of the pandemic and social unrest. The company postponed and reconceptualized its programming lineup for the year, launching weekly talks online that ran from April through June. Before the pandemic, it was normal for the company to spend as much time in public discussion of the themes and issues a performance touched on as the performance itself. With the shutdown, it set up a streaming platform and dove in with a focus on that discussion.

The Beverly Arts Center is familiar with

taking a fresh approach. What was slated to be a year with a full lineup that included the musical Next to Normal and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the round was first rescheduled, then reimagined in the wake of the shutdown. Many events were canceled while others were moved online. Suddenly the livelihoods of its teaching artists and the fate of its arts enrichment and educational programming were in question. In this case, the center received Paycheck Protection Program funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to help close the gap. It also received support from a National Endowment for the Arts grant and foundations it had relied on in the past.

Despite that, there was a conspicuous area where support was lacking. According to Andrew Lindstad, the center’s director of development and marketing, “our individual memberships fell dramatically during the pandemic.”

The question of audience, who they are and how to reach them, is a constant one for these companies. Collaboraction has seen the answer to that transform formats have changed. “Most of our work is Chicago-specific. We’re Chicago’s theater for change. But we’re seeing people from elsewhere. It’s trickling in,” Robinson said.

Now that Collaboraction’s performances

PHOTOS COURTESY OF COLLABORACTION

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are streaming, its potential reach has expanded to anywhere with a solid internet connection. So far, that change in reach hasn’t changed the work itself. While Collaboraction has changed staffing and how they conceptualize productions to accommodate streaming, they’re staying on mission. Its annual PEACEBOOK and Utopian Ball events are merging into a month-long streaming event kicking off October 17. Videotaped performances from Chicago artists on community resilience during the pandemic and peace and peacemaking will culminate in a virtual reimagining of its annual gala on November 14. Collaboraction is reaching out to a wider audience, but bringing them in to the core community it has always served.

The Beverly Arts Center ran a popular series of live music Mondays set in its courtyard over the summer. According to Lingstad, it connected with audiences and leaves staff hopeful that people still want and value live performance. Collaboraction has embraced streaming and its show is going on. Fehinty?

“We can survive, come what may, money or no money. Under normal circumstances that would be my mantra,” Adesida said.

“I’m recognizing that these are not normal circumstances….I can only hold onto that mantra of ‘we will survive’ if they want to.

For me, it’s still true. It’s still true. But not in the absence of a collective agreement.”

During an interview in February, she was enthusiastic about Fehinty’s future. Now, the waters are murkier. Still, there are some guiding lights. An organization called the Nigerian Independence Day Education Fund has approached the group to do a virtual program, in large part because they recognized the value of Fehinty’s work and wanted to see it continue. Overwhelmingly, Adesida says, the collective agreement is, “Yeah, we can’t go off into the night….We don’t know how we’re going to do it….Let’s explore.”

It doesn’t have a poster with Bruce Lee endorsing it, but that line is easily as important as any other for understanding the approach the arts community is taking to survive and engage with a series of crises: we can’t get lost in the dark, so let’s explore. Jessica Eanes is a freelance writer and editor living in Chicago. She last wrote an overview of South Side theatre venues and ensembles in February.

Taxing the Rich for the Public Good

Social services are on the line in the fight over the Illinois Fair Tax

BY ALEXANDRA ARRIAGA, CITY BUREAU ILLUSTRATION BY HALEY TWEEDELL

V

oting is underway in Illinois, with voters deciding “yes” or “no” on whether to amend the state constitution to allow a graduated income tax. It would make effective proposed legislation to replace the current flat-rate tax system with graduated rates.

For twenty years, María Guadalupe Acevedo has lived in Gage Park on Chicago’s Southwest Side. She has two sons who are now in their twenties and has been divorced for nearly two years; she currently lives alone. Acevedo earns about $375 every two weeks working part-time cleaning a fitness center downtown. She said she has counted on state-funded programs from Mujeres Latinas en Acción, the longeststanding Latina-led community service organization in the nation, for support.

There, she pursued her GED and accessed mental healthcare through Medicare.

Like most people in Illinois, Acevedo has heard the advertisements circulating on the airwaves about Governor J.B. Pritzker’s proposed move to a graduated income tax.

Ads that oppose the graduated income tax amendment say it will open the door for higher taxes on the middle class and hurt small businesses. Those who support it emphasize it will only raise taxes on the wealthiest Illinoisians—millionaires and billionaires. The Pritzker administration estimates that ninety-seven percent of Illinoisans will see at least a modest decrease in income taxes if the constitutional change passes.

Acevedo doesn’t trust what she hears via political advertisements without doing her own research, so she searched for information online to get behind the buzz.

“From what I read, the fair tax is a tax where everyone will pay their taxes. To me this seems fair,” Acevedo said in Spanish. “Right now, we who make less have to pay more.”

Because Illinois has had a flat-rate tax

system since 1970, taxpayers like Acevedo pay 4.95 percent of their income in taxes, as does everyone else in the state, including billionaires. But for Illinoisans with less disposable income, that’s a greater portion of their income needed to afford the cost of living, said Lisa Christensen Gee, director of special initiatives with the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).

“That’s what we call a regressive tax system, one that asks people with less money

to pay a higher share of their income in taxes than those with more money,” she said. This regressive tax system is a fixture of the state constitution, which currently requires that all taxes on income be at the same rate.

Voters are not deciding on rates themselves, but the specific rates proposed

by Pritzker would raise taxes only on people who earn $250,000 or more a year—incomes between $250,000 and $500,000 would be taxed at 7.75 percent. “The amendment does not itself change tax rates. It gives the state OCTOBER 14, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

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the ability to impose higher tax rates on those with higher income levels and lower income tax rates on those with middle or lower income levels,” voters will read via language on the ballot.

On every Illinois ballot, a notice lets voters know that failure to vote is the equivalent of a negative vote, and that the amendment will become effective if approved by either three-fifths of those voting on the question or a majority of those voting in the election.

Grassroots Collaborative has been active in reaching out to voters to advocate for the graduated income tax. Executive director Amisha Patel said at this point in the election, that often means sifting through the contradictory messages reaching voters on the ballot question. With commercials flooding TV, radio, and online spaces, voters have a lot to sift through.

The loud messaging over the proposed amendment has come from heavy funders both in favor of and opposed to the amendment. Pritzker donated $56.5 million of his own fortune to the “Vote Yes for Fairness” political committee. Ken Griffin, the state’s richest man, and also the face of the effort to stop the graduated income tax, has personally donated more than $46 million to stop the proposed amendment.

Calling the amendment “catastrophic,” Griffin said in a statement, “every citizen has a right to the truth about what Governor Pritzker and [state House Speaker] Mike Madigan’s tax increase will mean for our state: the continued exodus of families and businesses, loss of jobs and inevitably higher taxes on everyone.”

Patel scoffed at the claim of a taxinduced exodus of Illinois’ uber-wealthy. “It’s a scare tactic to say rich people are going to leave. Where are they going? Almost every state around us has this tax code,” she said.

Right-leaning think tank Illinois Policy Institute filed a lawsuit against Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White and members

of the state Board of Elections on October 5 saying a pamphlet released by White contains “misleading statements” around the proposed amendment. They allege that the graduated income tax amendment would make a tax on retirement income more likely, which proponents of the amendment say is not true.

“We know the impact is to confuse people, to spread disinformation, to spread fear,” Patel said.

ITEP goes so far as to call the state’s flat income tax a “tax subsidy for the wealthiest Illinoisans that compounds income and wealth inequalities,” and one which exacerbates the racial wealth gaps in the state and Chicago.

ITEP completed a retrospective analysis in September where they applied a graduated income tax to the last twenty years in Illinois. “Under the same distribution of the Fair Tax, the wealthiest three percent of Illinoisans would have paid on average an additional eight percent of total income taxes or $27 billion from 1999-2019,” the analysis read.

The analysis also found that Black and Latinx Illinois taxpayers with taxable incomes less than $250,000 would pay $4 billion more in taxes over the twenty-year period studied under a flat tax than they would under the Fair Tax in the retrospective analysis.

“This choice of tax structure, the flat income tax versus fair income tax, also makes these wealth gaps even worse,” Christensen Gee said.

Looking backward also meant considering the way the state handled its budget when it bottomed out during the 2008 recession—cuts to jobs and social services. This is the “nightmare scenario” that Pritzker has warned may happen without federal assistance or any new source of revenue. He said thousands of people could be laid off, worsening an economic recession and reducing funds for much-needed social

“The proposed amendment was in the works before COVID-19, but as the state scrambles to recover, it couldn’t come at a better time.”

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services. Pritzker’s administration estimates that the graduated income tax may bring in an additional $3.4 billion a year.

The proposed amendment was in the works before COVID-19, but as the state scrambles to recover, Christensen Gee said it couldn’t come at a better time.

“If we only have a lever that says we have to turn up the tax requirements on everybody or no one, that puts us in a horrible position to respond to this moment in a way that actually accomplishes our goals, which is to ensure we have a public health infrastructure, ensure we have public schools available, ensure that we have the means whereby people can travel to see family and for essential workers to get to the job,” Christensen Gee said. “It compromises our ability to build the society we want if we only have one level that says everybody up or everybody down, and it just doesn’t mirror what we see in the world.”

If the proposed amendment doesn’t pass, it could also mean cuts to services such as those Mujeres Latinas en Acción provides to survivors of gender-based violence and sexual assault. The organization receives $2 million in state funding to provide support to Latina women in Southwest Side neighborhoods in Chicago.

Monica Paulson is the government grants manager at Mujeres Latinas en Acción. She says the organization is at risk of losing funding from the state if cuts are on the horizon.

“The state is in a tough situation because of the pandemic, and we really need the fair tax to help us get through that so we can keep providing these services,” Paulson said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased vulnerability for immigrant and Latina survivors and it is critical we maintain services like crisis intervention and counseling which are crucial to their healing.”

Paulson also noted how critical it is for undocumented immigrants in the communities she serves to have an opportunity to receive services at a time when federal benefits are out of reach to alleviate loss of employment and accumulating debts.

Mujeres Latinas en Acción has conducted several needs surveys since the start of the pandemic to gauge the economic impact of COVID-19. Its August survey found that sixty-nine percent of respondents had their employment impacted, and seventy-four percent of households suffered income loss. Of the 785 community members who participated in

the survey, sixty-four percent are ineligible for unemployment insurance and federal stimulus checks.

“Often undocumented people are being disproportionately impacted by things like the COVID-19 pandemic and yet they’re not seeing their tax dollars supporting them and their communities,” Paulson said. ITEP found that collectively, undocumented immigrants paid an estimated total of $10.6 billion in state and local taxes in 2010. But programs available to undocumented people for relief during COVID-19 have mostly relied on philanthropic or communityraised mutual aid funds.

This year has been one of political awakening and empowerment for Latinx voters like Acevedo. Though she has never contributed to a political campaign, she has felt emboldened through Mujeres Latinas en Acción to contribute her voice, and to share her stories and experiences on standing up against racism and the dangers of firearms.

It is also why she will vote yes for the fair tax amendment this November. For Acevedo, it isn’t just about taxes, it’s about a more equitable future she wants for all Illinois families. One in which, in her words, “it’s not just that some of us pay and others don’t.” This report was produced by City Bureau, a civic journalism lab based in Bronzeville.

Learn more and get involved at citybureau.org.

Alexandra Arriaga is a City Bureau reporting resident based in Pilsen. Her reporting focuses on how immigrant communities in Chicago build power and participate in democracy.

She last wrote for the Weekly about Chicago’s climate apartheid.

ELECTIONS

Broadband on the Ballot Understanding Chicago’s internet access referendum

BY LYNDA LOPEZ, CITY BUREAU

U

ntil November 3, Chicagoans will vote in the general election on a number of elected offices, in addition to three citywide referenda. One of them asks, “Should the city of Chicago act to ensure that all the city’s community areas have access to broadband internet?”

High-quality internet service is an increasingly crucial need amid the coronavirus pandemic as more city residents are attending school and working remotely.

There is also the sporadic opening and closing of schools across the country, making homes an important venue for attending classes online.

According to Federal Communications Commission data, 18 million people reportedly lack broadband access. About twenty-three percent of employed people worked from home in September due to COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What is a ballot referendum?

A referendum is a vote in which an entire electorate of a particular region is asked to vote on a proposal or issue. They can lead to the adoption of a new policy or a new law.

What does this ballot question mean?

The internet question, which was approved by the City Council in July, broadly asks voters whether they think all Chicagoans, regardless of where they live, should have access to broadband internet. More specifically, the question asks whether the city should make moves to ensure that access becomes a reality.

Does a referendum lead to a particular action or change in the law?

It is non-binding, meaning the city does not have to adopt it into policy or law. However, the results may inform the next steps by elected officials in City Council.

Despite not having legal weight, nonbinding referenda can be an important stepping stone in eventual legal changes, which may take years or might never pan out.

For example,in a non-binding referendum present in thirty-seven ward ballots in 2015, Chicago voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of an elected school board. The “yes” totals ranged from eighty-three to ninetythree percent in all wards. Despite the strong support, the measure has failed to pass in the state legislature.

With recent calls to remove police from schools, there are renewed calls for an elected school board. The most recent version of the bill passed the Illinois House in April 2019, but has not moved in the Senate. The bill, whose lead sponsor is state Senator Robert Martwick (D-Chicago), would establish a twenty-one-member Chicago school board.

Martwick was a state representative at the time the bill passed.

Another prominent non-binding referendum in Chicago asked voters if the statewide ban on rent control should be lifted.

The 2019 referendum (also on the ballot in 2018), showed voter support to lift the ban ranged from sixty-three to seventy-nine percent, but state officials have not acted to do so. Last year, HB 255 was introduced in Springfield by 39th District state Representative Will Guzzardi, but it never left committee.

ILLUSTRATION BY THUMY PHAN

Most recently, advocates have been calling for Governor J.B. Pritzker to lift the ban on rent control to help struggling families hard-hit by the pandemic, though Pritzker maintains he cannot use an executive order to do this.

What are the current disparities in internet access in Chicago?

In the spring, a research brief by Kids First Chicago and the Metropolitan Planning Council revealed some stark disparities in internet access, particularly as it pertains to children.

About one in five children in Chicago under the age of eighteen lack access to broadband, and are primarily Black or Latinx, according to their research.

In West Englewood, forty-six percent of children don’t have broadband access. The city’s predominantly white neighborhoods, however, show connectivity rates greater than ninety percent.

Census data released in 2018 showed similar data regarding broadband internet gaps in the city.

How has COVID-19 impacted access to the internet for communities?

As public health guidelines discourage people to leave their homes for non-essential reasons, communities have lost public and private venues for internet access.

People without internet at home may have previously used connections at places like public libraries, fast food restaurants, offices, and community spaces.

Meanwhile, work and school have become centered at home, requiring strong internet connections. But some families are unable to afford their basic necessities, including internet service.

In a recent poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Harvard's T. H. Chan School of Public Health, fifty percent of Chicago households reported

having serious financial problems during the pandemic.

One common issue that has been encountered with remote learning during the pandemic is that internet providers’ records do not always match school records or providers not recognizing certain housing units.

What are other city and state efforts to expand broadband access?

In June, Pritzker announced $50 million in Connect Illinois grants, a statewide initiative to expand broadband access across the entire state.

The first round of grants announced in June was allocated for twenty-eight projects.

The $50 million were said to be combined with $65 million in matching nonstate funding for a total of $115 million.

The plans aim to expand access for more than 26,000 homes, businesses, farms, and community institutions across Illinois.

Also in June, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the launch of “Chicago Connected,” a program that aims to provide free, high-speed internet service to approximately 100,000 Chicago Public Schools students in their households over the next four years.

According to the program’s website, CPS will contact eligible households via direct mail, emails, robocalls, and text messages as it rolls out. This story was produced by City Bureau, a journalism lab based in Bronzeville. Learn more and get involved at citybureau.org.

Lynda Lopez is a reporting fellow with City Bureau, covering the election in immigrant communities. She is also an advocacy manager with the Active Transportation Alliance where she works on transportation equity issues in the region. This is her first piece for The Weekly. You can follow her on Twitter at @lyndab08.

OCTOBER 14, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

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What You Need to Know about Language Access at the Polls If you speak any of these eleven languages, here’s what should be provided to you for voting—and what to do if it’s not.

BY PACO ALVAREZ, CITY BUREAU

W

hen you vote this year in Cook County, you can expect to see fully translated ballots and language assistance services in up to eleven languages, thanks to the Voting Opportunity and Translation Equity (VOTE) ordinance.

Passed in October 2019, Cook County officials hope this law will help the 35.6 percent of residents who speak a language other than English. In addition to Spanish, Mandarin, and Hindi, the new languages available are Korean, Tagalog, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Gujarati, and Urdu.

Since 2000, the number of immigrants eligible to vote in the U.S. has doubled, according to a Pew Research study. Now, one in ten eligible voters are naturalized citizens. Illinois ranks sixth among states with the most naturalized citizens. But what protections are available for non-English speaking voters? In Chicago alone, 15.7 percent of residents, or 400,000 people, do not speak English as their primary language.

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Here’s a rundown of the laws, old and new, that ensure your access to translated ballots and language resources during elections.

What does “language access” look like for voters in the U.S.?

Thanks to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and several amendments to the law since it was first enacted, Americans have the right to translated ballots and voting materials (including registration forms). Translated ballots may come in the form of traditional paper ballots, audio ballots, mail-in and absentee ballots, or voting machines with multiple language options. You may also bring individuals, including family members or translators, to polling places to translate ballots for you. Polls, election offices, registration locations, and any electionrelated site must include multilingual signage that explains your rights and the kinds of language assistance available to you.

Hotlines for voters needing assistance (312) 603-6748: ‫ودرا‬ (312) 603-6747: ‫يبرع‬ En Español: (312) 603-6767 以國語接聽，請撥 : (312) 603-6769 Polski: (312) 603-6770 टेलीफोन: (312) 603-6743 Tagalog: (312) 603-6742 한국어: (312) 603-6745 Русский: (312) 603-6751 УКРАЇНСЬКА: (312) 603-6752 ગુજરાતી: (312) 603-6746 TDD: (312) 603-0902

What languages are covered under the law?

Before the VOTE ordinance, Spanish, Mandarin, and Hindi were already protected languages in parts of Cook County—still, not all precincts are required to have more than one non-English language available, and there’s no clear way to know which languages will be available at any given site.

During the 2019 Chicago election, only one polling place in the city could provide translated ballots in all three federally protected languages.

As a result of the VOTE ordinance, the Cook County Clerk, in tandem with the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, will now provide language services, including translated ballots and bilingual poll workers and election judges, for the additional eight languages. A pilot program during the March primaries added language services in Korean and Tagalog. For the upcoming November election, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Gujarati, and Urdu will be added alongside the existing languages protected by the Voting Rights Act. Translated ballots in these additional eight languages will be available in electronic, audio, and mail-in form in November.

What’s being done now to ensure nonEnglish speakers can access voting information from now until Election Day? On September 22, with less than six weeks until the November election, county officials

met to discuss progress on the ordinance. The translation process is winding down, and language advocates are starting to focus on voter outreach to immigrant communities and finding bilingual election workers.

Near the end of the hearing, county language advocates and translators spoke about the importance of translating ballots and providing non-English language support.

Nuha Siddiqui, part of a motherdaughter Urdu translation team, said, “Adding more languages to the ballot is an important step toward showing minority communities, especially minority immigrant communities, that they’re seen and their voices matter.”

For those experiencing problems leading up to and on election day, the Cook County Clerk has hotlines for different languages, including Spanish, Polish, Mandarin, and Hindi, as well as for anyone who is deaf or has partial hearing loss See below or access the County Clerk’s website at cookcountyclerk.com. Other organizations with voting rights hotlines include Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and ACLU Illinois. This story was produced by City Bureau, a journalism lab based in Bronzeville. Learn more and get involved at citybureau.org.

Paco Alvarez is a freelance writer and a reporting fellow at City Bureau. This is his first piece for the Weekly.

ELECTIONS

How to Vote in Chicago in 2020 Here’s what you need to know

BY AMY QIN

W

e often think of voting as a sacred democratic ritual—you go to the polls on Election Day, cast your ballot, and put an “I Voted” sticker on the sleeve of your jacket to indicate that you did your civic duty.

Not this year. Amid a global pandemic, record levels of mail-in voting ballot applications, and funding cuts to the United States Postal Service, this election will be unlike any that have come before.

In June, Illinois passed emergency legislation to expand voter access during COVID-19, and as a result, many voting rules have changed. So whether you are a first-time voter or a veteran voter, the voting process can be confusing this year. This guide is designed to help you navigate your available voting options and address any questions or concerns you may have about making sure your vote counts.

However, if there is one universal piece of advice from all the experts the Weekly spoke to, it is this: make a plan to vote ahead of time, and vote as early as possible.

Who is on the ballot for this election cycle?

ILLUSTRATION BY MELL MONTEZUMA

Aside from the presidential election, there are several other important elections happening on November 3 in Chicago.

On the federal level, the next President, one U.S. Senate seat, and seven U.S. House of Representatives seats are up for election. At the state level, all Illinois state representatives, some state senators in specific districts, and the state’s attorney are up for election. There are also several Illinois Supreme and Appellate Court judicial races and judges up for retention. In Cook County, the clerk of the Circuit Court and the commissioner of the Board of Review, 1st District, are up for election, as well as several Cook County Circuit and Subcircuit judges. There are also three Metropolitan Water Reclamation District commissioners up for election.

Voters will also decide on the Fair Tax Amendment, a ballot measure that will change the state income tax system from a flat tax to a graduated tax (see story on page 5), and three other citywide, non-binding referenda.

“I would really emphasize some of the downballot races happening in our local communities,” said Katrina Phidd, a communications associate at Chicago Votes. “These are the races where you might see more of an impact on our communities OCTOBER 14, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

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and day-to-day lives.” You can see a sample ballot and see where candidates stand on key issues at ballotready.org and research judicial candidates using the Injustice Watch Judicial Voting Guide in this issue.

First things first, are you registered to vote?

Check the Illinois Online Voter Registration site (ova.elections.il.gov) by October 18 to see if you are registered to vote. You will need either an Illinois driver’s license or state ID. You have the right to vote, but will need to register (or re-register) if: • You are eighteen or older and this is your first time voting • You have moved in the past year • You have a felony on your record, or have been released from incarceration If you miss the October 18 deadline for online registration, you have until November 2 to register at a designated early voting location, although you should be prepared to cast your ballot right after you register. Remember to bring two forms of ID. As a last resort, you can do same-day registration on Election Day, but only at the polling location in your precinct.

“We are working daily to turn around all the registrations we’re getting,” said Jonathan Swain, commissioner at the Chicago Board of Elections.

Should I vote by mail?

You do not need an excuse or reason to vote by mail in Illinois. In fact, it is encouraged this election. You can protect yourself from COVID-19 exposure and prevent congestion at polling places.

If you have voted in Illinois in the last two years, you should have received an application to vote by mail. If you haven’t, you can either apply online at chicagoelections.gov, or return your application by mail through October 29, although it is recommended you do so much earlier, ideally by mid-October. If you submit an email address with your application, you should receive updates from the Chicago Board of Elections notifying when your application has been received and processed.

The Board of Elections has been sending out mail-in ballots to registered voters on a rolling basis since September 24.

Once you receive your ballot, fill it out and send it back as soon as possible, no need to 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

pay for postage. WBEZ has an easy to use tool on their website (wbez.org) that takes you step-by-step through the vote by mail process.

Do not wait until October 29 to request your ballot by mail. We don’t see how a person can receive it, fill it out, and return it by [Election Day]” if they apply any later, Chicago Board of Elections chair Marisel Hernandez told CBS Chicago. “We urge everyone to apply for a vote-by-mail ballot as soon as possible.”

Can my mail-in ballot get rejected? What do I do if it does?

Follow the instructions closely to ensure that your ballot is not rejected. In the Illinois presidential primaries this spring, almost 12,000 vote-by-mail ballots were rejected. One of the most common reasons a ballot is rejected is either because the voter did not sign their ballot or they submitted a signature that does not match the one on record, according to Swain.

Make sure that you sign both your ballot and the ballot envelope with a signature you have previously used with election authorities. They will compare your signature with what they have on file to make sure it matches. If you think your signature has changed, you can update it with the Board of Elections online.

You will be notified by mail within two days if your ballot is rejected. If so, you have up to fourteen days after Election Day to resolve the issue with the Board of Elections.

When should I mail my ballot to make sure it’s counted in time?

Legally, as long as your ballot is postmarked

by November 3 and election authorities receive it by November 17, it should count.

However, it is realistic to be concerned about potential delays this year. The USPS sent letters to forty-six states, Illinois included, that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast will arrive in time to be counted.

“If you get your ballot right away, and you fill it out right away, you’re probably safe to mail it back in the first two weeks of October,” said Julia Kline, deputy voter registrar for the Illinois Board of Elections and an organizer with Neighbors Who Vote.

If you are planning to submit your ballot after October 14, Kline recommends you drop it off in-person at one of fifty ballot drop box locations across the city— addresses and hours can be found at the

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CBEC website. There will be a drop box at every early voting site beginning October 14. The Board of Elections is also planning to open up additional drop box locations, said Swain.

Using drop boxes is the surest way you can make sure your ballot is counted. Drop boxes are emptied every night, stamped upon receipt, and processed within thirtysix hours (although your ballot will not be counted until election night). If you provide an email address, Kline said, the Board of Elections will send you email updates so you can track your ballot, just like you would track a package on its delivery route.

Can the Board of Elections handle the influx of mail-in ballots this year?

Officials are expecting a massive increase in mail-in ballots this year, especially after the March primaries broke the record for the most mail-in-ballot applications since the 1944 election during World War II. In the March primaries, there were 118,000 applications; as of October 2, there have been 458,579. The Board of Elections is prepared, though. “We’ve been preparing for the increase in mail-in ballots since the primary, [and] we’ve procured extra equipment for processing…we believe we’ll be able to process all the ballots in due time,” Swain said.

Is voting in person safe?

The Illinois Department of Public Health has published COVID-19 guidelines for polling places on the CDPH website (dph. illinois.gov), which include guidelines for social distancing and Personal Protective Equipment. If you choose to vote in person, the most important advice from experts is to take advantage of early voting.

With early voting, there are often fewer people and you can go to any of the fifty

early voting locations in Chicago. You are also likely to get your questions answered by election judges in a less rushed manner. “We sometimes hear from community members with limited English proficiency that they can take more time to get the assistance they need during early voting,” said Ami Gandhi, senior counsel at the Chicago Lawyers Council for Civil Rights.

The Loop Super Site has been open for early voting since October 1. From October 14 through November 2, all fifty early voting sites—one per ward, most of which are in schools or parks—plus the Loop Super Site will be open Monday through Saturday.

All polling locations are ADA compliant.

You can find the hours and locations at the CBEC website. If you are registered to vote, no ID is required, but officials recommend you bring one in case you run into snags.

If you vote in person on November 3, you must vote at the polling location in your home precinct. You can find out where that is on the CBEC website. If you are a government employee or a public school teacher, Election Day is a state holiday for you. Expect to wait in line if you vote inperson on Election Day, and make sure to be in line by 7pm and stay in line so you do not lose your place. “Wear your mask and pack your patience. You might also want to have a chair handy,” said Morrow Cleveland, organizer with Neighbors Who Vote and a Woodlawn resident.

What if I get a mail-in ballot but decide to vote in person?

That’s totally fine. If you change your mind after requesting a mail-in ballot and decide to vote in person, just take your ballot to your early voting location and exchange it with the election judge for a ballot to vote in person. If you have already sent in your mail-in ballot, you cannot vote in person: it’s a felony to do so or to even attempt it.

“If there is one universal piece of advice from all the experts the Weekly spoke to, it is this: make a plan to vote ahead of time, and vote as early as possible.”

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Should I be concerned about election or voter fraud?

There is little evidence that mail-in voting is more susceptible to voter fraud, according to multiple independent studies and government reviews. If mail-in vote fraud does happen, it is very rare, Gandhi said.

Studies indicate it happens less than 0.001 percent of the time.

There will always be a paper trail associated with your ballot, Swain said.

When voting in person, regardless of whether you use a touch-screen machine or vote with a paper ballot, either method will print out a paper ballot to be submitted to the election authority.

I am incarcerated, can I still vote?

If you are currently in pretrial detention without a felony conviction, you have the right to vote and can do so at the Cook County Jail thanks to the passage of IL S.B. 2090 last year.

If you have a felony on your record and you have since been released from prison, you have the right to vote but need to reregister. “A lot of people think that if they have a felony, they can’t vote for the rest of their life. That is not true,” Phidd said. “The second you step out of prison you have the right to vote again, all you need to do is reregister.”

What if English is not my first language?

All posters, ballots, and voting instructions will be in Spanish and English and in some precincts, Mandarin and/or Hindi.

Last October, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed an ordinance that mandates audio translations in Tagalog, Korean, Polish, Arabic, and Russian be available as well. (See the story on page 8 for more.)

What should I do if I feel my voter rights are being violated at my polling location?

Thankfully, Gandhi said, most voters have a positive experience at the polls. However, if you feel unwelcome, improperly turned away from the polls, or that your rights as a voter are being violated in any way, let an election judge know or call the Election Protection hotline at (866) OUR-VOTE. You can also call the Board of Elections’ Election Central number at (312) 263-1394 during early voting or at (312) 269-7870 on Election Day.

Prosecuting Protesters: SA Candidates Differ on Foxx’s ‘Progressive’ Approach

“We absolutely encourage anyone to call [Election Protection] if they need help or are made to feel uncomfortable at the polling place,” Gandhi said.

Below are the Election Protection and companion hotlines: • 886-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683)— general election protection hotline • 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682)— Spanish language hotline • 888-API-VOTE (888-274-8683)— Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and Tagalog language hotline • 844-YALLA-US (844-925-5287)— Arabic language hotline Can I become an election judge?

Election judges are paid to manage the polling location and help assist voters with early voting and on Election Day. Some of the responsibilities include setting up equipment, opening the polls, issuing the correct ballots to voters, and answering any voter questions. Election Day workers are paid a total of $230 for completing training and serving on election day. Early voting workers will receive $14 per hour.

As of September 27, the Chicago Board of Elections needed to fill 2,000-3,000 more Election Day judges and as of September 15, 13,000 more paid early voting election jobs.

Currently, the deadline to apply for Election Day positions is October 18 for adults over eighteen years old. There is currently no deadline to apply for early voter poll positions for citizens over sixteen. For more information about the job requirements and how to apply, see the CBEC website. Amy Qin is a contributor to the Weekly. She last interviewed Shapearl Wells and Alison Flowers about Somebody, a podcast that explores racial disparities and distrust for the Chicago Police Department.

Kim Foxx is dismissing certain misdemeanor charges against protesters and prosecuting those charged with felonies. Her opponent says Foxx is allowing crime to “intermix” with peaceful protesters.

BY KIRAN MISRA AND JIM DALEY

I

n December 2016, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx was tasked with leading the second-largest prosecutor’s office in the country. The first AfricanAmerican woman to hold the office, she promised to be a progressive prosecutor, one of a wave of similar district attorneys (DAs) and state’s attorneys across the country.

These prosecutors have prioritized reducing mass incarceration and the disproportionate impacts policing has on communities of color by adopting strategies such as reducing sentences, ending the prosecution of certain low-level offenses, and working to end cash bail. Though these moves have now gained mainstream acceptance thanks to years of dedicated work by criminal

justice activists, at the time, Foxx’s departure from the traditional hard-on-crime stances and promises of severe punishment was a radical one.

When protests against racial injustice and police violence swept the city this summer, Foxx was one of few prosecutors in the country who issued a departmentwide policy to decriminalize protesting. Her office’s policy position drew a distinction between peaceful protesters and “individuals who intentionally cause harm or damage.”

For charges including disorderly conduct, public demonstration, unlawful gathering, and curfew violation, Foxx instructed her office to adopt a “presumption of dismissal.”

For other misdemeanor charges including

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“We're a very powerful actor within the system, but we are but one of the actors.” resisting or obstructing arrest, assault, battery, aggravated battery to a police officer, mob action, and obstructing identification, there would be a “presumption against proceeding unless body-worn camera footage is available and/or where a police officer is the complainant.”

The effects of this order on approval and dismissal rates in the State’s Attorney’s office are not yet entirely clear. As Foxx explained in an interview with the Weekly, her office is still waiting to receive data from the Cook County Clerk's office, which would show what proportion of misdemeanor charges Foxx’s office approved and rejected during the protests. Data from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Open Data Portal on the few felony charges mentioned by name in the State’s Attorney’s order shows that in the three months since the policy was issued, 4.3 percent of charges for aggravated battery to a police officer were dismissed and 81.5 percent were approved. During that same period, 17.9 percent of aggravated assault to a police officer charges were dismissed and 60.7 percent were approved. It is unclear what percentage of these were accompanied by body-worn camera footage.

After handily defeating primary challenger Bill Conway, Foxx now faces Republican Pat O’Brien, a former chief deputy state’s attorney, in the general election. The contrast between the two candidates is stark and the race has some of the highest stakes on the ballot. O’Brien, who was endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, has criticized Foxx’s progressive approach and labeled her a “pawn” of the “corrupt Chicago Machine.” In a statement emailed to the Weekly, O’Brien said any protest-related dismissals “should be made on a case by case basis, not in a blanket fashion as Kim Foxx has done. By allowing crime and looting to intermix with peaceful protests Kim Foxx is actively undermining the First Amendment rights of the vast majority of protesters who are peaceful.”

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BY SHANE TOLENTINO

O’Brien is “not part of the movement for criminal justice reform,” Foxx said.

“This is someone who blasted my effort to not prosecute peaceful protesters, this is someone who has conflated looters with those who were engaged in peaceful protests.

This is someone who's tried to stoke fear in communities by saying that bail reform makes people less safe. This is someone who has personally wrongfully convicted four Black teenagers…for a murder they did not commit.” In 1986, O’Brien—then a supervisor in the Cook County SA’s felony review unit—successfully prosecuted four Black teenagers for rape and murder. DNA tests cleared all four of the men, who were pardoned in 2002. “And this is someone who is appealing, really, to racist dog whistles to stoke fear,” Foxx continued. “It is reassuring that the public is saying that they want justice reform, but it does not come without a fight. It does not come without

¬ OCTOBER 14, 2020

the vestiges of the old way, struggling to maintain power and control, and that's what we're up against.”

A

ctivists are pushing Foxx to dismiss all charges that are still pending against protesters, including felony charges leveled against people such as Jeremey “Mohawk” Johnson, who was arrested for aggravated battery of a police officer for allegedly striking one with a skateboard at an August 15 protest. Foxx has thus far declined to do so. “The same way people on the right claim that everybody who protests is a looter, the same way we have to be cautious that when we talk about dropping charges against protesters, we're talking about people who were peacefully engaged in protest,” she said. “For example, there's an instance where someone hit a police officer with a skateboard. That's not acceptable. Even in the frenzy of what's

happening as people are exercising their rights, there is a line.”

“I wish there was a line with police beating unarmed, retreating civilians,” Johnson said in an email to the Weekly.

“To me, that’s unacceptable. Yet I am being pursued and dragged through the legal system with more ferocity than the vast majority of police are pursued for murdering unarmed people, all for allegedly hitting an armed and armored riot cop who sustained no major injuries.”

Frank Chapman is the executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR), which recently called for prosecutors across the country to drop all charges against activists and protesters. Chapman, who lives in Chicago, said Foxx is a prosecutor whose rhetoric has been “on the side of those who have been torture victims and subjected to violence” by the police. “They’re

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the ones shooting the guns [and] spraying people with chemicals,” Chapman said. “If there’s any charges to be placed, they should be placed against the police for violating people’s constitutional rights” to protest.

Still, the mere existence of a policy stating the presumption of dismissal for nonviolent misdemeanor cases puts Foxx ahead of most prosecutors in the nation— the majority of whom haven’t instituted any specific provisions to ensure that protesters do not face unnecessary punishment from the criminal justice system for demonstrating in the streets. “Of the thousands of prosecutors’ offices across the country, I can tell you that there are probably less than ten percent of us who instituted such a policy,” Foxx said. At the opposite end of the spectrum, other prosecutors have adopted a “toughon-everybody stance,” she explained. “We want people to be able to peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights and the government should not come in to thwart that…Particularly [given] the rhetoric that people have used around the protests over the summer conflating protesting and looting.”

In Minneapolis, where the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police sparked the summer’s nationwide protests, St. Paul City Attorney Lyndsey Olson announced in June that her office would be dismissing charges against nonviolent protesters on a case-by-case basis and look into restorative justice techniques for other charges. A spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney, whose jurisdiction includes Minneapolis and whose office only prosecutes felonies, juvenile cases, and serious misdemeanors, said in an email to the Weekly that none of the charges their office brought “resulting from civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd” have been dismissed.

When the protests began, attorneys at the Minneapolis Legal Rights Center and the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild set up a hotline for protesters to report arrests. Between Memorial Day and the first week of July, the hotline received more than 270 calls.

Andrew Gordon, the deputy director for community legal services at the Legal Rights Center, said that, as of October, none of the felony cases have been dismissed.

“On the misdemeanor side of things, where we’re talking about someone being charged with a curfew violation, trespass, or unlawful assembly, of the seventy-one [misdemeanor]

cases we were able to identify and where we spoke to individuals who were charged, all but ten of them were dismissed.”

In New York City, DAs in four of the five boroughs similarly announced they would not prosecute protesters charged with offenses they deemed nonviolent—primarily unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct, and curfew violations. But the DAs haven’t clarified their stances on the hundreds of cases where protesters weren’t arrested, but instead were issued a summons— which are typically handled independently of the DAs, said Jennvine Wong, a Cop Accountability Project attorney with the New York Legal Aid Society. COVID-19 shutdowns resulted in a backlog of many of the cases where protesters were arrested for nonviolent offenses, leaving many still awaiting a hearing months later. “[District attorneys] are continuing to review cases on an individual basis, while remaining silent with respect to the hundreds of summonses that are scheduled [to be heard] in the coming months,” Wong said. “For the most part, if someone was only charged with unlawful assembly, those cases are getting… dismissed.” In July, the Legal Aid Society and other legal defense organizations in New York demanded DAs dismiss or decline to prosecute all criminal cases stemming from the summer protests.

“W

e should not be looking at prosecutors as saviors,” said Josh Tepfer, who works as an attorney with the Exoneration Project in Chicago. “When we seek prosecution of police as the answer, we’re seeking to utilize the same flawed system that has created systemic racism to solve [it]…But Kim Foxx has spoken powerfully about these systemic injustices and she’s taken some steps to back up these powerful words.”

Sarah Staudt, a senior policy analyst and staff attorney at the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice, agreed. “State’s Attorney Foxx has been a public voice advocating for evidence-based practices and against fearmongering and racism. That’s a welcome change from previous administrations, and has been particularly crucial this summer during the frequent protests and the uptick in the homicide rate,” Staudt said. “[Additionally], even among prosecutors who identify themselves as ‘progressives,’ SA Foxx stands alone in providing this much publicly accessible data... It takes a genuine understanding of the importance of accountability and transparency, as well

as political courage, to keep and continually add to this data and expand the categories available—even when it means that she may give critics from both the right and left ammunition.”

But that doesn’t mean that advocates are anywhere near finished pushing for continued changes in the State’s Attorney’s Office, especially now that the jail population is growing once again, more people than ever are being placed on electronic home monitoring, and cases continue to be resolved slowly during the pandemic.

Tepfer said he hopes that Foxx will make a bigger priority of addressing the continued impacts of the police misconduct of decades past if elected to a second term, particularly in the backlog of cases based on the testimony of corrupt Chicago Police officers like Ronald Watts, Jon Burge, and Reynaldo Guevara. “There are 150 or so pending cases that me and other people have asked for her to vacate, that we should have no trust in any of those convictions. Many of those have been sitting on the State’s Attorney’s desk for years now,” Tepfer said.

“There have only been thirteen convictions vacated on the Watts cases in the last twenty months or so…. So, there’s a lot of work still to be done. We were off to a good start for a while, but things have really, really slowed down.”

“Ultimately, prosecutors have the power to reduce the harm caused by the over-prosecution, over-criminalization, and systemic racism in our justice system,” Staudt said. “This harm reduction is crucial as a matter of basic human rights. It also helps demonstrate in concrete terms how unnecessary and harmful [certain] policies are. It’s much harder for opponents of abolition to argue that the criminal legal system, as it stands, is necessary when we have prosecutors who are demonstrating that reducing its footprint has positive results, not negative ones.”

As cities across the country contend with their dual and entangled histories of racial injustice and policing, many at the ballot box are questioning the potential and the limits of any prosecutor’s ability—even a progressive one—to truly challenge an unjust and unequal system they are complicit in endorsing and maintaining. Four years into her term, Foxx has accomplished much of what she promised to do when she was elected: she has made more transparent the way her office deals with police misconduct, made progress in dealing with wrongful convictions, reduced the prosecution of

some shoplifting cases, worked to reform Chicago’s bail system, and leaned more on diversion programs as an alternative to incarceration.

Because prosecutors decide what to charge and what not to charge, “the purview of a prosecutor is rather significant,” Foxx said. “We're a very powerful actor within the system, but we are but one of the actors.” Kiran Misra is a writer for the Weekly who primarily covers criminal justice and policing in Chicago. She last wrote about Cook County Jail and COVID-19. Jim Daley is the Weekly’s politics editor. He last fact-checked CPD’s version of events at an August protest.

croSSWord Answers

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Judges have the power to make decisions about guilt and innocence, to take away someone's freedom, to interpret or overturn state laws, and to correct or perpetuate injustices. Yet there are few places to get information about the people seeking to become or remain judges.

This year 62 judges are running for retention in Cook County. In addition to each judge’s biography, you’ll find items we think voters may find notable: familial connections, high-profile cases, controversial decisions, and other information we found through public records, news clippings, and original reporting. We’ve flagged when a judge is a former prosecutor or public defender, has a controversy in their past, has had their decisions reversed repeatedly by higher courts, or got negative ratings from one of three bar associations. Most judges up for retention this year received positive reviews from all three lawyers’ groups; in the cases that they didn't, we explained why.

For a complete version of our guide, including information about candidates in two competitive races for open seats in north suburban Cook County, visit injusticewatch.org/judges.

That’s why Injustice Watch has created this judicial election guide.

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GLOSSARY Administrative law judge: Lawyers hired by city or state agencies to conduct hearings on administrative issues, such as municipal code violations or decisions made by agency representatives. May also be called “hearing officers.” These are not judicial positions but are often a stepping stone for attorneys who want to gain quasi-judicial experience before running for judge.

Assistant corporation counsel: Attorneys who work in the City of Chicago’s Law Department are known as assistant corporation counsels. These attorneys represent the city in litigation, consult on city legislation, assist city departments on legal matters, and prosecute city ordinance violations and traffic cases.

Assistant Illinois attorney general: Attorneys who work in the Office of the Illinois Attorney General enforce civil rights and labor laws, file consumer and environmental

protection lawsuits, issue opinions on violations of public records and open meetings laws, and serve many other legal functions. The head of the office is Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

Chief judge: The chief judge is elected by the circuit judges and is responsible for assigning all of the court’s judges and overseeing administrative matters. The chief judge can issue orders for judges to follow—such as the new bail reform rules—and create new divisions and programs. Chief Judge Timothy Evans, who was elected to the post in 1992, is the longest-serving chief judge in Cook County history.

Cook County assistant public defender: Attorneys that represent criminal defendants who cannot afford an attorney. The head of the Office of the Cook County Public Defender, currently Amy Campanelli, is appointed by the Cook County Board.

Cook County assistant state's attorney: Attorneys that prosecute state crimes in the county and represent Cook County in lawsuits against it. The head of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, currently Kim Foxx, is elected by the public.

Presiding judge: The Chief Judge of Cook County appoints a presiding judge to oversee each division and each municipal department. Presiding judges handle administrative matters in their divisions. In some divisions, presiding judges are responsible for assigning cases to judges (in other divisions, cases are assigned randomly by a computer). The presiding judges, along with Chief Judge Tim Evans, is known as the Executive Committee and meets regularly to discuss courtwide matters.

Supervising judge: A judge appointed to supervise a section within a division.

Divisions of the Circuit Court: The Cook County Circuit Court is divided into three departments, which are further divided into 16 divisions, based on both the types of cases judges hear and geography.

County Department Municipal Department

Juvenile Justice and Child Protection Department

Child protection division: Judges in this division hear cases involving child abuse, child neglect, child dependency, private guardianship, termination of parental rights, and orders of protection concerning children.

Juvenile justice division: Judges in this division conduct trials for minors charged with crimes, and proceedings for minors addicted to alcohol or drugs and those who are runaways. Matters in this division are confidential to protect the rights of minors.

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The municipal department is divided into six geographical districts. Judges new to the bench are often initially assigned to a municipal post, especially traffic court.

First municipal district: This district covers the City of Chicago and handles felony preliminary hearings, misdemeanor cases (except domestic violence), evictions, small claims, traffic, lawsuits with damages under $30,000, marriages, and civil unions.

Hearings occur at the Daley Center in downtown Chicago and at additional sites known as “branch courts” around the city.

Second through sixth municipal districts: These suburban districts handle the types of cases heard by the first district, but also oversee felony criminal cases and juvenile justice cases in the suburbs, orders of protection, some specialty courts, civil suits with damages under $100,000, and name changes. These courts are located in Skokie (Second), Rolling Meadows (Third), Maywood (Fourth), Bridgeview (Fifth), and Markham (Sixth).

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Chancery division: Judges in this division hear lawsuits in which one party sues another seeking to compel them to refrain from or execute a specific action rather than suing for monetary damages. This division hears class-action lawsuits like the one brought in 2016 that sought to end the county’s cash bail system. Cases involving mortgage foreclosures, contracts, and other matters are also heard in this division.

County division: Judges in this division hear cases involving adoption, elections, mental health proceedings, and real estate taxes.

Criminal division: Judges in this division hear felony cases (cases that could result in a prison term of a year or more). The division also handles issues related to felony trials, like record expungement and petitions to review prior criminal convictions and sentences.

Criminal judges hearing Chicago cases sit at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on Chicago’s Southwest Side. Others also preside over felony cases in the suburban courthouses.

Domestic relations division: Judges in this division hear cases involving divorce and related matters, like legal separation or dissolving a civil union, allocation of parental responsibilities and parenting time, child support, and third-party visitation.

Domestic violence division: Judges in this division hear matters involving orders of protection, no-contact orders, and certain criminal cases related to domestic violence.

Law division: Judges in this division hear lawsuits for monetary damages larger than $30,000 in the city and larger than $100,000 in the suburbs. Examples of law division cases include personal injury, legal malpractice, property damage, employment security, and much more.

Pretrial division: Judges in this division hear initial proceedings in criminal cases, such as bail hearings and applications for search warrants. This division also oversees some specialty court programs like the deferred prosecution court. This division was created in 2017 when Chief Judge Timothy Evans issued an order reforming bail.

Probate Division: Judges in this division hear matters involving wills, estates, and guardianship of minors or those with disabilities.

FORMER STATE'S ATTORNEY

Appellate Court Appellate judges rule on appealed cases originally decided in the Circuit Court. The judges below were elected to the Appellate Court and serve ten-year terms. Circuit Court judges can also be assigned to the Appellate Court by the Illinois Supreme Court.

FORMER PUBLIC DEFENDER

Circuit Court MICHAEL P. TOOMIN

PAST CONTROVERSIES

Judge since: 1995 Current assignment: Illinois Appellate Court Experience:

Judge since: 2004 Current assignment: Illinois Appellate Court

Experience:

Notable:

Experience:

Notable:

Circuit Court judge Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Metropolitan Water Reclamation District commissioner Director, Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Chair, Illinois Environmental Regulatory Review Commission

Illinois Appellate Court, by appointment Cook County assistant public defender

Pucinski is part of a well-connected political family.

Her father was a U.S. Congressman and longtime alderman for Chicago’s 41st ward who voted as part of the white ethnic bloc during the ‘Council Wars’ of the 1980s, when Chicago’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington, was in office. Pucinski has sought higher positions in public office throughout her career. In 1986, Pucinski ran an unsuccessful campaign for Illinois Secretary of State. In 1997, Pucinski switched to the Republican Party to challenge Cook County Board President John H. Stroger Jr., but was defeated in the 1998 general election. In 2012, she ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois Supreme Court.

Toomin is one of two judges the Cook County Democratic Party voted not to endorse for retention this election.

Earlier this year, Toomin came under fire for making it harder for juveniles seeking release from detention during the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, he ruled that an ordinance passed unanimously by the Cook County Board of Commissioners banning the detention of youth under 13 was invalid because it conflicted with Illinois law. His ruling was upheld on appeal.

In September, Injustice Watch reported that Toomin had taken part in an investment club with other judges and attorneys, including indicted Alderman Ed Burke.

Toomin has also presided over several high-profile cases, including the manslaughter case against former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew, R.J. Vanecko, in the death of David Koschman, and the case against former “Empire” star Jussie Smollett. In a statement, a spokesperson for Toomin alleged that the Democratic Party’s “no” vote was retaliation for Toomin’s criticism of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s handling of the Smollett case.

MARY KATHERINE ROCHFORD

JAMES PATRICK FLANNERY, JR.

Judge since: 1991 Current assignment: Illinois Appellate Court

Judge since: 1988 Current assignment: Law division, presiding judge

Notable:

Experience:

Circuit Court judge Chief assistant corporation counsel, City of Chicago Notable:

In 2017, Rochford joined a unanimous opinion denying an appeal for a man convicted of murder despite an eyewitness who recanted his testimony and whose identification appeared to be contradicted by surveillance video. Rochford is the niece of former Chicago Police Supt. James Rochford, who served under Mayor Richard J. Daley.

NEGATIVE RATINGS

MARY ELLEN COGHLAN

Judge since: 1980 Current assignment: Juvenile justice division, presiding judge

AURELIA MARIE PUCINSKI

NOTABLE REVERSALS

Cook County assistant public defender Illinois assistant attorney general In 2002, Coghlan sentenced two Chicago police officers to 18 months probation and ordered them to pay $1,500 fines after they were found guilty of obstructing a police officer for lying to a supervisor about a car crash that happened while they were on duty. The guilty plea helped them avoid felony official misconduct charges, which allowed them to potentially keep their police pensions.

Coghlan’s cousin is former Cook County Judge Matthew Coghlan, who lost his seat in 2018 after becoming the first Cook County judge in 28 years to lose a retention bid.

SHELLEY LYNN SUTKERDERMER Judge since: 1995 Current assignment: Second municipal district (Skokie), presiding judge Experience:

Cook County assistant state’s attorney Notable:

Sutker-Dermer’s father, Calvin Sutker, was a longtime Democratic committeeman in Niles, Skokie village trustee, and former chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party. He was also close friends with Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans.

PATRICIA MANILA MARTIN

Experience:

Assistant corporation counsel, City of Chicago Illinois assistant attorney general Notable:

In 2012, Flannery was selected to serve as chairman of the court’s orientation and training program for new judges.

Judge since: 1996 Current assignment: Child protection division, presiding judge Experience:

Cook County assistant public defender Notable:

Martin plans to retire from the bench at the end of her term in December, even if she wins retention. She did not participate in the bar association ratings OCTOBER 14, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 21

process, earning her automatic “Not recommended” Notable: ratings.

Gordon has issued several rulings in favor of alleged police torture survivors. Last year, he joined two other appellate judges in overturning the conviction of James KENNETH J. WADAS Gibson, harshly criticizing the associate judge who ruled that Gibson’s claims of torture were not credible.

In 2017, he wrote an opinion granting Sean Tyler an Judge since: 1996 evidentiary hearing on his claims of being coerced Current assignment: Criminal division into a confession by detectives who had worked under disgraced former police Cmdr. Jon Burge.

Experience:

Private practice Director of Court Services, Cook County Circuit Court Cook County assistant state’s attorney Notable:

Wadas has had his decisions reversed by the Illinois Appellate Court 25 times since 2014, more than any other criminal court judge running for retention this year.

In 1999, he presided over the trial of Robert Wilson, who was charged with attempted murder for allegedly attacking a woman at a bus stop with a box cutter.

Wadas prevented Wilson’s attorney from introducing evidence about another man who had confessed to five similar attacks at bus stops in the same area in the two weeks after Wilson was arrested. Wilson was exonerated after almost a decade behind bars.

In 2004, Wadas sentenced Benard McKinley to 100 years in prison for a murder he committed when he was 16. After a federal appeals court determined that Wadas had not adequately considered McKinley’s age in issuing what it called “a certain death sentence,” Wadas resentenced him to 39 years, just one year less than the number the Illinois Supreme Court has said amounts to a life sentence for a juvenile.

As a prosecutor, Wadas was rebuked by the Appellate Court, calling his trial behavior in one case “an insult to the court and to the dignity of the trial bar," the Chicago Tribune reported. Wadas declined to comment.

GREGORY J. WOJKOWSKI Judge since: 1996 Current assignment: Law division Experience:

Chief assistant corporation counsel, City of Chicago ROBERT E. GORDON

Judge since: 1996 Current assignment: Illinois Appellate Court Experience:

Private practice, general litigation and insurance defense Village of Northbrook Trustee 22 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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LEWIS NIXON Judge since: 2001 Current assignment: Chancery division, supervising judge Experience:

Regional counsel, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Attorney, Burlington Northern Railroad Assistant U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Illinois Notable:

In 2011, Lewis was appointed chairman of an Illinois Supreme Court special committee on foreclosures.

Following the committee’s recommendations, the court in 2013 set new rules that required lenders to prove to judges that they had exhausted all efforts to help a borrower before foreclosing on a home.

Watch's accounting of her reversals and said they represent "approximately 1%" of her decisions. She also denied retaliating against litigants or attorneys.

JANET ADAMS BROSNAHAN Judge since: 2002 Current assignment: Law division Experience:

Private practice Notable:

Brosnahan’s husband, James Brosnahan, is one of several former Illinois state representatives turned lobbyists, whose clients have included AT&T and Exelon, the parent company of Commonwealth Edison. In July, the Chicago Tribune reported that AT&T had been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors as part of their probe into ComEd’s lobbying practices.

Brosnahan has not been accused of wrongdoing.

In an emailed statement, Judge Brosnahan wrote, "My spouse's former and current occupations and/ or his former and current clients have no bearing on my qualifications to continue serving as a circuit court judge – a role I've performed with competence, diligence and integrity for almost 18 years.”

PETER A. FELICE

MARGARET ANN BRENNAN Judge since: 2002 Current assignment: Law division, supervising judge Experience:

Attorney, Exelon Business Services Assistant corporation counsel, City of Chicago Notable:

Brennan’s decisions have been reversed by appeals courts 40 times since 2014, the most of any judge running for retention this year. The number of reversals are significantly higher even than her counterparts in the law division. Many of these reversals revolve around Brennan’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit before it goes to trial, in a ruling known as “summary judgment.”

Last year, Brennan imposed more than $1 million in sanctions against a man and his lawyer for filing what she called a “frivolous” lawsuit against his condominium association. The man, Marshall Spiegel, claimed that Brennan had held unethical conversations with the other party outside of the courtroom, and that the sanctions were retaliation for his effort to remove her from the case.

In an emailed statement, Brennan disputed Injustice

Judge since: 2002 Current assignment: Fifth municipal district (Bridgeview) Experience:

Private practice, representing suburban townships and villages Trustee, South Lyons Sanitary District Notable:

On the day of a colleague’s retirement party, Felice sped up the process, interrupting a defense attorney and setting a $270,000 bond in a felony theft case that was later reduced to $50,000, according to an Injustice Watch investigation.

As a former South Lyons Sanitary District trustee, Felice could be eligible for a $48,600 annual pension when he retires, even though the job was part-time, the Better Government Association reported in 2015.

Felice and his wife, Susan Felice, who also served on the sanitary district board, fought a 2011 finding by an auditor for the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, which administers the pension plan, to strip them of their pensions for not working the minimum required hours. Felice declined to comment.

FORMER STATE'S ATTORNEY

KERRY M. KENNEDY Judge since: 2002 Current assignment: Fifth municipal district (Bridgeview) Experience:

Cook County assistant public defender Notable:

During a 2006 rape trial, Kennedy threatened to jail the alleged victim for contempt of court if she wouldn’t watch a video of the sexual assault. He eventually backed off after criticism from the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the Chicago Tribune reported.

In 2016, Kennedy increased the bond for a man accused of driving under the influence and battery to a police officer from $2,000, which his mother was prepared to pay, to $50,000. The bond was later reduced by the Illinois Appellate Court. Kennedy declined to comment.

FORMER PUBLIC DEFENDER

PAST CONTROVERSIES

Sullivan has donated $4,350 since 2004 to the campaign fund of indicted Chicago Alderman Ed Burke. Burke’s former law firm, Klafter & Burke, has successfully appealed Sullivan’s property tax assessments every year since 2008.

PATRICK J. SHERLOCK

RAUL VEGA

Experience:

Judge since: 2002 Current assignment: Domestic violence division, presiding judge

Notable:

Experience:

Private practice, general law Staff attorney, former U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez Notable:

In 2013, Vega sealed R. Kelly’s divorce case due to the R&B singer’s celebrity status. That decision was reversed by Judge Lori Rosen last year, after Kelly was indicted on sexual abuse charges.

CASANDRA LEWIS MICHAEL B. HYMAN

NOTABLE REVERSALS

Judge since: 2007 Current assignment: Law division

Private practice, focusing on commercial litigation Sherlock is one of four judges running for retention this year with more than a dozen cases reversed by the Appellate Court in the past six years. In an emailed statement, Sherlock said the reversals represent just 0.5% of the 2,422 cases he has "disposed of by dismissal" since January 2014.

MAUREEN WARD KIRBY Judge since: 2007 Current assignment: County division Experience:

Judge since: 2002 Current assignment: Law division

Judge since: 2006 Current assignment: Illinois Appellate Court

Private practice, focused on commercial litigation

Experience:

Experience:

EDWARD A. ARCE Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Domestic relations division

Private practice, focused on criminal and family law Kane County assistant state’s attorney Notable:

Lewis reported that she or an immediate family member received a monetary gift of $12,250 from the Church of God in Christ, where she currently serves as an associate justice on the church’s Judiciary Board.

Lewis declined to comment.

LAURA MARIE SULLIVAN Judge since: 2002 Current assignment: First municipal district (Chicago) Experience:

Cook County assistant state’s attorney Notable:

In 2014, a law professor criticized Sullivan for barring him from taking notes while observing her courtroom. In her years spent overseeing bond court Sullivan, along with other bond judges, set high bonds even when pre-trial assessments determined that someone was at low risk of reoffending, according to an Injustice Watch investigation.

Private practice Notable:

Hyman has been serving by appointment on the Illinois Appellate Court since 2013. In addition to running for retention for the Circuit Court, he is also running unopposed for a permanent seat on the Appellate Court, after winning the Democratic primary in March. Another candidate in that race, Maureen O’Leary, was accused of being a “sham candidate,” placed on the ballot to help Hyman, who was the Democratic party’s pick for the seat. Hyman denied any involvement in O’Leary’s bid.

JOAN E. POWELL

NEGATIVE RATINGS

Experience:

Private practice, focused on litigation JAMES N. O'HARA Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Law division Candidate flags: Former public defender Experience:

Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Law division Experience:

Cook County assistant state’s attorney Law clerk, former Circuit Court Judge Joseph Casciato Private practice, focusing on family and contract law

Attorney, Merrill Lynch Cook County assistant public defender Assistant Illinois attorney general MAURICIO ARAUJO Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: resigned

OCTOBER 14, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 23

Experience:

the damages in his civil trial were awarded "for the coerced statement" and not "for an alleged wrongful conviction."

Notable:

ANN COLLINS-DOLE Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Law division

Attorney, American Family Insurance Attorney, Chicago Housing Authority Araujo resigned from the bench, effective Oct. 5.

His resignation followed a two-day hearing before the Illinois Courts Commission, which found that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Araujo engaged in a pattern of inappropriate and harassing behavior toward women.

In 2018, Araujo was put on administrative duty after he was accused of calling a female prosecutor a “bitch” and insinuating that he may have had sex with her. After the Judicial Inquiry Board investigated the matter, two other women came forward with allegations of sexual harassment. A court reporter alleged that Araujo had propositioned her for sex on multiple occasions in 2011 and a Chicago police officer said Araujo tried to kiss her when she came to him to get a warrant approved in 2016.

Separately, Araujo was called to testify in a corruption case against two Chicago police officers who were ultimately convicted of lying to obtain false search warrants, then stealing cash and drugs they found during raids. Araujo had approved nearly half of the search warrants obtained by the indicted cops’ gang crimes unit over a three-year period, the Sun-Times reported.

Experience:

Chief assistant corporation counsel, City of Chicago

Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Criminal division

DIANA L. KENWORTHY Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Criminal division

DONNA L. COOPER Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Juvenile justice division

Experience:

Experience:

In February, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and interim police chief Charlie Beck criticized Kenworthy for granting bond to a 22-year-old who had been held in Cook County Jail without bail for almost a year on charges of attempted murder of a police officer.

Notable:

PAMELA ELIZABETH LOZA

Assistant corporation counsel, City of Chicago Attorney, Chicago Parks Department Cook County assistant public defender Col. (Ret.), Illinois Army National Guard, Judge Advocate General’s Corps In addition to her regular juvenile courtroom, Cooper also presides over the Englewood Restorative Justice Community Court, the second such court in Cook County, which offers a non-punitive alternative to prosecution to young people charged with certain non-violent offenses.

THOMAS J. BYRNE

precedential value and is not binding on any court, rendering it meaningless." She disputed Injustice Watch's accounting of her reversals and said they represent a tiny fraction of the more than 5,000 cases she has heard since 2011. "Comparing judges’ reversals is unfair, challenges the independence of the judiciary and only further discourages judges from taking on difficult assignments in fear of reprisal," she said.

Cook County assistant public defender Attorney in private practice focused on criminal defense Notable:

Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Domestic relations division Experience:

Experience:

ANNA HELEN DEMACOPOULOS

Attorney in private practice, focused on criminal defense and domestic relations Cook County assistant state’s attorney Assistant director, Casa Central

Notable:

Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Chancery division

JACKIE MARIE PORTMAN-BROWN

Cook County assistant state’s attorney In 2014, Byrne denied a certificate of innocence for Stanley Wrice, a Chicago police torture survivor who spent more than 30 years in prison before his rape conviction was thrown out by another judge a year earlier.

In 2015, Byrne denied a certificate of innocence for Alstory Simon, who was exonerated in 2015, after then-Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez concluded that Simon had been coerced into confessing to a 1982 murder by a private investigator working with the Medill Innocence Project. Byrne ruled that Simon was not eligible for a certificate of innocence because he voluntarily caused his own conviction. His decision was overturned by the Appellate Court in 2017. In a statement, a spokesperson for Byrne said, "Judge Byrne's ruling [in the Wrice case] was consistent with Judge Walsh's earlier ruling granting Wrice a new trial based on the coerced statement." She also noted that 24 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ OCTOBER 14, 2020

Experience:

Cook County assistant state’s attorney Notable:

In 2017, Demacopoulos ruled that Sam Cirone, a Chicago Police sergeant who faced discipline for his role in the David Koschman case, could have his case heard by an independent arbitrator, instead of the Chicago Police Board. An appellate court later reversed that decision. Demacopoulos has had 14 decisions reversed by higher courts since 2014, making her one of the most-reversed judges running for retention this year.

In an emailed statement, Demacopoulos said the Appellate Court decision in the Cirone case "has no

Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Administrative duty Experience:

Cook County assistant state’s attorney General counsel, Independent Police Review Authority Notable:

In February, Judge Portman-Brown was placed on administrative duty after she was captured on video locking her 6-year old grandniece alone in a holding cell for approximately ten minutes. She has selfidentified in media interviews as a “lock ‘em up” judge

FORMER STATE'S ATTORNEY

and has been criticized for her temperament on the bench. In 2018, the HOPE court program she ran was shut down after two separate outside reviews called into question her “bullying” behavior in the courtroom and the program’s efficacy.

In a statement, a spokesperson for PortmanBrown said, “Unfortunately, the media’s perception of the incident with the grandniece was not a true representation of the matter in question.”

The Illinois State Bar Association gave PortmanBrown a “No” rating, noting that many attorneys "raised concerns about her judgment, and there were also concerns about her temperament, with some describing her as abusive to the courtroom staff and her unorthodox behavior on the bench, including singing and ringing a cowbell."

DOMINIQUE C. ROSS Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Domestic relations division Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on domestic relations and family law Notable:

Ross was sued in 2009 by an election attorney she hired for allegedly failing to pay him more than $60,000 for his work. She filed a counterclaimcounterclaim, and the case was settled six months later. Ross has also served on the board of a Des Plaines-based charter school network, Concept Schools, which was investigated in 2014 for allegedly defrauding a federal grant program.

In an emailed statement, Ross said the federal grant program was "not presented to the board" during her time.

KRISTYNA COLLEEN RYAN Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Fourth municipal district Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on telecommunications industry

FORMER PUBLIC DEFENDER

of legal experience at the time.

In an emailed statement, Ryan said "Citizens for an Independent Judiciary" was formed "solely for the purpose of reporting campaign related expenses" of the candidates and did not publicly endorse any candidates.

DEBRA B. WALKER Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Domestic relations division Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on malpractice litigation defense Represented judges before the Judicial Inquiry Board

NOTABLE REVERSALS

NEGATIVE RATINGS

Experience:

Cook County assistant state’s attorney Notable:

Moreland is one of several judges who were reappointed to the bench by the Illinois Supreme Court after stepping aside so a Democratic Party favorite could win election. In 2012, she filed to run against Michael T. Mullen, who had donated $30,000 to the Democratic Party, but then withdrew and was appointed to a different vacancy. She ran unopposed in 2014.

In 2020, Moreland dismissed a lawsuit filed by Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli that sought to lift a ban on supervised in-person visits for children in foster care and their parents during the coronavirus pandemic. Moreland declined to comment.

THOMAS J. CARROLL

URSULA WALOWSKI Judge since: 2008 Current assignment: Criminal division

Judge since: 2011 Current assignment: Sixth municipal district, supervising judge

Experience:

Experience:

Cook County assistant state’s attorney

Cook County assistant public defender Attorney in private practice, focused on criminal defense Notable:

ANTHONY C. "TONY" KYRIAKOPOULOS

Judge since: 2010 Current assignment: Chancery division Experience:

Cook County assistant state’s attorney Notable:

Kyriakopoulos is one of several judges who were reappointed to the bench by the Illinois Supreme Court after stepping aside so a Democratic Party favorite could win election. After being appointed in 2010, he filed to run in 2012 against former Chicago Alderman Tom Allen (38th). After he withdrew from the race, Kyriakopoulos was reappointed to another seat. He won election for the first time in 2014. Kyriakopoulos declined to comment.

Notable:

When running for election in 2008, Ryan and three other candidates skipped the bar association evaluation process and formed a political action committee, “Citizens for an Independent Judiciary” and endorsed themselves. Ryan likely would have received an “unqualified” rating, because she had less than 10 years

PAST CONTROVERSIES

CAROLINE KATE MORELAND

After being appointed to the bench in 2011, Carroll dropped out of the judicial primary in 2012, leaving only Daniel Degnan, the son of an aide to former Mayor Richard M. Daley, to run unopposed for the seat.

Degnan was favored by the Democratic Party, despite receiving negative ratings from the bar associations.

Two months later, the Supreme Court reappointed Carroll to a new vacancy. "I don't know if that helped or not," Carroll told the Chicago Tribune about his decision to drop out of the race. "The Supreme Court liked me so they reappointed me."

CYNTHIA Y. COBBS

Judge since: 2011 Current assignment: Illinois Appellate Court Experience:

Director, Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts

Law clerk to Illinois Supreme Court Justice Charles Freeman

Social worker Notable:

Judge since: 2010 Current assignment: Chancellery Division

Earlier this year, Cobbs ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Supreme Court. She would have been the first Black woman to become an Illinois Supreme Court OCTOBER 14, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 25

justice. She has been serving by assignment on the Illinois Appellate Court since 2015.

Cobbs’s 2011 appointment to the Cook County Circuit Court generated controversy because she lived in Will County at the time, which some legal experts said violated residency requirements. Cobbs was also the first of two of Freeman’s former law clerks to be appointed to a Circuit Court seat within a two-year period. In 2013, the Chicago Tribune published a critique of the Supreme Court’s appointments, maintaining that “judges should be chosen based on merit, not political ties.”

DANIEL J. KUBASIAK Judge since: 2012 Current assignment: Law division Experience:

Attorney in private practice Chief administrative officer, Chicago City Council Finance Committee Notable:

After serving as the chief administrative officer for the City Council Finance Committee under Alderman Ed Burke during the ‘Council Wars,’ Kubasiak served as campaign manager for Alderman Ed Vrdolyak’s racist 1987 campaign to unseat Mayor Harold Washington.

Kubasiak declined to comment.

In 2017, Kubasiak dismissed a legal challenge to Cook County’s sweetened beverage tax, after initially delaying the tax to allow the lawsuit to proceed. The so-called “soda tax” was later repealed by the county board.

Notable:

Before her appointment in 2013, Meyerson lost judicial elections in 2010 and 2012. She ran unopposed in 2014.

Meyerson is presiding over an ongoing class-action lawsuit that contends the City of Chicago illegally sent distracted driving tickets to its administrative hearing department instead of traffic court. In 2018, Meyerson denied a motion by the city to dismiss the lawsuit, allowing it to move forward.

CHRIS LAWLER Judge since: 2013 Current assignment: Law division Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on personal injury and insurance defense Earlier this year, the Illinois Appellate Court overturned a decision by Lawler to dismiss a defamation case filed by Paul Ciolino, the former private investigator for the Medill Innocence Project, whose role in the confession of Alstory Simon for a 1982 murder in Washington Park has been the subject of numerous articles, a book, a documentary, lawsuits, and counter-suits. Lawler had ruled that the defamation claim was barred by the statute of limitations.

JOHN MICHAEL ALLEGRETTI Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: First municipal district

Experience:

Experience:

Administrative law judge, Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board

As a Cook County assistant state’s attorney, Allegretti defended the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office and individual correctional officers in civil rights lawsuits. He ran unsuccessfully for judge in 2008 before winning his seat in 2014.

Judge since: 2013 Current assignment: Chancery division Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on civil litigation and business transactions

26 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

General counsel, Cook County Treasurer’s Office General counsel, Cook County Assessor’s Office Cook County assistant state’s attorney Notable:

PAMELA McLEAN MEYERSON

¬ OCTOBER 14, 2020

Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Juvenile justice division Experience:

Assistant Illinois attorney general, Sexually Violent Persons Bureau Attorney in private practice, focused on real estate and civil litigation Prosecutor, Dallas County Prosecutor’s Office Notable:

Rivers has been reversed several times since 2014 by appeals courts for ordering juveniles she sentenced to probation to clear their social media of any signs of gang or drug activity, which some courts have ruled were too broad and violated the defendants’ freedom of speech. Other appellate panels have upheld the social media restrictions.

Notable:

ANDREA M. BUFORD Judge since: 2013 Current assignment: Child protection division

Attorney in private practice Administrative hearing officer, Illinois Board of Education and Illinois Department of Human Services

KRISTAL RIVERS

STEVEN G. WATKINS Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Criminal division Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on criminal defense, civil litigation, and real estate Arbitrator, Cook County Circuit Court Mandatory Arbitration Program Notable:

Watkins initially ran for a seat in the 3rd subcircuit on the Southwest Side in 2010, but lost in a six-way primary. In 2014, he ran for a seat in the 2nd subcircuit, on the South Side, using an address in Longwood Manor that he didn’t own, the Better Government Association reported. Property records show he purchased a house in the 2nd subcircuit in 2018.

In May 2019, Watkins allowed records in the original criminal case against former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett to be unsealed.

FORMER STATE'S ATTORNEY

ABBEY FISHMAN ROMANEK Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Domestic relations division Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on medical malpractice Assistant Illinois attorney general, Medicaid Fraud Division Notable:

Romanek has presided over the child custody cases of former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher and Chance the Rapper.

FORMER PUBLIC DEFENDER

PATRICK KEVIN COUGHLIN Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Sixth municipal division Experience:

Cook County assistant state’s attorney JOHN CURRY Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Law division Experience:

WILLIAM B. RAINES Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Criminal division Experience:

Attorney in private practice focused on insurance fraud Cook County sheriff ’s deputy Police officer, Oakland, Calif.

Cook County assistant state’s attorney

Attorney in private practice, focused on commercial litigation Assistant Illinois attorney general Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division MEGAN ELIZABETH GOLDISH Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Domestic violence division

PAST CONTROVERSIES

NOTABLE REVERSALS

NEGATIVE RATINGS

ROBERT D. KUZAS Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: First municipal district Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on criminal defense, personal injury and labor relations.

Chicago police officer 46th Ward Democratic Committeeman Notable:

Before running for judge, Kuzas lived in a condo on Lake Shore Drive in the Lakeview neighborhood.

Two months before a seat opened up in the seventh subcircuit, which covers much of the West Side of Chicago, Kuzas leased an apartment on the eastern edge of the district and changed his voter registration, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Records show he sold the Lakeview condo in 2019.

In 2017, Kuzas acquitted a Chicago Public Schools security guard of misdemeanor battery charges, after two female students accused him of gropping them.

Before handing down the not-guilty verdict, the Chicago Tribune reported, Kuzas told the guard: “I’m really, really disturbed with you. I really am. It’s just shocking that two young girls would come forward and make these allegations against you without it being somewhere, some semblance of truth to it.”

JOHN J. MAHONEY

Experience: JUDITH RICE Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Domestic relations division Experience:

Director of government relations and senior vice president of community affairs and economic development, BMO Harris Bank City of Chicago treasurer Commissioner, City of Chicago Department of Water Commissioner, City of Chicago Department of Transportation Deputy chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley Cook County assistant state’s attorney

Cook County assistant state’s attorney Notable:

A pending civil lawsuit accuses Goldish of helping to convict a Chicago teen of murder nearly two decades ago based on witness statements that were allegedly false and coerced by police. The lawsuit alleges that Goldish, then a prosecutor on the case, either helped coordinate the statement with cops or that the officers kept the alleged scheme concealed from Goldish. The witness later recanted her statement and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office vacated the conviction in 2017. Goldish has denied any wrongdoing.

ANJANA HANSEN

Notable:

Rice’s father, Fred Rice, was Chicago’s first Black police commissioner.

Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Second municipal district Experience:

Administrative hearing officer, City of Evanston Alderman, City of Evanston Cook County assistant state’s attorney

Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Fifth municipal district Experience:

Cook County assistant state’s attorney Attorney, Peoples Energy Corporation Notable:

Mahoney was among a handful of assistant state’s attorneys interviewed by special prosecutor Dan K. Webb during a review of the Chicago Police Department and Cook County State’s Attorney’s office’s investigation into David Koschman’s death, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. A nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley was eventually charged and later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

The Illinois State Bar Association gave Mahoney a “No “ rating. They said "concerns were raised” during their evaluation about Mahoney’s “arrogance and a lack of sensitivity to diversity issues."

OCTOBER 14, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 27

MARITZA MARTINEZ Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Domestic relations division

In 2015, he found then-Ald. Rey Colon not guilty of drunk driving in a bench trial. "His eyes appear to be a little bloodshot, not completely bloodshot — I've seen a lot worse," Pieczonka said of Colon’s mugshot, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on criminal defense and civil rights law Assistant corporation counsel, City of Chicago TERRENCE J. McGUIRE Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Probate division

DIANA ROSARIO

Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Domestic relations division Experience:

Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on estate planning and real estate Administrative law judge, Cook County and City of Chicago BRIDGET ANNE MITCHELL Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Law division

Attorney, City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services Administrative Hearing Officer, City of Chicago Department of Aviation Cook County assistant state’s attorney Notable:

Rosario was found “not qualified” by the Chicago Council of Lawyers in her run for the bench in 2014.

The council was concerned she did not have enough experience in complex litigation. This year, the Illinois State Bar Association gave her a “No” rating and said, "Some attorneys raised concerns about rulings that were inconsistent with the law, her ability to hear complex cases, and timeliness at issuing written orders, while other(s) described her ability as adequate."

Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on medical malpractice and wrongful death cases

PATRICIA O'BRIEN SHEAHAN

JAMES PAUL PIECZONKA

Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Law division

Judge since: 2014 Current assignment: Third municipal division Experience:

Attorney in private practice, focused on litigation and transactional law Administrative law judge, Illinois Department of Revenue Hearing officer, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Notable:

Pieczonka ran an unsuccessful campaign for the bench in 2012. In his 2014 race, his supporters challenged his opponent’s candidacy, claiming that Pieczonka’s opponent didn’t actually reside in Cook County. Pieczonka was found not qualified by all but one bar association, the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois, in 2014.

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¬ OCTOBER 14, 2020

Experience:

Attorney, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Attorney in private practice focused on civil and commercial litigation

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

The Road There Is a Battlefield Lee Weiner’s memoir Conspiracy to Riot offers lessons from a life in activism

BY MALIK JACKSON

A

lthough Lee Weiner just turned eighty-one on September 7, the cadence and vivacious storytelling of his memoir, Conspiracy to Riot, would have the reader believe he were still in his late twenties organizing in Cabrini-Green and Woodlawn. Weiner was a member of the famed Chicago Eight, a group of organizers who were targeted and tried for conspiracy in federal court for their role in the unforgettable demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention on Michigan Avenue. Beyond the trial, Weiner takes us through his political journey via his upbringing in South Shore, a fateful bus ride to New Orleans, and his later life as a legitimate political strategist on the Hill in D.C. The lessons from Weiner’s past hold true today, as he reminds us that resistance, more than anything, is critical in the everlasting fight for social and economic justice.

Weiner grew up in the buzzing industrial South Shore of the 1940s and 50s. His South Shore was Jewish and entrepreneurial, with both his mother and father nursing respective family businesses.

From his mother (and dinner parties with her friends), Weiner learned the previous generation’s struggles as union organizers

and Communist Party members in the early 20th century. From his father, a commercial paint business-owner with heavy ties to the mob-fitted Painter’s Union, he learned about Chicago’s machine politics and how organized crime exerted more influence than common citizens.

Larger lessons about the world came from Weiner’s experiences in high school.

On one occasion, he took a bus to New Orleans, and when the bus crossed over the Tennessee line all of the Black passengers he’d been speaking with got up and moved to the back. Weiner remembers seething with anger and vowing to never be so powerless again. Upon returning to Chicago, he got a job at a gas station on 63rd and Woodlawn Ave., learning street lessons from his Black coworkers back when Woodlawn was the buzzing Black neighborhood that organizers of today lament over. Weiner’s proximity to different cultures—and the naked injustices he saw firsthand—took him from “the aspiring middle-class Jewish boy track” and set him on his own path.

Throughout the 1960s, Weiner was a community organizer by trade, working in various capacities for the city’s Welfare Office and with a local community group called The United Friends, or TUF, located

in Old Town. With the TUF, he embarked on some of the same efforts that community organizers support today: welfare and tenant unions, legal aid clinics, co-op food buying clubs, and affordable housing development.

More demonstratively, Weiner recalls occasions where TUF emptied rats and roaches onto streets near city offices or dumped trash by the storefronts of slum landlords— derisive forms of direct advocacy that led to their fair share of run-ins with the police. These episodes seemed to be the next phases in the long fight for the same basic rights and protections, and that was the lesson to be learned in Weiner’s eyes. He came to believe it would be “the young kids who sometimes came with their mothers to the meetings, or sometimes on our group visits to the welfare offices” who would carry the torch for the next generation.

1968 and 1969 were tumultuous years, filled with reactionary politics and insurgent movements. Rife with electoral politics, antiwar sentiment grew along with mainstream media coverage of the abysmal Vietnam War. They were years of Black death, as two of the Civil Rights movement's most prominent leaders, Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Hampton, were assassinated. They were years of conspiracy,

with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy shaking up the American consciousness just a few short months prior to the Democratic National Convention. Most relevantly, 1968 was the year of the emergence of one of the 20th century’s most notorious “law and order” candidates: Richard M. Nixon. All of these events would set the tone for the demonstrations at the Convention, and the ensuing trial, like sirens in the background of the courtroom.

Though Weiner was a movement organizer and an active participant in the Convention protests, his point of view when recalling the events of the late sixties is almost like that of a spectator. This perspective is fortunate for the reader, as Weiner often seems like the most observant person involved in the action. When reading Weiner’s recollection of the demonstrations, which mostly took place on Michigan Ave. and in Grant Park, one is struck by the similarities between this imagery and the events we’ve witnessed on our own streets in recent years. There is the common instance of police charging crowds and trampling protesters, picking out individuals at random to beat with clubs. There were other instances of undercover cops blending into the crowd to overhear strategic discussions

OCTOBER 14, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 29

LIT

between marshals and subsequently stalking them—which is how Weiner was caught and indicted. Even heavy-handed language from Mayor Richard J. Daley was present, as he’d recently chastised the police superintendent for his passivity in dealing with the riots after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

His famous demand on that historic night: to “shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand, because they're potential murderers, and shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting.” This was the backdrop, and for one of the first times ever, television cameras caught most of the chaos in real time, just like reporters today use social media to cover protests live.

Although it was all a half century ago, these parallels have an uncanny resemblance.

The trial itself brought protesters to Federal Plaza every day, just as organizers convened in Federal Plaza for protests this summer. It also brought the group of defendants, which included co-founder of the Black Panther Party Bobby Seale, some amount of celebrity. Around the nation, university students and movement groups hosted the defendants to speak on their predicament, advocate for the antiwar agenda, and shed light on what they believed the trial was really about: “To use the courts against us, to intimidate and punish, and to define away or trivialize the political purposes and goals of the demonstrations in Chicago.” This, too, speaks to the mechanisms of the state today, where a clear and persistent demand to defund the police has been laughed off and trivialized by both local and national operatives.

What is true today was also true yesterday: there is ample room for accountability on the part of police forces and governments. The defendants and the general public saw the trial as a sham, an elaborate ruse by the federal government to publicly punish dissent—but what the government failed to take seriously is the fact that many people had seen what happened in Grant Park live and on camera, just like they were seeing the events of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. There was nothing the government could do to sway public opinion since the truth had already been exposed, and fairer narratives were being formed; ones where “the police and government shared more of the responsibility for what happened due to their deliberate and illegitimate use of force to punish dissent.” The truth energized the movement, and the defendants drew nationwide support in what was just one event in the most eventful decade of the fight for civil liberties.

In his conclusion, Weiner tells us that “there is no more self-respecting, fulfilling life to try to lead” than one that is political.

Though the work will drag us through the full spectrum of emotions, the wins, whether big or small, can be the most transcendent, joyous moments of our lives. The vigor and solidarity involved are all feelings that make the work infectious—and keep it ongoing.

Conspiracy to Riot chronicles the moments from Lee Weiner’s life that forged him as someone willing to jump atop cars with a bullhorn, be a helping hand for families in Woodlawn and Cabrini-Green, fend off police officers to de-arrest comrades, and inspire a generation of movement organizers to continue fighting for a more equitable America. The stories in this memoir could serve as a mirror for some, and a starting point for others. Lee Weiner, Conspiracy to Riot: The Life and Times of One of the Chicago 7. $26. Belt Publishing. 165 pages Malik Jackson is a South Shore resident and recent graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he majored in Urban Studies. He last wrote a review of Carlo Rotella’s The World Is Always Coming to an End for the Weekly.

30 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ OCTOBER 14, 2020

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