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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
NAACP wants say in new police review agency,
Vol. 30 No. 35
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September 7, 2016
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austinweeklynews.com
@AustinWeeklyChi
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PAGE 9
Also serving Garfield Park
Liqour stores put on notice, page 9
Ford launches heroin task force
The West Side state rep. also called for Gov. Rauner to fund the Heroin Crisis Act By WENDELL HUTSON Contributing Reporter
As a child, state Rep. LaShawn Ford (8th) said he watched his mother struggle with heroin addiction. “My mother was young when I was born and to this day she still struggles with heroin use,” Ford said in a recent interview. “My grandmother adopted me and raised me since birth, because my mother could not stop using drugs. And even though we got her into rehab programs, over the years her addiction continues.” At an Aug. 31 press conference, healthcare professionals, nonprofits executives and substance abuse experts joined Ford as he announced the creation of the West Side Heroin Task Force. The press conference, Ford said, coincided with International Overdose Awareness Day, an annual event that’s commemorated all over the world. Last year, the 44-year-old state legislator helped pass House Bill 0001, also known as the Heroin Crisis Act, which in part would treat heroin addiction as a health problem and not a criminal act. Gov. Bruce Rauner originally vetoed the bill, but lawmakers were able to get a majority vote to override the veto and pass it into law. “The only thing that’s left is getting money to fund the bill. I urge the governor to fund this bill and help stop the flow of heroin in Cook See HEROIN on page 4
WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer
INNOCENCE GONE: Tyanna Norman, the girlfriend of Elijah Sims, the Oak Park 16-year-old who was murdered while visiting friends in his native Austin last week, is comforted by her sister Alexis Norman during an Aug. 31 vigil in Oak Park’s Scoville Park.
In teen’s death, a tale of two worlds
Elijah Sims was a West Side native whose family moved to Oak Park By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
“What makes Elijah Sims such a tragic demonstration is that I live in Austin, a few blocks from here,” said Rev. Marshall
Hatch, the pastor of New Mt. Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in East Garfield Park. Hatch was standing inside of the Quincy Community Center in Austin for a Sept. 1 press conference convened by Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin (1st), several days after Sims, 16, was shot. Boykin announced that he would host a series of town hall meetings on the city’s gun violence to “raise awareness and organize … constituencies to demand resources
from local, state and federal governments.” Sims had been standing outside with friends one night on the corner of Quincy St. and South Lotus Ave. Monday night when he was shot in the head. He died a day later on Aug. 30. A 15-year-old who had also been shot is reportedly in stable condition. Sims’ mother, Sharita Galloway, had moved her family to Oak Park in order to
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See ELIJAH SIMS on page 6