Facing steep budget deficits and escalating income inequality, Mayor Lori Lightfoot should consider a graduated payroll tax and other ways to make corporations pay their fair share.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
Community oversight or control? Coalitions meet on competing police accountability proposals
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Both the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability and the Civilian Police Accountability Council campaigns want to maximize the community’s role in selecting public safety leaders.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
Denying arrestees access to lawyers a longstanding problem at the Chicago Police Department
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A lawsuit became necessary after Mayor Lori Lightfoot failed to back an ordinance on the immediate right to legal counsel in police custody, a measure called for by her Police Accountability Task Force four years ago, advocates say.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
What’s the alternative to police in schools? Restorative justice.
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Restorative justice programs have already proven effective at Chicago Public Schools, but lack the level of funding budgeted for the district’s contract with the Chicago Police Department.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
To mobilize outrage over George Floyd’s killing, look to lessons of social movements past
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The Chicago Black Panther Party, Rainbow Coalition, the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and other historical organizing projects point to the possibilities for harnessing the vast mobilization of outrage we’re seeing today.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
Chicago needs new use-of-force policy that bans chokeholds
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George Floyd’s horrifying death at the hands of Minneapolis police underscores the urgent need to continue working towards reforms outlined in the consent decree at the Chicago Police Department.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
Emergency housing relief proposed in Illinois to stave off mass evictions, foreclosures
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To make rent cancellation work, legislators want to maximize a fund for landlords to recoup lost rental income while waiting for federal action.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
A model to prevent a wave of evictions in the wake of coronavirus recession
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A new coalition in East Garfield Park is aiming to head off displacement, gentrification and a land grab by speculators by protecting affordable housing and heeding the lessons of 2008.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
Bail reform and bond funds do not undermine public safety
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A recent Chicago Tribune investigation relies on incomplete data and cherry-picked anecdotes to attack the work of the Chicago Community Bond Fund and The Bail Project.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
Growing housing crisis must become a priority in coronavirus response
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As residents wait on rent and mortgage relief on the state and federal levels, Chicago officials are using costly hotel rooms instead of vacant public housing units to shelter the homeless.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
Minority-owned businesses largely miss out on federal relief
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Locals hope that the next round of Paycheck Protection Program loans won’t prioritize large, publicly-traded corporations over the hardest hit small businesses.