The Challenge News Magazine Edition: April-May 2019

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As a Cook County probation officer, Bailey was concerned ounder and president of about the high rate of recidiProbation Challenge/PCC vism, especially the spiraling Internet Network, the Reverwave of criminality in the Afriend Dr. Harold E. Bailey was can American community. born February 12, 1938, in In 1979, he proposed an eduChicago, Illinois to Adolphus cational program for exSr., and Lillian Bailey. He offenders which was supportattended Forestville Elemened by Justice R. Eugene tary School and graduated Pincham. The program was from Englewood High School. implemented to deter youth Bailey continued his education from the perils of prison. at Wilson Junior College, CenPincham’s courtroom, jury tral State University, Chicago room, and Bailey's probation and Governor State University. quarters were converted after Bailey well-regarded in the dark into part-time classrooms.

1950s and ’70s for the Harold Judges: William Cousins, Earl Bailey Singers, recorded gos- Strayhorn, Mary Maxwell pel music with the RUSH, Thomas, Federal Judges: HOB and Savoy record labels. Blanch Manning, and Prentiss He was a pioneer artist apMarshall, assisted to strengthpearing on the Sid Ordower en Bailey’s educational efforts Chicago Jubilee Showcase. in restraining youth from what Bailey called ‘The Criminal

Just Us System.’

sade.

The Bailey education concept In 1984, state representatives, has appeared on ABC-TV’s Carol Mosely Braun, Howard Good Morning America, 48Brookins, Sr., along with the Hours, and CBS-TV’s 60 Illinois Black Caucus introMinutes with the then spokesduced the Probation Chalperson Merri Dee. Bailey is lenge Act into law. The late apart of the ‘The HistoryMakMayor Harold Washington ers.’ helped to move the program Recipient of numerous out of the criminal courts buildawards, Bailey continues the ing and onto the Olive-Harvey valuable work and applauded College campus. There, unas the only educational courtlearned, unskilled, socially mandated program of its kind deprived, electronic monitoring in the United States. clients, adults, and juveniles were court-mandated into the The Legacy of the Rev. Dr. education program.

Harold E. Bailey depicts much but not all of his years of laborProbation Challenge continues ing with troubled youth. its Internet broadcast that eduThe PCC documented filmed in HD and cates ex-offenders as they return into society as meaning- (when released) may be viewed at ful and productive taxpayers rather than tax burdens. Community members have now joined the educational cru-

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he Illinois Supreme Court decided in a 4-to-2 vote that it will not order a new sentencing for Jason Van Dyke, rejecting an unusual bid from prosecutors that could have meant a much harsher prison term for the former Chicago police officer.

The court’s rejection means Attorney General Kwame Raoul and special prosecutor Joseph McMahon likely have exhausted their only legal avenue to stiffen Van Dyke’s sentence of 6¾ years in prison for Laquan McDonald’s murder.

No explanation was given for the court’s refusal to hear the case. But the decision fell largely along political lines, with the court’s three Republicans — Rita Garman, Robert Thomas and Chief Justice Lloyd Karmeier — joining Anne Burke, a Democrat who is married to Chicago Ald. Edward Burke, a onetime Chicago police officer who is facing federal corruption charges.

Two of the seven justices on the court, both Democrats, objected to the majority decision in full or in part, saying they believed Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan improperly relied on a previous Supreme Court opinion when he sentenced Van Dyke for a second-degree murder conviction, not the more serious counts of aggravated battery with a firearm.

“The trial court’s actions here were clearly improper as a matter of law,” wrote Justice Thomas Kilbride in his partial dissent.

In his full dissent, Justice P. Scott Neville Jr. wrote that the dissenting court opinion in People v. Lee — which Gaughan used as the basis for his sentence — was “the opposite” of the prevailing state law.

Prosecutors “raise compelling questions that merit additional briefing, argument, and consideration by this court,” Neville wrote. “... This dispute clearly involves a matter of the utmost importance to the administration of justice.”

Justice Mary Jane Theis, a Democrat, did not take part in the decision for unexplained reasons.

For some, the Supreme Court’s refusal to weigh in on the hot-button case pointed to racial inequalities in the U.S. criminal justice system, particularly

in cases in which white police officers stand accused of killing black citizens.

Chicago’s two mayoral candidates, both African-American women, seized on the high court’s decision.

Lori Lightfoot called the ruling “a sad reminder of the work we must do to create a system that is free of institutional racism and truly holds police accountable for their misconduct.”

“We cannot build trust between police and communities they serve if officers who commit crimes are not held to the same standards as other defendants,” she said. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle noted that Van Dyke was given 81 months in prison during the same week that a black gunman in the high-profile slaying of 15year-old Hadiya Pendleton was sentenced to 84 years in prison.

“And I think this speaks to the inherent inequities in our criminal justice system in ways that are tragic and devastating,” she told reporters.

At an afternoon news conference, Attorney General Raoul, who interceded in the case because he believed that Gaughan’s sentence was inconsistent with the law, declined to go so far as the candidates’ broader criticism or to say if politics played a part in the decision. rosecutors have argued that at least two of the shots caused extensive injuries, making Van Dyke eligible for a sentence of up to 18 years in prison: six years for each of those two wounds, plus six more years for the other 14 counts.

McMahon, the special prosecutor, had sought a prison term of 18 to 20 years for Van Dyke at his sentencing in January.

Van Dyke shot McDonald in October 2014 as the 17-year-old walked away from police on a Southwest Side street while holding a knife. on-duty incident.

Rerun: Chicago Tribune’s Christy Gutowski, Gregory Pratt and Juan Perez Jr. contributed.

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Nationwide — It has become apparent

shot, contradicting Van Dyke’s account. It to the African American community that a is now without doubt that public officials subliminal biased message has been com- knew of the well-hidden facts…the facts municated from the ‘Trump White House’, concealed from the taxpayers! into States Houses, City Political Houses and into the ‘Broken Criminal Justice’ arena.

Months after being convicted for second-degree murder, former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke has been sentenced to six years and nine months in prison and two years of mandatory supervised release for the 2014 murder of 17-year old Laquan McDonald.

Chicago located by the beautiful Lake Michigan, has now become an historically breeding ground for its miscarriage of justice in the Cook County Criminal Courts.

When individuals are often sent to prison for an abundance of years for marijuana and a small gram of cocaine or crack… what message are we relating to those who take the lives of black youth from among us?

Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times with 9 in the back… on the night of October 20, 2014. Van Dyke claimed that he fired after McDonald failed to comply with demands to drop a knife he was holding and made a threatening move toward police.

Judge Domenica Stephenson acquitted former Officer Joseph Walsh, Detective David March, and Officer Thomas Gaffney on charges of conspiracy, official misconduct, and obstruction of justice.

The truth has now surfaced… But ONLY after a string of lawsuits and a judge’s order to release dash-cam footage of the shooting, city officials released video showing that McDonald appeared to be moving away from police when he was

fuel for the criminal justice system, but recently from the corridors of darkness comes yet another maneuver called select sentencing for a white offender!

The policeman in question will be free in a matter of days as the family lingers in torment.

While reviewing the many lynching's of yesterday—today seems only as a repeat of its morbid history!

With concentration on the ‘New Sentencing Guidelines’, an abundance of attention Can fair minded citizens honestly believe was focused on the apparent fact that an this is the American way of justice? Or, is African American youth had been shot ‘16- this ... The Criminal Just Us System? times’ and that the assigned judge did not related story regarding white police understand the justifiable rage of the comofficer Jason Van Dyke in his appeal munity. before the Illinois Supreme court. Note Blacks have been sentenced to more than how judges made their declarations.

7-years for offenses that were not fatal!

Related story continue on page 8 African Americans have always been the

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Chief of Police, Eddie Johnson recently made remarks that left many re-thinking his position. Sources say he spewed out what he considered truth... but a divided community has more questions than he has answers.

around the Laquan McDonald murder‌ this was an embarrassment to the entire nationwide police community. This case along with others has cost the taxpayer millions of dollars.

Superintendent Johnson said that Chicago has been embarrassed as the result of the Jussie Mallette accusation of assault claiming that he was attack by 2 men. Johnson stated that the allegations were proven to be untrue and that Mallette, star with the Empire television show had embarrassed Chicago.

Then, the Chicago Criminal Courts System sentenced McDonald’s killer to a matter of 6 years and few months. Three other policemen said to be involved were set-free. Chief, this was an Embarrassment to Chicago!

Did the Chief however forget that the public was acutely acquainted with the Laquan McDonald case where a white Chicago policeman shot McDonald 6-times with two in the back? This case as other similar unsolved murder cases yet linger...This was an embarrassment not only to Chicago but the world! This was not mentioned by the chief as an embarrassment! Also, when it was discovered that the CPD under the charge of Chief Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel along with some 5th-floor occupants had covered up the hard-core-facts

Hundreds of families from day-today ponder the disposition regarding the death of their loved ones who were murdered, yet no resolve! This is shameful and a Chicago Embarrassment!

Jessie Mallette had his day in court and the case was dismissed! However, it appears that Mayor Emanuel and Chief Johnson seized this as a political opportunity for the police chief to remain in good favor until the elected mayor makes an appointment.

A source close to city hall said that these behind the scene measures have been contrived and politically motivated. Stay tuned.

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hock and confusion reigned after the prosecution dropped all 16 charges against Empire actor Jussie Smollett, but Father Michael L. Pfleger late Tuesday said perhaps the mayor and the top cop now understand the anger families feel when cops get away with murder.

Police Supt. Eddie Johnson, who was at a police graduation when he learned about the charges being dropped, and Mayor Emanuel blasted Smollett claiming that he did fake his attack with the mayor calling the prosecutions’ actions “a whitewash of justice.”

dropped all criminal charges against her client. Mayor Emanuel, who was blindsided by the ruling, blasted the judge’s move saying now the public won’t be able to see the details of this case.

Speaking to reporters at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse, attorney Holmes said, "I have no idea what occurred in this case and why it occurred. I can just say things seemed to spiral somewhat out of control. We've gotten to a result that is the right result in this case and we're happy for that.”

Holmes added, “We are very anxious for Jussie to get on with his career and his life and to move forward.”

In answering questions, Holmes said the motion was to dismiss the charges. Smol-

But, prior to his bible study class, Father Pfleger said, “I understand how upset Supt.

Johnson and Mayor Emmanuel are, they are convinced that Jussie was guilty and got all charges dropped.

cated his life to public service since he was 15 years old and has taken the city of Chicago as his home. “He has volunteered in a variety of ways. He is a good, solid citizen of the city of Chicago. That was the comment made by the prosecutor today,” Holmes told reporters.

Referring to the two Nigerian brothers, Abimbola “Abel” and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo, who admitted they attacked Smollett, Holmes said the check for $3,500 check Smollett gave them was for nutrition and training. They were his trainers. Anything else the police claim she was not true and does not know where allegations came from that Jussie paid the brothers to attack him.

Asked about whether the brothers should be charged, Holmes said that is up to the state but that “we don’t want to try them in the press anymore than he wanted to be tried in the press.”

Smollett, Holmes said, “Is a very sweet individual who has for a lifetime have dedicated himself to his career to the public, to the children, to the movement, to the LGBTQ community and this was a disruption to that.

He wants to get back to his life.’

“I hope they now also understand why we are angry when police officers like Robert Rialmo, and Dante Servin and all the officers who covered up the murder of Laquan McDonald and countless others were guilty and got all charges dropped,” Pfleger stated.

Pfleger was referring to officer Rialmo, 29, who shot and killed Quintonio LeGrier, 19, and Bettie Jones. A Cook County jury ruled in favor of Rialmo claiming he was justified when he shot the youth. The city settled with lett’s, she said, voluntarily agreed to the forthe Jones family before the trial for $16 mil- feiture of the $10,000 bond money she said, “plenty of people forfeit their bond in situalion. tions like this.”

Father Pfleger reminded the top cop and the However, the mayor said that is a drop in the mayor about Chicago police officer Dante bucket to what was spent investigating this Servin who also was found not guilty for case. Still, Holmes said it was a correct rulkilling 22-year-old Rekia Boyd in 2012. ing; however, she made it clear that “There While Pfleger said he understands the is no deal. The state dismissed the charges,” mayor and the superintendent’s anger, he “We have nothing to say to the police dehopes they understand “our angry” when partment except to investigate charges and these two officers were found not guilty including “all of those offices who covered up” not try their cases in the press but to allow former Chicago Police Jason Van Dyke, who matters to be investigators, to allow the state to investigate and to bring charges and not killed 17-year-old McDonald, were also to jump ahead and utilize the press to confound not guilty. vict people before they are tried in a court of “I hope they understand when that happens law.” over and over again when black children are “Things seem to spiral somewhat out-ofkilled in this city,” said Father Pfleger. control. We’ve gotten the right result and Earlier, Patricia Brown Holmes, Jussie Smol- we’re happy with that,” Holmes said. lett’s lawyer, said Smollett’s court records have been sealed and that prosecutors have She said Smollett is a person who has dedi-

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After the charges were dropped, Smollett thanked his family, friends and “incredible people of Chicago and all over the country and the world who have prayed for me, supported me, who showed me so much love.

No one will ever know how much that has meant to me. I will be forever grateful.

“I want you to know that not for a moment was it in vain. I have been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one. I would not be my mother’s son if I were capable of one drop of what I was accused of.

“This has been an incredibly difficult time honestly one of the worse of my entire life, but I am a man of faith. I am a man that has knowledge of my history, and I would not bring my family, my lives or the movement through a fire like this. I just wouldn’t” Smollett told reporters.

He thanked his legal counsel and the state of Illinois “for attempting to do what is right.”

Smollett said he just wants to get back to work and on with his life but he will always continue to fight for the justice and equality and betterment for marginalized people everywhere.

Reportedly, the FBI is still investigating ...

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Continue from page 9. whether Smollett sent a threatening letter to himself before the North River attack.

social justice.

his innocence from the very beginning.

“We have members and supporters across the country and around the world. Many of In the meantime, the Rainbow PUSH Coali- our members and supporters give of themtion issued a state- selves and their time to help achieve the ment denying there goals of the organization. Jussie is a memwas a court-ordered ber of our organization. community service “He, like many other members, has given of assigned to the civil his time and talent and continues to do so. rights organization.

During this period of disruption to his life and livelihood, Jussie has spent time here help“The Rainbow ing to advance this important work.

PUSH Coalition is an international “Media questions about the rationale for human rights/civil rights organization that is dismissing the charges against Jussie are committed to advancing the human rights of best directed to his counsel and the Office of all people. When we first heard of Jussie the State’s Attorney. The prosecutors’ deciSmollett’s crisis, we reached out to him and sion to dismiss the charges is the prosecu“Empire” to see if we could be helpful. tors alone, and Jussie should not be the one Jussie met with us and has given of himself to defend the decision. He has maintained to our organization and the movement for

“At a time when our city is wrestling with excessive violence and unsolved homicides our resources and energies should be focused there. Any further questions about Jussie Smollett’s case should be directed to his lawyer.

“We will continue to reach out to the challenges in our community. We will not stop until there is peace and justice for all,” the statement concluded.

“Having been a member of two other law enforcement agencies, I have never witnessed the degree of bias and acts of systemic racism, discriminatory practices and abuse of authority in all of my almost 30-year career in law enforcement and public safety,” she wrote.

Chapman ultimately revealed that City Manager L. Pettis Patton caught her off guard when he asked her to resign. Upon resigning on March 18, she said she was given only two months severance pay instead of six months she thinks she should get along with a good recommendation from the Portsmouth Police Department.

Portsmouth, VA — Tonya Chapman, who made history as the first Black woman to be Police Chief of a city police department in Virginia three years ago, says that city leaders and some members of the Portsmouth Police Department have forced her to resign. And she believes that it was racially motivated!

“I can assure you that I did not ‘quit’ on the citizens of Portsmouth.

My mother did not raise me to be a quitter. She raised me to be a strong woman,” Chapman wrote. “As such, my resignation was not tendered under my own volition. This was a forced resignation and our City Manager was the conduit.”

“As with any organization, there were officers in the department that did not like my style of leadership and did not want me to hold them accountable for their actions,” Chapman wrote in a fourpage statement. “Some quite frankly did not like taking direction from an African-American female.”

Meanwhile, Patton and any other member of the Portsmouth City Council have not made any comment yet regarding Chapman’s departure. Assistant Chief Angela Greene has been named interim Police Chief since Chapman resigned.

Although Chapman did not directly name any person for using race as a reason, she indicated she had continuously noticed some in her department who did not want her as chief of police and often sought for any chance to establish a “no confidence” vote against her.

She also implied some incident that she decided not to make public because those are “so inflammatory” and is a “concern of public safety.” She added that she would rather discuss such information with the “appropriate government entity.”

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ugo Black was known as a defender of civil rights during his three decades on the Supreme Court, but part of his life sits on the other side of the scales.

Born on in 1886, Hugo Lafayette Black, a lawyer and politician from Alabama, was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1937. Not long after, a reporter exposed his affiliation with notorious racist organization the Ku Klux Klan.

“Justice Black Revealed as Ku Klux Klansman,” the headline on the front page of the September 13, 1937 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Reporter Ray Sprigle’s investigation of Black’s links to the Klan revealed that he joined the organization in September 1923 and resigned almost two years later, in July 1925.

“His resignation, scrawled in longhand on a sheet of the stationery of the Grand Dragon of the Alabama Klan, was the first move of his campaign for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator from Alabama,” Sprigle wrote. But the reporter had also discovered that in September 1926, while he was still running for the Senate, Black was welcomed back into the Klan and given a life membership.

Public and political response to these allegations was overwhelmingly negative, writes Howard Ball in his book on Black.

Politicians who had voted for his appointment to the Senate said they wouldn’t have done so if they had known back in 1925, and newspapers called him everything from a “vulgar dog” to a “coward.”

At issue wasn’t just the Klan’s acknowledged brutality and racism towards black people: anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish sentiment in the Klan got significantly more press at the time, Ball writes.

Sprigle won a Pulitzer Prize for uncovering Black’s Klan links.

But the story was complicated by the Supreme Court member’s progressive allegiances with FDR and the New Deal.

Black himself believed he was being attacked as part of a war on FDR and his policies, Ball writes.

“They brought out no new facts that have not been thoroughly brought out in campaigns in Alabama,” Black wrote in a letter to an acquaintance in late October 1937. “With their practically

united press, however (which is chiefly against the President), they had no difficulty in making the public believe that they had broken a startling piece of news.” At a press conference, though, FDR maintained he and the public hadn’t been aware of Black’s links to the Klan.

While the youthful indiscretions of presidents and congressmen are sometimes overlooked–as long as they have a good tax plan–the nine justices of the Supreme Court are supposed to (at least theoretically) be held to a higher standard. Which is what makes it uncomfortable to know that one of the Court’s 20th-century superstars, Hugo Black, was a former Klansman.

Unlike the other former Klansmen in public service, however, Hugo Black went far beyond tepid apologies and really made amends for his earlier politics. In fact, it was said of Black that in his youth he dressed in white robes and scared black folks, in his later years he dressed up in black robes and scared white folks.

Black started out as a country lawyer who fell backwards into politics in 1921 when he defended a Klansman accused of killing a Catholic priest in what was an obvious hate crime. Sensing opportunity, Black joined the Alabama KKK. Later, Black admitted that he “would have joined any group if it helped get me votes.” Black was elected to the Senate in 1927.

While in Congress, Black seems to have had a change of heart. While his early legislative career was marred by virulent opposition to anti-lynching bills, Black later became a rabid New Dealer and enthusiastic supporter of Roosevelt. In 1937, Black’s loyalty was rewarded with appointment to the Supreme Court.

The nomination was not without controversy; Black was the first senator nominated for the Court to face actual confirmation hearings since 1853. Six months after his confirmation, Black’s KKK affiliations were exposed in a Pulitzer Prizewinning series of newspaper articles.

As a justice, Black was instrumental in killing segregation across the United States. In one ruling after another, his opposition to Jim Crow was a given in virtually every civil rights case the Court heard between the 1940s and his retirement in 1971.

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illions of Americans have pondered why President Donald Trump has such a problem when it comes to the subject Immigrants. In looking into the presidents background I as others can perhaps understand his hypocrisy.

these mansions forbade the poor to walk on their street. That ban would have included MacLeod and her family, local residents say.

Parishioners at the Stornoway High Church on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland still remember the dignified blonde who came back from America every summer. She walked with a formal, erect posture, provoking whispers about how she’d picked up her “airs and graces” in New York, where she’d married a rich man. But mostly they remember her speaking Gaelic as though she’d never left the island.

The woman, Mary Anne MacLeod, is the mother of Donald Trump, the aggressive rich kid turned real estate mogul turned President of the United States. And the contrast between her humble immigrants roots and the 1950s McMansion where she wound up is the key to understanding Trump’s deep insecurity.

lish until she enrolled in school, which was compulsory only until 8th grade.

Another crisis also pushed MacLeod’s generation to leave. She was only seven when World War I ended, but the conflict and a local maritime disaster, a winter shipwreck just yards from shore, killed 200 soldiers returning from the front, decimating the male population. That shortage of men, and the promise of a better life in America, prompted her to join her older sisters in New York in 1929. (They were married to butlers and working as maids or servants, and secured her a job when she arrived.) According to a local genealogist, all the MacLeod siblings eventually emigrated to North America, except one who remained behind and took care of the parents.

The exodus from Lewis was so dramatic in MacLeod’s generation, that the same month the 17-year-old sailed away on a steamer for New York, her local paper, the Stornoway Gazette editorialized: “Our straths and glens will soon be peopled only with middle-aged and elderly people. Most of these young people take kindly to the life of those distant lands but they never forget the ‘old folk at home.’”

MacLeod spent the first 17 years of her life in Tong, a fishing village on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, closer to Iceland than to London. Though her son was raised in a mansion in Queens, she grew up among poor islanders in a two-bedroom rented cottage crammed with her and 10 siblings.

The MacLeods lived several miles from their church, on a tidal flat the locals called “the saltings.” At certain times of day, the muck turned into quicksand as the tide rose. To get to church on Sunday—a daylong affair— the family would pick their way across the flats in muck boots—a perilous journey that only fishing families would even attempt because people frequently drowned. On every other day of the week, MacLeod’s family worked hard, digging peat to burn, hauling fishing nets in the icy rain and farmPoor islanders had been abused by the ing meager crops they grew in the rocky soil. wealthy for years. In her grandparents generation, the British had expelled tens of thouAs a girl, MacLeod saw few examples of sands of Scottish peasants in order to empty how rich people lived. An English opium baron named Matheson had purchased the the land for sport hunting and sheep. Thousands emigrated to North America, climbing entire island in the mid-19th century and on ships whose conditions were so bad that built himself a turreted gray stone Victorian many perished of scurvy and other ailments castle on a plot of land overlooking Stornobefore they reached land. Those left behind way. The family’s church was on Matheson clung to the traditional ways—farming, fishRoad, a street lined with small but handsome brick mansions belonging to the fami- ing and speaking Gaelic at church and lies of local merchants. To distinguish them- school—even as their English overlords tried to force their language upon them. Macselves from their impoverished—and often Leod, for instance, did not hear much Engfish-smelling—counterparts, residents of

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The men they left behind, fed up with aristocratic landowners, staged a series of raids to seize what British authorities had promised them if they fought in World War I—their own land. Landowners gave in and granted back property to the tenant farmers in the community. Modern day island families living on this land pay rent to a public trust, not English lords.

Six years after she arrived in New York, MacLeod, the blue-eyed youngest member of her family, met a blonde, mustachioed, first-generation German-American at a party in Queens. They later married.

Fred Trump was a nobody back then, but he soon became one of the biggest home builders in suburban New York. His wife spent her adult years recreating the pomp she’d viewed from the proverbial window as a girl.

Despite her lack of education and lowly roots, she liked to wear furs and be chauffeured in a Rolls Royce around plebeian Queens, New York. In his book, Trump: Art of the Deal, the New York real estate mogul wrote about her passion for the trappings of wealth. She was so enthralled by the coronation of Queen Elizabeth that her noContinue on page 16

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Continue from page 11. no-nonsense German-American husband begged her to turn off the TV.

graph of a Trump troll doll. “He is not proud of his mother’s humble beginnings,” said the novelist and poet Kevin MacNeil, who lives on the Isle of Lewis. “It is hard to underHer son Donald inherited her obsession with stand how in a single generation the values the trappings of class and luxury—and his of altruism, togetherness and sheer human own insecurity about not being to the mandecency were lost. Selflessness became ner born. He built himself a miniature Verselfishness. A supportive sense of communisailles, his gold and ty became a vain-glorious arrogance.” marble triplex in Trump Tower— Trump has claimed his mother came to designed by another America on a holiday and decided to stay in immigrant with the big city, a story which causes islanders queenly tastes, first roll their eyes. It’s not clear whether Macwife Ivana Trump.

Leod told her family this fib or whether it’s And perhaps bejust another Trumpian alternative fact—like cause his mother left his claim that his German-American father Scotland with less was actually Swedish. than a high school education, he has sneered at people with academic degrees.

“The most important thing I learned at Wharton was not to be overly impressed by academic credentials,” Trump wrote in The Art of the Deal. “It didn’t take me long to realize that there was nothing particularly awesome or exceptional about my classmates, and that I could compete with them just fine.” In the same book, he thumbed his nose at old money New Yorkers who didn’t like his buildings and has said he worries Ivanka “looks down on him.”

But while MacLeod had airs and graces, she never turned her back on her roots. On the contrary, she always returned to Tong, year after year, lapsing into Gaelic the minute she arrived. The islanders cite the Gaelic saying “The bird sings best in its nest” to explain her attachment. Trump, though, never came with her.

dent. He’s a rabble raiser. He knows how to do it. He’s in that Apprentice thing and he works it. He is outrageous. You quail at the thought of what he’s capable of.”

What would MacLeod make of her famous son now, the blogger asked? “I think his mother would be horrified,” the relative said.

Donald John Trump is the 45th President of the United States. Like most in the United States, he comes from an interesting family lineage which began with immigrants who did not speak English and possessed limited skills but were able to make a name for themselves through the American dream.

Regardless of your political stance, you're sure to find the Trump ancestry a fascinating read.

The current President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, is without question the grandson and son of immigrants and two of Donald's wives are immigrants to the U.S. Some would say that immigration is a strength that encourages innovation and creativity.

It is suggested by many who say that for Trump immigration is a competitive threat to the people who currently occupy the nation.

Whatever your view, the family history of the Trumps illustrates how one immigrant family, starting with nothing - neither a profession nor the ability to speak English - can quickly make a name for themselves and influence a nation.

Donald Trump's Mother Was a Poor Scottish And, if the Trump family can enter the United Immigrant.

States with almost no money and process to Trump’s older sister used to accompany make a healthy living for themselves why their mother to Lewis, but Donald visited can’t other Immigrants to the same?

Tong only once while he was in Scotland Today, the peat fields are still part of the Continue on page 17. while inspecting work on his golf course in island’s landscape, but residents are more 2008. Scottish journalists clocked his time connected to the rest of the world. Hundreds on the island at 180 minutes, with just 97 of cruise ships dock at Lewis in the summer. seconds at the MacLeod cottage. “I feel But the spirit of the island, population Scottish,” he proclaimed on the tarmac, his 18,500, remains community oriented: Neighblonde pompadour wafting vertical in the bors pitch in when a family is in trouble, and island breeze. they rarely lock their doors.

Beyond that slogan and his golf course, The people of Lewis were amused and Trump seems to have little use for his mothproud of their American son, Donald, when er’s humble roots. His living relatives— they first learned he was a reality-TV celebrisecond cousins mostly—have stopped talkty. But after he strong-armed mainland Scots ing to journalists since his election. But durnear Aberdeen into land concessions for his ing the campaign, one of Trump’s cousins, “best golf course in the world,” and as his Mairi Sterland, told a Hebridean blogger: “I political career swerved into scandal, many used to laugh about [being related to] Donin his mother’s hometown grew ashamed of ald Trump. Now I hardly dare mention him. him. A Facebook page called Isle of Lewis I’m intrigued that people will even counteAgainst Trump is decorated with a photonance the thought that he might be presi-

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Information (originally published by P. Staples, London, 1968). Kelley taught marketDonald John Trump is the 45th President of ing management both to undergraduate and the United States. Like most in the United graduate students at Wharton. Dr. Bill was States, he comes from an interesting family one of my closest friends for 47 years when lineage which began with immigrants who we lost him at 94 about six years ago. He did not speak English and possessed limited would have been 100 this year. skills but were able to make a name for Donald J. Trump was an undergraduate themselves through the American dream. student at Wharton for the latter two of his college years, having graduated in 1968.

Continued from page 16.

Professor Kelley told me 100 times over three decades that “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.” I remember his emphasis and inflection — it went like this: “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.”

Kelley told me this after Trump had become a celebrity, but long before he was considered a political figure. Kelley often referred to Trump’s arrogance when he told the story that Trump came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything.

Regardless of your political stance, you're sure to find the Trump ancestry fascinating.

The current President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, is the grandson and son of immigrants and two of Donald's wives are immigrants to the U.S. Some would say that immigration is a strength that encourages innovation and creativity. Others would say that immigration is a competitive threat to the people who currently occupy the nation.

Whatever your view, the family history of the Trumps illustrates how one immigrant family, starting with nothing - neither a profession nor the ability to speak English - can quickly make a name for themselves and influence a nation.

The late professor William T. Kelley taught marketing at Wharton School of Business and Finance, University of Pennsylvania, for 31 years, ending with his retirement in 1982.

Kelley, who also had vast experience as a business consultant, was the author of a then-widely used textbook called Marketing Intelligence: The Management of Marketing

This has relevance now because as recently as this week, President Trump challenged the Secretary of State of the United States to an IQ contest. This came within two days after NBC reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the President a “moron” or a "f**king moron." The president has frequently bragged that he was a great student at a great school (Wharton). Thus, the public is entitled to a contrary view from somebody who was there (Dr. Kelley), and I faithfully report it here.

Bill Kelley was one smart cookie. His textbook was standard in his time in the thennew field of “marketing intelligence” and the necessity of using computers and databases to manage it.

(See onlinelibrary.wiley.com which credits Bill for coining the quoted phrase.)

Kelley’s view seems to be shared by other University of Pennsylvanians.

See thedp.com, from the Daily Pennsylvanian, stating: nether biographer, Gwenda Blair, wrote in 2001 that Trump was admitted to Wharton on a special favor from a “friendly” admissions officer. The officer had known Trump’s older brother, Freddy.

Trump’s classmates doubt that the real estate mogul was an academic powerhouse.

“He was not in any kind of leadership. I certainly doubt he was the smartest guy in the class,” said Steve Perelman, a 1968 Wharton classmate and a former Daily Pennsyl-

17

vanian news editor.

Some classmates speculated that Trump skipped class, others that he commuted to New York on weekends. . . .

the fifth-deadliest year since 1970, according to the ADL. The organization recorded hite supremacists and other far71 extremist-related killings in 2016 and 69 right groups committed the majority in 2015. of extremist-related murders in the United States last year, according to a new report The statistics were culled from the ADL’s own tracking of extremist crimes. The orby the Anti-Defamation League. ganization said that its statistics would likeWhite supremacists were "directly responly be revised upwards, as extremist consible" for 18 out of 34 U.S. extremist-related deaths in 2017, the ADL said. Islamic extremists, by comparison, were only responsible for nine deaths in America.

By Kennett Werner

Last year’s share of white supremacist killings represents a jump from 2016, when such groups accounted for nine homicides.

The ADL tallied five murders by black nationalists in 2017, following similar violent incidents in 2016 and 2014 — which it noted as “the most significant black nationalist -related violence since the early 1980s” and “a possible emerging extremist threat.“ An absence of large shooting sprees explains last year’s lower extremist-linked murder tally, according to the ADL. In 2016, Omar Mateen killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. In 2015, white supremacists and Islamic extremists engaged in three significant shooting sprees that left 28 dead.

The deadliest extremistrelated incident in 2017 involved neither firearms In an op-ed in The Atlantic nor explosives – a deparaccompanying the report, ture from past years. The ADL National Director and New York attack was carCEO Jonathan Greenblatt ried out by truck. The noted that the uptick in deadliest shooting incident white supremacist violence last year took place in Fresno, Calif., and in 2017 occurred against the backdrop of nections to some murders can take months resulted in four deaths. an increasingly conspicuous alt-right move- to uncover. ment.

Last year’s data match historical trends But different organizations track extremist recorded by the ADL. The organization While it is impossible to draw a direct line violence in different ways. The ADL counts counted 387 extremist-related murders of causation between these brutal acts and non-ideological murders committed by exover the last decade: Right-wing extremists the many public displays of white suprema- tremists in its tally — so a dedicated white were responsible for 71 percent of those cy that took place around the country in supremacist who commits a murder unremurders, while Islamic extremists were 2017,” Greenblatt wrote, "it’s critical not to lated to his political beliefs would be countunderestimate the effect of an increasingly ed, for example. New America, a think tank linked to 26 percent. visible alt-right and white-supremacist com- with its own tracking system, excludes such munity on people who are already predisstatistics. posed to racism."

“For us, there has to be clear causation, “As a society we need to keep a close not just correlation,” said Albert Ford, a watch on recruitment and rallies such as New America researcher.

Charlottesville, which have the greatest New America counted five murders by farpotential to provoke and inspire violence,” Greenblatt wrote, referring to last summer’s right extremists in 2017, nine by Islamic extremists, and three by black nationalists. white nationalist rally, when a counterprotestor was killed.

Either way, extremist killings represent only While white supremacists accounted for the largest share of killings last year, an Islamic extremist is charged with committing the single deadliest incident: Sayfullo Saipov allegedly rammed into pedestrians in New York City in October, killing eight.

Last year’s total of 34 extremist-related fatalities represents a sharp decline from the previous two years – though it was still

a fraction of the total homicides in the U.S., though they tend to garner more media overage and have an outsize impact on public debate.

Such was the case with Heather Heyer, the counter-protestor killed by James Alex Fields Jr. at last summer’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. Her death ignited a national discussion about far-right groups.

18

19

1

Syria

3.600

2

Afghanistan 3.585

3

South Sudan 3.508

4

Iraq

3.425

5

Somalia

3.367

6

Yemen

3.305

7

Libya

3.262

8

Democratic Republic of the Congo

9

Central African Republic 3.236

10

Russia

3.160

11

Sudan

3.155

12

Ukraine

3.113

13

Pakistan

3.079

14

North Korea 2.950

15

Turkey

2.898

16

Nigeria

2.873

17

Lebanon

2.778

18

Israel

2.764

19

Colombia

2.729

20

Mali

2.686

21

Venezuela

2.642

22

Egypt

2.632

23

Palestine

2.621

24

Mexico

2.583

25

Ethiopia

2.524

26

Eritrea

2.522

27

Philippines 2.512

28

India

2.504

29

Chad

2.498

30

Burundi

2.488

31

Cameroon

2.484

32

Azerbaijan

2.454

33

Iran

2.439

34

Bahrain

2.437

35

Saudi Arabia 2.417

36

Niger

2.359

37

Mauritania

2.355

38

Republic of the Congo

39

South Africa 2.328

40

Zimbabwe

2.326

41

Kenya

2.315

2.343

3.251

42

Myanmar

2.302

86

Tunisia

1.998

43

United States of America 2.300

87

Paraguay

1.997

44

Armenia

88

The Gambia 1.989

2.287

45

Turkmenistan

89

Ecuador

1.987

46

Honduras

2.283

90

Peru

1.986

47

El Salvador 2.275

91

Oman

1.984

48

Guinea-Bissau

92

Swaziland

1.980

49

Djibouti

2.269

93

Morocco

1.979

50

Tajikistan

2.266

94

Kazakhstan 1.974

51

Thailand

2.259

95

Benin

1.973

52

China

2.243

96

Nicaragua

1.960

53

Guatemala 2.214

97

Sri Lanka

1.954

54

Cote d' Ivoire

98

Argentina

1.947

55

Algeria

99

Equatorial Guinea

56

Kyrgyz Republic

100

Moldova

1.939

57

Uganda

2.168

101

Liberia

1.931

58

Brazil

2.160

102

Cyprus

1.913

59

Uzbekistan 2.144

103

France

1.909

60

Lesotho

2.144

104

Vietnam

1.905

61

Rwanda

2.140

105

Timor-Leste 1.895

62

Georgia

2.130

106

Montenegro 1.893

63

Belarus

2.112

107

United Kingdom

64

Papua New Guinea

108

Qatar

1.869

65

Togo

2.104

109

Indonesia

1.853

66

Jordan

2.104

110

Serbia

1.851

67

Cambodia

2.101

111

Senegal

1.849

68

Guinea

2.101

112

Albania

1.849

69

Gabon

2.099

113

Tanzania

1.837

70

Bolivia

‘

114

Panama

1.826

71

Bangladesh 2.084

115

South Korea 1.823

72

Kosovo

116

Zambia

1.822

73

Dominican Republic

117

Mongolia

1.821

74

Jamaica

2.068

118

Laos

1.821

75

Bosnia and Herzegovina 2.065

119

United Arab Emirates

76

Haiti

120

Malawi

1.811

77

Macedonia (FYR)

121

Namibia

1.806

78

Mozambique 2.056

122

Kuwait

1.799

79

Trinidad and Tobago

123

Ghana

1.772

80

Nepal

2.053

124

Costa Rica 1.767

81

Angola

2.048

125

Madagascar 1.766

82

Guyana

2.043

126

Italy

1.766

83

Cuba

2.037

127

Uruguay

1.761

84

Burkina Faso

128

Lithuania

1.749

85

Greece

129

Sierra Leone 1.740

2.275

2.207

2.182 2.181

2.109

2.078 2.073

2.064 2.058

2.053

2.029

2.020

20

1.946

1.876

1.820

‘ 130

Taiwan

1.736

131

Estonia

1.732

132

Poland

1.727

133

Latvia

1.689

134

Spain

1.678

135

Botswana

1.659

136

Chile

1.649

137

Croatia

1.639

138

Bulgaria

1.635

139

Malaysia

1.619

140

Romania

1.596

141

Netherlands 1.574

142

Slovakia

1.568

143

Belgium

1.560

144

Mauritius

1.548

145

Bhutan

1.545

146

Hungary

1.531

147

Germany

1.531

148

Norway

1.519

149

Finland

1.506

150

Sweden

1.502

151

Australia

1.435

152

Switzerland 1.407

153

Slovenia

1.396

154

Ireland

1.393

155

Japan

1.391

156

Singapore

1.382

157

Czech Republic

158

Canada

1.372

159

Denmark

1.353

160

Portugal

1.318

161

Austria

1.274

162

New Zealand

10. Ukrаіnе Аt Nо. 10, wе hаvе thе ѕесоnd lаrgеѕt соuntrу іn Еurоре аftеr Ruѕѕіа. Yеѕ, wе аrе rеfеrrіng tо Ukrаіnе. Rіght ѕіnсе thе tіmе оf thе brеаkіng uр оf thе UЅЅR, thеrе hаѕ bееn соnѕtаnt tеnѕіоn bеtwееn Ukrаіnе аnd Ruѕѕіа. Yоu саn fіnd Ruѕѕіа роundіng thе еаѕtеrn раrtѕ оf Ukrаіnе frеquеntlу wіth hеаvу аrtіllеrу. Ѕесоndlу, соrruрtіоn іѕ rаmраnt іn Ukrаіnе. Тhе іntеrnаl lаw аnd оrdеr ѕуѕtеm hаѕ gоnе fоr а tоѕѕ. Yоu саn fіnd kіdnарріngѕ, burglаrіеѕ, аnd murdеrѕ іn brоаd dауlіght. Неnсе, wе ореn thіѕ lіѕt wіth Ukrаіnе аt Nо. 10.

9. Lіbуа іѕ а dаngеrоuѕ соuntrу tо lіvе bесаuѕе оf thе соnѕtаnt thrеаt tо thе соmmоn реорlе оn ассоunt оf thе сіvіl wаr. Yоu hаvе twо fасtіоnѕ, thе Тоbruk Gоvеrnmеnt аnd thе Nаtіоnаl Ѕаlvаtіоn Gоvеrnmеnt lосkіng hеаdѕ оvеr thе ѕtrugglе fоr роwеr. Іn аddіtіоn, уоu hаvе thе ІЅІЅ thrеаt. Тhе dіѕсоvеrу оf оіl rеѕеrvеѕ іn Lіbуа hаѕ соmроundеd mаttеrѕ а grеаt dеаl. Неnсе, thеrе іѕ а ѕtrugglе tо ехеrсіѕе соntrоl. Undеr thеѕе сіrсumѕtаnсеѕ, Lіbуа bесоmеѕ а dаngеrоuѕ рlасе fоr оnе tо vіѕіt. Тhеrе аrе іnѕtаnсеѕ оf fоrеіgnеrѕ kіllеd mеrсіlеѕѕlу. Тhіѕ mаkеѕ Lіbуа rаnk аt thе Nо. 9 роѕіtіоn іn thіѕ lіѕt оf thе mоѕt dаngеrоuѕ соuntrіеѕ tо lіvе.

8. Ѕudаn Ѕudаn hаѕ аlwауѕ fоund а рlасе іn thе Тор 10 mоѕt dаngеrоuѕ соuntrіеѕ оvеr thе уеаrѕ. Тhеrе hаvе bееn іnnumеrаblе іnѕtаnсеѕ оf Gоvеrnmеnt fоrсеѕ соmmіttіng аtrосіtіеѕ оn thе lосаlѕ аѕ wеll аѕ оthеr сіvіlіаnѕ. Роvеrtу іѕ оnе іѕѕuе thаt саn mаkе а реrѕоn асt іnѕаnе аnd wіthоut rеѕроnѕіbіlіtу. Тhе Gоvеrnmеnt оf thе dау hаѕ tо еnѕurе thаt thе соuntrу іѕ а ѕаfе рlасе tо lіvе. Іf thе Gоvеrnmеnt fоrсеѕ ѕtаrt аttасkіng аnd lооtіng сіvіlіаnѕ, thеу dо nоt hаvе аnу рlасе tо ѕееk ѕhеltеr. Тhіѕ іѕ whаt іѕ hарреnіng іn Ѕudаn оvеr thе раѕt fеw уеаrѕ. Неnсе, Ѕudаn rаnkѕ Nо. 8 оn thіѕ lіѕt.

1.381

1.192

hеrе іѕ а соnѕtаnt tеnѕіоn bеtwееn соuntrіеѕ lіkе Ukrаіnе аnd Ruѕѕіа. Аfghаnіѕtаn hаѕ bееn rаvаgеd bу the Таlіbаn. Тhеrе іѕ ехсеѕѕіvе unrеѕt іn theе Аfrісаn соuntrіеѕ duе tо ехtrеmе роvеrtу. Тhеrеfоrе, thеrе аrе mоrе thаn а hаndful оf соuntrіеѕ thаt аrе vеrу dаngеrоuѕ tо lіvе іn.

Wе ѕhаll lооk аt thе tор 10 mоѕt dаngеrоuѕ соuntrіеѕ іn thе wоrld іn 2019. Whо knоwѕ, уоu mіght nоt соmе bасk аlіvе іf уоu vіѕіt thеѕе соuntrіеѕ.

7. Yеmеn Тhе Іѕlаmіс соuntrіеѕ ѕееm tо bе іn thе fоrеfrоnt аѕ fаr аѕ сrеаtіng unсоmfоrtаblе ѕіtuаtіоnѕ fоr сіvіlіаnѕ tо ѕtау. А реruѕаl оf thіѕ lіѕt untіl thе еnd wіll ѕtrеngthеn thіѕ ѕtаtеmеnt. Yеmеn іѕ аnоthеr оіl rісh соuntrу еmbrоіlеd іn ѕоmе ѕоrt оf tеrrоr асtіvіtіеѕ оvеr thе уеаrѕ. Іtѕ рrохіmіtу tо Ѕаudі Аrаbіа іѕ nоt hеlріng іt muсh аѕ wеll. Тhеу dо nоt hаvе а ѕtаblе gоvеrnmеnt tо dеаl wіth thе іnѕurgеnt еlеmеntѕ іn thе соuntrу. Тhеѕе fасtоrѕ соmbіnе tоgеthеr tо рuѕh Yеmеn tо thе 7th ѕроt іn thіѕ lіѕt.

6. Сеntrаl Аfrісаn Rерublіс Іf thе Іѕlаmіс соuntrіеѕ hаvе іѕѕuеѕ оf tеrrоrіѕt оrgаnіzаtіоnѕ hоldіng ѕwау, thе Аfrісаn соuntrіеѕ hаvе thеmѕеlvеѕ tо blаmе. Ѕоmе оf thе Аfrісаn nаtіоnѕ lіkе thе Сеntrаl Аfrісаn Rерublіс hаvе thе mоѕt unѕtаblе аnd іnеffісіеnt gоvеrnmеntѕ. Соrruрtіоn іѕ rаmраnt іn ѕuсh рlасеѕ. Тhе lосаl есоnоmу hаѕ gоnе fоr а ѕріn. Тhеѕе fасtоrѕ саn сrеаtе unеmрlоуmеnt аnd роvеrtу lеаdіng tо mаѕѕ unrеѕt. Тhеrе іѕ а ѕіmmеrіng tеnѕіоn bеtwееn thе Іѕlаmіс аnd thе Саthоlіс rаdісаlѕ mаkіng thе ѕіtuаtіоn gо оut оf соntrоl. Тhеѕе fасtоrѕ mаkе іt dіffісult fоr реорlе tо gо tо thеѕе соuntrіеѕ. Неnсе, wе hаvе thе Сеntrаl Аfrісаn Rерublіс аt Nо. 6.

5. Ѕоmаlіа Yоu nееd аn еffісіеnt lаw аnd оrdеr ѕуѕtеm fоr аnу соuntrу tо рrоvіdе thе bаѕіс ѕаfеtу fасіlіtіеѕ tо thеіr rеѕіdеntѕ. Ѕоmаlіа fаіlѕ mіѕеrаblу оn еvеrу соunt.

Whеn thеrе іѕ nо fеаr оf thе lаw, уоu саn аlwауѕ ѕее а ѕріkе іn thе vіоlеnсе аnd сrіmе.

21

Sources consider the present ‘Trump Republican administration’ a detrimental body of cynics mericans will never forget who are about matters not relatEveryone has heard the statistics the turmoil that the ed to helping their continuants on the incarceration of black ‘President Trump Shutdown’ but rather themselves. It’s also Americans, but they bear repeatcaused Americans! apparent that as long as blacks ing! Blacks make up nearly 40 are the subjects of incarceration The presidents shutdown hypopercent of the inmates in the some have satisfied there decritically diverted citizens away nation’s prisons, although they monic master. It should always from the real reality of his own are only 12 percent of the U.S. be remembered that their evil criminal actions. For example, as population. Some experts estiquest is to re-introduce people of the Federal government seeks a mate that one in every four black color to the days of Slavery. way out mass prison confinemen will spend some time behind ment, the focus remain in Chica- bars during his lifetime. There is ‘Criminal Justice Fact Sheet’ go on African American citizens no explanation for this disparity quietly continue to be killed and - Incarceration Trends in America that is okay. flood the criminal justice sysBetween 1980 and 2015, the numThere are many theories about tem. ber of people incarcerated in these shameful numbers, and Recently in the Chicago courts a punitive criminal justice policies America increased from roughly black youth was slaughtered after receiving 26 shots in the back! The white policeman received only 3-years with his police assistance receiving a ‘not guilty’ verdict. with little consideration for real-time sentencing. putting meat and potatoes on other folks table while little on their own.

‘The Trump Shutdown’

females were imprisoned at between 1 and 3 times the rate of White females.

As Washington politicians avoid incarceration, African Americans charged with less offenses proceed to filter through the justice system.

Though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately 32% of the US population, they comprised 56% of all incarcerated people in 2015.

If African Americans and Hispanics were incarcerated at the same rates as whites, prison and jail populations would decline by almost 40%.

Drug Sentencing Disparities In the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 17 million whites and 4 million African Americans reported having used an illicit drug within the last month.

African Americans and whites use drugs at similar rates, but the imprisonment rate of African Americans for drug charges is almost 6 times that of whites.

African Americans represent 12.5% of illicit drug users, but 29% of those arrested for drug offenses and 33% of those incarcerated in state facilities for drug offenses.

Let’s not forget that in 2011, Blacks and Hispanics were imprisoned at higher rates than Whites in all age groups for both male and female inmates. Among prisoners ages 18 to 19, Black males were imprisoned at more than 9 times the rate of White males.

Effects of Incarceration

certainly contribute. About half the states have some kind of habitual offender law that mandates harsh sentences for repeat It’s important to note that Hispan- offenders. In California, where blacks make up less than 7 peric and Black male prisoners age cent of the population and a 65 or older were imprisoned at quarter of the prison population, rates between 3 and 5 times they make up a whopping 45 those of White males. Excluding percent of those imprisoned unthe youngest and oldest age groups, Black males were impris- der the state’s Three Strikes Law. oned at rates that ranged beThere has been a lot of debate tween 5 and 7 times the rates of about the psychological roots of White males. this disparity, but not nearly so Among persons ages 20 to 24, Black males were imprisoned at about 7 times that of White males. In comparison, Hispanic males were imprisoned at 2 to 3 times the rate of White males.

Black females were imprisoned at between 2 and 3 times the rate of White females, while Hispanic

African American children represent 32% of children who are arrested, 42% of children who are detained, and 52% of children whose cases are judicially waived to criminal court.

much on the psychological and social consequences of this injustice. One would expect such patently unfair statistics to cause outrage, and calls for more leniency in penal laws, but is it possible that the opposite occurs?

Might the blackness of the prisons lead to more, not less, punitive attitudes and policies?

500,000 to over 2.2 million.

Today, the United States makes up about 5% of the world’s population and has 21% of the world’s prisoners.

1 in every 37 adults in the United States, or 2.7% of the adult population, is under some form of correctional supervision. Racial Disparities in Incarceration

A criminal record can reduce the likelihood of a callback or job offer by nearly 50 percent. The negative impact of a criminal record is twice as large for African American applicants.

Infectious diseases are highly concentrated in corrections facilities: 15% of jail inmates and 22% of prisoners – compared to 5% of the general population – reported ever having tuberculosis, Hepatitis B and C, HIV/AIDS, or other STDs.

In 2014, African Americans constituted 2.3 million, or 34%, of the In 2012 alone, the United States total 6.8 million correctional pop- spent nearly $81 billion on corulation. rections.

African Americans are incarcerSpending on prisons and jails ated at more than 5 times the rate has increased at triple the rate of of whites. spending on PreK12 public education in the last thirty years.

The imprisonment rate for African American women is twice that of white women.

22

hose who are fortunate to purchase property, do so with the understanding that it will be preserved and not torn asunder.

A good landlord provides for the tenants with care, love and understanding. The question becomes, when God created humans and gave to them His best—what was His intention for the tenants?

his world is temporary and so is our life. We are on a lease which is going to expire soon and we will be ejected. It’s not that we were not warned about it, the Scriptures are full of such warnings. Our Lord sent Messengers to tell us the Truth – the purpose of our lives in this world; to guide us how to spend our short lives on the planet Earth; and to warn us that if we violate His laws, we’ll be punished.

1. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

2. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His presence with singing.

3. Know ye that the LORD He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

4. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.

5. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endured to all generations.

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or well over 50-years, I’ve known my sister, friend, known to many On a unique occasion such as this, we grasp this time-frame to Salute as Mother Christine Moore. our dearly beloved sister in Christ Christine Moore—while seeking God to playfully continue using her in being a blessing to all of us. To I cherish the graceful years because they have been a spiritual, eduall who dare to listen—hear and obey the Word of God. cational experience. I’ve learned along with her the labor of waiting on God and the process of how to be patient in With Endearing Love, waiting on God to have His perfect way.

Brother and Daughter in Christ Our association has been without bitter or Rev. Dr. Harold E. Bailey and Brandy N. Bailey contrite emotions for more than most of the time God was the author and finisher of our prayerful conversations. Conversations that were not regarding individuals but regarding the reverent love conferred upon us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...who’s mercy has been evident in both our lives.

After noting that God will keep you in perfect peace with the condition that the mind stays on Him, it becomes apparent that through the years of toiling … God has protected my sister in His peace which has surpassed all understanding.

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hile sentenced inmates over time are paroled, many return and are released again, yet the question remains where does the ‘C-Number inmates’ stand?

C-Number inmates are prisoners who were sentenced before 1978 to indeterminate sentences – prison terms that only specify a range of years the inmate must stay behind bars, such as being sentenced to serve 20 to 100 years in prison. After 1978, determinate sentencing – including sentencing guidelines, mandatory minimum sentences and stronger sentences for certain crimes – became the preferred sentencing method in Illinois. The term “C-Number” refers to the “C” at the beginning of a prisoner’s identification card, which signifies a prisoner sentenced prior to determinate sentencing.

These inmates were typically convicted of murder or rape.

The PRB is appointed by the governor of Illinois and currently consists of 13 members, which meet once a month to decide if an inmate deserves parole.

The process to decide if an inmate qualifies for parole involves one board member interviewing a C-Number inmate. The state’s attorney’s office then interviews the friends and family of the victim in the case. The state’s attorney’s office then conducts an opposition hearing and writes an opposition letter, which is sent to the PRB. The member of the PRB who conducted the interview with the inmate seeking parole presents the case to the PRB, which then

many inmates have died and how many have been paroled.

John Maki, executive director of the John Howard Association, said that despite the cost to keep them in prison, some C-Number inmates “tended to be convicted of very serious crimes.”

“These inmates had very high profile crimes usually involving law enforcement or very notorious crimes,” Maki said.

Maki said that another potential reason for the lower number of C-Number inmates receiving parole is that the PRB might place too much emphasis on the inmates’ initial crime and not the possibility of rehabilitation.

“I would argue that more emphasis should be placed on what has happened while the prisoner was in prison. I would like to see the Prisoner Review Board give more weight to how a prisoner has changed their life while in prison because right now it seems like the committed offense really drives decision making,” Maki said.

Overcrowded prisons are a problem in Illinois with C-Number inmates being some of the more costly to house.

Bill Ryan, founder of the Statesville Speaks newsletter published by the Justice Studies Department of Northeastern Illinois University, says 223 may not seem like a large number, but C-Number inmates cost between $70,000 and $75,000 to keep in prison. The majority of them are over the age of 50 and their age helps explain why it costs the state so much to keep them in prison.

Kenneth Tupy, chief legal counsel of the PRB, said that while the PRB does look at an inmate’s initial offense, it doesn’t play more of a role than any other factors in the case.

“I would think that all the factors are taken under consideration when the board makes their decision,” Tupy said.

As C-Number inmates age, the cost to keep them in prison rises primarily due to their health care costs. C-Number inmates cost the state more than $15.6 million a year, an average of $70,000 per person. In 2009, the average inmate in Illinois cost $25,000 to keep in prison, according to the John Howard Association, a statewide prison reform group.

takes a vote to decide if parole is granted.

An inmate must receive a majority of “yes” votes to receive parole.

“There really isn’t any logic in keeping some of these people in prison,” Ryan said. “There seems to be a perception that people cannot change, but I believe they can. I know some of the C-Number inmates and after 30 years in the prison system, I know that some have changed.”

Ryan said that the recidivism rate, the rate which an inmate is likely to repeat the offense they were imprisoned for, for CNumber inmates in Illinois is about two or three percent. The overall recidivism rate for all Illinois prisoners is higher than 50 percent.

C-number inmates are still eligible for parole – getting out early for good behavior – by going in front of the Prisoner Review Board, which ultimately decides the inmates’ fate.

The John Howard Association of Illinois said there were 275 C-Number inmates in 1978, but in the following 32 years the number dropped to 223 by 2010. It’s unclear how

In 2010, Illinois prisons held 223 C-Number inmates who had been there for more than 30 years. These inmates were a part of a sentencing scheme from a different era.

By: Neil Schneider at nschneider@illinoisitmes.

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Larry Hoover, now considered a reformer, permitted The Challenge News Magazine to publish a front-page story where he appealed to those who would follow his leadership to reconsider their ways and to cease crime, drugs and violence. The magazine was widely distributed throughout the south and westsides of Chicago.

Despite Hoovers sincere efforts to turn gang associates lives around, sources said that his plea fell to deaf ears for many.

Many gang members considered rebels have now been incarcerated… they didn’t listen! Hoover tried to do the right thing.

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visibly angry Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson dismissed Jussie Smollett’s latest insistence on his innocence and decried the prosecutors’ dismissal of criminal charges against the Empire actor as, in Emanuel’s words, “a whitewash.”

Johnson said, as bluntly as he has before, that Smollett conducted a “hoax” to further his own financial gain.

Emanuel lambasted Smollett as selfishly exploiting hate-crime laws for his own personal gain. “He took those laws and turned them inside out and upside down,” the mayor said, repeatedly reminding reporters that a grand jury heard the case and brought the charges against Smollett.

“Do I think justice was served?,” asked Johnson. “No. And I think this city is still owed an apology.”

Earlier, the State’s Attorneys office attempted to clarify its decision to drop criminal charges against Smollett, releasing a statement reading, “After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollett's volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case.”

The statement did little to clarify anything, though. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Joseph Magats, First Assistant State’s Attorney, said, “The bottom line is, we stand behind the investigation, we stand behind the decision to charge him. The fact that [Smollett] feels that we have exonerated him, we have not. I can’t make it any clearer than that.”

hile Mayor Emanuel is blasting the courts system for what he says—not doing their job—what about that same system ‘whitewashing’ and not doing their job in the case of Laquan McDonald? There you were as silent as a church mouse running for cover after sending your police chief to do your dirty work. You ought to remember that what’s good for whites just ought to be good for blacks? Mr. Mayor, you cannot continue to hide behind former president Obama.

Check your dubious behavior at the door when you leave office. • Mattie L. Jones.

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don’t believe what I am hearing coming from the mouth of the Mayor of Chicago! A mayor who now stands in pretense of wanting to see justice when everyone of any intelligence can read the record clear.

He’s done little for the South and Westsides of this city and now at the eleventh hour wanting to go out in a blast. Sorry sir… damage has been done. You will be remembered, not for being a friend to the former president but for one who failed this city! You said the Empire actor was making a fool out of us, may I admit that your fake election tears also made a fool out of most of us. • Mae Jefferson.

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