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Blacks Must Control Their Own Community
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VOLUME LXXIII NUMBER 23—SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013
PUBLISHED SINCE 1940
25 Cents and worth more
Black community angry Payton gets $17 million By J. Coyden Palmer Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s announcement last week that an elite select enrollment high school in the city’s Gold Coast community will be getting millions in new funding to build an additional wing for 400 more students, has been met with outrage. Walter Payton College Prep, which according to the city is comprised of 28 percent African American students, will benefit from $17 million in additional funding. Payton was built and opened in 2000 and is one of the city’s best high schools in terms of academic performance and infrastructure. Critics say with so many schools needing infrastructure improvement and other schools who had to slash their budget for items like toilet paper, it seems the mayor is out of touch. “Basically what this represents is the same policy of creating winners and losers in our school district,” said Chicago Teachers Union staff coordinator Jackson Potter. “He needs to deal with every single building, not just the ones he decides deserve it.” Even some parents who have kids at the city’s select enrollment schools said they have a problem with Payton getting an additional $17 million. Michael Dillard has a son who graduated from Brooks and a daughter who will be attending Jones College Prep. He said Chicago has created a system of haves and have nots when it comes to public education. “They are spending too much on selective schools; monies that are not available
WALTER PAYTON COLLEGE PREP was opened in 2000 with a modern design constructed by Wausau Window and Wall Systems. However, Mayor Emanuel wants to expand the school and announced $17 million in additional funding to build a new wing. (Photo provided by Chicago Public Schools)
to all,” Dillard said. “I have a problem with the city closing schools in low income neighborhoods because of money and then turn around and spend $17 million on Payton.” Dillard added it is important that parents who are fortunate enough to have their kids at one of the city’s elite schools still care about kids at other schools. He said disenfranchised kids will pick on kids at the elite schools because of the vast differences in infrastructure, curriculum and reputation of a school. Teachers at some neighborhood schools are livid with the decision to give Payton more funding. One teacher, who did not want to give her name, said she and her fifth grade students had to sweat out scorching days earlier this month when it was 100 degrees in some classrooms because the school she teaches at had a broken air conditioning unit. Students and staff at Kenwood Academy in the Hyde Park community just got their air conditioning back shortly before classes started this semester after their air conditioning unit was broke for nearly two years. Jitu Brown of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization said he and others are done dealing with CPS officials and are pushing forward with a new strategy to get an elected school board. He said the protests in the past have done nothing and he does not believe any change will come as long as the mayor can appoint whoever he wants to the board. Brown also (Continued on page 3)
Judge Evans: poor defendants entitled to counsel By Wendell Hutson Apparently complaints by poor defendants in Cook County criminal courthouses about not being assigned a public defender have caught the attention of Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans. “The law is crystal clear. Counsel must be made available to the indigent,” said Evans, who recently issued a memo to all county judges reminding them. “If a defendant is forced to represent himself, his liberty is at stake in that particular instance. (“And) if his liberty is at stake, then all of our liberty is at stake.” The right to counsel for the poor was established 50 years ago by a U.S. Supreme Court decision guaranteeing criminal de-
Chief Judge Timothy Evans
fendants who can’t afford to hire an attorney, access to free legal counsel. And by law, the income level of someone accused of a crime is not supposed to impact the treatment they get in the justice system or their right to legal counsel. However, some defendants said that’s exactly what has been happening. And because their cases are still pending in court they asked not to have their last names used. “I was denied a public defender because before I was arrested I was working and making $45,000 a year,” said Larry, 51, who was charged with narcotics possession. “The judge told me based on my income from my job I did not qualify for a public defender.” And Michelle, 37, said she too was de-
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
nied a public defender because her family posted a $25,000 cash bond for her. The unemployed mother of twins was charged with attempted murder. “I told the judge that was not my money, but my family’s money. And he said if my family could afford to raise that kind of cash then they could afford to hire a private attorney,” she recalled. In one case, Judge Ann O’ Donnell, reportedly told a defendant they were being denied a public defender because they had posted a $1,000 bond to get out of Cook (Continued on page 2)
Nielsen issues its annual African American Consumer report. See insert
Beavers sentenced to six months in prison (See story on page 2)
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