Longreads
Spurred by Black Lives Matter, coverage of police violence is changing
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Newsrooms are moving away from privileging police accounts over those of police violence victims.
Judicial Elections
Chicago mayor’s support of Judge Michael Toomin leaves juvenile justice advocates ‘disappointed’
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Judge Michael Toomin and Mayor Lori Lightfoot say his critics are playing politics. Reformers say the lives and futures of Cook County children are at stake.
news analysis
Check Your Judges: Why Cook County judicial elections matter
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Judicial elections bring high stakes and consequences, especially for Black, Latinx and other marginalized groups disproportionately impacted by the justice system.
Essential Work
Listen: Youth organizers discuss Black joy, West Side history and the future
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“We are the revolution. It is in our bodies. It is in our bones. It is in our art. It is in the way that we speak.”
News
The Chicago police union is trying to put its members on the state’s torture inquiry commission
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Two bills introduced by Republicans in the state legislature are “a smack in the face,” says one torture survivor.
Essential Work
Listen: Chicago youth leaders Miracle Boyd and China Smith reflect on activism, trauma, and growth
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Two youth organizers with GoodKids MadCity share what activism has taught them, how it has affected them, and how they want to transform Chicago.
News
‘How was she a threat?’ Chicago police attack on Black youth leader Miracle Boyd outrages activists, officials
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Miracle Boyd, 18, is an organizer with GoodKids MadCity and a rising Chicago youth leader. An unidentified police officer struck her in the mouth Friday at a Black, Indigenous American rally, breaking several of her teeth.
News
Students and alums reveal racist culture at top Chicago private school
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Hundreds of stories of racism, xenophobia, and abuse at the Latin School of Chicago have surfaced via an anonymous Instagram account, Latin Survivors.
Commentary
Analysis: The thing about police unions
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Most unions don’t aggressively shield their members from accountability for murder. Police unions are another story.
Alabama Prison Crisis
Alabama prison death highlights pattern of officials promoting bad bosses
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Billy Smith’s 2017 death highlighted broader problems at Elmore Correctional Facility, an overcrowded and understaffed prison with a history of abusive, neglectful managers.