‘Racist body of criminal lawlessness.’ In a Politico interview, Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush describes the Chicago police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, as standing “shoulder to shoulder with the Ku Klux Klan.”
■ A Sun-Times review concludes more than 75% of the hundreds charged with breaking Chicago’s looting-and-violence-driven curfew were Black*—something the ACLU calls “infuriating and tragic.”
■ Reuters: Black Americans constitute a disproportionate share of those who die in confrontations with cops using Tasers.
Forceful reform. Mayor Lightfoot’s creating a working group to review the police department’s “use of force” policies.
■ The department is moving officers back onto 12-hour shifts and canceling days off.
■ A man accused of trying to drive his truck into a group of protesters on the Southwest Side is also accused of shoving the cop who stopped him.
‘Chicagoans deserve to know in full.’ A Sun-Times editorial: “Crimes allegedly committed by police officers should not be quietly swept under the rug” …
■ … but, a Tribune editorial asserts, licensing cops isn’t the answer.
■ Video obtained by the Trib highlights a Chicago police “code of silence,” showing officers giving a CTA supervisor a choice: Drop a complaint against a cop … or face arrest.
■ An employee with the city’s police watchdog agency, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, is under investigation himself—accused of shooting at car thieves.
■ Sunday brought multiple protests for justice to Chicago and the suburbs.
■ And recent graduates marched to call for the removal of police from Chicago Public Schools.
‘America still hates black men.’ Trib columnist Dahleen Glanton says President Trump never forgets.
Gay rights milestone. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 clears gay, lesbian and transgender people to sue over workplace discrimination …
■ … a decision that came with surprising support from a couple of Republican appointees to the court …
■ … one of whom—a Trump pick—wrote the opinion.
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COVID-careful … or OCD? A professor of psychiatry and neuroscience offers guidance on how to tell when rational behavior in a pandemic crosses the line into obsessive-compulsive disorder.
■ ProPublica explains why experts were wrong when they said COVID-19 would overwhelm U.S. hospitals.
■ The Conversation: What the archaeological record tells us about epidemics through history—and humans’ response.
■ In a new TV series, the Field Museum’s chief curiosity correspondent, Emily Graslie, takes viewers on a Prehistoric Road Trip …
■ … which she’ll preview tonight in a free online discussion.
Statues’ status.
■ Thomas Jefferson is down in Portland.
■ Dolly Parton may be up in Nashville—replacing a KKK creep.
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Balls out. The Television Academy has canceled this year’s post-Emmys galas, known as the Governors Balls.
■ John Oliver, biting his employer’s hand as he addressed Gone With the Wind’s (temporary) removal from HBO Max: “Who gives a shit if something’s not on HBO Max? In fact, there may be no better way to obliterate all evidence of something’s existence than to put it on HBO Max, the only ash heap of history that costs $15 a month.”
■ Monty Python alumnus John Cleese shamed the BBC into reinstating an episode of his satiric series Fawlty Towers—condemning those who made the decision as “persons whose main concern is not losing their jobs.”
■ Tech guru Joe Hass: What a 1987 Saturday Night Live skit can teach us about Trump.
Song of the day. Da$Htone’s Someday, featuring people from across Chicago lip-syncing to the lyrics. (Not suitable for all ages.)
* Along with a growing number of other news organizations, except in direct quotations, Chicago Public Square has begun capitalizing the word “Black” as it refers to people, culture and communities.