[Update, June 10, 2021: “Federal probe: Protest not broken up due to Trump photo op.”]
■ Poynter’s Tom Jones: Thankfully, journalists were there to show what happened.
■ The New York Times is under fire for a Page One headline that ignored, in the words of CNN’s Oliver Darcy, “how protesters in the capital of the United States of America were attacked at the foot of the White House for exercising their Constitutional right to protest.”
■ As the president’s hammer came down, one Washington resident overnight took in dozens of shelter-seeking protesters …
■ … one of whom said she felt like she was going to die.
■ Joe Biden was set to condemn the president for being “more interested in power than in principle.”
■ Politico: Struggling for relevancy, Biden sees the ghost of unsuccessful 1968 presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey.
Wish granted. About an hour after Gov. Pritzker told Chicago Public Square (at 16:08 in this video) that he’d recommend Trump “bring clergy together,” Trump did unite religious leaders—to condemn Trump:
■ A St. John’s minister posted to Facebook: “WE WERE DRIVEN OFF … SO THAT MAN COULD HAVE A PHOTO OPPORTUNITY.”
■ Jesuit priest and author James Martin: “This is revolting. The Bible is not a prop. A church is not a photo op.”
■ The Washington Post: “Episcopal bishop on President Trump: ‘Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence.’”
■ Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry: “He used a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes.”
■ The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida: “This is blasphemy in real-time.”
■ A rabbi who heads the Interfaith Alliance: “One of the most flagrant misuses of religion that I have ever seen.”
Unrest unrelenting. A seventh night of destruction engulfed cities across the country.■ Black Lives Matter accuses Chicago cops of brutality against peaceful demonstrators.
■ Beachwood Reporter honcho Steve Rhodes reviews the record of Chicago cops’ new union president, “one of their worst officers.”
■ Vox: “For many officers around the country, what’s happening in the streets right now isn’t an effort to protect public safety. It’s war.”
■ A professor of justice studies: Minneapolis police’s killing of George Floyd reflects the racist roots of American policing.
■ The Tribune’s Heidi Stevens pleads with white readers: “Please don’t look for a reason to turn away.”
‘F__k you. You don’t know what’s going on.’ Tension is running high between Mayor Lightfoot and aldermen who say she’s let Chicago’s outlying neighborhoods down during the plague of vandalism.
■ Lightfoot: “We didn’t stand by and let the South and West sides burn.”
■ A Sun-Times editorial: “We take seriously the complaints of aldermen that the police were missing in action.”
■ The devastation has hit much of Chicago.
■ Chicago—including the CTA—was reopening after another night of curfew.
■ And free meals are back for Chicago’s displaced schoolkids.
■ But Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown warns, “Nobody should underestimate the tremendous harm that was done to this city over the weekend, damage that won’t be undone for years to come.”
■ Trib photos capture some of the massive cleanup work ongoing.
■ Chicago’s suburbs are getting it, too.
Outside agitator. A Galesburg, Illinois, man accused of looting and rioting in Minneapolis before moving onto Chicago faces federal criminal charges—including possession of unregistered explosive devices.■ One Chicago cop tells the Sun-Times a lot of those looting in the Loop Saturday night had Southern accents. (Photo: Knox County Jail.)
Blackout Tuesday. Today’s music industry push against racism has spread beyond its origins.
■ Facebook workers staged a virtual walkout to protest the company’s enabling of Trump’s racism.
■ Stephen Colbert: “Remember when we were all afraid of our groceries? I miss those days.”
Chicago Public Square welcomes Comp-U-Dopt to its roster of public service advertisers.
Thanks, Pam Spiegel, for punctuational vigilance on this edition.