Survey highlights lack of trust in CPD by young Black and Latino men, What to know about new COVID boosters and more in your Chicago news roundup

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

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Afternoon Edition

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Top story

New survey shows Chicago Police Department has far to go to win trust of young Latino and Black men. ‘Not a source of justice.’

A follow-up report by the court-appointed monitor of the Chicago Police Department has found that many Black and Latino men still do not trust officers to treat them with “dignity and respect.”

Words commonly used by the men to describe Chicago police were aggressive, racist, disrespectful, unreliable and unethical.

“I don’t trust them. They don’t care about what happens in the neighborhood,” said a man who participated in the survey overseen by the monitor, Maggie Hickey, a former federal prosecutor. “When there is a shooting, I want [police officers] to do their jobs. They don’t do their jobs. Not a source of justice or beacon of hope.”

The survey provides a measurement of the police department as it continues to grapple with sweeping reforms ordered in a federal consent decree after the 2014 police killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

Earlier this year, Hickey’s office found that the department was falling short in its efforts to engage and build trust among residents.

The latest report, released yesterday, found little improvement from a similar survey by the monitor in 2019. That report found Chicagoans gave the police department low ratings for trustworthiness and “procedural justice,” with negative reactions strongest among Black and Latino men.

In the new survey, Black and Latino men from Chicago, ages 18 to 35, were interviewed from December 2020 through June 2021.

“Young Black and Latino men in Chicago continue to report that they do not experience procedural justice during their interactions with the [Chicago Police Department],” Hickey wrote. “Black and Latino men want to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Allison Novelo has more on the survey’s findings here.

More news you need

1. A 5-year-old boy has died four days after he was shot in a car after visiting his father in Rogers Park. Devin McGregor’s mother had just buckled him into a car seat when somebody drove up and fired gunshots, also wounding his father, who has survived.
2. More COVID-19 booster shots are set to become available around Chicago in the coming days. The new Pfizer and Moderna boosters specifically target the COVID strains that are now most prevalent. Our Brett Chase has more on how to get the shots here.
3. Chicago’s top cop said today the city is bracing for the last holiday weekend of the summer by making as many officers as possible visible in the neighborhoods, on the CTA and even on the water. While days off have been canceled, Brown said that under a new policy announced this week, officers will only have one day off canceled, not two.
4. A Bridgeview-based construction company is accused of wage theft and using an elaborate scheme to underpay dozens of union carpenters, according to a lawsuit filed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office. Drive Construction allegedly funneled payments to carpenters through sham subcontractors to pay less than what the state’s overtime and prevailing wage laws require.
5. Attendance rates at Chicago Public Schools continued their climb back toward pre-pandemic levels last week. More than 93% of students showed up to classes on the first day of school, the district said.
6. Political operative Roberto Caldero today pleaded guilty in a corruption case involving ex-Ald. Danny Solis. Prosecutors previously said Caldero leaned on Solis to help an Ohio company win a $1 billion custodial services contract at CPS and to get a street and park named after some Cacciatore family members.
7. For our 2022 Fall Guide, Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper shares the forthcoming films he can’t wait to see. From “Pinocchio” to “The Woman King,” “Black Adam” and “Till,” see the full list of movies here.

A bright one

Artist says this mashup in a Pilsen mural of birds and feathers and a beam of light is about ‘paying attention to nature’

The images on the wall are kind of mashed together, with what looks like an eyeball in a puffy cloud from which emerges a greenish bolt of light that seems to be beaming amid a cluster of birds and errant feathers.

It might seem abstract, but Rodrigo Oñate, the artist who created the mural in 2020, says his message is straightforward.

“The mural talks about paying attention to nature,” says Oñate, who lives in Mexico and paints under the name Rocodrilo. “And keeping an eye on species, taking care of our natural surroundings.”

Teresa Magaña, executive director of the nonprofit Pilsen Arts and Community House, which curated the project, sees the message of the painting at 21st Street and Ashland Avenue a little differently.

Provided

“I have a take on it: keeping us together,” Magaña says.

Not just in the sense of the neighborhood pushing back against gentrification in Pilsen, which has been heavily Mexican American and working-class, but “keeping us cohesive,” she says.

“Those animals and creatures fuse together at some point,” Magaña says. “There’s a harmony.”

You can learn more about Oñate and his work in our full story on the artist here.

From the press box

• Ted Phillips, who has been the Bears’ president and CEO since 1999, will retire in February.
• With the season opener about a week away, our Patrick Finley breaks down the Bears’ biggest questions.
• Notre Dame is on the wrong end of a code-red spread at Ohio State, Steve Greenberg argues in his latest column.
• As the Sky look to advance past the Sun in Game 3 on Sunday, Annie Costabile makes the case for why Emma Meesseman’s impact can’t be overstated.

Your daily question☕

What’s the best way to bid summer goodbye in Chicago?

Send us an email at newsletters@suntimes.com and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: What’s the coolest trick you’ve ever taught your pet?

Here’s what some of you said...

“She can fist bump me with her front paw, or if I ask for a back bump she’ll turn around and tap with her back paws. People always laugh.” — Nick Vitone

“My late Border Collie Mia, would get my newspaper off the porch and bring it to me. Oh how I miss her.” — Ed Volpi

“Taught my parrot to whistle don’t worry be happy.” — Joeann Keefner Hanna

“I taught my dog sign language.” — Amy Wyner-Feldman

“To listen better than my husband.” — Vee-nessa Mltn-Mojica

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