Good afternoon, Chicago. ✶
In today’s newsletter, we’re taking a look at a recent letter that the office of the city’s inspector general sent to Mayor Brandon Johnson about extremism in the ranks of the Chicago Police Department.
The city watchdog said that efforts to address this issue have fallen short of Johnson’s promises when he was on the campaign trail.
Plus we’ve got reporting on Colombia’s handling of Venezuelan migrants compared to Chicago’s, Chief Keef’s return to a suburban Chicago stage and more community news you need to know below. 👇
📝 Editor’s note: There will be no Wednesday Afternoon Edition. Instead, you will get a Special Edition Juneteenth newsletter in your inbox around 10 a.m. Thanks for reading.
⏱️: A 7-minute read
— Matt Moore, newsletter reporter (@MattKenMoore)
TODAY’S TOP STORY
Efforts to root out Chicago police extremism have ‘fallen short’ of Mayor Johnson’s promises, watchdog says
Reporting by Tom Schuba and Dan Mihalopoulos | WBEZ
A warning and call to action: Chicago’s watchdog agency recently warned Mayor Brandon Johnson that efforts to root out extremism among cops have “fallen short” of his campaign promise to fire officers with ties to the far right. The harsh criticism, sent in April, called for a coordinated response to “an issue of profound importance and pressing public concern.”
Key details: Chicago cops have been tied to a range of far-right groups, including the Proud Boys, Three Percenters and Ku Klux Klan, the city’s deputy inspector general for public safety wrote on April 25. “Any ongoing mishandling of the matter puts the police department’s public legitimacy at critical risk, the letter says.
Key context: The letter came just a week before the police department announced that eight officers linked to the Oath Keepers wouldn’t be disciplined, even though six of them acknowledged signing up for the anti-government militia. It was the second time internal investigators closed a probe into officers’ ties to the Oath Keepers without finding any wrongdoing.
Review ongoing: City Inspector General Deborah Witzburg has said her office is reviewing the findings of the latest investigation, launched after the Chicago Sun-Times, WBEZ and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reported on the misconduct records of cops tied to the Oath Keepers and detailed the police department’s apparent tolerance for extremism.
Recommendation for mayor: The letter urged Johnson to convene a task force “to plan for and implement a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to preventing, identifying and eliminating extremist and anti-government activities and associations within CPD.”
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
- Chief Keef comes home: For the first time in the Chicago area in nearly 12 years, Chief Keef performed for a crowd of thousands Sunday at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview. The drill rapper dug into his catalog and brought out fellow Chicago artists, including G Herbo, to join him on stage.
- Teen sentenced in fatal shooting near school: A now 18-year-old who shot and killed two students outside Benito Juarez High School in 2022 has been sentenced to 46 years in prison. Prosecutors said the shooting was gang-related.
- Mayor launches reparations task force: Mayor Johnson has begun moving forward with a $500,000 task force on reparations he announced last year. Reparations will “unlock the doors of prosperity to fully flow through the neighborhoods that have been disinvested in for decades,” Johnson said Monday.
- Renewed push for public financing of campaigns: 47th Ward Ald. Matt Martin has introduced an ordinance aimed at getting the big money out of Chicago politics — but at taxpayers’ expense.
- ‘Late Show’ and ‘Daily Show’ Dem convention tickets: With “The Daily Show” and “The Late Show” coming to Chicago in August during the Democratic National Convention, both are opening up ticketing options for those who want to see Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart live.
- 3 stars for ‘The Devil Is in the Detours’: The Second City cast performing this new revue has a definite vision, and the test will be how many audiences are willing to run with it, writes entertainment editor Darel Jevens in a review.
SUN-TIMES + WBEZ SPECIAL REPORT
What Colombia can teach Chicago about managing a migrant wave
Reporting by Chip Mitchell | WBEZ
Over the last two years, Chicago has struggled to care for migrants arriving from the Southern border. The majority, about 30,000, are from Venezuela.
But the number of Venezuelans in Chicago hardly compares to the number who have migrated in the last decade to neighboring Colombia. Bogotá, the capital, alone has received more than 600,000 migrants.
This spring, WBEZ reporter Chip Mitchell and Sun-Times photojournalist Anthony Vazquez flew to Colombia to see how it has handled its Venezuelan influx.
Initially embraced: Through his reporting, Mitchell found that Colombia initially rolled out the welcome mat, and by many measures, absorbed new migrants with little harm and many benefits. Nearly 1.9 million Venezuelans gained paths to formal employment and Colombia’s education and health care.
Approach shifts: But more recently, Colombia’s migrant integration has begun to falter due to the indifference of a new president, waning interest among international donors and a wave of xenophobia rippling through the public. The reality has kept many Venezuelans at the margins of Colombian society.
Impact on Colombia’s economy: About two-thirds of the 2.9 million Venezuelan migrants in Colombia have received the country’s temporary protection permit, a path to formal jobs, health care, pensions, education and the financial system. An International Monetary Fund study stated that integrating Venezuelan migrants into the formal labor market could expand Colombia’s GDP almost 4% by 2030.
The local angle: In Chicago, advocates for migrants say migrants could help revitalize depopulated neighborhoods and schools. Migrant students have already helped reverse the school system’s enrollment decline. New arrivals, if allowed, could also mitigate local labor shortages.
BRIGHT ONE ✨
Chicagoan Lawrence Wood has won The New Yorker’s caption contest more than anyone
Reporting by Graham Meyer
As with some magazines that subscribers might guiltily read not just for the articles, many readers of The New Yorker head straight for the cartoons. Especially the page in the back of each issue featuring the cartoon caption contest.
Each contest starts with a single-panel cartoon without a caption. Thousands of readers suggest captions. The following week, three become finalists, with the name and hometown of each appearing in print. And then one wins.
The contest’s most frequently appearing credit, as a winner and finalist, is “Lawrence Wood, Chicago, Ill.,” written in italics under the image and the lauded captions.
Wood, a public interest lawyer, has won the contest eight times and reached the finals seven more. His success inspired his new book “Your Caption Has Been Selected: More Than Anyone Could Possibly Want to Know About The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest” (St. Martin’s Press, $33).
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
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Editor: Satchel Price
Newsletter reporter: Matt Moore
Copy editor: Angie Myers
