I'm already sick of seeing and hearing from the three Lockport women who injected themselves with a flesh-eating drug. Amber Neitzel, 26, and her sister, Angela, 29, are admitted heroin addicts. Their mother, 48-year-old Kim Neitzel, also is addicted to the illegal drug. The women have become the face of Krokodil, a disfiguring man-made drug that leaves users with dead and rotting skin. Police officials are trying to identify the source of the drug, which costs about $8. [continues 686 words]
When a young mother is killed trying to protect her 2-year-old son from stray bullets, then it is easy to understand why some of us are calling for the National Guard to help curb the violence. So far, police haven't said what motivated two armed men to storm into a barbershop in Sacramento, CA with guns blazing. The gunmen injured six people and killed Monique Nelson, as she tried to strap her son into a car seat and escape the violence. [continues 584 words]
Officer Should Have Been Booted, Not Given Desk Job Even with a shortage of eligible black men, it's unlikely that a crackhead from Englewood had consensual sex with police Sgt. John Herman. Let's start with the beady eyes, Nazi mustache and double chin. But Herman's lawyer, Peter Hickey, ripped the woman -- an admitted crack user -- who says she was raped by Herman in 2004. "This is about money. This is about a woman who was out walking the streets," Hickey said. [continues 702 words]
No snitching is no joke. What "no snitching" means is that a lot of murderers, rapists and street thugs are able to get away with their crimes. You'd have to be demented to think that's funny. But two years ago a group of 'hood rats in Baltimore exploited their homeboy rights by getting Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony to appear in a six-minute DVD titled "Stop Snitching." Since then, other street hustlers have taken up the mantra. "Stop Snitching" T-shirts have been sold in Baltimore and Philadelphia, and several Web sites are devoted to ratting out so-called snitches. [continues 659 words]
We don't have a black and white problem as much as we have a black and blue problem. While the race of police officers who have been involved in questionable, high-profile shootings have been black, white and Hispanic, the race of the citizens who have been shot by police have been the same: black. In most instances, those citizens have also been males. Whether we're talking about police shootings in L.A., Cleveland, Chicago, Atlanta or New York, the common denominator has been race. [continues 735 words]
What am I to tell black children? Every spring, I'm invited to speak at public school graduations. But instead of being excited about participating in this rite of passage, my stomach churns. The news we hear regularly about black youth, especially males, is not good. Too many of them drop out of high school. Too many of them end up in the criminal justice system. Too many of them are toting guns. Too many of them die before reaching 21. [continues 798 words]
Black women are used to bad hair days. But Lilnora Foster's bad hair day cost her an apartment in the newly renovated building at CHA's Hilliard complex, a mixed-income development on the South Side, when the public-housing resident tested positive for drug use. "They told me my drug test was positive. I don't do drugs," Foster said emphatically. "I do not do illegal drugs. Somebody did something wrong." Foster, who receives a disability check, volunteers regularly at her 8-year-old daughter's school, and is a full-time college student majoring in social work, did not let the matter drop. After receiving a positive result from a hair test at Concentra drug testing laboratory on the South Side, she went to the lab's North Side site for another test. When that test also came back positive, Foster went to her doctor at Mercy Hospital and got a blood test for a toxicology screen for 22 different drugs, including cocaine. [continues 685 words]
I wasn't one of the 1 million people glued to the radio waiting to hear how Rush Limbaugh would handle his return to the air waves. Actually, I don't think I've ever listened to Limbaugh. That's the beautiful thing about free speech. People are free to say whatever they want, but we are also free not to listen. Since no one put a gun to my head and forced my ear to the radio, I didn't catch Limbaugh's act. [continues 823 words]
Some white people have a lot of nerve. Hardly a day goes by without a newscast that shows the dangers that exist in drug-infested neighborhoods, but on Thursday afternoon, I watched nearly a dozen white people drive or walk to the back of an abandoned industrial site, lured by the shouts of "blow," and "rock." At the end of the day, 463 people were arrested in Operation Double Play, a massive reverse drug sting conducted at 20 locations on the West Side. About a third of the suspects were white suburbanites. [continues 747 words]
I envy the U.S. Supreme Court justices. They must be living on a block where adults are in control and no one screws up, not even once. In their world, a stern word or two is enough to settle any matter. Teens are always obedient. And spotted sheep are never born into the family fold. That would explain how the justices could unanimously uphold a "one-strike" policy that allows tenants in public housing to be evicted for drug crimes committed by a family member or visitor. [continues 767 words]
Most of us have heard the rhetoric about prisons. For years, activists have railed against the prison building boom. Even staunch law and order types have a difficult time veiling contempt for a criminal justice system that has locked up hundreds of thousands of minorities in the ongoing drug war. But the group that really needs to hear these concerns isn't listening. Despite warnings about where they are going to end up if they don't straighten up, young men and women have lined up to take the trip Downstate. [continues 742 words]
Many of you may not know George Willborn, the resident funny man with the WVAZ-FM (103) afternoon crew. So you may not know that Willborn, a home-grown Chicago talent, was arrested on drug charges nearly a month ago. I was shocked when a reader e-mailed me ranting about Willborn's arrest for allegedly buying crack cocaine near the Chicago Housing Authority's Stateway Gardens during a drug sting. I thought it had to be a joke. Not Willborn. [continues 825 words]
Reading some of the correspondence that awaited me on Monday was like receiving mail from a war zone. One heart-wrenching plea was from someone who identified herself as a relative of Khristan Bracy, 20, one of the three people killed early Saturday in Morgan Park, execution-style. Also murdered were Nadia James, 22, and Terrell Hall, 23. The crime was drug-related, and victims had police records, according to a spokesman with the Chicago Police Department. One of the murdered women was nine months pregnant. [continues 762 words]
I didn't know what to expect from a woman who would spend her summer vacation trying to rally support for an imprisoned gang leader who she is convinced was set up by government officials. But I was intrigued. Lisa Wright, a k a the "Angel of Hope," has spent several years of her life trying to prove that William Ernest Hope, the reputed second-in-command of the Gangster Disciples and brother of Larry Hoover, the imprisoned leader of the Gangster Disciples, is innocent. [continues 739 words]
At the funeral of Tsarina Powell, a woman pressed into my hand an envelope containing a $200 check in donations collected from co-workers. She hoped the money would help the Powell family cope with the tragic and violent end to the 12-year-old girl's life. Tsarina was killed on July 10 as she fled her bed when her home was sprayed with gunfire. Like many of the people who sent flowers, the young woman who gave me the check felt that what happened to Tsarina was the last straw. [continues 574 words]
I was not at the Emergency African American Leadership Summit convened Saturday by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) because journalists weren't invited. So I cannot give you a detailed account of the solutions discussed by some of the 600 participants who came together to map out a strategy for addressing the violence that plagues predominantly African-American communities. What I can tell you, though, is the one approach that really should have been considered as a possible solution to the violence was not debated. That is: How do we take the profits out of the illegal drug trade so that drug dealers and gang-bangers will stop fighting over turf and killing innocent people in the process? [continues 652 words]
Tsarina Powell died in a war zone. And hours after the 12-year-old was killed trying to escape gunfire into her home, her neighbors sat on their front porches weary of the strangers who intruded into their own private hell. It was eerie. Another young life is crushed under the weight of the drug war, but where is the outrage? Where are our elected officals, clergy and others? Where is our march to the killing room to demand an end to this carnage? [continues 627 words]
There's something important that shouldn't be overlooked about the civil unrest that erupted in Miami when federal officials removed Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives' home. What we saw could be just the beginning of a widening revolt against government authority. The unequal enforcement of America's laws and policies has bred a growing disrespect for the rule of law. In too many instances--whether we are talking about the prosecution of drug traffickers or treatment of illegal immigrants--there seem to be two sets of rules: One set applies when it comes to the affluent or those who have clout, and another when poor folks are involved. Although I support U.S. Attorney Janet Reno's decision to take Elian by force, I admire the spirit of the Cuban Americans who kept up a daily protest against the U.S. government over this issue. The fact is, if you are poor and without influence in America, you are likely to feel the full brunt of government policies while others do not. Even immigrants who fled the oppressive regime of Cuba's Fidel Castro understand this about America. But our topic is not about one little boy. It is about what happens to the tens of thousands of little boys and girls who were unlucky enough to be born to low-income mothers addicted to illegal substances compared with little boys and girls who are lucky enough to be born to affluent mothers addicted to illegal drugs. In most instances, the children of low-income drug users are churned into the child welfare system while affluent mothers are allowed to bundle up their children and take them home. This happens because many hospitals in affluent areas refuse to test--and therefore don't report--mothers and babies for the presence of illegal substances. In fact, Illinois law does not require hospitals to test infants for these drugs. [continues 374 words]
If I believed in conspiracy theories, I'd certainly think someone is conspiring against Tina Olison. Olison, you might recall, is the former drug addict who is trying to regain custody of "Baby T." After a protracted court battle with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Olison was awarded custody of her 3-year-old son in March. Kane County Judge Judith M. Brawka--who was assigned to the case only after Olison fought to have the case heard outside of Cook County--ruled that Baby T should be returned to Olison within 12 months. [continues 527 words]
This may sound cold, but I can't dredge up a bit of sympathy for a drug dealer who was killed during a scuffle with police officers. I'm only sorry that Gregory Riley, 31, didn't get help for his drug addiction. Maybe then he would not have been selling drugs near the 4300 block of West Adams, as police allege. Maybe he would have had the presence of mind to stop when police officers ordered him to stop. Maybe officers would not have had to put a foot on his neck and in his back to get handcuffs on him. [continues 581 words]
