Reynolds ‘done w/ America?’ I thought Chicago was “done” w/ Mel long ago

One-time member of Congress from Chicago Mel Reynolds, the man who more than two decades ago made the phrases “peach panties” and “did I win the Lotto?” words worth snickering at, has added a new one to the lexicon of ridiculous things spoken by political people.

REYNOLDS: From Congress to incarceration

Reynolds, who back in 1995 was found guilty of having sex with an underage girl, was sentenced to prison this week on charges he went four years without filing income tax returns.

HIS REACTION TO getting a six-month prison term?

“I’m done with America,” he said, even though he admitted his sentence was far less than the just-over two years of prison time prosecutors sought, and that it is assured he’ll be free before year’s end.

Reynolds says that after he serves his time and is released, he plans to leave this country and live the rest of his life in an African nation. Possibly South Africa, where it turns out one of his daughters has resided for several years.

Reynolds, in talking with reporter-type people following his sentencing at the Dirksen Building federal courthouse, made it clear he thinks he’s the one being victimized – just another black man being constantly hounded by law enforcement and being sent off to prison just because he’s tried to make something of his life aside from menial labor.

NOW I DON’T doubt that there are elements of our society that do seek to keep black people from accomplishing much; or making any success they do achieve as difficult to do so as possible.

There may even be some who are taking a perverse pleasure at the thought that Reynolds – who served two terms in the House of Representatives from Chicago’s far South Side and surrounding suburbs in the early-to-mid-1990s – is now on his third term of incarceration.

But I can’t help but think that most people who heard of Reynolds’ fate on Thursday got their snicker from what they perceive as the man’s awfully-high perception of his self-importance.

Reynolds is “done with America?” I think it’s more accurate to say that America, particularly that segment of the nation that is Chicago, is “done” with Mel. To the point where most of us haven’t thought about him in ages – and may have even been a little shocked to learn the man is still around.

I SUSPECT WE’LL get over the idea of a Mel-less society, particularly since even the people who were supposed to be his strongest supporters were never that thrilled with the man.

Reynolds was a product of the 1992 election cycle that gave us Bill Clinton as president. There also was Gus Savage in Congress, and his oft-outspoken ways that provoked the sensibilities of non-black people (to be honest, he didn’t care what they thought) created a gap for a challenger.

Which was Mel, a Mississippi-born and Chicago-raised man who got a chance to attend Harvard University and also was a Rhodes Scholar.

I remember that many black people were apathetic about Reynolds, largely because of the perception that Mel thought he was better than everybody else. Which created conditions that – when he got into legal troubles – too many were more than willing to laugh at him and enjoy his misery.

AS FAR AS an Africa-residing Reynolds is concerned, my reaction is to wonder which nation would actually accept him. One of Reynolds’ more recent predicaments was an arrest in Zimbabwe – which makes me think that no matter where he goes, he’s going to manage to tick people off and be harassed by the local officials.

Some people just bring out the worst.

Although there may well be one other bit of significance to the Mel Reynolds saga. The man who once had the whole wide world at his grasp will have lost it all and wind up living off of his daughter.

For his sake, he’d better stay on her good side, since he might not have any other friends left.

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Somebody somewhere REALLY doesn’t think much of Mel Reynolds

The Mel Reynolds saga has reached new levels of pathos, what with the way he’s now desperately scouring for a place to live that doesn’t offend the sensibilities of the U.S. District Court in Chicago.

REYNOLDS: 'Big Brother' watching him?

Reynolds is the one-time Congressman (and Rhodes scholar who also attended Harvard University which makes him a highly-educated Chicago politico) who has done time in both state and federal prisons, and nearly got himself incarcerated in Africa.

HE HAD TO “settle” for deportation instead.

He has a new round of legal issues to deal with – federal prosecutors are seeking conviction and prison time on charges that he did not file income tax returns during a four-year period.

Those charges are now pending, and Reynolds had been reduced to living with a friend in Chicago while also this is going on.

But it seems that is a problem, because of that state conviction from two decades ago that is the reason most people remember Reynolds at all – where he was found guilty of having sexual relations with a teenage girl. Remember the gags about “peach panties” and “win(ning) the Lotto?”

BECAUSE OF THAT conviction, he remains a sex offender. He’s required to notify authorities of where he lives. And there are restrictions on where he can live – theoretically to reduce the amount of exposure he has to children.

Sure enough, his residence falls within the range of a school. He has to move.

But he was reduced to scrambling on Thursday to find someone to stay with who is far away enough from children to not offend the court’s sensibilities. One place in suburban Bartlett was too close to a child care facility, while Reynolds’ plans to check into a motel just across the state line in Indiana bothered the judge.

They could easily sic’ the U.S. Marshalls based in Hammond, Ind., on Reynolds, but the judge didn’t like the idea of Mel having to cross state lines quite so often. Even if anyone who is realistic knows full well that the Chicago metro area stretches into the Hoosier state.

AS ONE WHO was born in the part of Chicago that borders Indiana and raised in suburban municipalities right on State Line Road, I’d be inclined to think that making Mel Reynolds live in Indiana ought to constitute part of his punishment.

It certainly would put him out of our political hair, while also keeping him close enough for law enforcement types to keep an eye on him.

But that’s not going to happen. Supposedly, Reynolds found someone to stay with for Thursday night, and is expected to return to court on Friday with a long-range plan for where he will stay while he is free on bond for the tax evasion charges he currently faces.

We’ll find out later Friday if the judge is satisfied with his living arrangements, or if the threat is followed through on that Reynolds would have to be detained at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (the South Loop building with the narrow, rectangular windows) while his criminal case is pending.

PERHAPS IT ONLY is appropriate that Reynolds is being overly-scrutinized (or “scrootened” as former Mayor Richard M. Daley would have said).

Because after facing the sex charges, then federal charges related to campaign contributions, and now the tax evasion charges, it seems that Reynolds is going to be watched for the rest of his life.

It’s just too bad that Reynolds didn’t catch on to that fact in recent years in handling his tax returns – which he insists are totally proper. Although I found it humorous to read in the Chicago Sun-Times how his attorney said that perhaps his poverty these days is his defense.

Maybe if he doesn’t have any money, it means he had miniscule income to report. We’ll have to see if the judge buys that legal argument.

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Will the ideologues despise Rauner for his actions on juvenile parole measure?

I have taken more than my fair share of pot-shots at Gov. Bruce Rauner and his ideologically-tinged attempts to tie the budgetary negotiating process up with his fight against organized labor and unions.

RAUNER: Not a complete ideologue

Yet I have to confess that I don’t view the man as a complete hard case when it comes to politically partisan measures – how else to explain the fact that Rauner gave his approval to a measure that will greatly offend the “law and order” types who want to think they’re giving us the ultimate in criminal justice.

USUALLY BECAUSE THEY get themselves off on the idea of being in a position of authority and being able to impose their will on someone else.

So I wonder how many enemies Rauner will make out of people who have been giving him their political support because they see his anti-labor measures as being a political pot-shot against Chicago.

For the record, Rauner signed into law on Monday a measure that – beginning Jan. 1 – repeals the Illinois laws that made for mandatory prison terms of life-without-parole of people under 18.

State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, who sponsored this measure, said he wanted for judges to have flexibility in determining sentences for young people who commit adult-sized crimes.

THAT IS ACTUALLY an alien concept to many of the ideologues who like to screech and scream “law and order” – they call for the mandatory sentences that in real-life circumstances often do not apply.

It also helped the cause of doing away with this particular “mandatory” law that the Supreme Court of the United States ruled three years ago that the idea of a life-without-parole for a teenager was an inherently unconstitutional concept.

It is nice to see that Rauner had the sense to go along with this measure – rather than letting himself by influenced by certain types of people in our society who have no sense of compassion.

Restore Justice Illinois officials issued their own statement saying the new law acknowledges fundamental development differences between children and adults, and is a first step toward addressing issues faced by young people when they wind up in the criminal justice system.

I CAN ALREADY envision the responses I will get from some people – anonymous e-mails from people telling me I’m soft and don’t appreciate the idea of ‘rule of law’ and the idea of people being responsible for their actions.

Which is a batch of nonsense. If anything, some people are too hard-headed in their refusal to think that they should probably never be put in a position of authority.

Or else we all lose out!

In my time as a reporter-type person, I have encountered enough court cases and judges to realize that the reason we give some respect to the legal profession is that we need someone with knowledge who can make judgment calls.

PERHAPS I HAVE faith in judges and their ability to make a decision based on the specific circumstances of any case. I feel like imposing mandatory sentencing rules in general is meant to take away that authority – usually by narrow-minded politicos with their own social agendas to pursue.

Let’s give Rauner a moment of praise for this action, which may make up in some minds for the fact that Rauner recently gave his approval to another new law making it illegal to hunt bobcats in Illinois.

Or before we go back to blasting him for his inability to work WITH the state Legislature’s leadership in putting together a budget for the fiscal year that already is three weeks old.

 

Where he deserves just as much blame as da Dems for that failure!

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‘Junior’ may be home again by week’s end. But will it be D.C., or So. Shore?

Sometime Thursday, federal inmate Jesse Jackson, Jr., will be released from the prison camp near Montgomery, Ala., where he has been held since last spring; and I’m sure his thoughts and prayers are focused on how quickly he can return to home.

Technically, Jackson remains in federal custody through Sept. 20, although his release to a halfway house in the District of Columbia is part of the process by which all federal inmates become re-accustomed to life outside of prison walls.

AND YES, I realize that Jackson was being held in a camp that was part of an air force base, but the imagery remains.

But the trick is going to be to decide whether Jackson can be determined to be such a non-threat to the society at large that it would be a waste of time to have him actually stay at the halfway house.

It’s a very real possibility.

Remember back when former Gov. George Ryan was released from the work camp that was attached to the federal prison near Terre Haute, Ind.? He reported to a halfway house on the West Side, and it was found within six hours that he didn’t need to be there.

HE WOUND UP spending that first night of “freedom” really free at his home near Kankakee. It’s very possible that depending on how late in the day you actually read this commentary, Jackson himself could be on his way home.

The only question being, “Which home?” The house he has in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington? Or the house in the South Shore neighborhood that gave him the address that enabled him to be a part of the Illinois congressional delegation for all those years?

Will Jesse, Jr., return to his South Side roots? Or find that a change of scenery is best for him to be capable of building a new life for himself. He did just turn 50 a couple of weeks ago, and is still capable of doing something significant to build his reputation.

Even though I’m sure there are certain ideologue crackpots who will only be satisfied if Jackson were to become a destitute bum. Of course, then they’d rant about him existing off the public welfare rolls.

SOME PEOPLE ARE just determined to be miserable to deal with! Like the ones who, I’m sure, are now ranting that Jackson should not be free anytime soon – even though his “criminal” offense wound up being the use of campaign funds to purchase assorted memorabilia to decorate the office.

Which makes me wonder about the ongoing mess that soon-to-be former Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., faces. He being the guy who spent significant sums to re-decorate his own Capitol Hill space – is there something about interior decorating that attracts the suspicion of “the feds” to warrant indictment, conviction and incarceration?

It will be intriguing to see how the new Jackson comes to be.

While he had a political career of some significance with big dreams that fell short (“Mayor Jackson?”) of becoming reality, I don’t doubt he could come back to achieve some goals that could wind up topping his political significance.

OF COURSE, HE has to get through this ordeal first. Regardless of where he calls “home,” he’s likely to have to wear one of those funky ankle bracelets during the summer months so as to further demean him.

Then, sometime in mid-October, spouse Sandi (the former alderman who got busted for signing the income tax returns that allegedly tried legitimizing Jackson’s actions) will have to do her few months in prison – followed up by her own stint in a halfway house/home confinement.

When the Jacksons are finally (sometime late in 2016) finally able to get on with their lives, there is another benefit. Perhaps then we’ll be able to get over our public obsession over this case.

All of us will be a lot better off when that day comes.

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Put 'Burge' name up with 'Capone' as those who '"got away" with something

By the time you read this, one-time Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge will be a free man. For some of you, that thought is bound to cause a knot in your stomach.


For Burge is the police official who wound up doing some prison time because of allegations that he and the officers under his command at the then-Pullman Area detective unit were overzealous in their use of force when interrogating criminal suspects.


SOME WILL EASILY say their conduct amounted to torture. It easily is a stain on the reputation of the Chicago Police Department as despicable as any other moment in that department's history.


As it turned out, Burge didn't go to prison because people got tortured. By the time anyone got around to seriously investigating Burge's conduct, the statute of limitations had long passed.


But in a lawsuit about the conduct, Burge denied he did anything improper. That led to a court deciding that Burge had committed perjury. Just like Al Capone being nailed for income tax evasion, rather than for any of the crimes his organization committed that made the Roarin' 20's so wild in Chicago.


All of which is why Burge has spent the past three-and-a-half years at a federal correctional facility in North Carolina. But his actual incarceration ended Thursday. He was sent to a half-way house in Tampa, Fla., as part of the standard process of shifting an inmate back to regular society.


THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE reported that it was possible officials could decide that Burge shouldn't have to do any time at the half-way house, but instead could return to his home in Apollo Beach, Fla., right away.


He'd have to wear one of those ankle bracelets and know that federal officials were constantly watching his movement. But still, he'd be home -- in the place to which he retired after he was fired from the Chicago Police Department back in the early 1990s.


That is the fact that has some people all outraged. They would have wanted some sort of perpetual incarceration, or punishment that was life-lasting -- although I'm sure the fact that Burge can't call himself a police officer any longer is a sort of punishment to him.


They're also the ones who are upset that Burge continues to get a pension of about $4,000 per month -- he's not going to be destitute. All because the act of perjury that resulted in a criminal conviction and incarceration occurred AFTER he was removed from the Police Department.


ACTIVIST TYPES WERE expected to be at City Hall on Thursday to protest in favor of the City Council passing a measure that would allow for reparations payments, so to speak, to people who are tortured by police. Although I suspect it would wind up only applying to future incidents, and wouldn't result in any of Burge's victims -- who have cost city and county officials millions of dollars in lawsuits -- getting any additional money.


It's probably for the best that Burge is now off in Florida enjoying a retiree's fate. Because we probably would wind up seeing the public do something stupid to seek retribution if he ever tried to come back to Chicago.


Because this is going to be a case that some of us will never get over, while the bulk of us do a long simmer in the frying pan of life to try to burn away our disgust with the sense that the police officer "got away" with something serious.


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EXTRA: Jail not a pleasant place. That doesn’t make lawsuit’s claims proper

I find it odd that a television in the background while I write this is showing the 1997 film “Pleasantville,” which tells the tale of a 1950’s-era community where everything is pristine and pleasant.


Just because Cook County had a miserable jail back in 1910 doesn't mean we have to strive today to be even worse


Of course, that film shows us the dirty underside of such a white-washed community. And a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court shows us the dirty underside of Chicago these days.

AS IN THE Cook County Jail.

The lawsuit says that the county’s management of the jail amounts to “sadistic violence and brutality.” What with the way guards use physical force to maintain order, or turn their heads to look away from brutal acts committed by inmates on themselves.

Now I know the reality I have heard from corrections officials that they are outnumbered by inmates within a jail or prison facility, and how any attempt to impose order by total domination would likely provoke the inmates into a riot.

So they tend to let the inmates have a sense of policing themselves.

THIS LAWSUIT BY the MacArthur Justice Center and the Uptown People’s Law Center gives a horrific image of incarceration that ought to make us ashamed that we could permit such a thing to happen within our society.

Although I’m also sure there are those amongst us who will read the reports about the lawsuit and merely shrug their shoulders, thinking to themselves, “Prison isn’t supposed to be pleasant.”

I’ll agree. But I also tend to believe that how we treat our most vulnerable (or choose to ignore them) also says a lot about us as a society and how seriously we deserve to be treated.

Personally, I’d like to think we deserve better than any reputation we’d get from letting the violence run amok out there at the jail in the Little Village neighborhood.

EVEN IN PLEASANTVILLE, in that scene where Toby McGuire’s “Bud” character spent time in a jail cell (charged with actions that made life “less pleasant”), nobody was threatening him with “an elevator ride.”

As in a place where he could be beaten up without being recorded on any security cameras – according to the jailhouse code included in the lawsuit.

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