School proximity restrictions about politics more than public safety

The political reporter-type person in me always found humorous the laws that were meant to restrict proximity to a school or church – usually based on the concept that certain individuals or businesses have no business locating hear the youthful or the overly-holy amongst us.

BERRIOS: Name in news despite himself

No strip clubs or dive taverns across the street from a church or convent (remember that bar in west suburban Stone Park that ultimately lost its liquor license because the nuns nearby didn’t appreciate the drunken neighbors?).

THEY ALWAYS STRUCK me as something overly simplistic, and not always easy to enforce. Particularly if they come down to issues of “How close is too close?”

So I was intrigued by a pair of stories I stumbled across Friday.

One involved Gov. Bruce Rauner signing off on a long-standing change to state law that requires the General Assembly to approve amendments to the state’s Liquor Control Law for every instance for every instance where alcohol is served within 100 feet of a church or school.

Now, municipal officials will have the authority to issue exemptions. No more having to get the legislative types who, theoretically, ought to be preoccupied with bigger issues instead of worrying about where taverns are located in the neighborhoods.

THERE ALSO WAS a Chicago Sun-Times report about the company that oversees parking of cars for various public events at privately-owned lots.

In the instance that has the newspaper all worked up, people attending ballgames at Wrigley Field are parking their cars in, amongst other places, a lot that is part of the Inter-American School property two blocks away on Waveland Avenue.

The “controversial” part is that the Blk & Wht Valet LLC employed an individual to work at that lot who has a criminal record for sex offenses – and part of his penalty is that he is required to list himself as a sex offender, which limits the places where he can be.

RAUNER: Giving local officials more control

And as the Sun-Times chose to phrase it, their reporters found the employee in question at work, “with kids swinging on the monkey bars behind him.”

FOR THE RECORD, that employee has since been fired from his job, although it seems the company may wind up losing its contract for claims they didn’t do an adequate background check on their employee.

Although the Sun-Times reports the company saying the worker in question didn’t indicate his criminal record on his job application. Which would put this incident in the category of a person with a record hoping it wouldn’t catch up with him.

In short, an incident where such restrictions aren’t the easiest thing to enforce. I suspect, however, this particular worker is going to think he’s the victim – yet another incident of “the system” working to keep him unemployed.

One thing that caught my attention is the political connections of the company that, basically, is using other peoples’ property to park cars near Wrigley, along with Guaranteed Rate Field and the United Center.

ONE OWNER IS the son-in-law of soon-to-be former Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios (he’s married to former state Rep. Toni Berrios) and also is a grandson of a former Chicago Public Schools official with ties to the 11^th Ward Democratic Organization (a.k.a., the Daley family).

How tame is parking nearby?

By comparison, Rauner indicated his support of the state law change is meant to create greater local control, since he told the Chicago Tribune that many state legislators used the law to maintain a sense of local influence in their home neighborhoods.

After all, getting the legislator to support your measure would require a campaign contribution to the appropriate authority, with other legislators across the state sticking up for their colleagues even though they often knew nothing of the local situation.

So no matter how much people spew rhetoric about these laws somehow benefitting children and the public safety, in the end, they all come down to political concerns.

  -30-

Statehouse 'civil war' to occur this spring on immigration disputes?

It seems the Trump-ites and the sensible people of our society are going to be doing battle this spring at the Statehouse in Springfield. As if we don't have enough nonsense pervading our capitol building, we will get to add the disputes of those factions of our society to the mix.

Statehouse Scene could get gloomier with immigration thrown into mix

As if that wasn't enough, it's going to be over immigration. An issue that always has the potential to add to the insanity of society whenever it comes up.

CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS officials recently informed principals they ought to respond to the presence of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on their campuses by demanding to see a warrant. Officials with the school board for Oak Park-River Forest High School are in the process of creating a similar policy -- actually writing it into their school code to give it more lasting authority.

Which is what led state Rep. Chris Welch, D-Hillside, to introduce a bill before the Illinois General Assembly that would address the issue by giving school districts, hospitals and churches the authority to designate themselves sanctuary zones.

Such a policy would require local law enforcement to show they have a warrant before they can try entering those places' properties.

Some people are getting outraged at the very thought. Although if you want to know the truth, those people are the ones who are scary and suggesting something that we ought to think of as un-American.

THE POINT OF a warrant is to show that police are arriving on the scene for a specific purpose, and not just to harass or go on a fishing expedition -- of sorts -- in hopes of getting lucky and finding something that might lead to an immigration-related bust.

It also says that a judge has given at least cursory review to the evidence that would lead to an arrest, and that there is some reason to believe the allegations are legitimate.

I don't see what is wrong with requiring a warrant -- unless you're the type who believes we ought to live in a police state. Which makes you the ones of a terrifying mentality.

TRUMP: Talk gets people riled up!

Although I know we do have such people in our society who are convinced they are behaving in our best interests. Such is the motivation of people like state Rep. Allen Skillicorn, R-East Dundee, who has his own bill pending that is meant to counter the Welch measure.

HIS BILL WOULD say that local law enforcement entities can negotiate agreements to cooperate with federal Immigration authorities. Under the concept of "sanctuary" cities, such as Chicago and Cook County, the local police are not supposed to concern themselves with any information concerning immigration policy.

The theory being that federal authorities who actually understand immigration policy should do their own work!

We have dueling bills -- one pro- and the other anti-, although it could be argued that what is for and against on this issue depends on where one stands on immigration policy -- and how long it has been since their own families (in my case, it was the grandparents' generation) were directly affected by the immigrant condition.

We even had dueling protests on Saturday; with the State Journal-Register reporting on the two protests that took place just outside of the Statehouse during the noon hour.

THE GROUP TAKING up the concerns of the police and the nativist element of our society gathered by the statue of Abraham Lincoln to try to claim some of his moral authority, while those protesters looking to protect the interests of immigrants who otherwise would face harassment gathered by the statue of Martin Luther King, Jr.

RAUNER: How will he dodge this issue?

Which strikes me as odd, because I know historically Lincoln was among those people who as a member of Congress opposed the war with Mexico that ultimately resulted in the U.S. land grab of California, Texas and other states we crafted out of Mexico. While I also know King's children have expressed support for those who want to close off this country to some of the newcomers.

We can dismiss the Saturday sentiments as being those of people who had nothing better to do with their weekend, I suppose. But the fact is that this immigration hatred that is being stirred up so much by the presidential administration currently in power is going to keep cropping up on our own political front.

Which could wind up being a major source of headache for Gov. Bruce Rauner -- seeing that he has desperately tried to avoid taking a position on any of the nativist nonsense that Trump has been spewing. It will be interesting to see how he tries to dodge this issue when it comes up on his own doorstep.

  -30-

It gets creepier and creepier

I was shocked and appalled following a weekend incident involving a man from suburban Morton Grove whose contempt for the local mosque made him think he could pull out his high-powered air rifle and fire shots at the building.

But the more I learn about this incident, and another one that also occurred this weekend in west suburban Lombard, the more my shock becomes contempt.

CONTEMPT, THAT IS, for those elements of our society who think that their despicable actions are somehow justifiable. As though they think they’re fighting the good fight for our society by letting their mini-minds run amok.

Now before anyone starts sending me their rants telling me that this bigotry is nothing like the past, I will concede one point. It seems that officials are taking these incidents seriously.

In the old days, the authorities likely would have placed blame on the Muslims for even being here, and provoking the anger of others against them.

Take the incident in Morton Grove, where it turns out that the man who fired shots at the Muslim Education Center near his home is actually a village official.

HE’S NOT THE mayor or a village trustee or anything like that. He is someone who serves on one of the village committees and takes an interest in municipal issues – all for no pay.

Which is what caused his attorney to tell the Chicago Tribune, with a straight face, that the man was a, “pillar of the community.”

I shudder in disgust at the thought. Although what bothers me is some of the Internet commentary I have read about this issue that makes it clear some people are more than willing to accept this man as the “pillar” and the mosque as the “problem.”

That attitude is what is wrong with our society. Which is why I was pleased to see that a Cook County judge on Monday, while setting bond at a low-enough level that he was able to post it and remain free while his criminal case is pending, ordered him to undergo an anger management evaluation and to submit to electronic monitoring.

LET’S HOPE THIS same serious attitude remains throughout the legal proceedings in this particular case.

Yet this attitude isn’t even an isolated incident. For it seems that in Lombard (a town I’m familiar with because I had an uncle and aunt who lived there for many years), there was an incident Sunday at the College Preparatory School of America – an Islamic school.

Somebody threw a plastic bottle at the building, a bottle that had been filled with several potentially-volatile chemicals. Somebody envisioned an explosion that would have caused damage to the building – which had students inside at the moment of impact.

Fortunately, there was no explosion. The bottle didn’t even break. A part of me wants to remember the ineptitude of the “Pop Bottle Bomber” incident in the 1970’s Disco-era comedy ‘Car Wash,” and make a joke or two.

YET IT WOULD truly be crude to recall a cinematic moment that ended with a bottle of urine being smashed.

Although I’m sure the terror felt by the people in that facility when they heard a loud bang makes any gag inappropriate. For all I know, the person(s) who concocted the bottle probably are getting a thrill from learning they caused a scare.

It also seems that they’ve moved up a notch, since Lombard police told the Chicago Sun-Times that past incidents at the school have merely involved graffiti.

Which makes me wonder if we’re going to get another incident or two in coming days – we are in the period of Ramadan, after all, that runs through Saturday. I’m sure at least some of the crackpot types are offended that those “Muslims” have a sacred holiday that they know nothing about.

  -30-