EXTRA: ‘Chiraq’ will only become lasting image if we let it become one

Learning that an alderman wants to penalize filmmaker Spike Lee if he persists with plans of making a movie about violence and action in inner-city Chicago to be called “Chiraq” makes me wonder why he has nothing better to do with his time.

The alderman in question is Will Burns of the 4^th Ward, who introduced a resolution this week that says if Lee really makes such a movie depicting black Chicago as overly violent and grotesque, then he should not qualify for the film production tax credits the city usually gives to movie productions.

BURNS IS CLAIMING he’s taking the moral high road by saying Lee can make any kind of film he wants and call it whatever name he chooses – even if the name he is considering is the derogatory label used by many black people to imply that Chicago has become the equivalent of an Iraqi war zone.

But all this is going to wind up doing is feeding into Lee’s self-righteous ego and personality and probably make him think he’s on some sort of crusade to expose the gritty and grotesque nature of some parts of our city.

Burns told reporter-types that such a film should lose tax credits because it would be derogatory to the city’s public image.

Nonsense! Not everything that makes it onto a movie screen (or in today’s way of viewing movies, onto whatever kind of screen one prefers to download their video entertainment) is “Up with People” positive.

HECK, MOST OF it is just downright stupid. Yet we don’t care.

I can think of a couple of Chicago-set films off the top of my head with images that are less than praiseworthy, but which no one in their right mind would complain about.

How about “Only the Lonely,” which starred John Candy and Jim Belushi as a couple of cops (although the CPD logos were conspicuously absent) who in one scene of the 1991 film decide to try to lower a dead body with a fire hose out of a window – rather than carry it down several flights of stairs (the elevator was broken).

But when the hose tears halfway through the effort, the body comes plummeting down to earth; with many dozens of spectators nearby.

THEN THERE’S “RUNNING Scared” from 1986, with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines as a pair of undercover Chicago cops who wind up chasing a notorious drug dealer (played by Jimmy Smits) to the Thompson Center state government building, where they wind up thwarting his efforts by dumping his cocaine stash all over the state government building’s floor.

I can’t envision the Chicago Police Department thinking much of either image. At least I want to think they’re both over the top to where we can’t take them seriously.

Which ultimately is the problem with what Lee may wind up doing with his attempt to make a film set in Chicago, but which he says has violence conditions similar to places such as inner-city Philadelphia, Baltimore and his own home of New York.

Is the real problem that some political people just don’t want to have to address the reality of modern-day Chicago? It certainly is obvious enough that some people think we can get away with ignoring certain neighborhoods and focusing all attention on the tourist sites.

AS THOUGH THE people who actually live in Chicago and are native to the area are of lesser importance.

But trying to address those problems is complex, and bound to address certain people who are still offended by Lee’s 1989 production, “Do the Right Thing” and how the character “Mookie” could possibly turn on his boss, Sal, near the film’s end.

I guess ranting and raging about tax credits is a less complex issue to complain about.

Which, in the end, may be the real problem – our willingness to try to pretend that no one who isn’t exactly like ourselves even exists – that faces our society.

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Not often that governor, mayor set foot on other’s political ‘turf’; that's an issue

Gov. Bruce Rauner deserves a bit of praise for having the nerve to set foot not only in City Hall, but at the City Council on Wednesday to make a long-shot attempt to persuade aldermen of the validity of his “turnaround agenda.”

That being the series of anti-organized labor measures he’d like to see implemented across Illinois because our state’s governor believes it is the fault of labor unions that many corporations cannot be even more profitable and beneficial to the state’s economy.

THE CITY COUNCIL already has made it clear that not only will they refuse to join the ranks of the many rural communities that have passed resolutions in support of Rauner, they’re prepared to lead the fight against the governor.

That led to Rauner requesting a chance to speak before the City Council during their meeting on Wednesday. Aldermen pushed during the morning to complete their other business (including approval of reparations payments for victims of police brutality from the minions of one-time Commander Jon Burge and a tribute to the late Cardinal Francis George) so that Rauner could give a noon-time address uninterrupted.

This is rare. Governors and mayors in Illinois and Chicago respectively often meet. There has to be some sort of a relationship between the two positions if anything is to get done in this state.

But they usually deal with each other, then rely on the other to get their political minions to go along. Almost like this is a third-rate attempt at remaking "West Side Story."

IN SHORT, EMANUEL being counted on to get aldermen to back a Rauner-desired goal. Although in this case, even Emanuel has expressed opposition to the labor-related measures that Rauner has made a priority of his first four months as governor.

Now I’m not about to get into the specifics of what Rauner said to the aldermen. Personally, I don’t think it matters one bit. I doubt many people were listening to what the governor said.

In fact, a part of me wonders if Rauner’s desire was to be booed and heckled and have the substance of what he said completely ignored. So that he could go out and tell other people how rude and inconsiderate (he’d probably use harsher language) the Chicago politicos were.

Make this a Chicago versus the rest of Illinois issue, and maybe he has a chance of forcing city opposition into having the “turnaround” rammed down their collective throat.

THEN AGAIN, PICKING the Wednesday council session was an odd choice if Rauner were really trying to sway people. Because it is the last gathering of aldermen before the newly-elected City Council members are sworn in.

About one-third of the people who heard Rauner on Wednesday will no longer be in the council. In fact, the trend seems to be that the replacement aldermen will be people of a more politically progressive nature who will be even more inclined to oppose the governor.

They’re the ones who got elected because of the sentiment that Emanuel is too inclined to back business interests and be too chummy with people like Rauner.

Perhaps the governor thought the lame ducks would be more sympathetic. Then again, the whole point of lame duck status is that they don’t have the power to do much of anything any longer.

SO THE GOVERNOR spoke to the City Council. It sounds nice. It would be nice if the governor tried to have a real relationship with these political people – instead of acting like they’re the opposition.

Then again, it’s not like Chicago mayors are all that eager to spend time in Springfield before the General Assembly.

I remember former Mayor Richard M. Daley would make what seemed to be his annual one-day trip to Springfield to be seen by the Democrats and remind them (including Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, just in case he started to think his position was bigger than ‘Da Mare’) who was really the boss.

Emanuel isn’t any different in his dealings with the Illinois Legislature. Perhaps this attitude of politicians having their ‘turf’ goes a long way toward explaining why certain things never can seem to get done properly.

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So much for friendship amongst pols; will we someday want Quinn back?

In recent years, the reason city officials were unable to move forward with long-desired dreams of locating a full-scale gambling casino within Chicago was the political split between mayor and governor.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s attempts to get something approved by state government fell through because Pat Quinn wasn’t going to knee-jerk approve something just because city officials wanted it.

HE ALWAYS HAD his own concerns about expanded gambling opportunities and the wishes of some political people to count on casino tax revenues to try to resolve government financial problems.

It was always readily known that there was no love lost between Quinn and Emanuel when it came to gambling issues.

So much so that some people speculated that Emanuel wouldn’t be the least bit upset if Quinn were to lose his 2014 electoral bid. Particularly since there was some sort of personal friendship between Emanuel and Bruce Rauner.

It is with that dynamic in mind that I have to admit to being amused that Quinn’s defeat does not seem to have opened up the chances of a casino coming to Chicago any time soon.

VARIOUS NEWS REPORTS indicate the issue has been discussed in recent weeks. Rauner is being non-committal as to whether he’s willing to sign off on a gambling measure that the General Assembly would have to give approval to first.

In fact, it would seem that Rauner is throwing out hints that he’s going to demand political support from Emanuel and other Chicago political people for many of the ideological measures HE wants to see passed into law.

Including the “turnaround agenda” that the governor tries to describe as a reform of our state’s economic condition but is really nothing more than a batch of measures meant to bring Illinois as close to being a “right to work” state as it ever could be.

Because the reality is that Illinois isn’t Mississippi or Alabama. Heck, we’re not even Indiana – even though I’m sure people living in places like Danville or Effingham wish we were.

CHICAGO OFFICIALS ALREADY have made it clear they’re not backing “turnaround,” refusing to pass the symbolic resolutions that Rauner is asking municipal governments across Illinois to support.

In fact, our city and county officials have gone just the opposite – letting it be known we’re among the hard-core opposition to measures meant to undermine the ability of organized labor to look out for its interests.

Now, Rauner is hinting (if not coming right out and saying) that he expects a little bit of support for his ideological measures, or else he could become more of an obstacle than Pat Quinn ever was to the long-standing gambling dreams that Chicago has had.

Personally, I don’t care if Chicago ever gets the casino some believe is an absolute necessity to our future. I’d like to think Chicago offers so much in the way of amenities that it’s not necessary.

FOR THE SAME reason that we don’t see Chicago trying to become the location of a state prison facility, I’d like to think we don’t need a casino. We’re above that!

But the politicking for gambling is so intense that I doubt the issue will ever wither away. There are those who just aren’t going to be happy until they can go play Blackjack or roulette without having to pay the cost of a trip to Las Vegas – or, if they’re the type of frequent gambler that Vegas loves, lose so much while gambling that the casino comps the cost of their trip.

Particularly if this does wind up being the issue that develops an Emanuel/Rauner split and keeps much of anything from getting done.

It would be the ultimate laugh if gambling wound up becoming the issue that made many of us wish we could have Pat Quinn back as governor!

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Lincoln lore lives on; perhaps we could include it in Cinco de Mayo tribute

It has been quite a weekend for those people who get their kicks out of dressing in period fashions and pretending they are re-enacting our history.

For it was 150 years ago Monday that the funeral services were held at Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery to inter the body of then-recently assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

WHICH MEANS IT was 150 years ago Saturday that the body of Lincoln arrived in Illinois and was on display in Chicago, before taking the final portion of the Lincoln funeral train route to Springfield – pretty much along the same route of towns that now rely on Interstate 55 for their continued existence.

There actually was a replica of the Lincoln funeral train that made the trip this past weekend, giving the historic re-enactors a chance to fully pretend they were gathering for the president’s funeral services.

I can’t say I’m the type who would feel compelled to do such things, despite my own interest in history. In large part because wearing any type of authentic period garb would result in donning itchy, uncomfortable clothing.

Besides, my own girth would make me so much larger than most people of that era. Somehow, I suspect I couldn’t pull off a convincing U.S. soldier trying to escort the presidential casket to the cemetery.

I HOPE THE people who did do such things enjoyed themselves. And that their actions help some people recall the many events of the past four years that were meant to remind us of the Civil War our nation engaged in to maintain the character that was desired by some.

Even though I’m sure there are those amongst us who could easily have adapted if the concept of secession in the name of “state’s rights” had somehow prevailed. We just wouldn’t have known better how much more we’d have as a single nation if the southern states had somehow managed to become their own nation.

We probably would be a pair of mediocre nations in the world that never would have achieved international status had our Civil War had a different outcome.

I was sort of surprised that more in the way of ceremony wasn’t done this weekend at the Calumet City/Hammond border – also known as the Illinois/Indiana state line.

FOR THAT WAS the place where a few years ago local officials insisted in erecting a plaque designating the spot of State Street and State Line Road as the spot where the Lincoln funeral train re-entered Illinois on its route from Washington, D.C., to Springfield.

Although it should be noted that the area near the Indiana Dunes was largely undeveloped then. It now has cities such as Gary and Hammond, Ind., along with Calumet City, Ill. But none of those municipalities existed back then. All of this Lincoln lore makes me wonder what can be re-enacted next.

Perhaps somebody would like to try to re-enact the events that were supposed to take place on Nov. 7, 1876 – a group of counterfeiters hatched a plot to steal Lincoln’s body from the tomb, hide the body by burying it in the Indiana Dunes and demand a $200,000 ransom AND the release of one of their allies from the Joliet Penitentiary.

Not that Lincoln’s remains ever suffered the remains of being buried under lakeshore property enjoyed by generations of future beachgoers. The counterfeiters had big mouths, talked too much, and the Secret Service wound up putting an undercover agent among the gang when they tried to break into the tomb.

THE GANG ESCAPED, but was caught 10 days later in Chicago and ultimately wound up serving a year each in prison. It’s a sordid story that I’m sure most people were never taught about in grammar school history class.

Although I wonder if the Lincoln-motivated re-enactors ought to be trying to do something on Tuesday – which happens to be the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo.

That being the day when a Mexican resistance to France’s attempt to control Mexico managed to defeat a French military garrison near Puebla – thereby giving positive motivation to Mexican nationals of regaining their nation’s freedom.

A good part of the reason why they were able to do so was that U.S. support in the form of ties between Lincoln and Mexico President-in-exile Benito Juarez existed. Put a Lincoln twist on Tuesday’s celebrations and perhaps we’d have something more substantial than just a day spent drinking third-rate margaritas.

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Altering evidence? Or preserving pieces of a crime scene? That is the question

A civil court jury in Cook County found it within itself to clear the county sheriff’s police of wrongdoing in the way it handled the body of a 20-year-old woman who was killed five years ago in a car crash in the forest preserves near suburban Oak Forest.


That ruling in Cook County Circuit Court came on Friday, and I’m going to have to respect the judgment because I wasn’t there during the civil trial to hear every bit of evidence for myself.

BUT I HAVE to admit that reading the reports that came from the trial make me wonder about the logic of what was repeatedly called police “protocol” to justify the way the cops handled the scene.

This particular lawsuit wound up getting coverage because the woman killed in the auto accident wound up being stripped partially naked when photographers taking pictures of the scene as possible evidence in future criminal proceedings.

The girl’s mother seems to feel her daughter was violated by such acts, particularly since the fact wound up spurring rumors that the girl was somehow naked and having sex at the time of the car crash.

As it turned out, the driver of the vehicle tried claiming the girl was straddling him at the time – claiming that was what caused him to lose control of the vehicle.

BUT INVESTIGATORS WERE able to show that it was impossible for any such act to have occurred. Meaning the driver, himself, was to blame for losing control of the vehicle. He wound up being found guilty of criminal charges and is now serving a prison sentence. The photographs that were the focus of this lawsuit were supposedly key evidence in gaining his conviction.

Sheriff’s police claimed during the trial that their investigators were merely following the standard procedure for gathering up a crime scene (which is what the accident site near 147^th Street and Oak Park Avenue had become). Since crime scenes are never pretty and often garish, it is only inevitable that the evidence would be less than proper.

I don’t doubt that those crime scene photographers wind up seeing grotesque images that would wind up bothering the sensibilities of the deceased’s relatives.

But I never did read anyone explaining just why some of the photographs of the accident scene wound up showing the girl fully-clothed, and others showed her body moved to a tarp placed on the open ground where she was then stripped partially nude.

MY GUT REACTION is to wonder why this wasn’t construed as tampering with a crime scene – somehow altering the reality of what was there. No clear explanation was ever provided that I am aware of, and now I doubt that one ever will.

Not that it seemed to bother the jury that spent a good chunk of the day on Friday resolving the testimony they heard during all of last week. They seem to want to believe the police behaved professionally. Then again, some people will always argue on behalf of the police, no matter how extreme the evidence against them seems to be.

That is the verdict reached by a jury of peers, and it is what will remain as the outcome of this case – unless someone wants to try taking this to the Illinois appeals court and can come up with a specific bit of evidence that was wrongly excluded during the lawsuit’s trial.

After all, merely not liking a jury’s verdict is insufficient reason to justify granting an appeal.

PERHAPS THE MOTHER realizes that, since I read in newspaper accounts during the weekend that she is pleased she was able to publicly say her daughter wasn’t having sex or being naked or doing anything else that might be considered sordid at the time of her death.

For her sake, I hope she is capable of getting on with her life – which for the past five years and for the remainder of it will be without her daughter.

No amount of money that she might have received from Cook County as a financial reward from her lawsuit would have brought her daughter back.

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South Side, as anticipated, to get Obama presidential library & museum

Meh. Not even, Meh!!!!!

That’s about all the enthusiasm I can muster for the word that the long-anticipated Barack Obama presidential library and museum will, in fact, wind up being located in Chicago.

WORD CAME OUT Thursday in late afternoon. It seems that both WBBM-TV and WMAQ-TV (channels 2 and 5, for those of you who are call-letter illiterate) are trying to take credit for breaking the story that everybody else picked up on in the early evening hours, and which both the Washington Post and New York Times had in their Friday editions.

The proposal backed by the University of Chicago, where Obama once served as an instructor in the law school, is the one that the Obama Foundation will choose to be the site of his legacy museum where the National Archives also will store the official documents related to the Obama presidency.

A hard-nosed news-oriented person like myself should have been eager to report this Thursday night with an “Extra!” edition to try to indicate that I wasn’t lagging too far behind on the “News.”

Yet with all the speculation that has been reported in recent months with regards to the library, as to whether the University of Illinois at Chicago could beat out the U of C, or whether Columbia University would beat out both of them, I have become tired of the ordeal. Word could wait until today.

I’LL GET EXCITED about this project when I actually see brick and mortar being erected for the facility. As for those of you out there who have been saying a presidential library is boring because the same information could be more easily disseminated via the Internet, all I have to say is, “Pttbt.”

With my rosy, raspberry tongue pointed straight out, and bits of spit emanating from my lips!

The official announcement is to be made some time this month. I have heard the date of May 11 tossed about. The only mystery is whether the proposed Jackson Park location will beat out the Washington Park site that some people seem to think is the front runner.

In other words, will it be east, or west, of the University of Chicago campus and the famed Midway Plaissance?

PERSONALLY, I LIKE the thought of the site closer to Lake Michigan – which actually is why I preferred two other sites that once were talked about. The one that would have included a presidential library as part of a community development on the site of the former U.S. Steel Southworks plant, and the one that would have converted the site of the one-time South Shore Country Club.

The Southworks site, which I literally have stood upon a couple of times, would have provided a lakefront location with a wonderful view to the north of the downtown Chicago skyline. Instead, the area is going to get the Steelworkers Park, meant to allow people to romp around for leisure on the former steel mill site.

While I get amusement at the thought of the one-time exclusionary country club (no blacks or Jews, and my father only got inside because he worked there as a busboy when he was a teenager) becoming the site of the first African-American president’s library and museum.

I’m sure some souls will turn over in their graves, while their grandchildren are the ones who are going about complaining these days that the Obama presidency isn’t worthy of the recognition that a library and museum would give it.

ALTHOUGH I FIND it interesting that Gov. Bruce Rauner plans to sign into law the measures approved recently by the General Assembly that are meant to undermine any potential legal challenges to an Obama library/museum being placed on one-time Chicago Park District property.

I’m sure he could score political points if he were to veto the measures, although even Rauner doesn’t seem to be that ideologically motivated.

So this is an issue that hopefully can become interesting when work begins to actually build a facility – which could become one of the tourist attractions that future generations of “True Chicagoans” will feel the need to visit once. At the very least, it will ensure that the Obamas return to Chicago from their apparent future home in New York on the day of the opening festivities.

When that happens, perhaps I’ll get a little more enthused. Until then, “Meh.”

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Boricuans vs. punks? Let's hope not!

It will be interesting to see how the politicking plays out over an alderman’s desire to chase a music festival away from the public park that gives his community its name.

We’re talking about the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side that has become the heard of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community.

THE PARK PROPER is supposed to be the site of Riot Fest from Sept. 11-13, and it’s already possible to go on the Internet to get tickets to the punk music festival that has been held in Chicago in past years.

But the news reports on Thursday indicate that 26^th Ward Alderman Roberto Maldonado doesn’t like the fact that the festival that definitely won’t be attracting a Puerto Rican ethnic vibe to the neighborhood wants to use the public park again.

For the record, Maldonado isn’t bad-mouthing punks (as in music fans, not no-good hoodlums). He says the festival expanded itself to a larger portion of the park last year and that many of the ball fields used by the public wound up being damaged.

He also claims the organizers of Riot Fest did not fulfill their promises to repair any damage to the grounds that was caused by the music festival.

RIOT FEST OFFICIALS were quick to deny such claims, saying their event has the potential to create jobs and other financial opportunities for local businesses that are savvy enough to feed off the crowds that will come to Humboldt Park for the event.

They also say that Maldonado has supported their event in the past – to the point where the organizers actually made a $1,500 donation to the Citizens for Maldonado campaign fund in 2014 – which gave him the finances to enable him to win re-election earlier this year without having to endure a run-off election like many of his City Council colleagues had to.

The smart-aleck in me wants to say that Maldonado is quite a guy – he takes the political payoff, then refuses to provide the expected services in return.

Although I’m not really trying to imply any criminal intent on Maldonado’s part, or on the part of Riot Fest organizers. Perhaps the alderman is merely an example of an honest guy.

OR PERHAPS HE’S just peeved at the condition of the grounds, which the Chicago Sun-Times reported are worn in spots and some work is still being done to repair them.

Meaning it is likely the place could be in proper shape by the time the Chicago event (there also will be Riot Fest events in Denver and Toronto later this year) is scheduled to take place.

Unless this devolves into some sort of ethnic brawl. I wouldn’t be shocked if at least part of the motivation for any negative talk is neighborhood residents who enjoy the thought of the annual Fiesta Boricua that takes place there wondering where all these weird-looking, pink-haired people are coming from. Either that, or they're the types of people who think the Illinois State Fair will be a "hip" and "happenin'" type of place this year because Meat Loaf AND Styx will be performing there.

Or maybe somebody thinks they can get the Riot Fest organizers to shell out more of the cost of rehabilitating the park grounds – which in theory isn’t a bad idea. If a public park is to be used for a for-profit event, then perhaps the park ought to receive some sort of fix-up that enables improved use of the grounds in the future.

NOW I’M NOT a Riot Fest type of guy – I’ll be the first to admit to not having a clue as to whom most of the musical acts are who performed at last year’s event.

I would just hope that any potential for cultural disputes could be held to a minimum – the last thing anybody needs is a Boricuan vs. Punks type of skirmish. We don’t need to be that stupid.

Besides, I have to admit to respecting an event that includes Lucha Libre (as in Mexican-style) wrestling as part of the spectacle, and also uses its website to, “promise never to book Justin Bieber or make a Harlem Shake video.”

That would be the ultimate crime against culture.

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