Tag: chicago

Cook County’s electronic monitoring system is putting people in danger. Fix it now.

When we learned that the man who allegedly set 26-year-old Bethany MaGee on fire on a Blue Line train last month not only had been arrested more than 70 times but was also out on electronic monitoring after assaulting a social worker at MacNeal Hospital — in spite of the Cook County state’s attorney’s request that he be held — we were alarmed. That man, Lawrence Reed, had violated his electronic monitoring terms multiple times prior to the attack.

Given the shocking, high-profile nature of this story, you might be tempted to believe it an anomaly.

It is not.

In June, Chicagoan Arturo De La Mora was sentenced to 52 years in prison for murdering his girlfriend while he was on electronic monitoring for a prior felony gun case, crime news site CWBChicago reported. In October, a Chicago man received 22 years in prison for carjacking a Facebook Marketplace seller at gunpoint while on electronic monitoring for an earlier case in which he allegedly tried to kill a Cook County sheriff’s deputy.

A little over a year ago, Lacramioara Beldie was stabbed to death in Portage Park by her estranged husband, Constantin Beldie, who was on electronic monitoring at the time. A wrongful-death suit filed this month alleges he had dozens of monitoring violations leading up to the killing without any meaningful intervention from the county or its monitor vendor.

These are but a few horrific examples of a disastrous system that must be fixed, and quickly.

We spoke Tuesday with Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke about this serious problem. Burke assured us that her office is committed to requesting pretrial detention whenever the public is at risk, and the data she shared encourages us that the state’s attorneys arguing these cases on the front end are doing their part to prevent more danger.

Her team touted an increase in pretrial detentions under her watch, noting that, for example, detentions for aggravated domestic battery cases had increased to 85% from 61% under her predecessor. For cases involving handguns converted to the equivalent of machine guns, Burke’s office requested detention in 97% of cases, with judges approving pretrial detention 76% of the time. Again, these numbers and the higher frequency of judges approving prosecutors’ requests for detention are encouraging. But the problem of past detention refusals that have left violent folks on the streets with inadequate guardrails — and the potential for more in the future — continues to plague us.

“Electronic monitoring needs a law enforcement component,” Burke added, addressing the need to be able to enforce electronic monitoring terms and restrictions when people don’t comply. She’s right. As the system exists today, there’s next to no accountability and no muscle at all to ensure compliance while people remain free ahead of their court dates. Burke described herself as “the skunk at the garden party” for questioning what happens when someone, say, cuts off their monitor ahead of trial.

We need answers to questions like that. The county cannot continue operating a system without clear protocols for violations, otherwise Chicagoans and visitors to our city aren’t safe. Thankfully, the new chief judge understands this and is taking action. On Dec. 2, Cook County’s new Chief Judge Charles Beach ordered an urgent review of the county’s electronic monitoring program.

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Chicago Public Schools Blew $23.6 Million on Luxury Trips. The Full Story Is Far Worse.

Public school districts exist for one purpose: educating children. They are entrusted with public dollars, charged with preparing the next generation for citizenship and the workforce, and expected to manage resources responsibly. 

But in many major districts, that mission has collapsed under political control, financial irresponsibility, and a refusal to prioritize students. Few places illustrate this breakdown more clearly than Chicago Public Schools.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, a recent report from the CPS Office of Inspector General detailed $23.6 million in improper or wasteful travel spending—dollars that should have gone directly toward recovering from historic learning losses. 

Instead, district employees used public funds for high-end hotel suites, airport limousines, first-class airfare, and “professional development” conferences that resembled vacations more than training. One staff member extended a four-day seminar into a weeklong stay at a Hawaiian resort costing nearly $5,000. 

Another principal booked a luxury suite on the Las Vegas Strip and quietly extended the trip to celebrate an anniversary. In one school alone, 24 employees billed taxpayers $50,000 to attend a single Las Vegas conference.

The abuses extended overseas. CPS employees charged more than $142,000 for travel to South Africa, Egypt, Finland, and Estonia—complete with hot-air balloon rides and game-park safaris. These trips took place while Chicago families were told that there wasn’t enough money to fully address learning gaps or chronic absenteeism.

Most troubling, the waste accelerated when federal pandemic relief funds flooded district budgets. 

Of the $23.6 million identified, $14.5 million was spent in just 2023 and 2024. 

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Chicago Council Committee to Consider Ordinance Restricting Hemp THC Sales to Licensed Dispensaries

On Wednesday, a Chicago council committee will discuss and potentially vote on an ordinance that would prohibit all non-dispensary businesses from selling hemp-derived cannabinoid products, limiting sales exclusively to state-licensed cannabis stores.

The measure, sponsored by Alderman Marty Quinn, would repeal the city’s existing cannabinoid ordinance and replace it with a stricter framework. The proposal creates a broad definition of “hemp-derived cannabinoid product,” covering any intermediate or final product made from hemp that contains cannabinoids of any kind, whether natural, synthetic, or manufactured. It includes items intended for inhalation, ingestion, or topical use. It also defines “concealment” as knowingly hiding or preventing the discovery of these products.

Under the proposed language, no licensed business—except for state-licensed cannabis establishments—would be allowed to possess, sell, give away, barter, exchange, or furnish any hemp-derived cannabinoid product on their premises. The ordinance also bans any act of concealment involving these products. Violations would carry fines between $2,000 and $5,000 per offense, with each day the violation continues counted as a separate offense. Repeated violations could trigger license suspension or revocation.

The Illinois Healthy Alternatives Association announced its opposition ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, arguing that the measure goes too far and would disrupt businesses offering non-intoxicating hemp products.

“We all recognize the importance of implementing responsible regulations to prevent these products from reaching minors,” said Craig Katz, President of the Board for the Illinois Healthy Alternatives Association. “Our members are actively collaborating at both the state and federal levels to create a regulatory framework that safeguards minors and ensures product safety. We can achieve these objectives while still enabling our members to offer their customers the healthy alternatives they require. We are eager to partner with the City Council to find effective solutions.”

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Chicago Mayor Claims Crime Fell “Because of Him” as Texas National Guard Prepares to Leave

Chicago’s crime crisis did not disappear overnight, but you wouldn’t know that from listening to Chicago’s Democrat mayor.

This week, Mayor Brandon Johnson stood at a press conference and claimed that crime fell “because of him,” while attacking the Texas National Guard and President Trump for “wasting taxpayer dollars.”

The performance would have been comical if the stakes were not so serious.

Just hours before the event, at 11:00 p.m., an unknown individual attempted to start a fire outside City Hall.

Security footage shows the suspect lighting the exterior of the building before fleeing.

A CPD officer put out the flames before they spread. Instead of focusing on the conditions that allow attempted arson outside the city’s central government building, the mayor pivoted to politics.

He called the National Guard withdrawal an “unconditional surrender by the Trump administration,” as if the presence of Texas troops—not Chicago’s own governance—were the reason the city remains unsafe.

According to the mayor, Guard troops “sat idle for six weeks doing nothing,” a claim that conveniently ignores why Texas deployed them in the first place: to support overwhelmed border states and help cities impacted by the migrant influx created by Democrat sanctuary policies.

Chicago asked for migrants, boasted about being a sanctuary city, and then attacked Texas when the consequences arrived.

The mayor also complained that these deployments cost “hundreds of millions of dollars,” even though his own administration spends billions on bureaucracy and programs that have failed to reduce violence.

He criticized federal spending on Argentina while ignoring the billions Chicago spends without improving basic services.

Meanwhile, the attempted arson outside City Hall demonstrates exactly why a heightened security presence has been necessary.

He then targeted CPB official Greg Bovino, whom he claimed “left a trail of tears” and “undermined” the city’s work, even though federal officers arrived in September, and yet the mayor took credit for crime reductions from the summer months.

His argument was so weak that he joked Trump must think “September counts as a summer month.”

What he did not explain is how a city with increasing violence, collapsing public schools, and overflowing migrant shelters can possibly credit its problems to Texas or Trump.

The mayor framed the withdrawal as a victory against “unconstitutional federal overreach” and claimed Trump is waging a “war on poor and working people.”

But under Democrat leadership, Chicago remains one of the most dangerous cities in America, with residents fleeing, businesses closing, and families begging for basic safety.

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REVEALED: Chicago Man who Set Woman Ablaze on Chicago Train Had 72 Prior Arrests, Prosecutors Say – Not 49 as Previously Reported 

More details on the suspect who doused a woman in gasoline and lit her on fire on a Chicago train have emerged, revealing that he had been arrested at least 72 times over the past 32 years. 

During a court hearing on Friday, a prosecutor told the judge that Lawrence Reed, 50, had been arrested 72 times, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

The Gateway Pundit reported on the incident, as preliminary evidence showed he had only been arrested 49 times in the past. Reed now faces federal terrorism charges for the horrifying crime.

He was even released back into the streets following his last arrest in August after a Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney warned Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez that Reed had a lengthy criminal history and that his next crime would “likely be violent.”

But Molina-Gonzalez told the prosecutor, “I can’t keep everybody in jail because the State’s Attorney wants me to.”

Fox’s Mike Tobin reported on Friday that “Reed will be once again before the judge today, this time to determine if he will be held behind bars before he goes to trial.”

“On Monday, he was out walking the streets, despite a pending case for allegedly knocking a woman out— able to ride the L train, where a woman was set on fire,” Tobin said.

“The criminal complaint against Reed says he went to a gas station, filled a plastic bottle with gasoline… 20 minutes later, he was on the Blue Line train, dumped the gasoline on the woman’s head. She ran, but he chased her down with the flaming remnants of the bottle and set her on fire.”

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Chicago Judge Orders Release of Hundreds of Criminal Illegal Aliens Arrested by ICE

A Biden-appointed federal judge in Chicago has ordered the release of hundreds of criminal migrants arrested by federal immigration agents during Operation Midway Blitz.

US District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the Trump administration to release more than 600 migrants that the judge claims were arrested in violation of a Consent Decree. Cummings has given the Department of Justice until November 19 to release the targeted migrants, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Cummings signaled his decision earlier in the week when he said he was thinking of providing what he called “equitable relief” for thousands of illegals in federal custody after he determined that the agreement had been violated by immigration agents.

The decree was signed in 2022 when President Joe Biden’s agencies agreed to accept curbs drafted by the ACLU. Judges allow consent decrees to bind future administrations.

Cummings has ruled that migrants can pay a $1,500 bond and accept some sort of monitoring — including electronic ankle monitors — and to then be released pending the outcome of their immigration proceedings.

The left-wing judge claimed that many on the list were otherwise engaged in non-criminal activities and said, “It is highly unlikely any of them are criminal gang members, drug traffickers, or assorted ne’er-do-wells who fall under the category of what ICE has called ‘the worst of the worst.”

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Latin Kings gang issues ‘shoot on sight’ order against immigration officers in Chicago: CBP

he Latin Kings gang has reportedly issued a “shoot on sight” order to its members targeting federal immigration enforcement officers in Chicago, Ill.

The move comes as Washington escalates its enforcement efforts in the Windy City as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on crime in major cities and to implement mass deportations.

“Officer/agents are reminded to maintain heightened situational awareness and exercise extreme caution when conducting enforcement activities,” Customs and Border Protection (CBP) warned its personnel, according to NewsNation.

The Latin Kings are a decades-old criminal gang with its origins in 1950’s Chicago.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, and CBP have faced increased violence against their personnel under the Trump administration as part of the crackdown.

Trump has aimed to deport as many as 21 million illegal aliens and the administration has thus far reported at least 2 million removed through a combination of self-deportations and involuntary repatriation.

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Shooter opens fire at Border Patrol agents in Chicago, feds confronted by rowdy mob

Authorities are searching for a man who allegedly opened fire Saturday on Border Patrol agents in Chicago.

The shooter was behind the wheel of a black Jeep when they fired off the shots near 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue, as the agents conducted immigration enforcement operations on the city’s Southwest side, the US Department of Homeland Security wrote on X.

Agitators also hurled a paint can and bricks at the agency’s vehicles during the incident. 

Chicago cops cleared the scene, and the shooter remains at large.

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Federal Judge Restricts Use of Tear Gas, Other Anti-Riot Measures in Chicago

A federal judge has restricted the federal government’s use of tear gas and other types of anti-riot measures in Chicago.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said during a hearing that government witnesses’ claims of violence at protests in Chicago were not credible, citing several occasions where she said video recordings contradicted immigration officials’ accounts about what happened.

“The government would have people believe instead that the Chicagoland area is in a visehold of violence, ransacked by rioters, and attacked by agitators,” she said. “That simply is untrue.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a statement from a spokesperson on the ruling described protesters in the city as “rioters, gangbangers and terrorists” who pose a threat to federal agents.

“Despite these real dangers, our law enforcement shows incredible restraint in exhausting all options before force is escalated,” the DHS spokesperson said, noting that the government would appeal the decision.

The spokesperson described the injunction as “an extreme act by an activist judge that risks the lives and livelihoods of law enforcement officers.”

Ellis has seen at least one of her earlier rulings related to immigration enforcement in the city overruled, and this latest ruling could face similar challenges if the judge is found to have overstepped her authority by an appellate court. If it isn’t overturned in a higher court, Ellis’s ruling will stay in effect as proceedings related to this issue move forward.

The court hearing comes amid escalating showdowns between protestors opposed to the administration’s immigration enforcement operations and federal agents in America’s third-largest city.

For weeks, protestors and civil liberties groups have alleged that tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have become increasingly aggressive in the city.

Ellis agreed with these allegations in her ruling, finding that the government’s use of force in several cases wasn’t merited by the circumstances on the ground.

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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Asks Reporter If the Word Illegal Alien Is ‘Sci-Fi’ Term

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson melted down after a reporter asked a question that used the term “illegal alien.” 

Johnson said:  “We don’t have illegals. Aliens — I don’t know if that’s from some sort of sci-fi message you wish you’d had. The legal term for my people was slaves — you want me to use that term too? Let’s get the language right.  We’re talking about undocumented individuals who are human beings. The last thing I’m going to do is accept racist, nasty language to describe them.”

Chicago is a sanctuary city, meaning that it won’t partner with immigration officers who deport illegal aliens unless those people are wanted on a criminal warrant by local or federal authorities, if they have been convicted of a serious crime and remain in the United States illegally, or if they are a clear threat to public safety or national security.

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