Free Republic

River Forest Deputy Police Chief James O’Shea says the 24-year-old man “ambushed” the officers shortly after 7 a.m. Sunday and that they returned fire, killing him. He says two officers suffered injuries that weren’t life-threatening. One was shot in his bullet-proof vest and the second was treated for other injuries.

After years of warnings, financial reality is hitting home in Chicago, clouding Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s hope for a transformational legacy. In March, Moody’s downgraded the city’s credit rating to junk, but Chicago’s financial hole long predates its ratings slide. The trouble began emerging at least as far back as 2003, albeit under the radar. Then, as the Great Recession pummeled municipal budgets around the country, former Mayor Richard M. Daley engaged in dubious deals, such as the city’s parking-meter lease. In 2010, as Daley’s tenure neared its close, Crain’s Chicago Business published an exposé on the troubling levels of debt...

CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - Chicago rapper Capo, a member of Chief Keef’s “Glo Gang,” was killed in a South Shore neighborhood shooting that resulted in a 1-year-old boy being fatally struck by a vehicle fleeing the gang-related attack Saturday afternoon, according to the group’s manager. The 22-year-old man was shot in the hip and back in a possible drive-by about 1:45 p.m. in the 7700 block of South Kingston, police said.

Tonya Reaves has been dead for three years. As the anniversary of the passing of this beautiful 24-year old African-American approaches on July 20, 2012, it seemed appropriate to link to a report we published last year based on the sworn deposition of Mandy Gittler, who conducted Reaves’ fatal 16-week abortion at a Planned Parenthood facility in Chicago, Illinois. The deposition was taken as part of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by family representatives on behalf of Reaves’ only surviving son. After Gittler’s incriminating statement in which there were many inconsistencies and much blame-shifting, Planned Parenthood settled with the family...

A new art exhibit about the Michael Brown police shooting in Ferguson is on display in Chicago. The piece features a life-size portrayal of Michael Brown after he was killed last year in Ferguson. It also includes a black statue of liberty, and a noose dangling from a neon sign. The exhibit also features a plaque with the words “I Can’t Breath”; referencing the Eric Garner police involved death in New York. A Brown family member praises the exhibit. The artist is a white woman from New Orleans. She says it represents white privilege in America and how it...

It’s an Obama world. A mob of black youths attacked a woman near the University of Chicago with children in the back seat. The youths were using racial slurs as the beat the car. Her two children were covered in broken glass. The youths threw a bike through her back window. ABC 7 reported: “Her car damaged, her nerves shaken, the victim of an alleged group attack near the University of Chicago campus with her children in the back seat of her car talked exclusively with ABC7 Eyewitness News about the incident Friday night. Police say two people were arrested...

This is where racism leads. Father Pfleger of Chicago and other disarmists have filed a lawsuit against three municipalities outside of Chicago. In essence, that lawsuit says that black people cannot stop themselves from murdering and stealing, so people outside of Chicago have to keep strict controls on the sale of guns. Too understand the lawsuit, it claims that lack of strict gun controls has a disproportionate effect on black people.

There should be small print on “Welcome to Chicago” signs – something along the lines of “businesses and innovators not actually welcome.” With its recent, growth-killing hike of the minimum wage and its ever-looming $20 billion pension hole, the Windy City finds itself at a major competitive disadvantage. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his Department of Finance just made matters worse with the introduction of new tax rules that will notably increase the cost of using popular streaming services like Netflix , Hulu, and Spotify. Desperate for new revenue to fill its dwindling coffers, Chicago is applying a 9 percent tax...

Fireworks took on a second meaning in Chicago this 4th of July weekend. Dozens of people were shot, including a 7-year-old boy who died while celebrating with his family. It was one of many incidents that police Superintendent Garry McCarthy called the result of a broken system. The city saw a total of 34 shooting incidents this past weekend, the Chicago Police Department told ABC News. There were 48 victims, including 7 murder victims, according to the police. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was "saddened and sickened" by the weekend's violence, he said at a news conference Monday on an unrelated...

Seattle City Council president Tim Burgess is proposing a new tax on guns. The proposal would tax gun sales $25 per gun and add a five cent-tax on each round of ammunition. Five cents per round adds up to a roughly $2.50 increase for a box off handgun ammunition. The legislation would also impose a $500 fine on gun owners who do not report guns lost or stolen.

<p>This weekend, while Americans were celebrating Fourth of July, horrible shootings took place in Chicago that resulted in seven deaths and over 50 injuries. It's another stark reminder of the cost of our country's inaction.</p> <p>President Obama gets this tragic reality.</p>

A Chicago community group is suing three suburbs, accusing them of not adequately monitoring gun stores they believe are the source of weapons that have filtered into the city. The Rev. Michael Pfleger on Tuesday announced the lawsuits against Lincolnwood, Lyons and Riverdale. The activist priest says many of the guns recovered from Chicago crime scenes came from stores in those communities. Lawyers for the Coalition for Safe Chicago Communities filed the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court claiming the suburbs' gun store regulations violate the Illinois Civil Rights Act.

If President Obama had a son, he might look like Amari Brown, the little boy killed by a bullet intended for his gang-banger father on the streets of President Obama’s Chicago in yet another bloody Windy City weekend. As the Chicago Tribune reported, over the Fourth of July weekend, Amari Brown was one of the ten that were killed among 55 that were shot, none attributed to Confederate flag loyalists: Among those killed was 7-year-old Amari Brown, shot in the chest as he watched fireworks near his father's home in Humboldt Park late Saturday night. Police say they believe the...

Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church and other community activists plan to sue three Chicago suburbs to stop guns from getting into the wrong hands. The lawsuit will be filed in Cook County Circuit Court. It accuses Riverdale, Lyons and Lincolnwood of not having enough oversight when it comes to licensing and regulating gun shops.

CHICAGO LAWN — When Marshall Hawkins walks around his neighborhood, he carefully picks a route based on the places where people haven't been shot. "If there are flowers on the block, you can go there," the 38-year-old said. "If there's been police tape or gunshots, you avoid it." Such is life for the former North Sider in his adopted Chicago Lawn neighborhood. Same for his kids: 5 and 7. "On days that I can't pick them up and drive them to school, I give specific directions. 'Don't take this street. Go this way. Not that way,' " Hawkins said.

CHICAGO (CBS) — Mayor Rahm Emanuel says police are doing all they can to quell violence on the streets, but the problem requires having fewer guns on the streets and more moral values in the homes, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore. Mayor Emanuel says he is both saddened and sickened by the rash of gun violence that claimed so many lives this weekend while police officers were on 12-hour shifts and the city’s summer jobs program is employing more people than ever.

Yes, it was another dismal holiday in the Windy City, with gang violence running wild. 47 wounded and nine dead, including a seven year old boy whose father – a multiple conviction criminal with recent illegal gun charges – was probably the actual target. Sure, those numbers sound like bad news, (and they are) but the actual title of the Washington Post article covering the story includes the caveat… but better than last year.

Fourth of July weekend shootings have left nine people dead — including a 7-year-old boy — and at least 47 others injured since Thursday evening. Seven-year-old Amari Brown was killed in a shooting that also left a 26-year-old woman wounded late Saturday in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. [Snip] The boy’s father, Antonio Brown, is a ranking gang member with 45 previous arrests and was not cooperating with police as of Sunday afternoon as they tried to find his son’s killer, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Sunday.

(CNN)A visibly angry Chicago Police Department Superintendent said Sunday that he is "outraged and saddened" by a violent holiday weekend there. Even in a city frequently beset by head-grabbing violence, seven slayings between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon drew terrible attention.

At least eight people have died and 41 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago this Fourth of July weekend.