Free Republic

After the scandal involving the ejection of Jewish women carrying Star of David pride flags at Chicago’s Dyke March on June 28, a sister organization in the city has announced that it will follow suit by banning “Zionist displays” from its upcoming protest against sexual violence and “rape culture.”

Host of Fox News' "Specialists" Eric Bolling commented Wednesday during his "Wake Up America" segment that Chicago is a "warzone" because of liberal Democrats - he’s not wrong. [Snip] The facts are: Afghanistan’s population of 32.5 million was hit with 5.9 violent deaths per every 100,000 people. Chicago, with 2.72 million citizens, saw 13.5 violent deaths per every 100,000 people. Bolling poses the question: "What's happening?" Bolling goes on to say: "Liberal Democrats are happening. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is a complete failure, Rahm was in over his head from the get-go ... At the beginning of his term, Emanuel eliminated...

Cook County judges will soon be explicitly required to set affordable bond amounts for defendants who do not pose a danger to the public. Beginning Sept. 18, judges will be prohibited from setting a higher bond than felony defendants can afford to pay. The same rule will apply to misdemeanor cases starting in January. Advocates of bond reform, including Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, applauded the decision. "There is often no clear relationship between the posting of a cash bond and securing the safety of the community or the appearance of a defendant," Foxx said in a statement Monday....

The journalist who first reported the ejection of three Jewish women from Chicago’s Dyke March tweeted that she was removed from her reporting job because of that article. In a tweet Monday, Gretchen Rachel Hammond wrote to Dyke March’s Twitter account that “You attacked, humiliated and robbed me of a job.” Hammond confirmed to JTA on the same day that she wrote the tweet. Hammond said she could not elaborate on her tweet, citing an agreement with her employer, the Windy City Times. […] The Dyke March itself has fielded criticism for using an anti-Semitic slur, tweeting on July 13...

A recent Lincoln Park High School graduate was ordered held on $150,000 bail Saturday in connection to a recent string of strongarm robberies in the Lakeview neighborhood. Bryce K. McGill, 18, faces multiple counts of robbery and one count of aggravated robbery for several street robberies, at least three taking place on July 6 in the Boystown enclave in Lakeview, prosecutors said at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. In all of the attacks, McGill and an unnamed accomplice approached men and women on the street, and McGill would punch the victim in the face, prosecutors said. The pair then grabbed...

Those who wish to understand how things work in Chicago need read a single article that ties everything together: Teamsters boss indicted on charges of extorting $100,000 from a local business. “A politically connected Teamsters union boss was indicted Wednesday on federal charges alleging he extorted $100,000 in cash from a local business. John Coli Sr., considered one the union’s most powerful figures nationally, was charged with threatening work stoppages and other labor unrest unless he was given cash payoffs of $25,000 every three months by the undisclosed business. The alleged extortion occurred when Coli was president of Teamsters Joint...

CHICAGO (CBS) — A mother’s eyes are swollen shut from crying after the fatal shooting of a 9-year-old boy in the East Side neighborhood on the Far South Side, a community activist said. Gustavo Garcia was in an SUV with a 31-year-old man at 11:13 p.m. Friday, traveling west in the 3500 block of East 97th Street, when a gray car pulled up next to them and someone inside opened fire, Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. The boy was shot in the back and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he died, authorities said. He...

Reflections on big city life on Bastille Day… Every year on July 14, the French celebrate Bastille Day, the beginning of the end for the Bourbon monarchy, and, ostensibly, the rise of the power of the people. Even here in the United States, an ocean away, with only the slightest connection to the French people and culture, we enjoy the day as an unofficial holiday. We drink French wine, enjoy brie and crackers, and sing Le Marseillaise (in the original French, of course). It’s an excuse for a sale, for a party, for a festival. As long as we don’t...

Six people were fatally shot and 14 others were wounded in separate attacks during a 19-hour period from Thursday to Friday in Chicago, according to police.

In September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin construction on President Trump’s infamous 130-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. At times like these, the symbolism of barriers hits hard. It’s no surprise that on Saturday, attendees at Chicago’s Ruido Fest – a rock en español festival in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood – decided to stage a protest against a Home Depot branded booth that featured a mock wall installation. The activity invited festivalgoers to decorate tiles and glue them onto the wall as artists played sets across the grounds. In addition to the symbolism of the installation, protesters expressed...

Reflections on doing business in Illinois in 2017… The pundit class, and our cousins in the political class as well, have said and written much about the spate of new taxes, spending, and regulations in Illinois that have hit, and will continue to hit, in Chicago, in Cook County, and across Illinois this year. First, the minimum wage was hiked… Illinois was already a dollar over the national minimum wage, so Cook County passed an ordinance to jump to $10/hour on July 1, 2017, then to increase by another dollar per year through 2020, when it would hit $13/hour… and...

The numbers are in: 102 shot, 15 dead over the Fourth of July weekend. Not a new high, just an ongoing flow of chaos and turmoil in what was once one of the greatest cities in America. Chicago’s Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, did not create the chaos, he simply expedited it due to his radical left ideology. Chicago’s decline is the direct result of the power of the Democrat Party in Illinois. Illinois, for all intents and purposes, is a one party state. OK, the Governor is a Republican, but powerless to change anything because the Chicago Democratic Party controls the...

Man who sold gun used to shoot 2 cops released on $4,500 bond: sources Chicago 07/06/2017 Sam Charles @samjcharles | email A man who sources say sold an assault rifle to gang members — which was then used to shoot two Chicago Police officers last May — was released from federal custody on a $4,500 bond on Wednesday. Charles Williams was arrested and charged in federal court last week with possession of a firearm by a felon. On Wednesday, Magistrate Judge Young B. Kim ordered him released on $4,500, court records show. A law enforcement source told the Chicago Sun-Times...

The Canadian government will apologize and give millions to a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who pleaded guilty to killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15, an official said Tuesday. An official familiar with the matter told the Associated Press that Omar Khadr will receive $8 million. The deal was negotiated with Khadr’s lawyers and the Canadian government last month.

<p>CHICAGO (AP) -- Federal prosecutors accused a Syrian-born American of once leading a Muslim charity that the Treasury Department calls a terrorist group, and said he tried to help Osama bin Laden get a nuclear weapon.</p> <p>The government said Mohamed Loay Bayazid was president of the suburban Chicago-based Benevolence International Foundation in 1994, about the same time he is accused of trying to get uranium for al-Qaida.</p>

Two men have been charged with fatally shooting three men Friday night in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side. Timothy Gorden, 19, and 21-year-old Jayden Dorsey both face three counts of first-degree murder, according to Chicago Police. About 8:50 p.m. Friday, two men were shot as they stood on the porch of a building in the 5700 block of South Wells, police said. Those men — ages 30 and 50 — were each shot in the chest and legs when two males walked up to them and opened fire. The gunmen then got into a white vehicle and drove...

Beginning in 2020, Chicago high-school seniors will have to prove that they have a government-approved post-graduation plan in order to earn their diplomas. Yep. Rather than allow its young people the freedom to approach their futures creatively, Chicago will force its students to choose from one of just five government-approved options: College attendance (note: verbal vows of attendance are not enough, students will need to present actual acceptance letters), a gap-year program, military service, a trade apprenticeship, or a job. According to Reason, the official description of the demand claims that the city is trying to raise $1 million...

More than 100 people were shot in Chicago over the course of one of the bloodiest Fourth of July weekends in the city's recent history. Police in Chicago are conducting a "very comprehensive review" after 15 people were killed and 86 others injured in shootings between late Friday afternoon and early Wednesday, the Chicago Tribune reports. "The mood here is frustration," Chicago Police Department chief spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told the Tribune. "It's perplexing. We deployed some very successful tactics over the Memorial Day weekend," he added. Police said their review would include analysis of whether an audio system that pinpoints...

The Chicago Police Department says it is conducting "a very comprehensive review" after the city experienced one of its most violent Fourth of July weekends in recent years, with at least 101 people shot between late Friday afternoon and early Wednesday. "We're doing a debriefing," said chief police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. "The mood here is frustration." The review will include an analysis of how "amateur fireworks" might have affected the ShotSpotter system, which captures audio of gunfire and attempts to pinpoint its location for quicker deployment of officers. The system is deployed in the Englewood and Harrison districts, traditionally among...

At least 59 people were shot across Chicago, six of them fatally, by Tuesday morning of the Fourth of July weekend. Last year’s Independence Day weekend ended with 66 people shot — a total that actually stoked cautious optimism with the lowest death toll for the July 4 weekend in nearly a decade. On Saturday, Chicago Police touted a 14 percent decline in shootings this year compared to the first six months of 2016, and they hoped to tamp down the holiday weekend violence with the help of a new gun violence strike force that includes ATF agents.