Free Republic

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — The trial of the man accused of opening fire at a Fourth of July parade in the affluent Chicago suburb of Highland Park ended almost as quickly as it began Monday when the suspect surprised the courtroom by pleading guilty. Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III, who faced 69 counts of murder and attempted murder stemming from the July 4, 2022, mass shooting, entered the plea shortly before opening statements were supposed to get underway.

A high school in Minnesota was forced to cancel a field trip scheduled only for students who 'identify as a person of color' after a civil rights complaint was filed. Mark Perry, a community member and retired professor in Twin Cities in Minnesota, saw information on the field trip, which allegedly only was available to students who identified as students of color, on social media. The trip for Highland Park High School offered a chance for students to be exposed to digital marketing and advertising careers, according to Perry. Perry told the Star Tribune that the event, which has been...

A church in Highland Park, New Jersey, is in a tough spot after receiving millions of dollars in USAID relief funds to assist illegals. Leaders with the Reformed Church of Highland Park told Shore News Network they laid off 195 workers after President Donald Trump’s administration stopped federal money from going to migrant resettlement programs, the website reported Sunday. The outlet said it “confirmed layoffs through a WARN notice filed with the New Jersey Department of Labor.” It continued: The church, which had received $18 million in aid from USAID to place migrants in jobs across New Jersey, is now...

Selling Michael Jordan’s ultra-personalized compound has been anything but a slam dunk. The massive home has remained on the market for 12 years and slash its price twice. Jordan made his mark on the Chicago area estate: His name is painted on the basketball court, flags wave with his Air Jordan logo, and his jersey number adorns the gate, according to the Wall Street Journal. Jordan first listed the mansion at 2700 Point Lane in Highland Park, Illinois for $29 million in 2012, chopping it down to $16 million in 2014, and to $14.9 million in 2015, Compass shows.

A group of around 40 pro-Palestinian protesters descended upon Democrat Rep. Brad Schneider’s (D-IL) north suburban Chicago area home in the early morning hours on Saturday, worrying neighbors and causing the police department to step up patrols in the neighborhood. Neighbors reported being shocked when the protesters began making noise and shouting slogans at around 3 a.m. on Saturday morning. A group of around 40 pro-Palestinian protesters descended upon Democrat Rep. Brad Schneider’s (D-IL) north suburban Chicago area home in the early morning hours on Saturday, worrying neighbors and causing the police department to step up patrols in the neighborhood....

No arrests made after anti-Israel protest held outside Highland Park, Illinois home of Congressman Brad Schneider in early hours of the morning, waking up residents... Video with link to X

The following is adapted from a talk delivered on September 12, 2023, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C., campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series. The transgender movement is pressing its agenda everywhere. Most publicly, activist teachers are using classrooms to propagandize on its behalf and activist health professionals are promoting the mutilation of children under the euphemistic banner of “gender-affirming care.” The sudden and pervasive rise of this movement provokes two questions: where did it come from, and how has it proved so successful? The story...

Highland Park, Illinois, celebrated July 4th in somber remembrance, one year after seven people were killed in a mass shooting during the previous running of the city’s parade. The community gathered in a ceremony to remember the seven people killed and dozens injured, and to “reclaim” the Independence Day parade route from the tragedy. STATE WATCH Highland Park shooting marked with remembrance, renewed call for gun reform BY NICK ROBERTSON - 07/04/23 10:38 PM ET SHARE TWEET People participate in a community walk in Highland Park, Ill., Tuesday, July 4, 2023. One year after a shooter took seven lives at...

A mom who survived the Highland Park massacre alongside her 6-year-old son angrily gate-crashed a press event over the Nashville school shooting to rip politicians for “failing” kids — imploring, “How are our children still dying?” “Aren’t you guys tired of covering this?” Ashbey Beasley, 47, asked reporters Monday, seconds after officials finished giving updates about Monday’s school-shooting murders of six, including three 9-year-old kids. “Aren’t you guys tired of being here and covering all these mass shootings?” she asked. “I’m from Highland Park, Illinois — my son and I survived a mass shooting over the summer,” she said of...

A Minnesota science teacher in the Saint Paul Public Schools district lambasted cell biology lessons, particularly on mitochondrion, for containing "capitalist" propaganda, Fox News Digital found. Mandi Jung, a teacher at Highland Park Middle School, said, "Lately, there's been a lot of conversation about teachers indoctrinating students to their beliefs. And I always find this funny because our children are seeped in capitalist indoctrination from like the second they're born, basically." Jung proceeded to provide the "perfect example" of how "capitalist indoctrination" is expressed in her seventh grade science classes. "Seventh grade science… [is] the year that you learn that...

The fatal shooting of rapper Half Ounce has ignited a familiar conversation about gun violence, rap culture and whether there’s a responsibility for record labels to protect their artists. The 32-year-old rapper, whose real name was Latauriisha O’Brien, was killed in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood Monday, just weeks after rapper PnB Rock was fatally shot during a robbery in the same city. These rappers are part of a string of artists who have died by gun violence, with at least one rapper being fatally shot every year since 2018. With other high-profile rappers such as Drakeo the Ruler, who was...

A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the victims of the July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Ill., against a gun manufacturer for advertising that the plaintiffs argue encourages criminal behavior. The law firm Edelson PC and anti-gun violence organization Brady filed the lawsuit on Wednesday against the manufacturer Smith & Wesson, arguing that the company played a role in the mass shooting during the Fourth of July parade that killed seven and injured dozens. The plaintiffs argue that Smith & Wesson should be held liable for unlawful marketing and advertising of its M&P 15 rifle, which the gunman...

While speaking Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering (D) suggested an armed citizen engaging the July 4 parade attacker would have meant “more carnage.” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked Rotering, “How much can we count on a good guy with a gun to stop a mass shooter when the mass shooter has an AR-15-style ‘assault weapon’ that can empty a 30-round magazine in about as many seconds?” Rotering responded, “A good guy with a gun would have had no impact on the shooter.” She went on to describe witness testimony of the sounds of bullets...

MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart brought on the media's favorite youthful gun-grabber David Hogg on Sunday. Hogg insisted Highland Park shooting suspect Robert Crimo III is a white nationalist. Who is not mentally ill. And people in minority communities don't get the mental-health assistance they need for PTSD from shootings . . . because redlining. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Chicago police have released a photograph of the weapon used in the Highland Park mass shooting on 4 July, where seven people were killed and dozens injured. On Monday evening, police arrested 22-year-old Robert “Bobby” Crimo after an hours-long manhunt around the city north of Chicago. A spokesperson for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force said the suspect used a rifle “similar to an AR-15” from atop a commercial building and fired into a crowd that had gathered for the parade in Highland Park. On Wednesday night, the police released a photograph of the weapon, reported News Nation.

The parents of Highland Park Fourth of July shooting suspect Robert "Bobby" Crimo III had a long list of encounters with law enforcement – involving many domestic disputes, bizarre complaints and allegations of other men pursuing the mother romantically, Illinois police records show. Before their son was accused of opening fire on an Independence Day celebration Monday, killing at least seven and wounding dozens more, Highland Park police had 51 pages of incident reports related to their home.

Highland Park shooter Bobby Crimo III was left in a hot car by his mom for 27 minutes as a toddler - with his mother later convicted over the incident. The disturbing 2002 incident was one of multiple brushes with the law Crimo's mom Denise Pesina and dad Bob Crimo Jr had with cops prior to Monday's massacre in Chicago that killed seven. It is unclear if the hot car incident left Crimo, now 21, with any physical or mental injuries that may have ultimately led to the horrific shootout. Police were also called to his family's home 10 times,...

“I talked to him 13 hours before [Monday’s massacre]. That’s why I guess I’m in such shock. … Like, did he have a psychiatric break or something?” the father said of his son. On Tuesday, Steven Greenberg, who previously represented R. Kelly in the fallen singing superstar’s federal sex-trafficking case out of Brooklyn, announced that Crimo Jr. and his estranged wife, Denise, had retained him in the wake of their son’s arrest. The father, a onetime local mayoral candidate who used to run a neighborhood sandwich shop, has faced a wave of criticism for sponsoring his son’s gun license application,...

In a bizarre move, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart told the public and the press on Wednesday that he believes red flag laws in Illinois are “strong” even though the state with some of the strictest gun laws in the country failed to stop a 21-year-old shooter from murdering seven people at a July 4 parade and injuring at least 30 more. While announcing seven counts of first-degree murder charges against Robert Crimo III for attacking paradegoers in Highland Park, Illinois, over the long weekend, Rinehart praised his state’s gun laws and called for a national ban on certain...

The accused Highland Park Fourth of July gunman painted a chilling mural of a smiley-face figure brandishing a rifle on the wall of his mom’s home, The Post learned Wednesday. The revelation of the creepy image emerged as Robert E. “Bobby” Crimo’s mom, Denise, was spotted looking downcast outside her Highland Park home Wednesday afternoon — just days after her son’s alleged Independence Day slaughter. The eerie mural, painted on the outside back wall of the house, shows the character with a yellow happy face for a head clutching what appears to be a high-powered rifle. It wasn’t immediately clear...