How disturbing to see the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board disregard its own newspaper’s front-page investigative reporting on state’s attorney candidate Eileen O’Neill Burke’s troubling past.
According to the Tribune, Burke led the conviction of an innocent Black child of murder. This young boy liked karate movies and playing in the park. He got good grades and had never been in trouble with the law. A fifth grader, he was 88 pounds and too short to see over the witness stand when she prosecuted him. He cried and held his mother’s hand in the courtroom while Burke accused him of a murder he didn’t commit.
He was 11 years old when Burke’s cronies questioned him for hours, screamed at him, lied to him and told him if he confessed he could go home for his little brother’s birthday party.
Burke complained the boy’s sentence wasn’t harsh enough, telling the news media he was part of “a whole new breed,” invoking racist tropes about Black youths as “superpredators.” When Tribune reporters asked in December 2023 if she regretted those comments, she “did not directly answer” (“Candidate faces scrutiny over reversed conviction,” Dec. 22).
Even now, with the benefit of hindsight, Burke has never expressed regret or even sympathy for the child’s family in her mishandling of this case. Nor has she voiced sympathy for the family of Anna Gilvis, who was brutally murdered and whose real killer has never been caught.
The editorial endorsing Burke disregards all of this (“We endorse Eileen O’Neill Burke for Cook County state’s attorney,” Feb. 18). It does not even reference the reporting. Perhaps this is intentional, as anyone who actually reads the well-reported coverage of this issue would realize quickly that her track record should disqualify her as a candidate.
Voters should look beyond yet another unfortunate decision by the all-male and nearly all-white Tribune Editorial Board and consider the facts as reported by the Tribune’s own news team.
— Illinois Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago
Mayor’s ShotSpotter extension
Regarding “Johnson expects ShotSpotter to remain through Sept. but dodges pact questions” (Feb 16): If ShotSpotter is technology used to overpolice and racially profile communities of color; why does Mayor Brandon Johnson insist its contract be extended until September?
Johnson announced the end of ShotSpotter’s use to great applause from community activists but really wanted the technology kept through September to get Chicago past its traditionally violent summers and the Democratic National Convention.
However, Johnson failed to get a short-term contract extension signed before his announcement, instead giving the technology a free million-dollar publicity campaign.
Still, the question remains: Why did Johnson insist on extending the use of racial-profiling technology if it doesn’t save lives or aid in police in apprehending shooters?
— Bruce R. Hovanec, Chicago
Editorial on Winnetka ordinance
The editorial “Your bluffs are gorgeous, Winnetka. Call off the lawyers and compromise.” (Feb. 9) takes the position that 21st century zoning should favor 88 lakefront households over Winnetka’s 4,200-plus household-strong community. The editorial fails to acknowledge that the village’s new ordinance protects Winnetka’s “gorgeous bluffs,” grandfathers current lakefront improvements, and allows variances and special use permits.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and University of Wisconsin at Madison Sea Grant Institute’s coastal economic analysis establishes value enhancement from lakefront bluff/coastal protection and an inverse relationship between setbacks and home values.
By contrast, the editorial’s proposal would prospectively create a lakefront-only reparations entitlement for zoning-related “phantom losses” in real estate values, representing a singularly improper wealth transfer from the village’s non-lakefront property tax base, which pays 90% of the village’s tax collections, to its lakefront property tax base remainder, which pays only 10%. Its skewed perspective would force a heavy penalty on 98% of Winnetkans while it minimizes known environmental risks such as coastal flooding, critical ecosystem destruction and bluff collapse. Other lakefront communities have similar ordinances, and Winnetka’s zoning ordinance protects lakefront neighborhoods’ residential character while properly responding to a $77 million construction project on Sheridan Road.
Supply versus demand speaks for itself: Since the now-enacted ordinance was proposed in 2023, Winnetka’s lakefront property values have ticked up. The Tribune Editorial Board needs to take a principled look at a Winnetka’s zoning ordinance, which is designed to bring Winnetka into the 21st century.
— Kristine Schriesheim, Winnetka
Parents of teen drivers, too?
“Handing an unstable teenager a gun” is inexcusable, the Tribune Editorial Board posits about the conviction of the Michigan mother of a school shooter (“What responsibility do parents have for their kids? Plenty, when there is a gun involved.,” Feb. 15). I wonder if the courage of the editorial board’s convictions extends to automobiles, which, in addition to being a mode of transportation, are also 2-ton death missiles capable of going more than 100 mph. In 2020, car crashes killed about 2,800 teens and injured 227,000 more. Eight teens per day die in car crashes.
Should parents also be held criminally responsible for their children’s reckless use of that weapon?
— Jim FitzGerald, Chicago
GOP lacks Alexei Navalny’s courage
I was saddened to hear of the death of Alexei Navalny, an incredibly brave man who stood up to the dictatorship of Vladimir Putin at the cost of his freedom and life. It is a shame that congressional Republicans don’t have even a tenth of his courage to stand up to their puppet master, Donald Trump.
— Mike Kundert, Sugar Grove
Effect of Vladimir Putin’s immunity
Did anyone ever doubt the fate that Alexei Navalny would meet? This is what presidential immunity looks like.
— George Recchia, Oak Park
Jazz up the State of the Union
Bravo to Jon Marshall (“Here’s how Joe Biden could revamp the State of the Union address”) for making a case on Thursday’s op-ed page for a multimedia State of the Union address! An audiovisual presentation with maps, charts and videos to highlight President Joe Biden’s goals and accomplishments would be much more effective in getting the attention of our easily distracted electorate.
Ask any teacher if a well-crafted multimedia presentation is more effective than a dry speech, no matter who is delivering it.
— Pam Skinner, Palatine
Tom Skilling’s outpouring of joy
As the iconic meteorologist Tom Skilling prepares to retire, I would like to share a lesson learned.
On Aug. 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse occurred here in North America. Skilling was down in Carbondale, Illinois, to witness and report on this remarkable event. We were told It was his first time seeing anything like it. As the eclipse was happening, Skilling became extremely emotional. He noted that it was a life-changing event. He started to choke on his words, and tears began to flow. At that point, he said he needed to “get his act together” and threw the report “back to Chicago” apologizing for his reaction. (These clips remain on YouTube today.)
At that time, I was a theology teacher at a Catholic high school, teaching Scripture to the junior class. Perfect timing! It was right when we opened the Book of Genesis on the story of creation. That year, and in the subsequent years until my retirement, I showed those clips of Skilling to my students. The teaching of that lesson was that we should all witness God’s creation with the same appreciation, awe, amazement and wonder as Skilling. And no apologies are necessary!
— Laurie Stanton, Chicago
