8-YEAR-OLD GIRL FATALLY SHOT IN CAR ON S. SIDE
An 8-year-old girl was killed and two other people were shot in Canaryville on Monday evening.
Shortly before 6 p.m., the child was among four people who were in a Subaru SUV that was stopped at a red light at 47th and Union.
A Dodge Charger was behind the SUV, and when the stoplight turned green, someone in the Charger opened fire, striking the child, as well as a 31-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman who were also in the SUV, police said.
The Charger then made a U-turn and drove off south on Union.
“I stand here before you saddened and angered that another child has lost their life to senseless gun violence in the city of Chicago,” Chicago Police Department Chief of Operations Brian McDermott told reporters at the crime scene.
The girl was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to police. The man and woman were both taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center. They were listed in serious condition, each with a gunshot wound to the back.
The shooting also triggered a crash, and dozens of Canaryville residents milled about the area gawking at the damaged vehicles and the officers who were processing the crime scene.
The deceased child’s mother was also in the SUV at the time and was wounded in the crash, police said. She was also taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, in good condition.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office hadn’t released details about the fatality. The girl is the sixth child 10 or younger to be murdered in Chicago since late June, according to data maintained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
As of late Monday, at least seven people were killed and another 44 were wounded in shootings across the city over the Labor Day holiday weekend.
Activists called it a “No Labor Day” event, gathering with unemployed Black men and women Monday as they unveiled appalling diversity statistics in a new report that turns a spotlight on systemic racism within trade unions, specifically, those operating in Illinois.
“These statistics are shocking,” said U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis, DIll., at the news conference with Chicago Black United Communities, the stalwart South Side organization founded by the legendary Lu Palmer.
CBUC brought the issue into prominence as far back as the 1970s by shutting down construction sites.
Based on U.S. Department of Labor statistics from 1999-2018, the CBUC report finds apprenticeship programs of 62 Illinois trade unions remain mostly white — five of them completely segregated; 15 with less than 20% persons of color; and 13 with 20-30% persons of color.
“I couldn’t believe that in the year 2020, after all the marching, all the demonstrations, there are still unions that have frozen out African Americans. I had to get a magnifying glass to make sure I was seeing these numbers right,” said Davis, who called for federal and state hearings, reaching out to the Department of Labor and Office of Civil Rights.
“We’re going to have to do something about it. Don’t tell us there is no room at the inn, because if there’s no room, then we just have to kick the door down and come on in anyway. I’m tired of seeing young men on my block standing around with nothing to do, because they can’t get into these trade unions.”
Davis, who turned 79 on Sunday, has long battled the issue since his days as an alderman, alongside Palmer, current CBUC Chairman Eddie Read and Soft Sheen founder Ed Gardner. Such efforts advanced under former Mayor Harold Washington
in the 1980s, then fell off.
Apprenticeship programs in Illinois for asphalt paving machine operator, rough carpenter, gas utility worker, stained-glass glazier, industrial coating painter, sign painter and sprinkling fitter are glaringly all-white, the report said.
Trades like boilermaker, electric meter installer, electrician, elevator constructor, glazier, heating and air-conditioning installer, HVAC, line installer, maintenance mechanic, millwright, operating engineer, pipe fitter, plumber, sheet metal worker, structural steel worker and welder include less than 20% persons of color.
Some of the unemployed at Monday’s event are certified in skill trades but hit brick walls in seeking union work. Others were unable to apply for the apprenticeships that lead to living-wage careers.
“I’m just disgusted, angered that we’re still fighting for something we were fighting for in the ’90s, when my mother was alive,” said Guana Stamps, 55, of Humboldt Park, whose three sons are seeking pathways to becoming electricians or plumbers.
Stamps is daughter of the late legendary activist Marion Stamps, who fought for public housing residents during the 1980s and 1990s, and in July, she testified before the City Council, saying that eradicating racism in unions would create jobs and help solve Chicago violence.
“A gun won’t fit in a hand that’s got a hammer in it,” Read said Monday.
Read hopes the post-George Floyd spotlight on racism will finally force the unions to change. To help that along, CBUC is currently compiling testimony from workers denied jobs, for a potential classaction lawsuit.
“An ordinance passed under Mayor Washington stipulated workers on public works jobs must be 50% city residents. We don’t believe that’s enforced,” Read said. “All the Black children who graduated from trade programs at high schools like Dunbar, CVS and Simeon between 1999 and 2018 believed they could enter the trades. These numbers clearly show they could not. So we believe they too have standing in a class-action lawsuit.”
Illinois reported another 1,381 positive cases of COVID-19 statewide Monday, pushing the state’s total number of positive tests past 250,000 amid a summertime resurgence.
It’s among one of the lower caseloads in the past month, which has seen only three other days with fewer than 1,400 new cases.
The new caseload is also a dramatic decrease from Friday, when the Illinois Department of Public Health reported a record-high 5,368 new cases of COVID-19. The massive caseload, which blew away the previous May record of 4,014 cases, was attributed to a three-day data backlog.
Monday’s new cases were among 28,975 tests submitted to the state, health officials said. The state has processed more than 4.4 million coronavirus tests.
Health officials also announced eight more deaths tied to COVID-19 in Illinois, raising the statewide toll to 8,179. About 96% of people in Illinois have recovered from the virus.
Illinois has seen a rise in COVID-19 cases since mid-June. Since July 21, the state has reported daily caseloads over a thousand. Eleven days since then have seen daily caseloads over 2,000.
Fatal cases of COVID-19 have fallen most heavily on people 80 years and older. Although that demographic is only about 5% of overall positive cases, they’ve accounted for 44% of total deaths statewide.
As of Sunday night, 1,484 Illinois coronavirus patients were hospitalized, occupying about 7% of all hospital beds statewide. Of those, 352 were in the ICU and 137 were on ventilators.