Last Saturday morning, at Union Baptist Church, the crowd ebbed and flowed, some arriving late, others leaving early, but always with the people slightly outnumbering chairs, forcing neighbors to choose between sitting next to a stranger or leaning against a wall. Hosted by Unity in the Community, a relatively new group of activists headed by […]
Dusty Rhodes
Posted inNews
Cop Out: The Aftermath
City responds with nothing, then everything The revelations of last week’s cover story, “Cop Out,” inspired a special city council meeting last Monday at which Springfield Police Department Chief John Harris was the guest of honor. Aldermen Frank Kunz and Frank McNeil repeatedly asked the chief and the SPD’s legal counsel, William Workman, how they […]
Posted inNews
Cop Out 3
Illinois Times’ October 31 cover article revealed the truth behind a story that had been repeated scores of time in the local media over the past year: Springfield Police Department was reported to be conducting an internal investigation into whether rookie officer Renatta Frazier failed to prevent the rape of another officer’s daughter. Frazier subsequently […]
Posted inNews
Good-bye, One-Eye
The official word on last week’s firing of longtime talk-radio ringmaster Don “One-Eyed Jack” Jackson is that Capitol Radio Group had decided WTAX-AM needed a new format. Something more informative and less offensive. Something better able to deliver breaking stories. Something the new general manager, Leanne Arndt, calls “a structured news wheel.” Insiders, however, call […]
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Between the lines
For a moment, it looked like the Black Guardians might have a point. The group of black cops had been complaining (some say whining) for years about discriminatory testing, uneven discipline, and other indignities they say added up to a hostile work environment at the Springfield Police Department. But in this era of subtler racism, […]
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Full Disclosure
My nine-year-old came home from school last Friday with a carton of $1 candy bars and a head full of pep talk on door-to-door sales. He was fired up and eager to walk the neighborhood, peddling chocolate to raise money for a copy machine for the school office. I wouldn’t let him and couldn’t tell […]
Posted inNews
Not tonight, honey: there’s a war on
One sure-fire way to get men to lay down their arms is for all the women to keep their legs crossed. That’s the premise of the play Lysistrata, a bawdy anti-war comedy first performed in 411 BC and the subject of performances worldwide on Monday. Written by the Greek satirist Aristophanes, the play tells how […]
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Getting in with the in crowd
What could a motorcyclists’ advocacy group possibly have in common with the Illinois Arts Council? Members of ABATE (A Brotherhood Aimed Toward Education) champions the right to ride without helmets, while the arts council wants more money for music, art, and poetry. But both organizations know their way around the Capitol dome and, more importantly, […]
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Dead air
If you noticed a camera crew shooting around town this week, don’t get too excited: Reese Witherspoon and Sally Fields aren’t back. In fact, this is one production you definitely don’t want to be an extra in–unless, that is, you have a case of progressive rigor mortis. It’s a pilot for a television show tentatively […]
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Policing the police
The City Council meeting was packed with angry citizens outraged over the latest scandal in the Springfield Police Department. Mayor Karen Hasara tried pounding her gavel, she tried apologizing, and she even tried publicly admitting that, yes, “there is racism in the department.” Finally, she tried promising a citizen review board, and police chief John […]
Posted inOpinion
Canned radio
A.J. Woodson knows how to say no. As a late-night deejay on WNNS-FM “Lite Rock 99,” he has received hundreds of phone calls over the years from listeners wanting to hear their favorite songs. If the song was on the station’s playlist, Woodson was happy to oblige. If it wasn’t, he wouldn’t. Or rather, couldn’t. […]
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Sins of omission
The only racism in the Springfield Police Department is reverse racism–the kind where blacks get better treatment than whites. That’s one of the conclusions reached by the Peoria law firm Husch & Eppenberger, which was hired last November to investigate the Springfield Police Department’s handling of two cases involving black officers. The firm’s 99-page report […]
