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The [Tuesday] Papers"Tina Hunt had gone to the Cook County criminal courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue to attend her son's court appearance in November 2013 when she found herself in a dispute with sheriff's deputies," Steve Schmadeke reports for the Tribune. "After she was taken into custody, a sheriff's deputy charged that she kicked him in the shin during a struggle in a lockup at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. "On Wednesday, the 49-year-old grandmother is scheduled to return to the same courthouse to be sentenced for her felony conviction for aggravated battery of a peace officer. "With convictions for two violent crimes decades ago, Hunt faces a mandatory minimum of six years in prison, even though the deputy testified at trial that the kick didn't hurt and left no marks on his shin. The harsh penalty is the result of Illinois' version of the 'three-strikes' law." * Unsurprisingly, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez supports the prosecution. Surprisingly, so does Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. * Let's go to the archives: "With crime topping the charts as an issue of concern to voters, politicians from President Clinton on down are singing a get-tough tune," the Sun-Times reported in 1994. "But Illinois' last major 'get tough' campaign in 1978 suggests such drives can be long on costs and short on results. And while the latest lock-them-up medley may indeed end up soothing election-year fears, few experts expect it to do anything to lower crime rates." Three-strikes laws were a big deal in 1994 - along with other so-called get-tough-on-crime measures. "Clinton also included $2.7 billion in his budget for crime-prevention initiatives. Those include $1.7 billion for more police officers, $450 million to increase the capacity of correctional facilities and $85 million to cover the added expenses of detaining more people in jails and prisons. Voters also were calling for get-tough measures in 1977, when Gov. Thompson and legislators overhauled the state's criminal sentencing laws. The legislation produced the state's Class X label for serious crimes and set mandatory prison terms based on the offense. Do we ever learn? * P.S.: "Adds Daniel Polsby, a criminal law professor at Northwestern University's School of Law: 'Crime rates reflect the input of a billion different variables. Anybody who says We got tough on crime and then crime went down isn't talking in the language of science.'" * Hunt is being sentenced under Illinois' three-strikes law, but here's more about what was happening on the federal level in 1994 - setting the tone for everybody else. (I think Illinois' law was extended in 1994, too; I didn't have time to fully research it.) The "three strikes and you're out" proposal embraced by President Clinton has a good chance of passing Congress but little chance of deterring violent crime, experts said. That turned out to be absolutely true. * P.S.: "One dissenting academician, Joseph Bisset, on the faculty of Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., said he knew of no studies showing that a 'three strikes' law would deter crime but insisted that deterrence was not the chief argument for it. "'The main issue is just punishment,' said Bisset, who was an adviser to Richard M. Daley when the mayor was state's attorney." * Also: Members of Congress, some grudgingly and others gladly, endorsed the "get tough" crime remedy Clinton proposed in his State of the Union speech, even as criminologists scoffed. Democrats, ladies and gentlemen. It was just part of the message. - Why Obama Owns Gun Stocks Riding The Dog, Pt. 3: Meet Me At The Esquire Lounge The Best Super Bowl Commercial You Didn't See Court Confirms: Kevin Trudeau A Big Fat Liar The Revolutionary Sounds Of Chicago Cratedigger Kanye West - BeachBook Posted by The Beachwood Reporter on Tuesday, February 9, 2016 * Posted by The Beachwood Reporter on Monday, February 8, 2016 * Remember when Mayor Daley insisted the CHA's "Plan for Transformation" wasn't just a real estate grab? Some of us knew better. Posted by The Beachwood Reporter on Monday, February 8, 2016 * Posted by The Beachwood Reporter on Monday, February 8, 2016 - The Beachwood Tip Line: Displace. Posted on February 9, 2016 |
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