Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Wednesday, September 27, 2017.
- Emanuel stands by police decision to reprimand two cops photographed kneeling in protest
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is standing by the Chicago Police Department’s decision to reprimand two police officers photographed kneeling in protest, inspired by football players such as Colin Kaepernick. “There’s a difference between an athlete wearing their uniform [and kneeling during the national anthem] and a police officer who is paid by the public who’s wearing theirs,” Emanuel said. “And the police department has been consistent” on banning political statements. The two unnamed black police officers are shown kneeling with a woman in a police station in the Instagram post. “We are aware of the photo, and we will address it in the same way we have handled previous incidents in which officers have made political statements while in uniform, with a reprimand and a reminder of department policies,” CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. [DNAinfo Chicago] [Sun-Times]
- City Hall has few details on replacing police oversight agency head Sharon Fairley
Mayor Rahm Emanuel “declined to say how much input community members will have in finding a new head of the just-launched police oversight agency that’s a key piece of his effort to increase public trust in the Chicago Police Department” following the resignation of Civilian Office of Police Accountability chief Sharon Fairley, according to the Tribune. Fairley is leaving the newly opened COPA agency to run for Illinois attorney general as a Democrat. “We’re going to have a process to—I’m going to be naming a process, working with a lot of different people, working, and I’ve had a number of discussions with individuals about how to create a process that has input to have a set of names that reflect, I think, the independence and authority that we’ve built over the past 22 months,” Emanuel told reporters. The mayor says he will be naming an interim replacement “shortly.” [Tribune]
- Whitney Young High School abruptly cancels the rest of its football season
Early this week Whitney Young High School abruptly canceled the rest of its football season after a string of injuries and two academic ineligibilities. The prestigious magnet school can only field 19 football players, three short of the Chicago Public Schools requirement. “This is the best-case scenario, and I think it’s the right decision,” principal Joyce Kenner told DNAinfo Chicago. “We collectively as a school decided it was not safe to play football with the numbers we had.” The school’s football program is expected to return next year. [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Kenneka Jenkins’s mother asks activists to stop protesting outside Rosemont hotel
Tereasa Martin, the mother of 19-year-old Kenneka Jenkins, is asking local activists to stop protesting outside the Rosemont hotel where her daughter was found dead in a freezer September 10. Martin says that some protest organizers are taking financial advantage of her daughter’s mysterious death. “You know what, this protest is over,” Martin said in a Facebook video. “So I’m ending y’all’s agendas that’s not righteous toward my child.” Jenkins’s wake and funeral will take place Saturday at the House of Hope church on the far south side. [Sun-Times]
- A 1917 “hurricane” on Lake Michigan left private properties entirely underwater
It’s a little-known fact that there’s private land near the South Shore Cultural Center that’s entirely underwater in Lake Michigan. A “hurricane” in 1917 tore away the land from the shore and left it submerged in Lake Michigan, but it still has an official mailing address. DNAinfo Chicago has more. [DNAinfo Chicago]