See other Editorial Articles
Title: Police failed her, and now Daley has too
Source:
Chicago Tribune
URL Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ ... onfront-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
Published: Sep 21, 2006
Author: John Kass
Post Date: 2006-09-25 13:07:35 by Tauzero
Keywords: Kumbaya
Views: 123
Comments: 6
Police failed her, and now Daley has too Published September 21, 2006 The Daley administration is stonewalling the case of Christina Eilman, the blond, white and bipolar California woman released from a police lockup at 51st and Wentworth after an episode at Midway Airport in May. Police left her to fend for herself. She couldn't. And now City Hall is fighting the release of interviews that would show how police allowed her to leave, to walk alone in a neighborhood where, residents told me Wednesday, she had no chance. In the past, Mayor Richard Daley has been eager to publicly hold his Police Department up to ridicule, when it served his political interests and when the cops were blue shirts with no clout. But then the victims were black and Christina is not, and he's running for re-election. What's odd is the deafening silence from the usual suspects who complain about mistreatment by police. There are no protests about Christina. No news conferences. No politicians and clergymen and activists demanding answers while seeking "social justice." In a political sense, Christina Eilman may be a victim of her own whiteness. Extremely solid and detailed reporting by Tribune writer David Heinzmann has demonstrated that police had no business letting Christina loose while her parents were in California, calling police, thinking their troubled daughter was safe in police custody. She wasn't. She was walked out of the lockup, the former UCLA student, 21 years old, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. She proceeded east on 51st Street under the viaduct, finally reaching the King JJ Fish and Chicken fast-food restaurant. "It was clear she was having mental problems," Tiffany Love, an employee of the restaurant, told me Wednesday. "She met up with a crackhead. A woman. She took her over to Robert Taylor." There, at the Robert Taylor Chicago Housing Authority development, Christina was taken inside, up to the seventh floor, where she allegedly was raped by a gang leader before she fell--either was pushed or she jumped--to the mushy weeds and softball-size rocks in the yard below. That took place on May 8. She is now paralyzed and suffers from brain damage. And City Hall maintains silence, even though there are legitimate questions in the public interest about the incident. Who decided to release her? How were those decisions made and why? Christina's family has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the city, which allowed their daughter, arrested at Midway for acting out, to be condemned to bureaucratic indifference and the brutality of strangers. Now, City Hall lawyers are trying to keep interviews from Internal Affairs investigators under seal in federal court and out of the public view. Political insiders will whisper that the silence is about protecting taxpayers from having to pay $100 million. But also Wednesday, the mayor announced he wants to build a huge Olympic stadium in the South Side's Washington Park, only a few blocks from where Christina smashed into the ground outside the high-rise. Before anyone forgets, the administration has had no trouble dropping $100 million in taxpayer money when convenient. Remember the case of the mayoral drinking buddies, the Duffs, who magically received $100 million in affirmative-action janitorial contracts. City Hall has shoveled much more to its friends on every imaginable deal. Money has been no object in the past. So why the silence now? "There is no valid public interest served by the city concealing the statements of police officers and private citizen witnesses who observed what happened to Christina while in police custody," Jeff Singer, the lawyer for Eilman's parents, said Wednesday. "Openness--not concealment--is the way the Chicago Police Department should proceed about this incident. Instead, we are faced with a department which prefers burying its dirty laundry as opposed to doing the right thing," he said. Dirty laundry wasn't a problem for the mayor when he demanded punishment for two cops alleged to have dropped off two black teens in the 11th Ward's Canaryville neighborhood, where they were beaten. It didn't bother him when he demanded prosecutions in other cases, involving even the slightest allegation that race was involved. Unfortunately, race may be involved here too, but nobody wants to talk about it. There is no percentage in talking about it. This one won't generate any votes. It doesn't fit the approved profile. In the CHA high-rise, several people there were concerned about Christina Eilman. They said she was not mentally competent to survive on their streets alone. A woman came up to me in a dark hallway inside the high-rise. I asked if she thought the police were right to release Christina. "She had no chance," the woman said. "No chance."
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Tauzero (#0)
There, at the Robert Taylor Chicago Housing Authority development, Christina was taken inside, up to the seventh floor, where she allegedly was raped by a gang leader before she fell--either was pushed or she jumped--to the mushy weeds and softball-size rocks in the yard below. Robert Taylor has been and continues to be the ghetto to end all ghettos. Five hundred well placed sticks of dynamite is what that place needs.
the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal bread.
Christina's family has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the city, which allowed their daughter, arrested at Midway for acting out, to be condemned to bureaucratic indifference and the brutality of strangers. Now, City Hall lawyers are trying to keep interviews from Internal Affairs investigators under seal in federal court and out of the public view. The proceeds should go to programs that help the bipolar and mentally ill. I don't care if it was Beverly Hills, you don't release a 21 year old girl (from out-of-state) wearing nothing but shorts and a t-shirt, and certainly not one who is mentally incompetent. So MSM is silent. I guess she should have disappeared in Aruba.
"If there’s another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country." - Daniel Ellsberg Author, Pentagon Papers Why was was this person traveling by herself? Pops to mind... These high-rise breeding-ground hell-holes should be outlawed.
Or at least warned about in street signs and tourist brochures.
this is a horrible, horrible story of callous indifference to her mental illness. according to the reports, she was abandoned and effectively put at greater risk than when she was initially arrested. what kind of society does this to anyone?
love ruthie One that only understands lawsuits.
"If there’s another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country." - Daniel Ellsberg Author, Pentagon Papers "It was clear she was having mental problems," Tiffany Love, an employee of the restaurant, told me Wednesday. "She met up with a crackhead. A woman. She took her over to Robert Taylor."
#2. To: Tauzero (#0)
Who decided to release her? How were those decisions made and why?
#3. To: Tauzero (#0)
What a horrible story.
#4. To: lodwick (#3)
These high-rise breeding-ground hell-holes should be outlawed.
I hate it when they ain't been shaved.
#5. To: Tauzero (#4)
XXXXXX
http://www.myspace.com/ruthiesb69
#6. To: ruthie (#5)
what kind of society does this to anyone?
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest