Let Down By "The Chi"

Let Down By "The Chi"

As an African-American, Chicagoan, a person from "The Hood", and a writer, I was truly excited when I heard that there was going to be a series on Showtime that was going to be filmed here and show the world the real Chicago as seen from the standpoint of Blacks. I patiently waited for the premiere date and when it got here I parked myself in front of the television and watched.  Then................okay, it was okay. As a writer myself, I would've done things differently but hey, it's just the first episode. I'll see, the character background and storylines will pick up. It will be a hit; entertaining and elevating, giving the world a glimpse of what it's like to live a day in my shoes. That was weeks ago...........

Okay, it's Sunday again and frankly, I'm looking to find something; anything else that might be on. Unfortunately, I've been let down again by a show that is supposed to tell the world of the Chicago experience. A couple of shootings, a block party and some gang members hitting the freights. Basically, a show that could've been named; "The Philly, The ATL, The Saint Lou......You know what I am saying, whatever slick nickname inner-city residents give their city. There is nothing Chicago exclusive about the "The Chi". Nothing that tells the story of Blacks living in the most segregated major city in the nation; the most surveilled city in the country. I was expecting a show that highlights the plight of the Black Chicagoan in this millennium. A show that tells the story of Black Chicago, not just what the media gives the world, but the real story. What I received is another story about an inner-city incident that could've happened anywhere in the country.

It is impossible to have a show called the Chi and give a real account from the standpoint of one character or one group of characters residing in the same area. I grew up on 35th and King Drive, therefore my Chi is totally different than the Chi of a person raised on Francisco and Filmore. His Chi is different from the one belonging to the Chicagoan brought up on Damen and Montrose. All Chicago; but all different views of the same reality.

Please don't continue to be content with lazy writing, basic backstories, and stereotypical incidents. Leave that to the people behind Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med., etc. Please don't go the route of so many shows before you. Take the time to go deeper into the lives of the characters. Color their backstories with interactions with other people across this great city. I would like to see events that happen within their lives that include people that live in: Bronzeville, Chatham, Back of The Yards, Pilsen, Jefferson Park. Include the city and live up to the name that you have chosen.

You have a great opportunity to show the world, The Chi. The most Beautiful City in the World and the problems we, as residents of this city, encounter every day. Don't continue to stifle your characters because as of now "The Chi" is coming off as just another show about inner city life. I implore you, don't take the easy road, give the world us, the real us. The real Chi.

Serial Murder Revisit Roseland Community

The Roseland community in Chicago has had more than their share of serial murder over the years. The new millennium brought to light the serial murderer Geoffrey T. Griffin.  From July of 1998 to July 2000, Griffin used the neighborhoods of the Roseland area of Chicago as his personal killing fields. In a modus operandi familiar among African American serial killers, Geoffrey Griffin would lure area streetwalkers to abandoned buildings in lieu of receiving drugs or cash. Once inside, Griffin would rape then murder his victims. Arrested on June 17, 2000, he was subsequently charged with eight murders and 1 aggravated criminal sexual assault.  Many of his charges stem from bodies found long after his arrest.

On September 22, 2005, Judge Fred Suria convicted Griffin of killing Angela Jones after watching a videotape in which he described how he squeezed Jones' throat during sex after the two smoked crack cocaine.  Judge Suria acquitted him of killing Beverly Burns even though the man's shirt and jacket were spattered with her blood. The judge said that he was troubled by the lack of evidence at the crime scene against Griffin and by the fact that there was no blood of the victim at the scene. Griffin was sentenced to 100 years in prison on November 06, 2005. Trials for the other murders are forthcoming.

In 2010, serial murder returned to Roseland. Michael Johnson, a 24 year old Roseland resident was arrested on May 22, 2010 and charged with three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of criminal sexual assault.  Johnson’s DNA was taken and said to have matched at least four unsolved murders in the area. Currently held in Cook County Department of Corrections on no bond, Johnson now 27 is being investigated for additional murders in the Roseland community.

The premise and purpose of writing and publishing, “TheDarker Side of Evil,” was to enlighten society of the existence of Black serial killers as well as to advise African-American communities of these predator’s abilities to hide and operate in plain sight.  As usual the victims of these crimes were women. More specifically, women labeled nightwalkers or prostitutes that take to life on the streets by virtue of drug addiction.  Drug addicts and prostitutes are viewed by some as people whose behavior brought their fate upon themselves.  In my book, I pointed that society views these people as “throwaways,” people that society has basically given up on and truthfully wish would fall from the face of the earth anyway.

WE MUST CHANGE THE WAY WE VIEW EACH OTHER. The only time society seems to feel any level of empathy is when a problem affects us directly. We as a civilized society must change our judgmental views of each other and begin to care for something outside of ourselves. The devil cannot exist and operate if we keep an eye out for the well-being of the people around us. He thrives on our selfishness and inability to concern with the issues of the people we see and interact with daily. As long as we continue to do what we’ve always done, we will continue to get what we’ve always gotten.

The Windy City's Worst Team Ever...........The Chicago Rippers

Earlier today someone asked me if I had begun working on my second book as of yet. “No,” I responded, I went on to let them know that I am still investigating and researching various topics within the true crime genre. As an ex-criminal and true crime author I am normally not shocked by the articles, biographies and documentaries that I utilize for research in my works. That is until today; I was researching the potential links between H.H, Holmes and Jack the Ripper and came across a group known as the Ripper Crew or The Chicago Rippers.

The Chicago Rippers

Comprised of Robin Gecht, Edward Spreitzer with brothers Andrew and Thomas Kokoraleis, these men are suspected to be responsible for the disappearance of at least 18 women from the Chicago area in 1981 and 1982. During their time of operation, the group would drive around in a van looking for prostitutes to sacrifice in Gecht's apartment. Led by Gecht; these four men raped, tortured, mutilated and killed prostitutes throughout Cook & DuPage counties. Afterwards they would remove one breast from each victim and eaten it as Gecht read passages of “The Satanic Bible”. It has also been said that they, after severing the breast, took turns raping the open wound. They then proceeded to each masturbate into the flesh of the breast, chop it into pieces, and devour it. When the ritualistic behavior was done, they would dump the corpse and proceed to seek out their next victim. In 1982 Beverly Washington, a twenty-year-old prostitute, was found near death alongside some railroad tracks. Despite being raped, slashed, and having her left breast severed, Washington survived to give a description of her attacker and the van she was taken in.

The men were arrested in 1982. The Kokoraleis brothers and Spreitzer confessed their wrong doings in full gory detail. Each of them hesitated to involve Gecht in the crimes, some speculate out of fear or because of the sheer control that Gecht had over the other men. Gecht attempted to escape punishment by offering an insanity excuse. The strategy proved somewhat affective initially and caused a mistrial but that would not be the case in the second trial which began on September 30^th, 1983. The jury found Gecht guilty of attempted murder, rape, deviate sexual assault, aggravated battery, and armed violence.  He was sentenced to 120 years in prison. When asked why he was not convicted of murder, the jury cited the lack of hard evidence against him.

Tommy Kokoraleis, 23, attempted to block his confession from being admitted into his trial, but lost.   He was convicted in 1984 and was sentenced to 70 years in prison. Andrew Kokoraleis was tried in two separate counties for his crimes. After being tried, convicted and sentenced to life in the first trial he too attempted to recant his confession in his second trial. This strategy proved futile as he was sentenced to death. On March 16, 1999, 35-year-old Andrew Kokoraleis was executed by lethal injection at Tamms Correctional Center.  Also sentenced to death, Edward Spreitzer's sentence was commuted in George H. Ryan's last-minute commutation of all death sentences in Illinois in 2003.

The true accounts of the murderous exploits of these men were shocking. The devil truly is in the details of the crimes perpetrated by this group. A more shocking fact is that we share the planet, country, state and city with individuals of equal if not greater levels of depravity. As we carry out our day to day activities, we must make a commitment to ourselves, as it is our obligation, to look out, not only for ourselves but for each other. Not living in fear but being aware of our surroundings makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the devil to touch any one of us.

America's Real Casualties of War

In Chicago, a rally denouncing the war on drugs was held outside the James R. Thompson Center in the loop. The purpose of the rally was to call for an end to the war on drugs 40 years to the day after it was declared by then-President Richard Nixon. Kathleen Kane-Willis, the director of Roosevelt University’s Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, kicked off the rally by citing recent statistics indicating Illinois has a greater percentage for putting more African Americans behind bars for drug crimes than whites than any other state in the nation. Illinois continues to treat a medical and social issue as a criminal one which is obvious when the arrest/conviction rates are examined.

These factors directly relate to the dismal economic condition in Black communities. The current unemployment rate in Chicago is 9.4%, just a touch over the 9.1% nationwide. Yet the unemployment rate among Blacks is a staggering 21.4% the highest in the nation! How is this possible from a people that only comprise 36% of the city's population and 12% of the state? What's not taken into account is that Illinois incarcerates Blacks on a 8 to 1 ratio to whites for drug related offenses, therefore Blacks, upon release are labeled as unemployable and rendered economically impotent. Even if employers are willing to give an ex-offender an opportunity, often times their insurance carrier won't be willing to. Rural areas of Illinois where prisons are built, count inmates as their residents thereby securing additional federal funding as Black communities lose funding due to the absence of the incarcerated.

The war on drugs has been publicly regarded as a failure, not true, it is a success for its creators. These are three objectives that the war was designed to accomplish and has accomplished:
the mass incarceration of Blacks
re-establishment of a class system
legalized discrimination of ex-offenders

Nothing said publicly nor privately can be said to disprove the intentional damage that the war on drugs has caused. Law enforcement was given a license to target a race and society applauded their efforts. For over 4 decades, Chicago Police Department officers can be seen stopping African -Americans, most of them visibly harmless, (by age or physical condition) posing no threat to the community but being searched simply because they LOOK like drug users or peddlers. Statistics remind us that no race is any more inclined to use or sell drugs than any other. Only recently have eyes been opened to these atrocities, now that they have, a change must be made.

What has to happen is a full repeal of war on drugs sentencing and overhaul of the judicial system. A system designed to defame the character of African-Americans and an attempt to broadcast to the world an image of a truly worthless people. There are more people incarcerated now for drug offenses than there were for ALL offenses before the war on drugs was declared. Funds spent on housing inmates MUST be used to implement real rehabilitation programs. Programs that truly prepare ex-offenders for re-entry into society as well as programs that assist ex-offenders in creating their own economic recovery through entrepreneurship. Currently Illinois spends $100 to $300 daily per person to keep an individual incarcerated. Time & time again programs designed to benefit ex-offenders have been proven to only be a fraction of incarceration expenses.

If a change does not come, that will be proof positive of what is already suspected. The judicial system and the war on drugs is a farce, a facade to disguise its true purpose. The gradual dissemination of a people, the dismantling of the black family and the strategic destruction of a race by the removal of its male species. If change is not initiated, African Americans will be history's all time leaders in the casualties of war department.
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