Vehicular hijackings in the City of Chicago increased in 2020 by 135% over the previous year, from 603 carjackings in 2019 to 1,416 in 2020. In 2021 there have already been double the number of carjackings reported during the same period the prior year.

“If he isn’t convicted, myself, I’m organizing something … it’s happening,” said Miracle Boyd, a youth organizer with the group Good Kids Mad City. “Whether he is convicted or not, we’ve got to be out on the streets, whether we’re going to be celebrating [or protesting].”

There’s also been an uptick in the number of police officers who have been the targets of shootings. So far this year, 21 officers have been shot at, compared to nine through the first three months of 2020.

Daily new cases are up 75 percent since March 1 in Chicago. “We are on a similar trajectory here” to Michigan, which is already seeing figures almost as bad as it did during its own second surge, Dr. Allison Arwady said.

“The ongoing federal corruption probes are a reminder that Illinois has a lot of work ahead to undo the political culture of corruption.”

Oscar Arias, a graduate of Waukegan public schools and city resident, told the city’s school board, “Barack Obama’s presidency is filled with hostility against the immigrant community.”

Landlords have yet to pay about 6 percent of commercial property taxes that were originally due last August, with late fees waived through Oct. 1. And with those payments still owed, another $1.1 billion is outstanding for 2020 property tax bills that were due in early March—more than one-third of the total amount billed—though property owners can still pay those without penalty before May 3.

Nearly half of Chicago parents had talked with their child’s primary care doctor about mental or behavioral health concerns they had for their child within the last 6 to 12 months. Forty-four percent of young children experienced an increase in mental or behavioral health symptoms during the pandemic.

“In every era, there were leaders who transcended the ignorance and prejudice of the society of their time. We should want to honor those who knew that America had fallen short and strove to make her better. That consideration, in my view, makes Abraham Lincoln an easy case…To repurpose Lincoln is to honor a man who took actions that are difficult to imagine any other powerful man of the era taking.”

“There are a lot of students who feel super uncomfortable doing this [assignment] because they don’t agree with white privilege and the ideology behind it,” said student Hannah Brennan. “It reminds me of China with the reeducation camps. It feels like they’re very much pushing their opinions as facts and teaching opinions as facts. And it’s very manipulative.”

“If we had to go back again, a third time around, I’m not sure we could take it,” one bar owner said. “It would be devastating.”