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Katie Prout @katieprout.bsky.social · 14h

It's all I've heard all afternoon

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 14h

Every day it's just helicopters all day long now and people are somehow still unsure whether to call this an occupation

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shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 14h

they are really just rolling up on random landscapers and street vendors and kidnapping them

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shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 14h

feds have been all over chicagoland today.

reports of people abducted from back of the yards, cicero, rogers park, hermosa, barrington, batavia, and bridgeview.

feds are out in force in aurora. not sharing video, but residents have likewise turned out in force—and they aren't happy.

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Sarah Lazare @sarahlazare.bsky.social · 1d

"Since September, at least six unhoused Chicagoans have been abducted by federal agents. That number is likely higher, but the social invisibility and isolation already faced by people experiencing homelessness make their disappearances harder to track" by @katieprout.bsky.social @mulchy.bsky.social

Make It Make Sense: ICE targets Chicago’s homeless community

Plus: state and local leaders crack down on anti-ICE protesters and advocates ask the chief judge to keep ICE out of county courthouses.

chicagoreader.com

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shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 20h

sixty-eight chicago community, faith, + social service organizations are calling on cook county commissioners to “protect and increase social service spending” amid drastic cuts nationally from the trump admin.

they suggest freezing all law enforcement spending, which has “unjustifiably increased.”

In the last year, the Trump administration has taken unprecedented action to dismantle institutions and programs benefiting marginalized communities, cut funding for essential social services, and pull back funds allocated to states and local jurisdictions. These cuts jeopardize public safety and risk reversing the incredible progress Cook County has made in reducing community violence.

The undersigned 68 community, faith, policy, and service-providing organizations write to call on you and your fellow commissioners to protect funding for essential services like violence prevention, behavioral health, and community investment to reduce intra-community violence. You can support these services by freezing law enforcement spending, which is already far above the levels set when there were many more people in jail and many more criminal cases being processed by our court system.
Over the last decade, Cook County has made tremendous progress in reducing pretrial jailing and improving community safety. This has been a byproduct of both moving away from racist policies promoting mass incarceration and strategically investing in expansions to the social safety net and community-based violence prevention programs. With the Trump administration gutting many of the federal programs aimed at supporting the neighborhoods most at risk of community violence, it is essential that Cook County not only avoid cutting budgets for these programs but also increase investments.

We believe that Cook County can protect and increase essential health and human service spending by freezing all spending for law enforcement. Despite the nearly 40% decrease in the number of people incarcerated in the Cook County Jail, the Cook County Department of Corrections budget has not seen a reduction that coincides with that change in responsibility.
Similarly, the budget for the State's Attorney's Office grew tremendously over the last decade, even as both the number of case filings and crime rates …

… continued to decrease. It is important to note that while the federal government has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for essential social services, law enforcement spending has unjustifiably increased.

We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge President Trump's authoritarian attacks on residents of Cook County. Over the last several weeks, there have been repeated threats to the safety of our community members through executive orders targeting people without homes or who have mental health needs. Numerous federal law enforcement agencies have been dispatched to make arrests and deport our neighbors. It is essential at this moment that Cook County expand investments to ensure adequate support of community members targeted by the actions of the Trump administration and everyone impacted by its reduced funding for resources that allow marginalized people to live safe and healthy lives. The County's investment must include increasing the budget of the Public Defender's Office, which is responsible for defending increasing numbers of Cook County residents facing both criminal charges and immigration removal proceedings.

Cook County must protect its important progress increasing community safety and reducing pretrial jailing from a federal administration that has made clear that it does not care about our most vulnerable residents. Please stand strong for community safety by freezing law enforcement spending to protect essential health and human service investments and expand support for Public Defense.

Sincerely,
The Cook County members of the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice and supporting organizations:
A Just Harvest
A Midwest Movement Project
Access Living
Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment | AFIRE
Apna Ghar, Inc.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice ||
Chicago
Beyond Legal Aid
BlackRoots Alliance
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
Cannabis Equity IL Coalition

Chicago Alliance Against Sexual
Exploitation | CAASE
Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts
Chicago Community Bond Fund
Chicago Therapy Collective
Chicago Torture Justice Center
Chicago United for Equity
Chicago United Solidarity Project | CUSP
Chicago Urban League
Chicago Votes
Children's Best Interest Project
Circles & Ciphers
Color Of Change
Community Renewal Society
Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy
Project | FLAP
First Defense Legal Aid
HANA Center
Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice Illinois National Organization for Women
Illinois Prison Project
Illinois Social Justice Alliance
Impact for Equity
Indivisible Chicago-South Side
Inside Out Network
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
KAN-WIN
Legal Council for Health Justice
Liberation Library
Lucy Parsons Labs
Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition
& Solidarity | MAMAS
Muslim Civic Coalition
NAMI Cook County North Suburban
National Lawyers Guild Chicago
Nehemiah Trinity Rising
Nikkei Uprising
Northwestern University Graduate Workers
Pretrial Justice Institute
Restore Justice
Revolution Workshop
Sana Healing Collective
Saving Our Urban Leaders
Sentencing Advocacy Group of Evanston
She Votes Illinois
Shriver Center on Poverty Law
SisterReach Illinois
Southsiders Organizing for Unity and
Liberation | SOUL
Stick Talk
TASC, Inc.
The People's Lobby
The Puerto Rico Project To Defend If Necessary
Trinity United Church of Christ
Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of
Illinois
Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of
Ilinois
Uptown People's Law Center
West Town Law Office
Wolf Pack Therapy
Youth Empowerment Performance Project

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The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 20h

Croatian Tales of Long Ago — a seminal collection of short stories by the acclaimed children's author Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić. The illustrations in this 1922 edition are by Croatian artist Vladimir Kirin: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/croatian-tales-of-long-ago-1922

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The People's Fabric @peoplesfabric.com · 1d

Just before 6pm curfew, a bus pulled up to the ICE facility. It appears they pulled the front into their garage to unload whoever is inside.

Of course at the same time, Broadview PD dispersed press from the “free speech zone.”

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Katie Prout @katieprout.bsky.social · 1d

Lake Michigan! Live! @lake-michigan.live · 1d

Current* conditions near Chicago, IL:

View of Chicago skyline from the roof of the Field Museum of Natural History. // Image captured at: 2025-10-08 23:18:37 UTC (about 18 min. prior to this post) // Current Temp in Chicago: 57.23 F | 14.02 C // Precip: clear sky // Wind: NNE at 1.990 mph | 3.20 kph // Humidity: 70%

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 1d

This South Side Weekly report on the Chicago building raid is well worth reading. Most striking to me are the indications of collusion between federal authorities and the building owner and management to effect a mass eviction at the blighted property. southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

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shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 1d

in the column this week:

-advocates have confirmed/are investigating the abductions of ~25 unhoused folks by federal agents in chicago (via @katieprout.bsky.social)

-state/local leaders crack down on anti-ice protesters

-civil rights orgs ask chief judge to bar ice arrests at county courthouses

Make It Make Sense: ICE targets Chicago’s homeless community

Plus: state and local leaders crack down on anti-ICE protesters and advocates ask the chief judge to keep ICE out of county courthouses.

chicagoreader.com

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Katie Prout @katieprout.bsky.social · 1d

If anyone has additional information they want to share with me, anonymous or otherwise, my email is [email protected]. Signal katie.507!

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Katie Prout @katieprout.bsky.social · 1d

I spoke to Melissa West of CCH for this story. They encourage anyone who might have information to call CCH’s federal response hotline at 312-641-4148, or the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights at 855-435-7693.

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Katie Prout @katieprout.bsky.social · 1d

Hotspots include public spaces in Logan Square and around Belmont & Kimball and Belmont & Milwaukee. CCH says they've also heard of a possible detainment of four people at an encampment in Cicero.

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Katie Prout @katieprout.bsky.social · 1d

At least 6 unhoused Chicagoans have been abducted by federal agents since September: 2 have been released, while the status of the remaining 4 is unknown. But the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness is investigating reports of an additional 19 people disappeared.

chicagoreader.com/news/make-it...

Make It Make Sense: ICE targets Chicago’s homeless community

Plus: state and local leaders crack down on anti-ICE protesters and advocates ask the chief judge to keep ICE out of county courthouses.

chicagoreader.com

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The TRiiBE @thetriibe.com · 1d

Chicago Ald. Gregory Mitchell oversees the 7th Ward, which is home to the South Shore apartment building at the center of last week’s ICE raid.

He didn’t sign the letter.

Mitchell has not yet publicly issued a statement on the raid.

thetriibe.com/2025/10/so-a...

So, about that letter of support for Chicago Ald. Jessie Fuentes: 13 alderpeople didn’t sign it • The TRiiBE

The letter describes what the agents did to Fuentes as an “abuse of power.” Mayor Brandon Johnson, City Clerk, Anna Valencia and City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin also signed it.

thetriibe.com

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jj skolnik @modernistwitch.myatproto.social · 2d

so many people enormously missing the point of this post, which has nothing to do with the pieces of shit occupying the city i live in and everything to do with how people view fatness

jj skolnik @modernistwitch.myatproto.social · 2d

feel like we can do better than “man these guys are real fatsos” when talking about agents of state violence idk

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Logan Jaffe @loganjaffe.bsky.social · 2d

@robertloerzel.bsky.social did a fantastic deep dive into Dunning a while back. We went out to the former hospital site and did video interviews with people trying to keep the memory of the place alive.

www.wbez.org/curious-city...

The Story Of Dunning, A 'Tomb For The Living'

In both life and death, the people who ended up at the notorious asylum and poor farm were some of Chicago’s least fortunate residents.

www.wbez.org

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Logan Jaffe @loganjaffe.bsky.social · 2d

On Chicago’s NW side from 1854 to 1970 there was a “civil commitment and forced medical care” institution called Dunning Asylum, later the Chicago State Hospital.

People realized during construction in the 1990s they were building on mass graves of poor and mentally ill people.

There is precedent.

NPR @npr.org · 2d

President Trump says one part of the answer to homelessness is civil commitment and forced medical care. Some Democrats agree.

Some Democrats share Trump's goal of forcing more homeless people into medical care

President Trump says one part of the answer to homelessness is civil commitment and forced medical care. Some Democrats agree.

n.pr

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Katie Prout @katieprout.bsky.social · 3d

Omg rude

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Katie Prout @katieprout.bsky.social · 3d

Bumping again--I'm back full time starting today. Am especially interested in hearing from unhoused people and advocates in Chicago who have been impacted by ICE and the now-looming National Guard deployment in our city. Signal is katie.507.

Katie Prout @katieprout.bsky.social · Aug 21

After taking some time away to have a dang baby, I'm back to work at the Chicago Reader. Have a question or tip about the state of harm reduction, homelessness, and/or drugs in Chicago? Send me a line at [email protected]. I also cover: cultural lore, ghosts of all kinds, & city characters.

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 3d

This is the second lawsuit of the day filed/separate from the first amendment suit.

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 3d

BREAKING: Illinois has filed suit to block Trump's deployment of the military to Chicago.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 3d

what can state officials do?

honestly idk. we’re seeing the direct result of years of expanded executive power, particularly with regard to “national security” in the post-9/11 era.

but i think it’s clear to everyone seeing what’s happening in our communities that doing *nothing* is not an option.

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Katie Prout @katieprout.bsky.social · 3d

Imagine that your job is to occupy an American city, and likely brutalize its residents and press, and you’re going to do that for an IOU.

“Even as legal battles intensify, the Trump administration confirmed that deployed Guard troops will not be paid again until the federal government shutdown — now entering its sixth day — is resolved, via POLITICO.”

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shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 3d

this part.

the feds are *already* here. they’ve *been* here, tear-gassing neighborhoods, abducting people from their cars and homes with helicopters and bearcats, beating and arresting protesters.

so far, the state’s response has been to just let them do it—and to send in the police to help them.

Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 3d

ICE is doing a hell of a lot of harm in the Chicago area *right now.* I don’t mean to trivialize the national guard stuff, it absolutely is an irresponsible escalation, but the guard-centric convo around this really does understate what’s going on without any guardsmen.

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 3d

Please note: protesters, clergy and a neighbor are also on this suit/also making claims here (it's a lot of reporters, but not only reporters!)

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 3d

JUST IN: Chicago journalistsa re suing DHS and ICE over force used against reporters:

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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