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I suspect this child learned a good lesson out
of this rather early in life.
And that lesson is that our government masters
frequently are jerks, who are NOT the
public servants they claim to be.
City sticker artwork shows gang signs? By Hal Dardick and John Byrne Tribune reporters 7:15 a.m. CST, February 8, 2012 City Clerk Susana Mendoza said Tuesday she’s investigating whether gang signs are part of the winning design for Chicago’s next city sticker, just days before the decals are scheduled to be printed. The sticker, meant to honor city firefighters, paramedics and police, was designed by a 15-year-old boy who attends a school for troubled youth. The artwork shows four hands lifted skyward toward symbols of the three professions — above a heart containing a carefully rendered city skyline against the city flag. A blogger who writes about police issues identified the position of those hands as symbols often flashed by members of a notorious Chicago street gang. Concerned citizens began calling the clerk’s office Tuesday after those allegations hit the web, the clerk’s office said. “Every artist has a back story and oftentimes artwork is controversial,” Mendoza said in a statement. “However, the artwork on Chicago’s city stickers should not be controversial. “In a design that is meant to honor the city’s first responders, I am very sensitive to this issue. I grew up in a neighborhood filled with crime and gang violence and I come from a law-enforcement family,” Mendoza added. Exactly what’s on the city stickers is a touchy subject, in part because they will be the first to carry the names of Mendoza and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Jody Weis, a former police superintendent who is now president of the Chicago Crime Commission that puts out a handbook on city gangs, said he initially saw the imagery on a Blackberry and didn't think it looked like a gang sign. But a short time later, when he blew up the picture on an iPad, he could see it much clearer and he changed his mind. “It’s very, very close to a gang sign,’’ Weis told the Tribune when reached by phone Tuesday night. “It’s not exactly, but it’s very close,’’ Weis said. “It’s too close to be a coincidence.’’ Weis explained that the left and right hands shown in the artwork are the same. “Every finger configuration is identical,’’ he said. Weis said he believes authorities should take a closer look at the artwork. “I don’t know what was in the boy’s heart, but somebody needs to find that out,’’ Weis said. “For a city sticker, it would spark controversy,’’ Weis said. “You don’t want that kind of controversy on a city sticker.’’ The new city sticker was picked after a round of judging and another round of voting. In the first round, judges invited by the clerk’s office crowd into City Council chambers and rank their favorites from among hundreds of designs submitted by high school students. The top 10 then were posted at suntimes.com, and Mendoza said more than 18,000 votes were cast. The winning design was announced last week at a news conference. The teen said his mother and his school, Lawrence Hall Youth Services, were helping him improve his academic performance. He said he was honoring firefighters because they rescued him when he was 4 and had lit his clothes on fire with a candle. hdardick@tribune.com jebyrne@tribune.com Tribune reporter Rosemary Sobol contributed
Boy, 15, in sticker controversy: 'I don't know why they smashed me like that' 9:14 a.m. CST, February 9, 2012 The 15-year-old boy whose winning city sticker design has been pulled over gang concerns says in a sobbing interview that officials were wrong about his artwork and their decision is unfair. "I don't think that's fair. I tried the best I could," the boy told WGN-TV reporter Dan Ponce, crying throughout the interview as he sat on a couch in his home with his mother. "That art design has nothing to do with no gangs. Nothing. No violence, no nothing. "I did the best I can," he continued. "I don't know why they smashed me like that." Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza announced Wednesday that she was scrapping the boy's design for this year's city sticker because hands were drawn in a way that some experts associated with a notorious street gang symbol. It didn't matter whether the boy meant to include gang signs in his drawing honoring Chicago police, firefighters and paramedics, said a city clerk serving her first year in office. She couldn't risk having stickers that go on more than 1 million vehicles becoming contentious. "For me, as the clerk, it's not an issue of the individual at all, frankly," Mendoza said. "It's an issue of the perception that's now out in the city of Chicago and, frankly, nationally, that we have a city sticker that some experts believe may provide symbolism related to gangs." Last week, Mendoza hailed the teen as a "rock star" who would see his life positively affected by winning the design contest. On Wednesday, the boy was left in tears, denying that his drawing depicted any gang symbols and calling it unfair that his winning entry was withdrawn after hard work by him, his mother and teacher. "Nobody should be putting down that picture. It's wrong," the teen told WGN-TV. The Tribune is not naming the boy because he is a minor. In less than 24 hours, the teen's sticker was felled by a cop blog with a dirty name and a Facebook page that left some questions about the winner. On Tuesday afternoon, the blog pointed out what the writer saw as similarities between hands the boy drew into his sticker and a hand sign associated with a gang. By Tuesday evening, Mendoza said she was looking into the matter. The clerk consulted with Jody Weis, former police superintendent who is now president of the Chicago Crime Commission, which recently released its annual manual about Chicago street gangs. Appearing with Mendoza at a hastily called news conference Wednesday afternoon, Weis said the sticker's possible gang links went beyond the way the hands were positioned. The use of a heart as a central motif in the drawing, and the placement of the hands atop the heart like horns, also pointed toward images associated with a particular gang, he said. Weis said he also looked at the Facebook pictures before recommending the boy's design be scrapped. "When you take in the totality of the circumstances, you look at this artwork, you look at his Facebook page … you see images on there that are suggestive that this could be in reference to a particular gang," Weis said. "A lot of kids will boast, they want to sound tough on (Facebook)," Weis said. "The problem is, this is a good lesson that sometimes social media will get you in trouble. You've got to be careful what you post on there." But the boy's mother, speaking to reporters Wednesday at Lawrence Hall Youth Services, a North Side school for at-risk children her son attends, said any gang imagery is coincidence. Jessica Loor fought back tears as she defended her son's artwork, calling the accusations that he disguised gang symbols in his drawing "a bunch of nonsense being blown out of proportion." As Loor sat beside an attorney representing the family, she told reporters she helped her son with the project, hoping it would be a valuable lesson. "I came up with the idea of the heart because I feel that it's to show love to our Chicago heroes. And the hands are the helping hands of Chicago," she said of the two symbols that drew the strongest gang inferences. "And in no way, (shape or) form does anything in that picture have anything to do with gang affiliation, gang symbols." When the 15-year-old was named the winner of the sticker art contest Feb. 2, the excited boy gushed about his achievement. "I'm really happy because nobody really recognized me, and I wanted attention, and now I've got that," he said to applause and laughter from other contest participants. The boy said he hoped to become an architect so he could leave his mark on Chicago. And he recalled that Chicago firefighters saved his life when he burned himself badly at age 4, saying he wanted to honor them with his design. Mendoza said overturning the teen's victory weighed heavily on her. "Frankly, we had a lot of tears in that office having to make this decision," she said, pausing to collect herself. The clerk said she has not decided whether to revoke the $1,000 bond the teen won for coming out tops in the annual voting. Judges chose his design to be a top 10 finalist from among more than 200 entries. It then received 2,831 online votes at suntimes.com. Caitlin Henehan, a Resurrection High School senior, designed the sticker that will now be used. It depicts a firefighter, police officer and paramedic as superheroes and was vetted by gang experts. "I thought his design was really good," said Henehan, who called it "unbelievable" that she's now the winner. "I feel really badly for him." Mendoza said she hopes to forge a relationship with the boy "if he still wants to speak to me." "I hope that I can somehow maybe reach this kid, just through a different medium than the city sticker at this point," she said. |