Thread by @greenfieldjohn

THREAD: Last week right-wing @chicagotribune columnist @John_Kass ran a column blaming rising crime and civil unrest in big cities like Chicago on "left-wing billionaire George Soros [spending] millions of dollars to help elect liberal social justice warriors as prosecutors."

"[Soros] remakes the justice system in urban America, flying under the radar," Kass wrote. "The Soros-funded prosecutors... are the ones who help release the violent on little or no bond." The piece ran with a photo of Soros a frequent target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

There was quite a backlash to Kass' Soros column. Some argued that while the Trib is laying off lots of actual reporters, Kass is getting paid 6 figures to spout off "anti-Semitic garbage," with terrible writing to boot.

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1285968590429196288

At least one of Kass' Tribune coworkers publicly ridiculed the piece.

https://twitter.com/Charliemagne/status/1285916974795677698

Forward columnist Aviya Kushner argued that Kass' Soros piece used anti-Semitic tropes about rich Jews pulling the levers of power behind the scenes, but his Tribune editors failed to catch them.
forward.com/opinion/451391…

Kushner also noted Kass' Soros column lacked key context. Kass mentioned that Soros donated $2M to help elect @KimFoxxforSA, suggesting he bought the election for her. What Kass didn't mention is that Foxx's opponent's billionaire dad donated 5X as much to his son's campaign.

Oh, this appears to be another example of one of Kass' current Tribune coworkers ridiculing his Soros piece, liberal columnist @EricZorn subtweeting former Trib editor @MarkJacob16 during the backlash to Kass' article. H/T @antesuji

https://twitter.com/EricZorn/status/1286074816592785408

Some journalists noted that Kass' Soros piece, widely slammed as dog-whistle anti-Semitism, was just par for the course for an overpaid bloviator notorious for "gaping logical holes and thinly veiled racism and misogyny."

https://twitter.com/imLeor/status/1286744760267542528

After the backlash to Kass' Soros column, which was making waves within Tribune management, I heard a rumor that his next column might be pulled from publication. That doesn't seem to have happened, judging from this piece on the Columbus statue removals that ran Friday.

After the outcry over Kass' Soros column, but the Columbus piece seems to be more carefully edited. I didn't see much that's blatantly offensive, and I actually agree with his argument that @chicagosmayor did what she had to do by removing the statues to prevent further violence.

OTOH, my @Chicago_Reader colleague @imLeor argued that Kass' lament that the statue removals "hurt" is absurd, and Leor's not wrong about that.

https://twitter.com/imLeor/status/1287081917393833985

But just because Kass' new column on the statue removals isn't an obvious example of bigot-friendly conspiracy theory mongering like the Soros piece was, that doesn't mean that he's on the right side of the issue, so let's spend a little time deconstructing his arguments.

Arguably, rather than stationing tons of cops to protect the downtown Columbus statue from being pulled down by protesters, Lightfoot should have just taken in down in the first place, instead of doing it after many dozens of people were injured at the protest.

But I think Kass makes a valid argument here. In the wake of the protest violence, it made no sense to waste so many police resources on protecting a statue while there has been a spike in shootings on the South and West sides.

Again, Lightfoot probably should have just taken the statues down in the first place, rather than wasting so many CPD resources on protecting them.

This statement in Kass' piecee acknowledging why many view Columbus as a villain (penned by his editor?) is also fairly reasonable.

Of course, the historical record shows that Columbus wasn't just a "symbol of white European oppression," he was a horrible person, and his contemporaries viewed him that way.

If Columbus had merely been an explorer wrongly credited with "discovering" continents that were already populated by people with complex civilizations, there probably wouldn't be such an outcry for tearing down his statues.

(FWIW, Columbus wasn't even the first person from the "Old Word" to sail to the "New." There's evidence that everyone from Vikings to Filipino navigators traveled there before him.)

Rather, people want Columbus statues to come down because of what he did after he reached the Americas. Among his first thoughts upon encountering Indigenous people were exploitation and enslavement, as you can see from his writings to Ferdinand and Isabella.

Contemporary accounts by historians like priest Bartolomé de las Casas accused Columbus' men of unspeakable atrocities against Indigenous men, women, and children.
washingtonpost.com/history/2019/1…

Because of the accusations of tyranny and brutality, Columbus and his brothers were arrested and imprisoned upon their return to Spain from the third voyage. (But since the exploitation of the New World was profitable for Spain, King Ferdinand released them 6 weeks later.)

Experts estimate that when Columbus arrived on the island of Hispaniola (modern Haiti / Dominican Republic), there were probably about 3 million. Within two decades of interaction with the Spanish, the Indigenous population was down to an estimated 60,000.

So Columbus wasn't just a "a symbol of white European oppression" towards Indigenous people as Kass writes. Rather, Columbus' career was all about "conquer[ing] the whole of them... and govern[ing] them as I pleased" (Columbus' words.)

As such, it's completely logical people don't want Columbus honored with public statues.

Moving on, in Friday's column Kass noted many Italian-Americans in Chicago see Columbus as a "symbol of pride," adding Columbus Day was established after 11 Italians were lynched in NOLA.

It's interesting that right-leaning types like Kass who are pro-cop are also citing that 1892 tragedy as an example of historic bigotry towards Italians that shows why having an Italian like Columbus honored as an American hero was so important to Italian-Americans.

Sorry, the lynching took place in 1891. The irony of "back the blue" folks like Kass citing that incident as justification for the lionization of Columbus is that the murders were part of the collective punishment of NOLA's Italian community after the police chief was murdered.

The lynching of the Italians in NOLA took place during a period of rising crime and anti-Italian sentiment in the city, on the day after the trial of 9 of the 19 Italian men indicted for the murder of the police chief.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_14,…

After a jury failed to convict the 9 Italian defendants for the murder of the police chief, there was a widespread belief that the jury had been bribed, promoted by local officials and the press. A mob then broke into the jail and killed 11 of the Italian prisoners.

So its ironic that pro-cop John Kass is arguing that the removal of tributes to Columbus, create in part as a result of the pro-cop lynching of Italians, shows that Chicago leaders feel "[Italian-American] history doesn't matter."

But I'm actually sort of on the same page with Kass that the apparently unprovoked attack on CPD officers guarding the downtown statue during the recent protest was problematic.

Multiple videos indicate that an organized subgroup of a few dozen protesters hid behind umbrellas and banners, changed into black clothes for anonymity, moved to the front of the crowd and pelted the cops with a relentless rain of frozen water bottles, rocks, fireworks, etc.

Video of that incident:
blockclubchicago.org/2020/07/20/vig…
vimeo.com/439438945/ebb2…

It appears the goal was to clear the cops from the statue so that it could be pulled down, and the black-clad group almost succeeded before reinforcements showed up.

According to CPD, 48 officers were injured, 18 hospitalized, including one with a broken eye socket, another with a fractured knee, and a third with a firework injury to the eye that may have required surgery.

IMO, it's not worth injuring human beings who have done nothing seriously wrong because you want to take down a statue, and doing so undermined the message of the otherwise-peaceful protest.

But what Kass completely ignores in his column was the disproportionate police response.

When the CPD reinforcements arrived, they went into full-blown 1968 police riot mode, indiscriminately swinging billy clubs and using pepper gas against attackers, peaceful protesters & journalists alike, including @lindalutton @MarParNews & @colinbphoto.

https://twitter.com/lindalutton/status/1284351286050271234

The case of an officer knocking out one or more teeth of teen activist Miracle Boyd during the police response has gotten lots of press.
blockclubchicago.org/2020/07/18/18-…

But the enraged police used potentially lethal force on countless other protesters.

I'm not seeing numbers for how many protesters were injured during the police riot, but at least 20 complaints have been filed with the police accountability office, and judging from gruesome photos in the news, there must have been many serious injuries.
chicago.suntimes.com/2020/7/20/2133…

No mention of any of that in the Kass column, just the injured officers.

While, again, I don't condone the attack on officers by some protesters, OTOH there's some question of whether the statues would have come down otherwise.

I've been tracking / advocating for removing tributes to Italo Balbo, the Fascist air commander who helped bring Mussolini to power. Aldermen were all set to rename Balbo Dr., but wound up caving to pressure from influential Italian-American civic groups.
chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archiv…

So if it hadn't been for the attack on the cops (again, I'm not condoning them) and the ensuing police riot, it's possible that the debate over taking down the Columbus statue would have dragged on for years.

At the end of his column Kass discusses his father-in-law, "a Sicilian orphan in New Orleans, born some 20 years after the 11 Italians had been lynched," WWII vet & Chicago cab driver.

"I’m glad he’s not here, now, to see what’s become of his city, and his country," Kass writes.

Kass is implying that the removal of Chicago's Columbus statues is shameful, and it would break the heart of an Italian-American vet who faced discrimination.

But, Columbus' atrocities against Indigenous people, the pro-cop lynching of the 11 Italians, the bigotry Kass' father-in-law faced, and the unconscionable violence the CPD inflicted on peaceful protesters & bystanders are all linked by a failure to empathize with fellow humans.

So taking down tributes to men like Columbus and Balbo, who committed or were complicit in racist atrocities, bends the arc towards justice.

So let's instead honor the contributions hardworking Italian-American Chicagoans like Kass' father-in-law with new tributes to worthy peers like Frances Cabrini, Enrico Fermi, and Ron Santo, to name a few.

All right, end of thread. So while @john_kass' new column about the Columbus statues isn't godawful, it will be interesting to see if there's any further fallout from last week's Soros rant that will make him change his dog-whistle ways, or decide it's time to retire for good.