The Spin: Mayor Lightfoot calls video of fatal police shooting of Adam Toledo, 13, ‘excruciating’ | Pritzker vs. Exelon reprieve? | Disparities continue during legal weed’s first year in Chicago

Choking back tears at a news conference today, Mayor Lori Lightfoot called for peace ahead of the public release of video showing 13-year-old Adam Toledo’s fatal shooting by a Chicago police officer. Coverage of the video’s release is here.

The mayor called the footage “excruciating” and said it also points to deep-rooted, long-standing issues that elected leaders can and must address.

“Two facts about this tragedy remain clear: First, in the middle of the night, this child was in contact with an adult who had a gun, and then ended up being shot and killed by a police officer. Second, there are too many young people in our city, boys and girls alike, who have been left vulnerable by systemic failures that we simply must fix,” the mayor told reporters, citing a legacy here and across the country of easy access to illegal guns as well as police violence, particularly in Back and Latino communities.

The mayor said she’ll continue to talk with the Biden administration about stricter federal gun control laws. As she’s done before, the mayor also said police-community relations must improve, though as my Tribune colleagues remind in their reporting, Lightfoot’s administration has been criticized for not delivering key reforms such as civilian oversight of police.

Tribune environmental reporter Michael Hawthorne writes today about a new wrinkle in the Gov. J.B. Pritzker versus Exelon saga that saw the governor stand in the way of a rate hike and the utility behemoth then announce it would have to shut down two of the state’s power plants.

A new audit commissioned by Pritzker’s office calls for a compromise that would save jobs, protect the environment, give Exelon and the governor a win, while potentially sending the tab to ratepayers. But it would require lawmakers reeling over the alleged ComEd bribery scandal in the legislature, to take action.

And what’s emerged in the year since recreational marijuana was legalized in Illinois “is a parallel world where some are able to enjoy marijuana without consequence, while others continue to suffer from the policies of the drug war era,” my Tribune colleague William Lee writes.

Bottom line? Lee notes: “Three times the number of African Americans were arrested for marijuana-related offenses in Chicago than other ethnicities combined in 2020, according to Chicago Police Department arrest totals retrieved under a Freedom of Information Act request.”

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Lightfoot asks for calm amid release of video showing police shooting, killing Adam Toledo

“Watching the bodycam footage, which shows young Adam after he was shot is extremely difficult,” the mayor said, choking up, when asked about her feelings after watching the video. She said it was “excruciating” and that “this is not something you want your children to see.”

My colleagues reporting on the police shooting write: “Police have previously said a weapon was recovered at the scene, as have Cook County prosecutors.”

More: “On a frame-by-frame viewing, a pistol-shaped object appears to be visible in Toledo’s right hand behind his back as he pauses near the opening in the fence and turns his head toward the officer. On the grainy and shaky video, his hands appear to be empty at the moment the officer shoots him.” More here.

The mayor acknowledged that today’s public release of the videos would ignite grief and even anger across the city. But she and the Toledo family called for calm and peace in the city.

The mother of a 13-year-old herself, Lightfoot said the Toledo family’s wishes should be honored: “No parent should ever have a video broadcast widely of their child’s last moments, much less be placed in a terrible situation of losing their child in the first place. Even as our understanding of this incident continues to evolve, this remains a complicated and nuanced story. And we all must proceed with deep empathy and calm.”

Nonetheless, she reiterated that the city already had been preparing for a verdict in the Minneapolis murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer charged with killing George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, last summer. The killing touched off weeks of protests and some unrest across the country, including Chicago, and a reckoning on police violence in the Black community.

The Minneapolis trial, another police killing of a motorist in the Minneapolis suburbs over the weekend along with the release of the Adam Toledo resumes those tensions.

Calls for change Adam Toledo was one of two people killed within 48 hours by Chicago police during the midst of a foot chase, prompting Lightfoot’s call for changes in police foot pursuits. The mayor talked about more changes today too, the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt and Alice Yin write here.

What about the police officer? What about the police officer? My Tribune colleagues report that the officer has been identified in police reports as Ogden District tactical unit Officer Eric Stillman. More here.

The mayor said earlier in the day she knows “very little” about the officer but pointed out the footage shows “that officer spring into action to try to revive Adam, to call for medical assistance.”

She added that most officers never fire their weapons and when they do, “it’s extraordinarily traumatizing.”

Legal weed’s first year in Chicago: High arrest rates for Black people, a boutique experience for others

In the new frontier of legalized recreational marijuana, the Tribune’s William Lee reports, old problems lurk.

Data points: “During the first year of marijuana legalization, Black people led all ethnic groups in arrests with 2,311, making up more than three-quarters of all marijuana arrests in Chicago. Latinos made up the second highest number of arrests with 506.

“Whites made up about 4% of arrests in Chicago, with 117 arrests across the city for the entire year. Asians and Pacific Islanders made up fewer than 1% with just 25 arrests.”

Arrest figures the latest sign of disparity in the state’s fledgling marijuana industry: Lee writes, “Critics point out what they see as a troubling double standard: At the same time the state’s legal weed industry is making millions and white smokers are enjoying the boutique experience with designer weed in clean, fashionable North Side dispensaries, Black and brown people are left out of the windfall and continue to be arrested for selling weed illegally.” Full story here.

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Panel exploring solitary confinement at Cook County juvenile jail includes judge targeted by Democrats who said he didn’t do enough to push juvenile justice reform

“The Cook County chief judge’s office has announced a group of experts and politicians will explore the practice of solitary confinement at the juvenile jail, as an advisory board again recommended the punishment be abolished,” the Tribune’s Alice Yin writes.

Among those on the committee is Judge Michael Toomin, who was targeted by Cook County Democrats during his retention campaign last year for what the party said was not sufficiently supporting juvenile justice reform, Yin notes. He brushed it off as retaliation for appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case.

Also on the panel: Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin and representatives from the Illinois Justice Project and Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Full story here.

Subsidizing 2 more Exelon nuclear plants key to meeting Pritzker’s climate goals, audit finds

After Gov. Pritzker blocked a new round of ratepayer subsidies last year, ComEd’s parent company announced plans to close two of the state’s nuclear plants. It surely felt like a test of wills between, pardon the pun, two power players.

Now a new audit commissioned by the Democratic governor’s office — Tribune ace Michael Hawthorne obtained a redacted copy — could pave the way for a compromise deal.

Deputy Gov. Christian Mitchell frames this as preserving good-paying union jobs and the environment in the short term as the administration looks to “transition to renewable energy” in the long term.

Hawthorne points to the potential speed bump here, writing: “It remains unclear if the findings will provide enough political cover to muscle another subsidy package through the Democratic-controlled General Assembly, which is still roiling from a multiyear bribery scheme involving jobs, contracts and payments from ComEd to allies of former House Speaker Michael Madigan.”

Kinzinger pushes back on Biden’s call to exit Afghanistan

President Joe Biden’s announcement this week to withdraw remaining U.S. troops from the “forever war” in Afghanistan is drawing strong criticism from U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a combat veteran, who argues U.S. troops in the country provide Afghan society ensures stability.

The Democratic president said the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks can no longer justify American forces still dying in the nation’s longest war. The Associated Press has the full story here. The attacks were coordinated in Afghanistan.

But Republican Kinzinger, writes in an OpEd on the Fox News website: “While many fatigued Americans characterize U.S. engagement in Afghanistan as a ‘forever war,’ the reality is that America’s presence in Afghanistan is no longer the same combat mission that began after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. It has evolved into a mutually beneficial partnership, where each side serves as an insurance policy on security for each other.” Full piece here.

Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran, Iraq War veteran and lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, offered the same take last fall when President Donald Trump called for pulling troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq by late January.

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