This week we were shaken but not stirred, as we attended the very first public townhall hosted by 44th Ward Alderman Bennett Lawson. The highlights?

It was at the hospital, there were more police than attendees, the only media representative who showed up was asked to leave before the meeting started, and presentations covered what you’d glean from watching any Law & Order episode (Dun-Dun!). Here is a detailed update from this illuminating experience…

What was the point of this display? Who made the decision to barricade our streets and deploy hundreds of police officers? What was the goal of this post-parade display of force? Was it to have a visual of choreographed, orchestrated chaos for the benefit of corporate media, with Black teenagers, Queer folx, other parade goers of different ages, and locals, being corralled and prodded like cattle in artificially narrowed sidewalks, lined with chain-link fencing in places, and blocked by police vehicles and metal barricades at each intersection? To be pushed against the wall, to be carded on the way home, to be blocked from entering or exiting the CTA? We have some observations and calls to actions to share here.

“IF YOU'RE DOING NONSENSE IT HAS TO BE RATHER AWFUL, BECAUSE THERE'D BE NO POINT.”

EDWARD COREY

May 13, 2026 was a rollercoaster and a good reminder of how seemingly random events are connected:

At 9 am Mayor Brandon Johnson announced an expansion to the city's CARE Program, which IS NOW available in all 77 community areas in Chicago. The program sends a mental health professional and an emergency medical technician – not police officers or firefighters — to respond to calls of mental health emergencies.

If you didn’t know this, chances are it’s by design…

Welcome to the April 2026 44th ward update.

So much has happened in the last few weeks since the March primaries. We went to not one, but two definitely not-town-halls, we have watched the next chapter of the tipped wage saga unfold both in Chicago and Springfield, our alderman’s scheme to get the Zoning Chair didn’t work out in his favor, Springfield is still playing games with our progressive revenue, and the vote for the ordinance that would allow CPD to remove officers connected to far-right extremist groups has been pushed to next month…

Primaries are over. What we’ve learned from these primaries is that try as they might, the corporate establishment and donor class’ iron grip on our primaries and their efforts to consolidate control over every single seat in the state house, senate, comptroller, to say nothing of the congressional and US senate seats is actually… failing. The progressive coalition of Chicago is making steady gains, which is especially important in anticipation of the next year’s municipal elections, which will most likely be even more saturated with dark money and in-fighting.