Wearing a sweatshirt with a hood on her head, local resident Pat Campanaro spoke to the Cook County Board of Commissioners during the public comment period at the beginning of its March 27, 2012 regular meeting. She expressed dismay at the February 26 shooting of a 17-year-old black youth in Florida who was allegedly doing nothing but walking through a neighborhood wearing a hoodie.
Campanaro said to the News- Herald that the man who shot the boy claims he was within his rights under a Florida law that allows people to use deadly force if they merely “feel” threatened. According to a March 28 Chicago Tribune article by Ana Veciana-Suarez, this is known as the “Stand Your Ground Self- Defense Law” that “eliminated a citizen’s duty to retreat before using deadly force against an attacker. It grants immunity from prosecution or civil suit if the shooter can be proven to have acted in self-defense.” According to Veciana-Suarez, it “fosters a shoot-first, ask-questions later atmosphere.”
The Chicago Tribune article states that the shooter had called the police to report a suspicious person. The dispatcher tried to discourage him from following the young man, but he allegedly did so anyway.
A March 27 Chicago Tribune article by Eric Zorn states that the shooter claims that the youth threw the first punch and that the shooter “ended up bleeding from the nose and from a wound in the back of his head.”
“Seminole County State Attorney Norm Wolfinger has promised to convene a grand jury next month,” the March 28 article states. “The FBI, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division are reviewing the case.”
Here in Cook County, Campanaro stated to the board that the clothes people wear do not dictate who they are.
Cook County has a program that assists crime victims. Later in the meeting, Victim/Witness Coordinator Jeanne Smith gave a report to the board on the services provided by her office, which is funded by a grant from the Minnesota Office of Justice Programs. In fiscal year 2011, services were provided to 127 new primary victims and 41 new secondary victims. Victims ranged in age from under 12 to over 65. Offenses committed against them ranged from misdemeanors to felonies, including theft, burglary, assault, terroristic threats, harassment, and attempted second-degree murder.
The victim/witness services office provides information, offers assistance navigating the criminal justice system, helps with restitution or reparation requests, advocates, and refers people to other services.
This last year the victim/witness services offices underwent some remodeling to provide a safe waiting area for victims and witnesses.
Later in the meeting, Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers showed commissioners a state statute that requires changes in court administration offices to be approved by district courts but requires counties to provide the funding. That office has requested some remodeling to enhance security as well.
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