About Me

Chicago, Illinois, Illinois, United States
Ms Sis Place is the name of a cyber cafe, deli and bookstore owned by Pat Hill, a retired Chicago police officer. She is an official of the African American Police League; a 40 year community based organization that focuses entirely on serving the African American community everywhere in the United States. Formerly a Chicago Public Schools high school teacher, Ms. Hill has a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Masters of Science in Law Enforcement Administration. She shares her vast knowledge of the law enforcement system by continuing to teach. She is an adjunct professor in Chicago at Northeastern Illinois University-Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies in the Justice Studies program. Several months into her retirement from the Chicago Police Department, she completed writing her first book, published by the African American Police League. The title "Black Ain't Blue", A historical perspective of law enforcement in America implicating why African Americans distrust the police. The foreword was graciously contributed by Dr. Margaret Burroughs, founder and President Emeritus-Dusable Museum of African American History in Chicago.

WELCOME TO PAT'S FORUM

All comments, questions, stories and editorials are encouraged @ Pat's Forum. You don't have to limit yourself to a particular topic, issue or subject matter. What you have to do however, is to be solution oriented. Dr. King warned us of "the paralysis of analysis"

Monday, May 12, 2008

CBS/WBBM Simulcast Town Hall Meeting 5/10/08

On Saturday, May 10, 2008, CBS Television and WBBM Radio conducted a live,two hour simulcast addressing the culture of violence in the African American community. The event was held at KennedyKing College in Chicago and aired between 10:00pm and 12 midnight.

It was a great media event. However, as far as relief for the community or highlighting solutions, that did not occur. An exclusive panel was assembled that was tremendously "totesterone" heavy. Not a single female sat among the six men which included Chicago Police Department Superintendent-Jody Weiss, President of the Chicago Board of Education-Rufus Williams, Pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church-Michael Pleger, PUSH CEO- Jesse Jackson, Latino Organizer, former State Senator-Jesus Garcia and WBBM-TV Attorney whose name escapes me at this time. To their credit, Sun-times newspaper columnist Mary Mitchell was invited, but didn't make it.

The premise established at the beginning of the program, over emphasized the incidences of violence occuring in the mostly Black and brown communities as though they are self-created and self-inflicted. Highly dramatized interviews of victims of gun violence, be they direct survivors or vicarious ones, as parents, childrent etc. were repeated throughout the program. It was obvious that the intent was to create some emotional reactions rather than formulate sound, long-term, calculated solutions. For example, early on, a video tape was played illustrating Mayor Richard Daley, demanding that citizens lobby their political representatives to legislate more effective gun control initiatives. Using the analogy that if you can legislate the banning of smoking in public places, you can legislate the elimination of guns in American society. Can anyone believe that? The last time I looked, he is supposed to be a political representative of the people too. However, here you have someone who, since his adminstration began in 1989, so did most of the factors that have most contributed to the social/economic ills leading to the drastic increase in the street crime violence we are now witnessing in the city of Chicago. We can go back further than that when he was the head of the Cook County State's Attorney's office in the early eighties.

As head of the Cook County State's Attorney's office up until the present, Daley has not prosecuted one police officer involved with torturing over 100 Black men by Chicago police officers headed up by former Area 1 Commander of Detectives, Jon Burge. It is a documented fact that before the number grew to 100, Daley had been informed, in writing by then Police Superintendent, Richard Breyzyk of an arrestee who was hospitalized with suspicious injuries and the doctor who examined him, brought it to the Superitendent's attention. The Superintendent recommended that the State's Attorney's office investigate the matter. It never happened. Whenever Daley is confronted on the issue, he continues to deny having any knowledge of any torture. Mind you, Amnesty International and the UN Committee on Torture has told the world but I guess Daley never got the memo.

Subsequently, since becoming the mayor, he has taken over the auspices of the Chicago Public Schools. That entity is now experiencing its greatest number of "push-outs", its lowest test scores, the most school closings, the most teachers ever hired who don't possess education degrees, the highest ranking school official is referred to as a CEO and has fewer credentials than a large number of teachers and the most public school students killed in a particular time period than at any other time in the history of the Chicago Public Schools. Further, city contracts awarded to African Americans is the lowest since his father was mayor form 1955 til 1976 when he died. When the current mayor Daley became mayor, African Americans were receiving no less than 30% of city contracts. They are now at less than 5%. Since his administration began, summer jobs for eligible teenage school students, have been diminishing to the point that they have become almost non-existent. Since his adminstration, police officers have killed more Black, unarmed men in the back, in recent Chicago memory. Black police officers represent 24% of the police department while comprising up towards 50% of the civilian population. The Irish population in Chicago is 3% while they make up the majority of the police department. The representation in officers of rank is even more dismal. To add insult to injury, Daley recently overtly circumvented the police superintendent process when he personally selected the current superintendent, FBI agent Jody Weiss at a whopping $300,000 plus salary per year. The highest in the country. Mr. Weiss is now arming police officers in combat gear, including assault weapons to patrol the streets of the city of Chicago.

With that type of track record, one does not have to look far to to have an inkling of where a great deal of the problem may lie. If nothing less, we know solutions to the street crime/violence problem cannot be expected to emanate from city hall. It is also obvious that the citizens in the city remain asleep at the wheel because Daley recently won an unprecedented 6th term in office.
The lesson to be learned. You get what you vote for.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

African American Police League 40th Anniversary-March 14, 2008


President- Police Officer Arilaus Jackson
On Friday, March 14,2008 at Chicago State University, the African American Police League (AAPL) held its' 40th Anniversary. The AAPL is a community organization comprised of both law enforcement personnel and civilians who are progressive in their efforts to address law enforcement issues in America as they primarily impact the African American community. More information can be obtained on their website. AAPL web address is aapoliceleague.org.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Monday, May 5, 2008

Interview @ Ms Sis Place


Black Ain't Blue
from Marc Sims
7:38 173 views

Interview @ Ms Sis Place

Pat Hill Feb 08 part one
from Marc Sims
6:12 46 views

Welcome to Ms Sis Place

Ms.Sis Place cyber cafe
from Marc Sims
0:25 240 views

Interview @ Ms Sis Place

Wright vs Obama

Combat Ready Police are not the answer

Chicago, for two consecutively weekends experienced almost forty people shot. To attribute the lower numbers of Black people killed by alleged gang members one week end, in comparison to the weekend before to the mayor's sanctioning of an increased show of force by Chicago police officers, is propagandizing for a "police state". The fact is that thirty plus people killed in one weekend is abhorrent and not the norm, yet. However, if certain measures are not taken, people will come to view such occurrences as something only police outfitted in combat gear, including assault wepons can resolve. What will be next, tanks?

The conditions that facilitate the current state of street violence in this society continue to fester from decades of neglect. The young Black male street criminal of today, wasn't born when drive-by shootings were invented by Chicago and other city gangsters, such as Al Capone from that era. The violence associated with the underworld, such as strip-clubs (Bada Bing-The Sopranos), which have become prevalent in the urban areas of this nation, was not conceptualized by young Blacks emulating the lifestyles that they feel guarantee a steady stream of income.

The fact is, what we are experiencing is a defective social model in a so-called democracy that has not been addressed. In turn, resulting in mental health issues that go unaddressed which manifest into criminal behavior. Law enforcement training must be more diversified not more of the same old utilization of more force.

Having recently retired, just shy of twenty-one years from the Chicago Police Department, I appeal to whatever sanity exists within the police department, to come to the realization that if officers continue to allow themselves to be used as pawns against the communities they reside, one day they may be on the receiving end of such neo-fascist behavior. Under such conditions, it is very likely the person pointing the gun at them will be someone they served on the department with, or is a neighbor to or even a member of the same household. An increase show of force will not rectify the problem. One would think "Nazi" Germany serves as s sufficient lesson.

Interviews @ Ms Sis Place

www.youtube.com/mssisplace2

Sunday, May 4, 2008

The Common-Unity (Community)

If you were born after 1955, there is a pretty good chance that you have never heard of the "Dead End Kids" but it is with great certainty, you have heard of "50 cent" and the movie he is associated with, "Get Rich or Die Tryin".

The "Dead End Kids" were a group of youn, white male actors from New York who first appeared in a Broadway play in 1937. They were so popular at that time, that they went on to make several movies including, The East Side Kids, The Little Tough Guys and the Bowery Boys, until 1958. Although, they were actors, the roles they played were reflective of what it was like growing up on the streets of New York City, as a white boy during this period in American history. If one were to define their behavior, they were considered today's juvenile delinquents or miscreants as P.D. Green states in the movie "Talk to Me".

This was during the World Wars (I and II), when the dominant male figure (father) was missing from the family because he had either enlisted but in most cases, had been drafted into the armed forces (military). It was also during a time of immigration of Europeans to America and they were still decoding their new environment as they negotiated it. The mother was forced to abandon the role of "stay at home Mom" and had to find work outside of the home. Since most of these women were low and unskilled workers, they worked in factories and other menial labor jobs. In the absence of the father figure and loving, guiding hand of the mother, the boys began to do what males of most species do and that is to fend for themselves.

They would "ditch" school and when they did attend, often times were unruly and unmanageable. Many of them became attracted to the "gangster" lifestyle because it was a fast way to make money. They were America's original "menace to society". These young men grew up in many instances, to become the real "Organized Crime" bosses who actually invented the "drive by" shooting. and after many of them got out of prison because they did serve time, they walked into "ready-made" public works, ligitimate employment paid with the public's tax dollars, i.e. McCormick Place expansion in Chicago of today.Meanwhile, "50 Cent" and the like, imitating the "gangsta" persona of their criminal heroes, will never reap the same benefits as their white counterparts.

To their ignorance and unfortunately, a large sector of the Black community, the "Dead End Kids" were dangerous and served as a terror to the communities in which they lived and to those they preyed upon. The difference between them and the so-called "urban terrorists"of today is rooted primarily in the fact that they are white and white society stepped in to correct a problem they had created. In some cases, they built reform schools and residential schools for wayward boys. But for the most part, their behavior got directed into certain profession; cosntruction work, law enforcement and firefighting. Some of them even went on to become Catholic preists. Whereas, with Black people, for more than two generaions, no one has stepped in to correct the problem created by the same group of white men who feel compelled to relegate Black men to an inferior status. What's even worst, Black people continue to beg, sit and wait for them to come to their rescue. The questions are; why should they? In whose interest would it serve?

The dominant male figure in the Black household has been missing in action for two generations on a consistent basis and Black women have almost always worked outside of their own homes, sometimes taking care of white children. If it were not for the extended family in the Black community, the so-called epidemic of violence we are now facing would have occurred long before now. Due to how the dominant Black male figure came to be removed from the Black family contributes greatly as to why it has become almost imposssible for to reintegrate into the institution of family. And in many cases, when the family makes the attempt to bring him back into the fold, they cannot absorb the many, overwhelming deficiencies he has acquired over time.

How did white folks allegedly turn around their problem of juvenile delinquency that was not just occurring in New York but at the time was being considered an epidemic as well? They relied on their religious institutions, primarily, the Catholic Church. Of course the government assisted but the people made sure it did via holding their political representatives accountable. Further, there was no conspiracy at hand to destroy Irish and Italian youths who were the ones to stand to benefit most from the programs that resulted that set them on the right track.

"50 cent" and others who are so inclined to be like him are being exploited just as the "Dead End Kids" were exploited. However, they remained connected to their community and the finacial gains they acquired were not utilized independent of their people. They were a creaion of their own. "50 cent" is a creation of someone else. There are many lessons that Black peopl, people of African descent in America, can learn from this history lesson. Don't keep repeating it!