Chicago police tout ShotSpotter, a technology that senses gunfire and summons police, as an important crime-fighting tool. But in a scathing report this week, the Chicago inspector general’s office said police records are too incomplete to verify that claim.

The police department, as a first step, should do a better job of tracking what happens after ShotSpotter sounds an alarm.

Ideally, anytime there is a shooting in those parts of the city where ShotSpotter is installed, police will get there quickly enough to apprehend culprits and aid victims. If that happens often enough, the police could justify the $33 million that has been spent on ShotSpotter in the past three years, with a recent two-year renewal.

But at the end of its report, the IG’s office said police record-keeping, including so-called investigatory stop reports, is just too limited to give a clear picture of how much ShotSpotter helps police — its so-called operational value.

And it’s not just the IG’s office that’s asking questions about ShotSpotter. Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) told us he and other City Council members want to learn more about the inner workings of the system and associated data, so the city can use it most effectively.

ShotSpotter is operating in 12 police districts, mostly on the South and West sides. The IG’s office examined 50,176 ShotSpotter alerts from January 2020 through May. Police documented a response to those alerts 42,000 times, but officers wound up making “investigatory stop reports” — essentially confirming gun-related criminal activity — only 9.1% of the time. Other reports referenced the technology but didn’t correlate with a specific ShotSpotter notification.

Various reasons could account for that. The shooters and witnesses could have left the scene before police arrived. Responding police might have chosen not to search the area for shell casings, which are evidence of gunfire but don’t show whether bullets were flying moments or days before police got there.

Without more complete reporting — and this is crux of the problem — it’s hard to judge whether responding to ShotSpotter alerts is the best use of police time.

According to the Brookings Institution, data from Washington, D.C., and Oakland, California, show that people call 911 only 12% of the time when there is gunfire. The Chicago police department says ShotSpotter has detected hundreds of shootings that otherwise would have gone unreported. The department says ShotSpotter is “crucial” because it flags incidents when no one calls 911, giving them a chance to “respond more quickly to locate and aid victims, identify witnesses and collect forensic evidence.”

But the IG’s office says the record-keeping isn’t good enough to show how frequently that’s happening, which rules out a dependable cost-benefit analysis.

The concern over ShotSpotter is part of a larger debate that Chicago and other cities are having over striking a new balance between civil rights and privacy and how police forces work to keep us safe. Cameras in public places, especially cell phone cameras, now frequently document how police behave. Recently developed DNA technology has showed some people have been wrongfully convicted. The evidence has mounted that reforms of police practices are necessary.

Struggling with the pros and cons of ShotSpotter resembles the debates over having police officers in schools and how authorities (not just the police) should respond to calls involving somebody who might be mentally ill. Just on Wednesday in Chicago, there were news stories on all of these issues.

Going forward, city officials will have to decide whether to keep using SpotSpotter or change the system or discontinue it. To get that decision right, police need to sort how often, in incidents where no one else notifies police of a shooting, ShotSpotter leads to an arrest, helps solve a case or assists a victim.

That’s critical information in a city where bullets fly every day.

Send letters to [email protected].

Read More

A murder suspect fatally shot by Amtrak police inside Union Station has been identified as a man from California’s Bay Area.

Jamar Jason Taylor, 33, of San Leandro, California was killed in the shooting Tuesday evening, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Amtrak police were waiting on the platform for a train, having been notified by authorities in California that an individual on the train heading for Chicago had multiple pending warrants, including one for murder, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said at a news conference Tuesday night.

When the man saw the uniformed officers on the platform, he took off running, injuring an Amtrak employee and then opening fire on the officers, Magliari said.

An Amtrak officer returned fire and struck Taylor, Magliari said. The Amtrak employee suffered minor injuries, and an officer was also taken to the hospital for evaluation, he said.

Taylor was transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in traumatic arrest, according to Chicago fire spokesman Larry Merritt. He was pronounced dead about an hour later.

Amtrak and the Chicago Police Department are investigating the incident jointly.

Read More

Coach Prime, aka Deion Sanders, sauntered into the office of Nick Saban with a marching band following his lead.

“Coach Prime, what, no smoke machine?” the Alabama coach quizzically asked.

Yep, that happened — in a scene for an Aflac commercial featuring the two high-profile college head coaches.

It’s the sort of splash Sanders hopes to make this fall in his second season at Jackson State. With that, another objective: Raising the profile of schools such as Jackson State and other historically Black colleges and universities.

“We’re going to fight and do our darndest to start changing the landscape of HBCU football,” Sanders said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Then, consequently, we can go to the next step and the next level. The fight is not going to be easy. Getting the players to commit to a historically Black college is not easy because you’ve got to level the playing field.

“You’re competing against a Power Five that has 100 times more resources than we do, and the exposure,” said Sanders, whose upcoming docuseries “Coach Prime” will debut Sunday on Barstool Sports. “So it’s not a level playing field whatsoever. But with the type of person that’s coming to these historical Black colleges, I think we can.”

Sanders took full advantage of his time on the commercial set with Saban, the architect behind six national championship teams with the Crimson Tide. Sanders even brought some of his staff with him. In between commercial takes, they talked X’s and O’s.

“Nick Saban to a coach is like heaven,” said Sanders, who partnered with Aflac in an effort to help close support gaps for HBCUs. “That’s like a basketball player meeting (Michael) Jordan.”

It’s not the first time he’s chatted with Saban. They also got acquainted when Saban was recruiting one of Sanders’ sons, two of whom are currently on the Tigers roster.

“Definitely (can learn from Saban), just being on the set, seeing how he handles the staff, see how he handles himself, seeing the football side of it,” said Sanders, who was brought on board at Jackson State, located in Mississippi, last September.

The first step in turning around a Tigers team that competes in the Southwestern Athletic Conference was introducing a new mindset. So far, so good. They went 4-3 in a spring campaign.

This fall, a bigger test. His team opens with Florida A&M on Sept. 5 in the Orange Blossom Classic. It will be shown on ESPN2, one of eight times Jackson State is scheduled to appear on an ESPN network.

“I have so much hope,” said Sanders, a Hall of Famer and two-time Super Bowl champion. “I’m optimistic all the time and I look for the good in everything and everybody.”

The charismatic Sanders has leaned on his ties to help orchestrate change. The football uniforms for the Tigers were provided by Under Armour, while Sanders said Walmart assisted with a new turf field.

“That was like Santa Claus coming to town,” Sanders said of the uniforms, which he proudly displayed in various blue, white and red combinations in a YouTube post. “The new field? Now we don’t have to drive 15 minutes just to practice because the field was unplayable. All of those things are wonderful. It’s really appreciated. Just thankful.”

His association with Aflac includes a $75,000 donation to the Jackson State’s athletic department along with the company being a support partner of Sanders’ football camp. The supplemental insurance provider has been a long-time supporter of HBCUs, including a $1 million commitment to the Morehouse School of Medicine and donations to HBCU-focused college football events.

“Oftentimes, all these kids need is that push and exposure and that’s what we’re trying to bring simultaneously,” Sanders said. “I know it’s going to happen.”

Sanders is plenty busy these days getting ready for the season. He’s out the door around 5:15 a.m. each morning and to work by 5:40, where he works out on the elliptical machine followed crunches (he does 2,400 crunches a week). Then, it’s breakfast with the team — he sits at a different table each day — meetings, practice, more meetings and a re-watch of practice film.

After lunch, there are interviews with the media, a team walkthrough, more meetings, dinner and finally home around 9 p.m.

“That’s my day,” Sanders said with a laugh. “My niece and nephew came up to spend some time with me last week and I brought them with me every day. They said, ‘Uncle Deion, we leave when it’s dark and we come home when it’s dark.’ I said, ‘Welcome to my life.’ They’re like, ‘We didn’t even get to swim.'”

Read More

Federal jurors in New York have now heard a week of emotional and graphic testimony in the racketeering trial of R&B superstar R. Kelly, including from two alleged victims who are the first to ever testify against the singer in a criminal proceeding.

The jury listened to explicit allegations of sexual abuse, violence and edicts known as “Rob’s rules.” It also heard about the alleged 1994 bribery of an Illinois government worker in exchange for a fake ID so singer Aaliyah Haughton, then 15, could marry Kelly, then 27.

But in opening statements, Kelly defense attorney Nicole Blank Becker warned jurors, “don’t assume everybody’s telling the truth.” And as the trial has unfolded, Kelly’s defense team has done its best to undermine the credibility of people who have taken the stand.

Doing so could mean striking a difficult balance when it comes to Kelly’s accusers, though. While Kelly’s lawyers and supporters have longed for the opportunity to reveal the women as unreliable groupies hoping to profit off their connection to the singer, an aggressive attack on their credibility in front of the jury could backfire.

“You can’t just get in their face and just start screaming at them,” said Terry Ekl, a veteran Chicago-area defense attorney. “The jury will start to sympathize with that person.”

Kelly, 54 and born Robert Sylvester Kelly, faces allegations that he ran an “enterprise” made up of his employees and others who helped him recruit women and girls for illegal sex, as well as to produce child pornography.

His federal trial in Brooklyn comes 13 years after a Cook County jury acquitted Kelly of child pornography charges in 2008. Jurors in that case pointed to the purported victim’s refusal to testify after finding him not guilty.

In this courtroom artist’s sketch made from a video screen monitor of a Brooklyn courtroom, defendant R. Kelly, left, listens during the opening day of his trial, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021 in New York.AP

In the Brooklyn case now underway, Jerhonda Pace last week became the first alleged victim of Kelly’s to testify against him at trial, telling jurors her sexual relationship with Kelly began in May 2009, when she was 16. She testified that when she revealed her virginity to him, Kelly said he wanted to “train her” sexually and told her to call him “Daddy.”

Pace, who appeared in the Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly,” faced cross examination from defense attorney Deveraux Cannick, who questioned her about her age during her relationship with Kelly, the past lies she told in order to attend Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial, and about whether she had once burglarized Kelly’s home.

“You wrote a book, am I correct?” Cannick also asked.

“Yes, I did,” Pace replied.

“And any compensation for the book?” Cannick asked next.

Pace acknowledged she made money from the book, which she self-published.

Crucial testimony also came from former Kelly tour manager Demetrius Smith, who testified under an immunity order and made clear he didn’t want to participate in the trial. He told jurors he paid the $500 bribe to secure a fake ID for Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in 2001.

The feds say Kelly married Aaliyah to prevent her from testifying against him after he came to believe she had gotten pregnant.

On cross examination, Cannick asked Smith, “Now, Robert never had anything to do with you bribing anyone to get a marriage license, am I correct?”

“No, he didn’t,” Smith said.

When Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez had a chance to ask follow-up questions, she asked whether Kelly was present for a discussion about the bribe.

“I’m pretty sure,” Smith said. “I think so but I’m not, I’m just not positive. Even if I said it before, I’m just not positive. I just don’t see that in my head right now.” He later added, “I don’t remember if Robert was there.”

Smith also insisted that, “Aaliyah should be left alone. I shouldn’t be talking about Aaliyah.”

A second accuser took the stand this week, and more are expected to follow. To effectively cross-examine such witnesses, Ekl said defense attorneys hope to show bias. It helps when attorneys are able to point out testimony from a witness that contradicts previous comments, or even to a past admission of bias made to another witness.

But corroborating evidence can be used by prosecutors to support the testimony of an otherwise flawed witness. And now, 13 years after a purported victim’s refusal to testify led to Kelly’s acquittal, the multiple accusers in the Brooklyn racketeering case may wind up corroborating each other through similarities in their testimony.

“That becomes powerful evidence,” Ekl said.

Contributing: Associated Press

Read More

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A man upset over state-ordered coronavirus restrictions was sentenced to just over six years in prison Wednesday for planning to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a significant break that reflected his quick decision to cooperate and help agents build cases against others.

Ty Garbin admitted his role in the alleged scheme weeks after his arrest last fall. He is among six men charged in federal court but the only one to plead guilty so far. It was a key victory for prosecutors as they try to prove an astonishing plot against the others.

Garbin apologized to Whitmer, who was not in court, and her family.

“I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of stress and fear her family felt because of my actions. And for that I am truly sorry,” the 25-year-old aviation mechanic told the judge.

In his plea agreement, Garbin said the six men trained at his property near Luther, Michigan, constructing a “shoot house” to resemble Whitmer’s vacation home and “assaulting it with firearms.”

This file photo provided by the Kent County Sheriff, shows Ty Garbin.AP

The government, noting Garbin’s exceptional cooperation, asked U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker to give him credit for helping investigators reinforce their case against his co-defendants. He’s likely to testify at any trial.

The government sought a nine-year prison term, but Jonker went lower at 6 1/4 years.

Garbin “didn’t hold back,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said. “He would come out and say, ‘We planned to do this and I was knowingly a part of it.’ He sat for hours answering all of our questions.”

Indeed, defense attorney Gary Springstead told the judge that Garbin “is going to be a star witness” against the others.

“Ty Garbin testified in front of the grand jury in support of the indictment that got him indicted. He is truly, generally and sincerely sorry,” said Mark Satawa, another defense lawyer.

When the kidnapping case was filed in October, Whitmer, a Democrat, pinned some blame on then-President Donald Trump, saying his refusal to denounce far-right groups had inspired extremists across the U.S. It added even more heat to the final weeks of a tumultuous election season.

Whitmer wrote a victim impact statement to the judge, saying, “things will never be the same.”

“Threats continue,” she said in June. “I have looked out my windows and seen large groups of heavily armed people within 30 yards of my home. I have seen myself hung in effigy. Days ago at a demonstration there was a sign that called for ‘burning the witch.'”

Last year, Whitmer put major restrictions on personal movement and the economy because of COVID-19, although many limits have since been lifted. The Michigan Capitol was the site of rallies, including ones with gun-toting protesters calling for the governor’s removal.

“The plots and threats against me, no matter how disturbing, could not deter me from doing everything I could to save as many lives as possible by listening to medical and health experts,” Whitmer said. “To me it is very simple: this had to be the priority.”

___

White reported from Detroit.

Read More

Patrick Wisdom has had some incredible home runs in his breakout rookie season. But there may not be one as impressive as the one hit launched in Game 1 of Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Rockies.

The Cubs were looking for a big swing from their third baseman in the 5-3 win over Colorado and he provided one in the fifth inning. With the game tied at 2, the offense went on the attack. First baseman Frank Schwindel tripled into the left field corner followed by a Matt Duffy walk and bringing Wisdom to the plate.

“I knew his name coming through the minor league system,” said Zach Davies, who threw 4 2/3 innings in Game 1. “Especially being in the same division, knowing what type of player he is, and finally getting an extended opportunity to prove that he’s a big-league player. … “That guy in the lineup at any moment can change the game.”

Wisdom hadn’t had the best afternoon up to that point against Rockies starter Austin Gomber with a pair of strikeouts in his first two at-bats on sliders. Gomber had a similar approach in the third at-bat and with a 1-1 count he challenged Wisdom with another slider. But this time, he didn’t miss it.

The Cubs’ third baseman crushed a hanging slider onto Waveland Ave. and nearly hit the building across the street. The 438-foot blast would not only give the Cubs a 5-2 lead, but it was also the game-winner.

“I think the power is real. We’ve talked about that a lot,” manager David Ross said. “21 homers now and has been holding down the middle of my order for a while with really big hits. … He’s doing a lot of good things in a lot of different moments.”

The three-run shot added to Wisdom’s NL rookie lead in homers with 21. While it will be tough to catch Reds second baseman Jonathan India, he’s certainly given himself a chance to finish in the Top-5 of NL Rookie of the Year balloting.

Ross doesn’t have a vote for the award, but he isn’t hiding who he’d cast his ballot for if he did.

“I really had a vote, I’d vote for my guy,” Ross said with a smile. “If it was yours, I would probably be unbiased, but if it was actually mine, I would imagine I’d vote for Wisdom.”

Read More

Determination and gratitude aren’t enough to make an NFL roster. But wide receiver hopeful Rodney Adams is throwing some solid preseason stats on top of that to strengthen his case as the Bears get ready to make their final cuts Tuesday.

Adams, 27, has persevered through four tumultuous seasons since the Vikings drafted him in the fifth round out of South Florida and cut him midway through his rookie season. He retired for two years before trying to restart his career with the Colts and Bears last summer.

But if the Bears keep six receivers, as expected, Adams has a shot to stick thanks in large part to seven catches for 146 yards and a touchdown over the first two preseason games with ample playing time likely coming Saturday against the Titans.

“Given what I have gone through, just getting to this point is a huge,” Adams said after practice Wednesday. “Huge goal and accomplishment for me… Not a lot of people are strong enough to stay the course, to get to this point. I’m just really blessed to be here.”

Adams celebrated his 73-yard touchdown catch from Andy Dalton against the Bills on Saturday by pantomiming rocking a baby. His daughter, Brexleigh, was born the night before.

With the top five receiver spots essentially locked in, Adams’ main competition is Javon Wims and Riley Ridley.

Wims, a seventh-round pick in 2018, has played a minor role on offense and never had more than 56 yards receiving in a game. Ridley, a 2019 fourth-rounder, has 10 career catches and played 4% of the snaps last season.

Adams’ motivation to cling to his career has been driven by the death of his mother, Michelle Scott, who passed away when he was in college.

“My mom would’ve wanted the world for me,” he said when asked why he persisted when others might not have. “Just honoring her and fighting back [to be] in the NFL. It’s all for her, [and] now she has to share that spot with Brexleigh. But just staying strong.”

Read More

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be partly sunny with a high near 92 degrees, heat index values as high as 101 and a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a low around 74 and a 30% chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms. Tomorrow will be partly sunny with a high near 87 and a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms.

Top story

Lightfoot forges ahead with Oct. 15 vaccine mandate for city employees, despite opposition from all four police unions

Mayor Lori Lightfoot today forged ahead with an Oct. 15 vaccine mandate for all city employees over strenuous and united opposition from all four police unions.

“As cases continue to rise, we must take every step necessary and at our disposal to keep everyone in our city safe and healthy,” Lightfoot was quoted as saying in a press release.

The press release doesn’t say what would happen to city employees who refuse to comply with the vaccine mandate. It simply says the new policy “applies to all city employees and volunteers” and will take effect on Oct. 15.

Employees “can apply for medical or religious exemptions” and those requests would be reviewed the city’s Department of Human Resources on a “case-by-case basis.”

Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara has been at loggerheads with Lightfoot over all things law enforcement before hammering out an eight-year contract that ended the longest labor stalemate in Chicago history.

This time, Catanzara is not alone.

“It ain’t just our guys. It’s the sergeants, lieutenants and captains. This is a united front. All four of the unions. It’s no longer John Catanzara’s big mouth, like they like to spin it all the time,” Catanzara said today.

Fran Spielman has more on the mandate and police opposition to it here.

More news you need

Gov. J.B. Pritzker quietly extended the state’s eviction moratorium last week, pushing the enforcement of those orders into the middle of September. Pritzker’s executive order, signed last Friday, extends the moratorium to Sept. 18.

The owners of a now-shuttered metal shredding and recycling plant in Lincoln Park have agreed to pay a $500,000 fine for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, according to the EPA. The General Iron plant, which was on the North Side for decades, operated without a key permit and without the required “emission capture and control equipment,” the EPA said.

A former worker for Abbott Laboratories is claiming that the pharmaceutical giant targeted African American workers in a layoff that led to her firing. She also alleges that white men who ran the company were more comfortable with helping white men succeed there.

More than 1,200 K-12 schools throughout Illinois have signed up to use a COVID-19 saliva test developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The test last year helped the college system’s downstate and Chicago campuses avoid major outbreaks of the virus.

Kanye West fans planning to attend tomorrow’s public listening event at Soldier Field for his upcoming “DONDA” album can expect minimal COVID-19 precautions. While seating capacity for “The Donda Album Experience” will be capped at 38,000, attendees won’t be required to show proof of vaccination or negative COVID test results.

A VH1 docu-series that looks into the lives of America’s Black diaspora in cities across the country now features an episode explaining the nuances of life in the city for Black Chicagoans. You can stream “Growing Up Black: Chicago,” which premiered yesterday on VH1’s YouTube Channel, here.

Nia DaCosta’s “Candyman” is gory and haunting, yet strikingly beautiful, socially relevant and just plain entertaining, writes Richard Roeper in his 3.5-star review. Billed as a spiritual sequel to the 1992 original, “Candyman” opens in theaters Friday.

A bright one

‘Dr. Seuss Experience’ opening at former Macy’s Water Tower site

Fans of Dr. Seuss books can dive into a whole new chapter of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s world with the Chicago engagement of “The Dr. Seuss Experience,” a 25,000-square-foot immersive attraction opening Oct. 8 at Water Tower Place in the former site of Macy’s on Michigan Avenue.

The Chicago engagement follows runs in Toronto and Houston.

Presented by Kilburn Live and Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the event is a multisensory “journey” through nine Seuss books brought to life including “The Cat in the Hat,” “Horton Hears a Who!,” “The Lorax,” “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!,” “There’s A Wocket in My Pocket!,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and more.

The centerpiece of “The Dr. Seuss Experience” is an interconnected maze comprised of hundreds of balloons (inspired by “Oh the Places You’ll Go!).Kilburn Live

The pages of the books are brought to Instagrammable life via state-of-the-art audio/video, sculptures, larger-than-life sets and real-life characters in various storybook “rooms.”

While the centerpiece of the experience remains an interconnected maze comprised of hundreds of balloons (inspired by “Oh the Places You’ll Go!”), the Chicago edition will also feature the premiere of new optical illusions and an original work by School of the Art Institute alum Michael Murphy.

You can find more information on the upcoming attraction here.

From the press box

Your daily question ?

What do most non-Chicagoans get wrong about our city?

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday we asked you: How would you describe the taste of Malort to someone who’s never had it before? Here’s what some of you said…

“It’s a baby aspirin wrapped in a rubber band rolled in pencil shavings and covered with bug spray.” — Tom Kief

“It’s like if shame and regret were left to ferment before being distilled through an old, sweaty shoe.” — Nora Rose Allen

“Pure, unbridled hatred. Like skittles drenched in gasoline, stuffed into a sock. Then someone beats you to death with that sock. Like how getting dumped in high school feels.” — Mike Amarilio

“Sweat squeezed out of hockey pants then aged for 5 years the poured on hockey pants squeezed out and aged another 5 years in a keg tub left over from a frat party that a cat drowned in.” — Mike Smolarek

“Imagine rotten grapefruit with the lingering after taste of a tire fire. Pretty much that.” — Karen Rose

“When I was a kid in the 60s we would chase the bug sprayer truck and inhaled the DDT. It tastes like that mixed with licorice.” — Thomas McInerney

“I did several shots of this one trip and decided it’s tastes like a forest fire, if the forest was made of ear wax.” — Brittany Benson

“It tastes like you mowed the lawn with your face.” — Nick Wright

“It’s like french-kissing a desk from Ikea.” — Lindsey Monroe-Bougher

“Tastes like the Chicago River.” — Patrick John Kane

You can read more responses here.

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

Sign up here to get the Afternoon Edition in your inbox every day.

Read More

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans may be awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan, a figure that suggests this part of the U.S.-led airlift could be completed before President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline. Untold thousands of at-risk Afghans, however, are struggling to get into the Kabul airport.

Blinken said the State Department estimates there were about 6,000 Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan when the airlift began Aug. 14, and that about 4,500 of them have been evacuated so far. The 6,000 figure is the first public estimate by the State Department of how many Americans were seeking to get out when the Taliban completed its takeover of Afghanistan.

“Some are understandably very scared,” Blinken told a State Department news conference.

About 500 Americans have been contacted with instructions on when and how to get to the chaotic Kabul airport to catch evacuation flights.

In addition, 1,000 or perhaps fewer are being contacted to determine whether they still want to leave. Blinken said some of these may already have left the country, some may want to remain and some may not actually be American citizens.

Of the 1,000, the number who are “actively seeking assistance” to leave Afghanistan “is lower — likely significantly lower,” Blinken said.

The Biden administration has stressed that American evacuees are its first priority, even as it attempts also to airlift Afghans who worked for the U.S. government or military or to build Afghan civil society during the 20-year war as well as what it calls “vulnerable Afghans” — those who believe they face retribution from the Taliban for their role in opposing the insurgency.

The Tuesday deadline aside, Blinken said, “There is no deadline on our work to help any remaining American citizens who decide they want to leave to do so, along with the many Afghans who have stood by us over these many years, and want to leave, and have been unable to do so. That effort will continue, every day, past August 31.”

Biden said Tuesday he has asked his national security team for contingency plans in case he decides to extend the deadline.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul has been evacuated; staff are operating from the Kabul airport and are to leave by Aug. 31.

However, refugee groups are describing a different picture when it comes to many Afghans: a disorganized, barely-there U.S. evacuation effort for Afghan allies that leaves the most desperate to risk beatings and death at Taliban checkpoints

Some Afghans are reported being turned away from the Kabul airport by American forces controlling the gates, despite having approval for flights.

“It’s 100% up to the Afghans to take these risks and try to fight their way out,” said Sunil Varghese, policy director with the International Refugee Assistance Project. “Those with young children and pregnant are willing to take those beatings to get out.”

His group is one of several working with the U.S. government, and communicating with clients and colleagues on the ground, to get out those Afghans most in danger from the Taliban. Those include Afghans who formerly worked with Americans, as well as journalists, women’s rights advocates and others.

Just days are left before the U.S. military is to start shutting down its anchoring role in a massive operation that the White House says has evacuated 82,300 Afghans, Americans and other foreigners on a mix of U.S., international and private flights. The withdrawal comes under a 2020 deal negotiated by President Donald Trump with the Taliban.

Taliban leaders who took control of Afghanistan this month say they will not tolerate any extensions to the Tuesday deadline. But Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted that “people with legal documents” will still be able to fly out via commercial flights after Tuesday.

U.S.-based organizations, speaking on background to discuss sensitive matters, cite accounts from witnesses on the ground as saying some American citizens, and family members of Afghans with green cards, still are having trouble pushing and talking their way into the Kabul airport for flights.

Kirby said the U.S. military will preserve as much airlift capacity at the airport as possible in the coming days, ahead of Tuesday’s deadline. The military will “continue to evacuate needed populations all the way to the end,” he said. He added that in the final days and hours there will have to be a balance in getting out evacuees as well as U.S. troops and their equipment.

Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, the deputy director of regional operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had conducted another helicopter mission beyond the perimeter of the airport to pick up people seeking to evacuate.

He said the operation happened in Kabul during the night and that the people were now safely at the airport awaiting an evacuation flight.

Taylor provided no other details, but Germany’s top military commander, Gen. Eberhard Zorn, said separately that 21 German citizens had been extracted by the U.S. helicopter. He said the helicopter crew was American and that German troops picked up the evacuees.

In White House news conferences and remarks during the airlift, Biden has offered varying degrees of commitment to getting former Afghan translators and others most at risk from the Taliban included in the airlift.

U.S. military and diplomatic officials appear to still be compiling a list of eligible Afghans but have yet to disclose how — and how many — they may be getting out, private Americans and American organizations said.

“We still have 1,200 Afghans with visas that are outside the airport and haven’t got in,” said James Miervaldis with No One Left Behind, one of dozens of veterans groups working to get out Afghans who worked with the U.S. military during America’s nearly 20 years of combat there. “We’re waiting to hear from the US. government and haven’t heard yet.”

Marina LeGree of Ascend, a U.S.-based nonprofit that worked to develop fitness and leadership in Afghan girls and young women, described getting calls from U.S. officials telling the group’s interns and staffers to go to the airport for evacuation flights, only to be turned away by American forces keeping gates closed against the throngs outside.

One Afghan intern who went to the airport with her family saw a person killed in front of them, and a female colleague was burned by a caustic agent fired at the crowd, LeGree said.

“It’s heartbreaking to see my government fail so badly,” said LeGree, the group’s American director, who is in Italy but in close contact with those in Kabul.

The number of U.S. troops at the airport has dropped by about 400, to 5,400, but the final withdrawal has not begun, Kirby said Wednesday.

He said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will consult directly with Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of Central Command and overseer of the evacuation operation, before McKenzie moves ahead with the final withdrawal.

Read More

Firefighters responded to a call or a person in distress who had fallen in the water Sunday near the 1000 block of West Pratt Avenue.

By

Sun-Times Wire

Updated

Aug 25, 2021, 3:12pm CDT

Read More