Make Things Equal (Justice for Robert Brooks)

Chicago is not a war zone—it’s a battleground over narrative and power. On Hard Knock Radio, Davey D spoke with activist-educator LaKeisha Gray-Sewell and scholar David Stovall about federal threats to deploy the National Guard and ICE in Chicago, and the media machinery that helps sell it. Gray-Sewell praised Mayor Brandon Johnson’s recent legal pushback and alignment with community protesters, while noting early stumbles. The bigger danger, she argued, is media and tech capitulation—press blackouts on protests, platform appeasement, and propaganda pipelines that prime audiences for authoritarian solutions.

Stovall said young people see through it. They’re protesting, studying fascism, and naming disinformation that paints Chicago as uniquely “lawless” while it remains a top tourist draw. He contrasted Obama-era deportations—often border-focused—with today’s “show of presence” ICE tactics and broader sweeps designed for optics. Both guests stressed Chicago’s long memory of machine politics, from Daley to today, where elites more often buy opposition than crush it. The response now: Know Your Rights trainings, rapid mobilization, and a refusal to outsource safety to forces built for war, not community.

The trio dismantled sensational “O-Block” mythologies and the click-economy around “Black crime.” Violence is real wherever poverty concentrates, they said—but evidence-based solutions remain consistent: healthcare access, living-wage jobs, healthy food, and quality education. Tough-on-crime waves and mass incarceration hollowed out two generations; calling in the Guard would repeat old harms with fewer restraints and worse outcomes.

Resources named included Equity and Transformation, Black Voter Project, No Trump No Troops, Westside Justice Center, First Defense Legal Aid, Organized Communities Against Deportations, and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Bottom line: build relationships, tell the truth about what’s happening on the ground, and keep political education front and center—because communities, not occupation, make cities safe.

(HKR-09-08-25) Chicago Resists: ICE,  Militarization & Fascism

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