The Chicago Tribune Starts Filling in Details
[guest post by JVW]
This is pretty interesting: the Chicago Tribune has started to fill in the details of events leading to the ugly actions of the torture squad earlier this week. According to their reporting (and we should be careful about swallowing this whole since the accounts might be coming entirely from the accused), the 18-year-old mentally disabled victim not only was a schoolmate of one of his tormentors (as reported earlier), but the two might even have been friends:
Police said [accused torturer Jordan] Hill knew the victim because they had attended the same school in Aurora. On Saturday, the victim’s family dropped him off at a McDonald’s in Streamwood to meet Hill, with plans to spend the night at his place.
Hill stole a van before picking up the victim and passed it off as his own, police said. The pair drove to Chicago’s West Side, visiting with friends for two days. The victim slept in the van before arriving at the apartment on Lexington apartment where the Covington sisters lived on Tuesday.
That’s an interesting twist: apparently the victim had planned to sleep over at Hill’s house. Again, this apparently comes from police and is based upon their interviews with the accused, but it certainly provides the answer to why the victim’s family dropped him off at McDonald’s on Saturday but didn’t report him missing until Sunday night. More from the article:
Hours into the visit, the victim and Hill were engaged in a “play fight” when it got out of hand, police said. The sisters got angry and tied him up, police said. “That’s when the attack begins,” Duffin said.
They beat, stomped and cut the victim and made him drink water from the toilet, he said. The victim was tied up for four or five hours until he escaped. After police found him on the street, they discovered that he had been reported missing on Sunday. He was taken to a hospital and reunited with his family.
Again, this whole idea of a “play fight” might be a self-serving explanation for what was otherwise a vicious and premeditated beating, but it’s worth noting that this will probably form the basis of any defense that the accused may choose to lodge. It might also help explain why one of the accused (18-year-old Brittany Covington, I think) chose to film and post this on Facebook. She might have been under the deluded idea that the victim would not make a big deal of his treatment and would just accept it as his place in the ghetto pecking order.
The four accused will be in court tomorrow and it will be interesting to see what their defense lawyers have to say.
– JVW
I question the parents who would live their mentally disabled child with a classmate whom they really didn’t know. Maybe this poor guy is also victimized by a really dysfunctional family.
JVW (773988) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:25 pmYes I’m not buying that story.
narciso (d1f714) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:36 pmyeah that sounds like some propaganda slut’s being very very choosy about what’s going to comprise this narrative
we know what we heard in the black lives matter torture session on facebook and this does not jibe
happyfeet (28a91b) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:41 pmThis all came from the thugs? I guess the cops did not buy the routine n-narrative that the victim was a drug dealer who tried to rip them off, and they had to come up with a new story.
nk (dbc370) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:50 pmFrom the very beginning though, the story was that the victim’s family dropped him off at McDonald’s knowing that he was meeting (and presumably spending the night with) friends. I can’t quite understand why they were apparently so casual about who those friends might have been.
JVW (773988) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:51 pmwhat was the point of stealing the van exactly
even special needsers can uber you know
happyfeet (28a91b) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:52 pmSo they knew him, and yet they tortured him on Facebook, what would they do to something they didnt know?
narciso (d1f714) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:54 pmCould they be foster parents? “Special needs” and same “school” as one of the dindus could mean they are system children.
nk (dbc370) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:55 pmDriving a stolen van is just another one of their stupid decisions.
AZ Bob (f7a491) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:58 pmCould they be foster parents? “Special needs” and same “school” as one of the dindus could mean they are system children.
Good call. You may be right. And the victim is 18, so maybe they give him more freedom than they ought to.
JVW (773988) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:58 pmOh, I’m wrong. He stole the van and then drove it.
AZ Bob (f7a491) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:58 pmalso this is really crappy van-sleepin weather
new years eve was not terrible but it got below freezing that night
happyfeet (28a91b) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:59 pmlol
Eddie Johnson is a filthy stupid dishonest liar is what Eddie Johnson is
happyfeet (28a91b) — 1/5/2017 @ 5:11 pmAnyway, Carpentersville, Crystal Lake, Streamwood and Aurora are not Chicago and not served by Chicago public schools, so we can put a stop to that narrative.
nk (dbc370) — 1/5/2017 @ 5:15 pmI think we need to be careful when speculating about the parents of the victim. It appears they knew who he was meeting, reported him missing Monday in a timely fashion, and their report helped lead police to to the streaming facebook torture accounts. It also appears they may have been contacted and being hit up for money to get their son released.
elissa (2cbd96) — 1/5/2017 @ 5:18 pmIts cook county right, its all gotham or central city.
narciso (d1f714) — 1/5/2017 @ 5:31 pmit’s very dark in central city
dark and cold
they torture children here
and also there’s a pop-up taco place coming to the food court above nordie’s
i like that place pretty well, the original in river north
I’m glad they’re doing the pop-up thing
that’s the food court we call the food court of last resort
it needs halps
happyfeet (28a91b) — 1/5/2017 @ 5:37 pmOff-topic:
As it enters the sixth year of drought, California braces for ‘once-in-10-year’ storm amid fears of flooding, avalanches, blizzards
OK, I made part of that up.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/5/2017 @ 5:37 pm@Kevin M: I think California might like to explore the years of moderate rainfall: drought combined with flooding might average out to moderate, but it is certainly not the same experience.
Gabriel Hanna (d20cc4) — 1/5/2017 @ 5:45 pmCentral city, is where Barry Allen call home.
narciso (d1f714) — 1/5/2017 @ 5:50 pmNah, their biggest connection to Chicago is that Chicago public schools wrestling coaches might come from there.
nk (dbc370) — 1/5/2017 @ 5:57 pmvictim’s family has had a short press conference embedded here in the TV report.
http://abc7chicago.com/news/hate-crime-charges-filed-against-4-in-facebook-live-torture-case/1687517/
elissa (2cbd96) — 1/5/2017 @ 5:58 pmAnother lovely mother directing her daughter to beat the hell out of another girl. How lovely.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mwmlfsouQ-0/WG3NF_5NHLI/AAAAAAABEgU/xrKPks9E6nMqz7_B2dC5BWDl7ZfwUnPVACLcB/s640/1ninetymiless3UWS1ui29dzo1_500.jpg
Rev. Hoagie® (785e38) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:03 pmUp to 12 inches of rain below 8,500 feet are expected, and massive amounts of snow — up to 6 feet — above that elevation. A fifth, colder storm two days behind that will drop yet more heavy snow.
For all the problems the storms may cause, it will bring more good news for California’s six-year drought. Officials have said steady rain in Northern California the last few months has filled reservoirs and increase the once-anemic snowpack.
They emphasize the storms won’t end the drought. But if the rains keep up for spring, it could make a major dent.
I’m convinced there’s just no ending this drought until we vote Democrats out of office and the newspaper business.
papertiger (c8116c) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:03 pmSorry, wrong link. I lost it.
Rev. Hoagie® (785e38) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:04 pmAt this point what have we got to lose?
Bye bye Miss American Pie.
papertiger (c8116c) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:08 pmDrove my Chevy to the levee
but the levee was dry.
Thanks, elissa.
nk (dbc370) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:11 pmThe famous touchy feely wrestling coach comes from the other side of the Fox River (Yorkville). And those CPS coaches best have 20 years of experience (e.g. those in service on or before 11.20.96 can live outside City of Chicago limits, those hired after must live within or fake it)
urbanleftbehind (73d144) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:18 pmI think we need to be careful when speculating about the parents of the victim. It appears they knew who he was meeting, reported him missing Monday in a timely fashion. . .
I would be very interested in knowing more about the victim’s relationship with the assailants, especially the kid who was apparently his friend. Had the parents met this kid and, if so, had they formed a generally positive opinion of him? Is this kid maybe a generally decent kid who is so mushminded that he allowed the others to goad him into participating into the torture? There may yet be some twists and turns ahead.
JVW (6e49ce) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:28 pm“I think we need to be careful when speculating about the parents of the victim.”
Thank you, Elissa. The victim was 18 and had been mainstreamed at Aurora. A family’s hope with a relative such as the victim is that they can find a comfortable place in society. They can encourage caution but they really can’t thwart free agency on the part of their loved one.
Rick Ballard (bc0399) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:32 pmelissa’s link is really interesting in that it provides some new insight into what went on. The victim apparently escaped because a downstairs neighbor complained about all the noise coming from the torture, so the Covington sisters marched down to her apartment, kicked in her door, and stole something from her. That little distraction allowed the victim to escape.
I’m starting to wonder if the Covington sisters (especially the older one) aren’t really the evil masterminds here. This all started when the victim and Hill decided to go visit the sisters, and the report to which I linked claims that the sisters were the ones who tied up the victim. I can see two 18-year-old boys being swayed by young women to participate in heinous acts, with maybe the promise of physical companionship if they comply.
But at this point it’s all speculation.
JVW (6e49ce) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:38 pm“It was all a big misunderstanding”. The answer to your last paragraph.
jcurtis (25cc03) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:39 pmThe Obama administration has done nearly everything possible to eliminate the possibility of taking any serious disciplinary action against young thugs who disrupt classrooms, threaten teachers and classmates with violence. Suspensions and expulsions used to be among the remedies, but, as I understand it, that is no longer the case. This was done in response to the disparity in numbers of said actions taken against black problem students compared to other racial components. It didn’t matter that more black students were guilty of causing trouble and mayhem, only mattered that high numbers of black students had disciplinary action taken against them compared to other student body members.
The left will always favor evil over good, disparage behavior that leads to good results and promote behavior and choices in life that result in terrible consequences for the people making the choices and all those around them. Such is the mindset.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:42 pmThe LCD Effect.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:45 pmBoth sisters do have a rap sheet,strictly small time, but still worth noting.
narciso (d1f714) — 1/5/2017 @ 6:48 pmThe CBS Evening News said he had been missing for two days.
It also said that it had gone on for 5 hours.
And that they had been in text communication with the parents and were (something like working ther way toward) trying to extort money from them.
They also had that he escaped. What exactly happened and how and why he got away from them is unclear in these reports. CBS reported that after the police found him, they went to the place where the four people were because there had been an unrelated call about a disturbance there and then connected the two reports.
CBS also had this about drinking from the toilet.
Sammy Finkelman (6c2cdd) — 1/5/2017 @ 7:04 pmhappyfeet (28a91b) — 1/5/2017 @ 4:52 pm
No, you need a credit card, or at least debit card with a Visa or Master card logo, and you can only call it through an app on a smartphone to which the Mastercard or Visa or maybe Discover or American Express number is linked to, so you can’t really ask somebody else to call Uber for you, unless you are prepared to reimburse him or her.
And anyway, is Uber in Chicago? And does anybody they know use Uber or any car service??
And besides, it costs money.
Where they come from, when someone their age needs a car, they steal it. Or they go without.
Sammy Finkelman (6c2cdd) — 1/5/2017 @ 7:14 pmI was way off. The election of Trump has thrown off my gangdar.
papertiger (c8116c) — 1/5/2017 @ 7:17 pm@papertiger:They emphasize the storms won’t end the drought.
Why do you think this is some kind of contradiction? Drought is when demand for water exceeds supply. If supply increases, but demand increases faster, the drought gets worse even when there is more water.
Not “enough” rain and snow is only one reason there is a drought. As badly as California manages water, no amount of rain and snow might be sufficient.
Gabriel Hanna (d20cc4) — 1/5/2017 @ 7:21 pmUber is available in Chicago. In the city proper, some have theorized that much of the uptick in violent stick-up robberies is the product of Uber drivers from the south side ferreting their buddies to the good neighborhoods on their off hours.
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 1/5/2017 @ 7:39 pmThis reminds me of a true story made into a movie called Alpha Dog.
Pinandpuller (820249) — 1/5/2017 @ 7:40 pmThe misunderstanding was he chose “asked” for his safe word.
Pinandpuller (820249) — 1/5/2017 @ 7:46 pmGabriel
My thinking is drought means a period of below average rainfall, but the variable is who determines the meaning of average rainfall. Rainfall histories are a malleable commodity in the hands of Democrats.
So the “drought” will continue until they’re voted out.
Mismanagement.
papertiger (c8116c) — 1/5/2017 @ 7:52 pmIs there a stronger word for mismanagement?
Mismanagement has a note of “Oops. We didn’t mean to.” that is unwarranted.
papertiger (c8116c) — 1/5/2017 @ 7:55 pmWhen watching the Chicago PD presser on YouTube, I had to go back several times to see if I heard it correctly: The victim was friends with Jordan Hill, the one who seemed to be staging the meanest of the four’s mugshots? Curiouser and curiouser.
Don’t be too surprised if the defense is that somehow, the white dude let slip a racial slur, and the four of them went buck wild. Not saying that’s what happened, or it would be a mitigating circumstance if it did, but it’s a “Hail Mary pass.” And as everyone who kept watch on either the Casey Anthony or Kelly Soo Park trials know, sometimes Hail Mary passes are caught.
L.N. Smithee (b84cf6) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:07 pmIs there a stronger word for mismanagement?
Malfeasance?
peedoffamerican (310909) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:11 pm@urbanleftbehind
I had this idea, if I ever won powerball level money, to open a pizza place called Bullseye’s where all of the drivers would be armed and issued body armor. Domino’s three dots would be superimposed on a target for the logo.
If I have some of that F U money left I’m going to start a rideshare service where the driver literally gets another guy to ride shotgun. I guess the name Westworld is already tied up. Gonna need a good copyright attorney. Or just call it The Washington Redskins.
Pinandpuller (820249) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:16 pmMalfeasance?
papertiger (c8116c) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:17 pmThat’s the one!
Hold up streamwood is 27 miles away from aurora, around here that’s a whole other county away, they didn’t try to call him for two days
narciso (d1f714) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:21 pmI’m convinced there’s just no ending this drought until we vote Democrats out of office and the newspaper business.
Old: Never let a crisis go to waste.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:24 pmNew: Never let a crisis go.
@papertiger, Kevin M:
In 1970 California had 20 million people. In 2015 it has 38 million. So the population doubled.
Did the annual precipitation double? No. Some years you got 10 inches, some years you got 40, with the average being 20 inches.
There’s your problem.
Gabriel Hanna (d20cc4) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:34 pmWhen they wonder why the little darlings did this, there is remarkable incuriorisity about what absorbed, mediawise.
narciso (d1f714) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:38 pmNarciso, to me that indicates perhaps a desperation to be rid of him at least for that weekend and an indicator that they may be looking to ditch him long term. Perhaps the checks are being held up by our (State of IL) budget uncertainties and he got the stray dog treatment
Crystal Lake – Carpentersville – Streamwood – Aurora is like our Inland Empire and some might consider the latter 3 a sort of banlieu tour.
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:41 pmIn 1977 the annual rainfall was right what it is now: 10 inches, and California only had 24 million people.
In 2001 it was 17 inches, and California had 34 million people.
Huge variation in rainfall from year to year is normal in California. In 1982 California got 40 inches. In 1986 California got 13 inches.
The more people California gets the less it can tolerate the dry years. But the wet years come and people start using more water again. Saying that California isn’t getting “enough” rain is like saying the Federal government isn’t getting “enough” revenue. The Federal government needs to figure out how live within its revenue and California needs to figure out how to live within its rainfall.
Gabriel Hanna (d20cc4) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:43 pmStop flushing a Third of the river runoff seemed a first step, did the goop people think the mothership in v hovering up was a good move, rhetorical.
narciso (d1f714) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:48 pm@narcisco: No doubt that among other things. But if the population doubles, so must the rainfall in order to keep up. The rainfall can’t be made to grow, but people can learn to manage the rainfall they get.
Gabriel Hanna (d20cc4) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:51 pmIn 1977 the annual rainfall was right what it is now: 10 inches, and California only had 24 million people.
What? You live in Barstow?
My condolences.
papertiger (c8116c) — 1/5/2017 @ 8:52 pm“Over the last year, a Seattle school district in the throes of “restorative justice” experienced an alleged gang rape and several student deaths. Criminal charges, including murder, were filed against a group of students not yet out of middle school, reports the Seattle Times. Teachers’ unions in Fresno, Des Moines, New York City, and Indianapolis have all lodged complaints about the anti-discipline philosophy, according to Education Week. The Fresno teachers signed a petition pointing out that students are returned to class after cursing at teachers and physically assaulting them, without suffering any consequences. Fresno’s teachers have been injured trying to stop fights; some are retiring because teaching where severely disruptive students cannot be dislodged has become impossible. In Des Moines, students now hit and scream at each other and their teachers, reports the Des Moines Register.”
http://www.city-journal.org/html/violence-halls-disorder-malls-14920.html
Colonel Haiku (94c32c) — 1/5/2017 @ 9:28 pmThe mad men are not only running the asylum, they are writing the protocols everywhere.
narciso (d1f714) — 1/5/2017 @ 9:31 pmCalifornia is more interested in funding useless things like high speed rail to nowhere, and attorneys to defend illegal aliens from being deported, than they are for funding things that have actual usefulness. You know things like desalination plants {Israel has expertise in these}, and maybe funding open air and underground reservoirs, instead of preventing them from being constructed in order to protect things like the three nippled titmouse that can be found in multiple areas of the U.S. and are not actually endangered. Or the supposedly endangered snail darter that can be found in nearly every river in the U.S. Or funding really stupid sh!t like abortions and fertility treatments for men that became women or whatev’s, (It’s too confusing to wrap my mind around right now, I don’t care if you call a giraffe, an elephant, it’s still a damn GIRAFFE!)
Die of thirst liberals! I cannot arouse my emotions enough to give even the littlest sh!t about your predicament if you can’t act in your self interest for your own and your neighbors self preservation.
In closing, you can GTHADCB. I’m going to Texas!
peedoffamerican (310909) — 1/5/2017 @ 9:40 pmThe Fresno teachers signed a petition pointing out that students are returned to class after cursing at teachers and physically assaulting them, without suffering any consequences.
Shoot the mean little f@ckers! After the first one or two get hauled out in body bags, the rest will behave themselves!
peedoffamerican (310909) — 1/5/2017 @ 9:44 pmIf they want to act like rabid dogs, then treat them like rabid dogs!
peedoffamerican (310909) — 1/5/2017 @ 9:46 pmThe Chicago story makes me just violently ill and angry at the same time. I have a family member who is like the victim, in that she made it through high school but has some disability. “Friends” who are really predators have taken advantage of her, stolen money, over the years but she just lacks the judgment to tell bad from good. She never dumped the roommate who stole a check I sent her and forged her name. And lots of “good” kids never wanted to hang out with her anyway.
So the parents probably let him go because they really couldn’t say no, or he would run away. They probably can’t and don’t want to keep him inside forever. So, the worst happened.
I predict these criminals will get off lightly. The media will see to that. I hate Obama and the Democrats so much right now for letting this grow….
Patricia (5fc097) — 1/5/2017 @ 9:53 pmThe Fresno teachers signed a petition pointing out that students are returned to class after cursing at teachers and physically assaulting them, without suffering any consequences.
Things haven’t changed much from my day. The district muckety-mucks look at a kid and only see the $9,000 in funding from the state that this student represents. So the rationale becomes to keep that kid in school at all costs, lest they lose that money when the kid drops out. The same thing was going on in my day, except for instead of keeping violent kids in the classroom they were dedicating all of the financial resources to anti-dropout programs rather than trying to reach the students who were interested in learning.
JVW (6e49ce) — 1/5/2017 @ 10:08 pm@papertiger:What? You live in Barstow?
No, the figure was for all of California averaged.
I grew up in a desert, though not in California.
Gabriel Hanna (d20cc4) — 1/6/2017 @ 1:06 amGreetings:
Me, I’m thinking that I’m grateful that the Chicago Tribune had the professionalism not to let this untimely incident evolve into a discussion of the overall black on white crime statistics for, say, murders and rapes as opposed to those white on black ones.
11B40 (6abb5c) — 1/6/2017 @ 8:14 am