Chicago, IL – On July 11 and 12, the Anti-War Action Network (AWAN) held its second national conference in Chicago. Reflecting AWAN’s growth of 11 more committees since its founding conference in 2025, over 250 participants gathered from more than 24 local anti-war groups from across the U.S.

As a grassroots, nationwide network, AWAN unites anti-war, pro-Palestine and student groups from across the country. The network’s growth follows a year of victorious campaigns led by AWAN affiliates and coordinated days of action responding to Trump’s aggression against Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

Among these victories, New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports (NOSHIP) led a successful campaign to kick Chevron out of the city’s French Quarter Fest, and Palantir’s corporate headquarters was forced out of Colorado after a sustained campaign by Denver Anti-War Action.

The two-day conference reflected the geographic scale of AWAN’s growth, with speakers and panelists from cities including Denver, Colorado; New Orleans, Louisiana; Dallas, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida; San Jose, California, and Cleveland, Ohio.

Attendees benefited from the collective experience of AWAN through nine volunteer-run workshops on topics like “Lessons in Campaign Building,” “How to be in Coalitions and Build your Work,” “Design Matters: Using graphic design and zines to build the anti-war movement,” and “Media Relations 101: Strategies, tools, and tips for organizing.”

The conference’s opening panelists included Hatem Abudayyeh, the national chair of U.S. Palestine Community Network (USPCN); Steve Ellner, an advisory board member of the Science & Society journal and associate managing editor of Latin American Perspectives; Chrisley Carpio of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression; Sara Flounders, the coordinator of the International Action Center, and Meredith Aby, a key AWAN leader, director of Women Against Military Madness, and co-founder of the MN Anti-War Committee.

Speaking of the BDS movement against Israel, Abudayyeh said, “Divestment victories are happening everywhere, including the recent one in Michigan, and the one led by USPCN and AWC right here in Illinois, when the Illinois State Board of Investments divested more than $33 million from corporations profiting off war, genocide and ICE raids.”

In her opening remarks, Aby said “The Anti-War Action Network’s guiding objective as an organization is building a broad movement opposed to the greatest cause of injustice in the world today, which is the United States and its destructive wars, sanctions and interventions.”

Aby reported that AWAN remains on a trajectory of growth, boasting 28 member organizations and many other groups planning to affiliate after the conference.

The conference received greetings from BAYAN USA, a progressive, anti-imperialist alliance of grassroots Filipino organizations across the United States, and Nodutdol, an organization of Koreans organizing for social justice, Korea's reunification and an end to U.S. imperialism.

On the second day of the conference, AWAN elected an expanded steering committee to reflect its nationwide reach and passed 12 resolutions, both of which are available on its website.

If your organization would like to learn more about AWAN or join and participate in national calls to action, go to antiwaractionnetwork.org.

#ChicagoIL #IL #AntiWarMovement #AWAN #Iran #Palestine #Featured

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, alderwoman, 33rd Ward, Chicago City Council.

Last year, Donald Trump sent his ICE troops into immigrant and Latino communities across the country. I was physically assaulted by ICE in June when I advocated for my neighbors at an immigration facility.

Protesting ICE is not a crime. That’s my response to news that Nadia Topete of Centro CSO in Los Angeles has been subpoenaed to a federal grand jury for a second time.

Nadia did nothing wrong. All she did was exercise her right to speak out against the violence being perpetrated against her Chicano and Latino immigrant community.

I am from Puerto Rico, and the Puerto Rican movement has been subjected again and again to grand juries. We know that grand juries are a prosecutorial tool to produce indictments instead of justice.

I understand this also could be an attempt to re-examine the case of Alejandro Orellana, another immigrant’s rights activist in LA who participated in the anti-ICE protests last year. Alejandro was charged with conspiracy to commit civil unrest. The false charges were later dropped.

When I confronted ICE last year, I said, “We would do whatever we can to help anyone in need.” I took that stand a year ago; I take that stand today.

#ChicagoIL #IL #ImmigrantRights #NadiaTopete #PoliticalRepression #CentroCSO #Featured

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by Byron Sigcho-Lopez, the Chicago City Council member representing the 25th Ward.

The Trump administration is again intensifying the repression against immigrant, Latino and Chicano communities across the country. I add my voice to those speaking up to defend Nadia Topete in Los Angeles.

Nadia is an immigrant rights activist with the organization Centro Community Service Organization (CSO). Like many thousands of young people, she rose up to defend her community when ICE terrorized the LA barrios in 2025.

She is being subpoenaed for a second time to appear in front of a federal grand jury. Our movement is well aware that grand juries are unconstitutional tools of political repression.

Nadia acted heroically when she went out to protest ICE last year, and she is again showing real courage. We know Nadia has not committed any crime: it’s the Trump administration and ICE that are guilty of violating the rights of our communities, brutalizing us, breaking up families, and murdering members of the immigrant community, such as Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in a Chicago suburb.

This is a very serious attack on our movement. Nadia Topete is a courageous immigrant rights activist who deserves our support.

Hands off Nadia Topete!

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression #NadiaTopete #ImmigrantRights #CentroCSO #Featured

Chicago, IL – On Monday morning, June 29, a crowd representing dozens of organizations stood together with Mayor Brandon Johnson to announce the introduction of the Protecting Renters Ordinance (PRO). The press conference happened downtown across the street from city hall, where the PRO was formally introduced at a meeting of the Committee on Housing and Real Estate later the same morning.

“Housing is a human right. That cannot just be a rallying cry. That must be the reality for every Chicagoan,” Mayor Johnson declared. “We must use every tool available to us to keep Chicagoans in their homes.”

Lisette Castañeda, commissioner of the Department of Housing, explained the five components of the PRO: the creation of a tenant bill of rights, a citywide rental registry, an office to investigate and enforce renter’s complaints, legal representation for tenants facing eviction, and just cause for eviction or nonrenewal of leases.

“This will give the department the power to hold bad landlords accountable,” Castañeda explained.

Johnson criticized previous administrations that “kept organizers at arm’s length.” His approach of working with organizers showed in the variety of organizations present in support of the PRO.

Tulsi McDaniels, an organizer with Metropolitan Tenants Organization, shared the experiences of tenants who are currently vulnerable to arbitrary fees and eviction.

“Even in situations where a tenant has done everything right and used the current RLTO law to the fullest extent, it isn’t enough.” McDaniels said. The PRO would be the first major rewrite of the Residential Landlord Tenants Ordinance since its introduction in 1986 during the administration of Harold Washington.

Public comments were divided between landlords and renters. Landlords are against the PRO because it would not allow them to charge junk fees, excessively increase rent, or evict people for no reason. In her comment, Chicago Teachers Union member Rose Taylor urged committee members to think of working-class people who usually can’t make it to city council meetings on a weekday morning.

“As an educator I’ve seen firsthand the impact housing insecurity has on a child’s education,” high school social studies teacher and CTU Housing Committee chair Kevin Moore said in his public comment. Moore also described the benefits the PRO would have for the health and safety of his students outside of school.

The PRO will be voted on in the fall and, if it passes, will go into effect on January 1, 2027. With landlords putting their time and money into opposing the ordinance, it will be important for renters and working class people to fight for the PRO.

#ChicagoIL #IL #PeoplesStruggles #BrandonJohnson #Housing #Renters

Chicago, IL – On Thursday, July 25, a press conference was held outside of the monthly Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) meeting welcoming the two new commissioners, as well as continuing to demand CPD be held accountable for collaboration with federal agents during Operation Midway Blitz. The meeting took place at Benito Juarez High School, in the predominantly Chicano working-class neighborhood of Pilsen. The press conference was held by the Immigrants’ Rights Working Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (IRWC of CAARPR).

“Commissioner Anjanette Young and Commissioner Guzman, welcome to your new position on the CCPSA. We, the Immigrants Rights Working Committee, have been diligently attending every single CCPSA meeting since the launch of our campaign to end CPD-ICE collaboration,” said Helena Fuentes of the IRWC.

Fuentes added, “We implore you to please, lean into your humanity and compassion, and not only consider our campaign, but please act.”

“Despite months and months of asking this commission to step up, and take an active role, the work hasn't been done yet. Since the commission's last meeting, more evidence has continued to raise serious questions about CPD compliance with the welcoming city ordinance,” said Elianne Bahena, a district councilor who, during the height of Gregory Bovino’s terror in the Little Village neighborhood, was kidnapped by federal agents.

Bahena continued, “Today as two new commissioners, Commissioner Young and Commissioner Guzman, we ask for this to be an opportunity for this commission to reaffirm its purpose. We hope the commission takes this opportunity to truly listen to our communities.”

Lifetime member of the National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression (NAARPR), Frank Chapman, stated, “We can only straighten out this problem by getting rid of the police having the power of life and death over our communities. We take a big step in this direction when we initiate this campaign to put this [Community Power Over Policing] referendum on the ballot.”

After the press conference, community members entered the school and gave public comments. Various community members raised the recent ICE kidnapping in the Albany Park neighborhood, which ended in a car collision.

#ChicagoIL #IL #InjusticeSystem #ImmigrantRights #OppressedNationalities #PoliceAccountability #CAARPR #NAARPR

Chicago IL – Over 50 people gathered for a rally outside of the Illinois State Board of Investment (ISBI) quarterly meeting in downtown Chicago on Monday, June 22. As the start of the rally drew near, chants of “Free Palestine,” “Money for jobs and education” and “Israel bombs, Illinois pays!” reverberated through the air for the morning commuters to hear.

This was the seventh protest held by the Illinois Divest from Genocide Network, led by Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) – Chicago, a project of U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), and Anti-War Committee (AWC) – Chicago. Their demands: ISBI divest from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide in Palestine, divest from companies facilitating the U.S. attacks on immigrant communities at home and for State Treasurer Michael Frerichs to divest Illinois tax dollars from Israel Bonds. Members of the public waited in line for three hours before they were let in to give public comment.

This protest followed the Illinois Divest from Genocide Network’s recent announcement that ISBI quietly divested $33 million from various companies that were targeted by the BDS movement, the American Friends Service Committee, and the United Nations for their complicity in supporting the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the genocide in Gaza, and the illegal expansion of settlements in the West Bank, as well as the operations of federal raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement across the U.S. The ISBI concealed this information in a condensed version of its 2025 annual report, and it was only revealed after the Illinois Divest from Genocide Network filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the full annual report.

“Across the country, we have seen a massive wave of divestment victories because of the resolve and pressure of everyday working people organizing on the ground to hold their public officials accountable,” said Caeli Kean, co-chair of the Anti-War Committee Chicago.

Minnesota, Michigan, South Carolina, Maryland and Louisiana were among some of the states that have seen city councils and labor unions vote to either fully or partially divest public dollars from Israel. In Detroit, Michigan, the United Auto Workers (UAW) voted to amend their union’s constitution, prohibiting investments in Israel Bonds. Urbana and Champaign joined the list when its city council voted unanimously to revise their divestment policy

“We were the first city in Illinois to divest from war and genocide,” Jess Yasin, an organizer from Champaign Urbana Muslim Action Committee announced, shouting out organizational allies and Urbana’s mayor who helped to make it happen. “Today we’re asking [Micheal Frerichs] to follow suit with his home [town] and to go and divest. Do not renew, do not repurchase any more Israel Bonds!”

Doors opened before 9 a.m. and only 20 members of the public were allowed entry into the building. State police searched the attendees and their belongings, threatening arrest if anyone were to protest the meeting with chants, flags or noise-making devices.

Illinois residents, educators and paraprofessionals packed the public comment section and made impassioned speeches to the board’s use of state worker pension funds to invest in surveillance and weapons manufacturers while urging the board to reallocate tax-payer dollars ethically.

“Investigations confirm that torture, and specifically sexual torture, is a systemic practice in Israeli prisons. And Palantir software is used by ICE and CPD to fill prisons here too, where Black and brown people are subject to many of the same methods of torture,” Elinor Keener of AWC – Chicago said, speaking to the conditions of Palestinian prisoners unjustly held captive in Israeli detention. “This is what happens when government bodies like you invest in genocide. This would not be possible without U.S. funding, including via corporations like Palantir, and you are part of that. Nothing in this world justifies investing in genocide. It’s time to swallow your pride, summon your courage, and divest.”

Protesters rejoined the rally as the public comment section of the meeting wrapped up, emphasizing that the recent divestment victory is only a fraction of the divestment they are demanding.

“Israel continues killing Palestinians on a daily basis in Gaza, stealing and annexing more land in the West Bank, and has occupied swaths of Lebanese land,” said Husam Marajda, USPCN-Chicago chapter co-chair, “Israel is threatening to drag the entire region into war, and not holding it accountable only empowers it to continue to commit war crimes.”

Organizers ended the rally by announcing September 28 as the next scheduled quarterly meeting date and vowing to continue to show up until every last taxpayer dollar is divested from Israel.

#ChicagoIL #IL #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Divestment

Chicago, IL – On June 26, members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-1 and their families held a solidarity rally and marched outside of British Petroleum's (BP) Chicago corporate office. The rally was attended by USW members from locals all over Indiana, Illinois and beyond, as well as by members of USW International executive board. In support were local officials, members of the Chicago Teachers Union, community members and union workers from all around Chicago. 

Eric Schultz, president of USW Local 7-1, said in his speech, “They starve our families out and they're just going to wait and wait and wait until we break. What they don't understand is every day our membership's getting stronger. Every day!” Schultz then led the crowd in chants of, “One day longer! One day stronger!”

Since March 19, over 800 members of USW 7-1 have been locked out of their jobs at the BP oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana. USW 7-1 has called the lockout illegal, saying that BP has shown that they are more interested in breaking the union than they are at bargaining in good faith. BP’s offers at the bargaining table would cut pay, remove seniority-based promotions, further limit bargaining rights, and cut over 100 jobs.

This conflict began after BP brought in Jordan Marks as plant manager. BP hired Marks after he oversaw the ten-and-a-half month lockout of USW Local 13-243 workers at a ExxonMobil refinery in Beaumont, Texas. “These aren't negotiations. This is a ransom,” said Eric Schultz when speaking about the BP offer. 

The Whiting Indiana refinery is currently being operated by scabs brought in by BP from out of state. Since the lockout began, there has already been at least one incident where the refinery lost power, and a major flaring event occurred in April. Picketers outside the refinery were not notified of the flares by BP. Flaring is when a refinery burns off excess gases to prevent pressure buildups and is known to release toxic pollutants in the surrounding area while they do it. The picketers reported smelling sulfur and hydrogen.

“When they're scabbing it, they're putting the community and everybody in jeopardy that we could have a disaster or a catastrophe there. We can't stand for that. We cannot allow it. Our members know those jobs, and you know how to run that refinery better than anyone else. And we're going to make damn sure you get back there with your heads held high with your jobs!” said USW International Secretary-Treasurer Myles Sullivan in his speech at the rally. 

USW 7-1 is asking supporters to sign a petition to show that they stand united in solidarity with members of USW Local 7-1 and to demand BP end the lockout and negotiate a fair contract! The petition can be found at this link: usw.to/bp-end-lockout

#ChicagoIL #IL #Labor #USW #SteelWorkers #BP

Chicago, IL- Activists rallied in Federal Plaza, June 20, to celebrate Juneteenth and raise demands to defend voting rights and stopping police crimes, including wrongful conviction, police torture, and CPD-ICE collaboration. The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression had called for a day of action in response to the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court.

Mayor Brandon Johnson made an appearance and asked the crowd, “Are we ready to put an end to racist repression?” He pledged to continue his fight for affordable rents, living wages and to defend public education against politicians putting the interest of corporations over that of the working class.

Johnson continued, “We have to ensure that the voting rights, particularly for Black folks, are protected, because if they undermine voting rights, they undermine labor rights, reproductive rights, civil rights,” he said. The crowd cheered him when he closed his speech, “But we’re not going to allow that in Chicago, are you with me?”

Frank Chapman, NAARPR’s executive director, made it clear in his remarks that the working class can defeat this backwards federal administration, but only through the largest united front possible.

“We are going to exercise our inalienable right to overthrow all institutions, and all government obstacles that stand in the way of our full rights under the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments,” Chapman said.

“We are going to overturn all of those institutions that oppress our people and deny our people the right to vote and the right to exist as equal citizens of this country and equal participants in this democracy. And our people are not a narrow, isolated group – our people are Black, brown, LGBTQ, white and working class.”

Kobi Guillory, a middle school science teacher and executive board member of the Chicago Teacher’s Union, reminded the crowd that the reason slavery ended was because Black people fought back.

“Millions of Black people left the plantation, therefore taking away the labor that the plantation owners relied on, and then took up arms with the union army, and that is what broke the back of the Confederacy,” Guillory said. “And it’s that tradition of struggle that we have to celebrate today.”

Elijah Edwards, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2858, pointed out in his remarks that there were over 200 slave rebellions during the time of chattel slavery in the United States. “Solidarity existed during slavery, solidarity exists today,” Edwards said. “And only through solidarity will we defeat them.”

Reverend Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, executive director of Live Free Illinois, has organized and led church congregations in the fight against Trump’s deportations. At the rally, she led chants of, “We ain’t free until we’re all free!”

“Juneteenth is more than a celebration,” Bates-Chamberlain said. “Juneteenth is a moment of confrontation. And in that moment of confrontation we are reminding people, declaring, and demanding to set our people free.”

To raise the demand for freedom for the wrongfully convicted, Jasmine Smith of the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture called two different currently incarcerated survivors of wrongful conviction on the phone and held the mic up to her phone to allow them to address the crowd from inside prison.

One of the survivors is Samuel Elam, who was wrongfully convicted for a 2011 home invasion and robbery. Elam recently suffered a heart attack in Menard Correctional, where he has been held for over a decade. Despite receiving specific instructions for care from the doctors at the hospital where he was sent, Elam has been denied consistent medical attention, and his family members who have called into the prison on his behalf have been blocked from contacting him.

“They are violating every right and administrative rule in this correctional facility,” he said, over the phone. “What they’re doing is killing us, and they are killing us slowly. This is not rehabilitation; these are torture chambers.” Smith echoed Elam’s statement about the prisons in Illinois: “I call them slave ships!”

Lara Haddadin from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) stated,

“Our struggles have always been interconnected,” she said. “ICE has come for all of us. Whether it’s a Black man being pulled over and put into a head lock by an ICE agent, a Palestinian protester abducted by ICE after speaking out against genocide, or a Latina rapid response member shot at for attempting to document ICE activity.”

Haddadin pointed out that the attempt to overturn birthright citizenship is “part of a coordinated effort to disenfranchise and limit voters of color. It’s an authoritarian power grab. And now Trump's deportation machine is an extension we see clearly of the prison industrial complex that the American economy relies on so heavily today.”

The protest here was organized by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), with a number of endorsing organizations, including the Arab American Action Network, National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, and Good Kids/Mad City.

#ChicagoIL #IL #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #NAARPR #CAARPR

Chicago, IL – The struggle for justice for survivors of police torture continues in Chicago. June 18 saw another defeat for Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen Burke, who is notoriously known for working hand-in-glove with the Chicago Police Department.

In 1991, Johnny Plummer was just 15 years old when he was beaten into a confession for a murder he didn’t commit. His torturers were Detectives Kenneth Boudreau and Michael Kill. Boudreau has 70 convictions to his name where survivors have accused him of torture; 28 of those men have since been exonerated for successfully proving they had been forced into confessions.

Plummer’s defense has always been that he was beaten into signing a confession by Kill and Boudreau, beaten in the abdomen with fists and a flashlight. He has declared this since the first moment his family came to the Area 3 police station after his two days in police custody. When Plummer saw a doctor at the Audy Juvenile Home, he told the doctor he had been beaten into signing the false confession. The medical examiner recorded Johnny’s account in his notes and, for 35 years, Plummer has been saying that he reported his torture to the doctor.

At his multiple trials since he was wrongfully convicted, that medical report did not surface.

Attorney Karl Leonard with the Exoneration Project explained to the presiding judge for Plummer’s case, Judge Tyria B. Walton, that a special prosecutor took this case in 2022 and requested all medical records from the state’s attorney’s office. “This year (2026) we received those files and finally saw the medical report from August 22, 1991,” Leonard stated.

Judge Walton’s opening question for counsel was to identify the issue at hand before the court. In his opening statement, Assistant State’s Attorney Miles O’Rourke claimed there was no Brady violation in 1991 and spent time showing that in the early years of trials and appeals, Plummer and his attorneys said nothing in court about not receiving medical records.

A Brady violation is when prosecutors fail to disclose impeaching evidence to the defense.

Judge Walton had previously been giving more support to the prosecutors, but as the defense brought out more information, Judge Walton reminded the court of the three things that are needed to establish a Brady claim: One, the evidence must be favorable to the accused because it is exculpatory (tends to prove innocence). Two, the prosecution suppressed or failed to turn over the evidence, even if the suppression was unintentional. And three, the evidence was “material,” meaning there is reason to think that the outcome of the trial would have been different.

State’s Attorney O’Rourke argued a number of times that there was no Brady violation and claimed that the defense had all the medical records. In the dramatic high point of the proceeding, Judge Walton identified that there was a first subpoena filed in 1991 and a second subpoena filed in 2022, and stated that the court was advised by the petitioner that they didn’t have the medical records.

O’Rourke interjected, “We didn’t have it either.”

Judge Walton continued, “Then in 2026, the records surfaced in a file review.”

Addressing O’Rourke’s outburst, Walton explained that the Brady language is unyielding: whether the withholding was intentional or not, there was definite cause for a Brady violation.

She went on to say that with the surfacing of the medical records earlier this year, she concluded the state’s attorney’s office had already been in possession of those records, though it may not have been in the possession of this particular counsel present at court.

After this, the state stopped arguing there was no basis for a Brady finding.

In response to the developments in court, Frank Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression stated, “When do facts matter? How can it be that something that happened 35 years ago is just now getting in front of a judge?”

Chapman recalled the words of Johnny’s mother, Jeanette Plummer, who died in May never seeing her son on this side of freedom. She had spoken out against injustice ever since he was wrongfully convicted. In 2012, at a forum on police crimes organized by the Chicago Alliance, she challenged the system of racist policing.

“How could they torture a 15-year-old child?” Chapman said, “Clearly we can’t trust the court system to bring justice. We must trust the movement to do this. Without the movement, we wouldn’t even be getting a hearing and keeping up his hopes for freedom.”

The next hearing for Johnny Plummer will be on Tuesday, June 23 at 1 p.m. at the George Leighton Courthouse (2650 S California Avenue) in room 304.

#ChicagoIL #IL #JohnnyPlummer #InjusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Featured #NAARPR #CAARPR

Chicago, IL – Activists mobilized to City Hall on Wednesday, June 17, to speak out against a proposed ordinance that would impose extreme fines on the parents of youth who congregate in public spaces.

The ordinance was introduced at the last minute by reactionary Alderperson Raymond Lopez in response to news cycles focused on a racist narrative attacking primarily Black and brown youth for nighttime gatherings dubbed “teen takeovers.”

Lopez’ proposal would have penalized working-class parents for their children’s activities, including $1000 fines for curfew violations, intoxication, marijuana use, alcohol possession, and begging in public places, as well as for participating in what are loosely defined as “open air gatherings.”

Lopez additionally sought to impose $10,000 fines for flipping, standing on, or hanging off the side of vehicles.

Frank Chapman, executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, criticized the ordinance during public comment, pointing out the way similar laws have always criminalized Black and brown youth.

“This ordinance is about punishment, not public safety,” Chapman said.

Jasmine Smith, a co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, spoke against the ordinance at the city council meeting, criticizing the attempt to penalize low income parents for vaguely defined