South Cook News

Jeff Coleman, a Republican candidate for the State House District 29, is urging his fellow citizens to work together and stop supporting ineffective politicians.

“I think it’s time to stop pointing the finger at government and blaming our community problems on our elected officials," Coleman said. "We need to look to ourselves and put the ‘unity’ back in community, which is community organizations. Groups that look after each other are our elders, our children. Remember, we used to have neighborhood watch. We used to have block clubs. We used to have all of those positive things that helped build communities."

He also emphasized the necessity of community policing, particularly in reducing crime and resolving juvenile delinquencies.

"First, community policing," Coleman said. "We’re officers of the law, and our elders and our youth coincided together and talked to each other. They knocked on doors. They had COPS programs, all of that stuff. I think we need to push politics aside and get back to the basics of taking care of ourselves. Remember those commercials? 'It’s 7 p.m. do you know where your kids are?' We’ve got to get back to basics, man, because it’s falling apart and we need to take responsibility of ourselves. These are our kids out here, our children, our uncles, our nieces and nephews committing these atrocities without any remorse."

Coleman also appealed to residents to stop electing government officials who don't deserve their position every election period. With "no bail systems coming up and all of this other nonsense adding fuel to fire," he thinks that "basically you got to put God first and have the courage enough to take care of our own communities." Coleman said,"it’s gotten too dangerous and too stressful," and is becoming "a mental health issue" too. 

"Imagine the stress that even though we don’t speak it out loud, it’s a stressful situation to live under these circumstances," Coleman continued. "So you have to live constantly in fear. I think that now is the time during the election season to really ponder who we elect to these offices, to assist communities, not to guide us, not to tell us what to do and how to do it, but to give us the resources that basically they were sent to Springfield or D.C. to provide to these communities. The infrastructure of civility.”

Crime continues to happen in the community. According to ABC7 Chicago, the F.B.I. is looking for three individuals who robbed a U.S. Bank ATM in South Suburban Dolton on Oct. 21. Dolton Police Chief Robert Collins said an armored truck crew was servicing the ATM when they were overpowered by three masked men. They took $118,000 and got away in a white Infiniti; no one was hurt.

Calumet City Police are investigating after three teens were shot Oct. 1. At 10:45 p.m., officers responded to the first block of 157th Street after reports of a gunshot victim. Police found two victims, a 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl, at the scene. A third victim, a 17-year-old boy, had transported himself to a hospital. All three victims had non-life-threatening injuries, CBS Chicago reported.

Brian Mullins of The Black Voter Project, says the group is urging Black voters to vote based on individual issues rather than political parties.

Mullins, according to the South Cooks News recently said, "The goal is to organize the Black voter block in the state of Illinois. So it's a specific media-targeted door-to-door survey and data-driven effort to engage the Black electorate in issues relating to the Black community. Not Democratic, not Republican, not Independent, specifically not libertarian, but start with the issues so that we can then push people to the right candidate, not a party." 

Mullins said that the group decided to undertake this project after witnessing destruction in communities, most of it caused by specific policies. Mullins says that most conversations that take place in the Black community happen between the Black elite and Democratic lawmakers, which leaves out 90% of the community. Mullins says the Black vote controls who is elected in Illinois, and he hopes his project will inform Black voters on the best candidate on the issues they care about and that his project may help change the trajectory of Illinois.

Jeff Coleman will be facing incumbent Rep. Thaddeus Jones (D) in the general election.

House District 29 includes parts of South Holland, Ford Heights and Manteno.