Cicero: Community of Controversy

News Reporting on the town of Cicero a Community of Controversy

00:33Copy video clip URL Opening graphics and music for Channel 5 News, Chicago’s NBC affiliate.

00:41Copy video clip URL Church bells clang. Camera opens to Cermak road in Cicero, Illinois, as Carol Marin introduces workers who rise early in the morning. “Hard work values for Old World people,” is the governing principle among the Czech, Polish, Italian, and other immigrant communities who came to Cicero decades ago says Marin. Some were fleeing the communists, some were fleeing the changing landscape of Chicago.

2:01Copy video clip URL A bell is rung. Title appears “Cicero Community of Controversy.” Cicero is the home of Al Capone and is today considered to be a center for mob crime. Cicero has a national reputation of keeping black people out. 

3:35Copy video clip URL Video cuts to another tape of a court room hearing. A woman is yelling, a man perhaps the judge rises and walks away. They meet to discuss mobs and prostitution, solutions include closing all night bars early. The real question is who runs Cicero.

4:19Copy video clip URL In the 1920s Cicero was a synonym for AL Capone for the illicit liquor industry and other criminal pursuits. 

5:18Copy video clip URL three to one in favor of closing Cicero’s late night bars.

6:12Copy video clip URL The spokesperson for Cicero’s bars claimed that they were necessary business that provided jobs for people. Prostitution past 2am was one of the allegations two of the bars were facing.

7:16Copy video clip URL Alan Carr, Clerk of Cicero and Republican committeeman, is interviewed. He is asked about the incidents of cameramen being offered sex upon walking through the door. Carol Marin states the argument that city officials should be aware of what is happening and should be taking action to shut it down, Carr’s response “I’m sure they are doing it now, give them a chance.”

10:08Copy video clip URL David Boyle believes his property being set on fire has mob ties. 

12:51Copy video clip URL People claim that there will not be much change as there is not much support from the citizens.

13:21Copy video clip URL Video transitions to another reporting of Cicero. Black citizens are interviewed and share their accounts of fear from when living in Cicero.

17:37Copy video clip URL Marin begins to talk about an island of an all white neighborhood on the border of Cicero. A family was trapped inside of their home due to a angry mob. The clerk claims that he has no knowledge of Cicero citizens attempting to keep black out of the town. 

18:21Copy video clip URL Erwin Keith one of Cicero’s black citizens disagrees with Alan Carr, and says that officials are well aware of what is going on. He shares an event that happened in 1981. 

18:44Copy video clip URL A white woman is interviewed and asked, what is good about Cicero. She responds “no blacks.” Reporter Marin says that Hispanics have been accepted in the community. Blacks have not.

18:57Copy video clip URL Frank Belmotty, Democratic committeeman of Cicero has seen different dimensions of the black issues. He states Democrats not often elected. Views on community issues are liberal. William disagrees with the economic argument. Citizens believe they are no more racist than any other town in America.

20:23Copy video clip URL New reporting on Cicero ends.

20:36Copy video clip URL Video opens to a bakery on a StreetSide. Discussion on citizens feeling removed from debates on controversies of late night taverns, mobs and federal lawsuits on discrimination. What affects them is what they have to get done in a day. Cicero is a hardworking town. It is also a town that has down little to address the issues they face. 

22:43Copy video clip URL [End of Tape.]