Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Slavery reparations zealot may block Chicago parking lot privatization

Chicago Alderman Dorothy "The Hat" Tillman has made herself somewhat of a national name by placing herself at the forefront of the slavery reparations debate. She favors reparations for slavery.

A year ago or so, the City of Chicago passed a law that does not ask for slavery reparations, but that legislation stipulated that any firm doing business with the city must disclose any ties or profits made from slavery.

Some view this law as a precursor to setting up a framework for reparations to be paid in the future.

Because it appears that the company chosen to run the soon to be privatized city parking garages, Morgan Stanley Investment Management may have had a predecessor company own slaves--as a result of a loan default, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

More....

Mayor Daley's $563 million plan to privatize the Millennium Park and Grant Park garages hit a surprise roadblock on Monday: The City Council's champion for slave reparations is threatening to seek a court order blocking the deal because she believes Morgan Stanley Investment Management lied about its past ties to slavery.
Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd) is furious because the firm chosen to lease and operate the 9,178 downtown spaces for the next 99 years claimed in a sworn affidavit that neither it nor its "predecessor entities" had profited from or invested in slavery or slaveholder insurance.

According to Tillman, that's a "lie" laid bare by the evidence about Riggs, Peabody and Co., a predecessor of J.P. Morgan Chase, that her daughter uncovered in 2004 during exhaustive research at the Library of Congress.

The "slavery disclosure" law is just plain stupid. Yes, slavery was terrible, but
the law is a bad one.

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