It’s late morning at the Cook County Circuit Court Building in Skokie. In one of the small courtrooms along the broad center hallway a few people sit quietly in clusters on wooden pews, waiting for their cases to be called.
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Near the front of the room a black Chicago cop is lying back in his seat, legs stretched out, arms crossed. He has a shaved head and thick shoulders, and he’s wearing an elegant suit. He watches the judge through heavy-lidded eyes, occasionally rolling his head sideways and staring hard at the two young men he arrested months before on drug charges.
He isn’t gone long. He slides back into his seat and slumps forward again. A middle-aged black woman sitting behind him touches his back and asks what the cop wanted. The kid whispers, “He said next time he sees me on the street he’s gonna put somethin’ on me.”
