The family of a murdered Chicago Police officer is calling out Governor JB Pritzker as the parole board comes under renewed criticism over prisoner releases.
“I think Governor Pritzker has blood on his hands for releasing these inmates,” said Jean Cable, the niece of a murdered police officer. […]
Cabel still incensed more than a year after the Illinois Prisoner Review Board released convicted cop killer Johnny Veal. He was sent to prison for 100-300 years for the 1970 Cabrini-Green sniper killing of her uncle, Police Sgt. James Severin, and his partner Anthony Rizzato. […]
“What’s going on with the Illinois parole board? I don’t like it. I don’t know what they’re doing,” Cabel added.
* Dan Proft’s PAC released a TV ad about the case the other day…
“My message to the governor,” Cabel says in the ad, “would be ’shame on you.’”
The Proft spot is called an “outrageous TV ad that should insult us all.” The ad points out that the governor cannot parole anyone and the announcer states “the [Proft] ad is 100 percent false.”
* Proft’s PAC today…
There will be a virtual PRESS CONFERENCE at 11AM CT Today hosted by People Who Play By The Rules PAC with JEAN CABEL, the niece of slain Chicago Police Officer Sgt. James Severin, to respond to a malicious commercial recently put out by sitting Illinois Governor JB Pritzker that attacked Cabel’s character. […]
Pritzker’s ad in essence calls the niece of Sgt. James Severin a liar, claiming that everything in her ad with PBR PAC is “100% false.”
In reality, everything in our ad is 100% true.
After a brief statement she will take questions from the media.
At press time, the Pritzker campaign has not made their ad available on their public YouTube channel, not surprisingly, but we have it and will play it at the press conference.
I got the Pritzker ad from Proft’s PAC. Isabel will be covering the press conference, so stay tuned for any updates.
The truth is that Governor Pritzker is directly responsible for the composition and integrity of his Prisoner Review Board. As a family member of a Chicago police officer who was killed in the line of duty in 1970, I have spent my entire adult life maintaining his honor and working tirelessly alongside with both families to keep two convicted cop killers in prison. My family and the family of Anthony Rizzato have been fighting this horrific battle for 40 years. My recent involvement in a political ad only stated that truth. The family of Jim Severin and Tony Rizzato have been associated with eight cooperative Governors of the state of Illinois all the way back to Governor Ogilvie. These governors understood what the judge was trying to say to future generations with a sentence of 100 to 300 years. This all stopped when JB Pritzker was put in office in 2019.
The governor’s office says that the case had “only one other parole hearing in 2014. We checked the file and there are not letters from previous governors in it.”
When you say that an ad blaming you for a problem is false that doesn’t mean you are saying the problem doesn’t exist. So i don’t think a rational person would infer that he is calling the niece a liar. He is disputing the narrated part and the caption at the end.
As to the ad, I understand that the victims family will forever hurt. Truly.
At the same time, I was raised to believe in forgiveness. Not just as a child, but all throughout my adult life. Not just in church, but in my lifelong commitment to doing social justice.
Forgiveness is what is missing today. It is also our only way out of our current impasse.
Parole Boards, like all of us, do their very best to get things right. And most of the time, they are spot on.
It is sad that some politicians will take tragedies of any sort, and turn them into reasons to vote for or against people unrelated to the tragedy. Being four steps removed from the decision-making is not a sufficient cause for contempt or hate or voting.
The offender committed these crimes at age 17, and was released at age 68. He was not sentenced to life without parole, or death, and there doesn’t seem to be any question procedures were followed. With good time, he was eligible for parole at 50 years. Now, given changes in laws and attitudes about youthful offenders, it is highly questionable to me that he would receive such a long sentence even for this type of crime. I’m not in a position to second guess what the board did here on what looks like an 8-4 vote.
Gov Pritzker is right, he can’t parole anyone. Neither could Bailee if he is elected. And dont worry if Daryin is elected. We’ll be putting Doctors in prison for abortions at a cost of $30,000 to $60,000 a year. Need to raise taxes in Zenia to pay for this.
No need to personalize the pain of a crime victim (even if it was from decades ago), and even worse accuse her of being a liar. JB should have left out the niece of the Murdered cop. Attack the PAC and Proft and the claims made in the ad - but leave the poor lady out.
With all due respect, Governor Pritzker wasn’t in office when these crimes were committed, and unless he had some personal involvement as a young man that statement makes no sense.
It is fairly commonplace for elected officials to notify family members about prisoners who are scheduled to appear before the parole board. It is also a frequent practice for the same officials to send a spokesperson to appear before the parole board to express opposition to inmates being released from prison in cases of heinous crimes.
Pritzker does not personally parole prisoners, but if his administration failed to notify the family that Veal was scheduled for a parole hearing and did not send a person to object, there is a basis for the complaint.
- levivotedforjudy - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 11:34 am:
I call it the “key wording” of society. A lot of people do not take in information precisely. They sort of listen to key words and may even rearrange them. This strategy by Proft works on a lot of folks. Not enough to get Bailey in office, but it is an aria to the base.
the daughter in law of one of the cops who made the arrest in this case was a long time Republican elected official, active including at State party conventions, ethically challenged, and cost Cook County hundreds of thousands of dollars in ARDC fees for her trial mis statements. Suspensions from the practice of law are unheard of for conduct from ASAs but that’s her. That said, Kim Foxx is an albatross. she should speak up but her office now has a policy against sending ASAs to speak on cases. albatross.
JB failed to get members appointed to the PRB so from March 2022 - till he just appointed Jeff Grubs on 11/1/22. These folks were getting paid for doing nothing.
Chairperson, $103,037 per year; Members, $92,305 per year
To be fair, I’m pretty sure Rod would have opposed parole in this case. Because he was a piece of garbage who saw every bid for parole or clemency as a threat to his dazzling political future.
- Big Dipper - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 10:07 am:
When you say that an ad blaming you for a problem is false that doesn’t mean you are saying the problem doesn’t exist. So i don’t think a rational person would infer that he is calling the niece a liar. He is disputing the narrated part and the caption at the end.
- H-W - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 10:08 am:
I look forward to the updates, Isabel.
As to the ad, I understand that the victims family will forever hurt. Truly.
At the same time, I was raised to believe in forgiveness. Not just as a child, but all throughout my adult life. Not just in church, but in my lifelong commitment to doing social justice.
Forgiveness is what is missing today. It is also our only way out of our current impasse.
Parole Boards, like all of us, do their very best to get things right. And most of the time, they are spot on.
It is sad that some politicians will take tragedies of any sort, and turn them into reasons to vote for or against people unrelated to the tragedy. Being four steps removed from the decision-making is not a sufficient cause for contempt or hate or voting.
- Ron Burgundy - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 10:12 am:
The offender committed these crimes at age 17, and was released at age 68. He was not sentenced to life without parole, or death, and there doesn’t seem to be any question procedures were followed. With good time, he was eligible for parole at 50 years. Now, given changes in laws and attitudes about youthful offenders, it is highly questionable to me that he would receive such a long sentence even for this type of crime. I’m not in a position to second guess what the board did here on what looks like an 8-4 vote.
- Arsenal - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 10:17 am:
A “virtual press conference” the Friday before Election Day?
Never mistake activity for accomplishment.
- Big Dipper - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 10:36 am:
Funny Proft wasn’t worried about the feelings of the actual victim in the mugging ad he ran without her permission.
- Jerry - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 10:42 am:
Gov Pritzker is right, he can’t parole anyone. Neither could Bailee if he is elected. And dont worry if Daryin is elected. We’ll be putting Doctors in prison for abortions at a cost of $30,000 to $60,000 a year. Need to raise taxes in Zenia to pay for this.
- Donnie Elgin - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 11:17 am:
No need to personalize the pain of a crime victim (even if it was from decades ago), and even worse accuse her of being a liar. JB should have left out the niece of the Murdered cop. Attack the PAC and Proft and the claims made in the ad - but leave the poor lady out.
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 11:23 am:
- has blood on his hands -
With all due respect, Governor Pritzker wasn’t in office when these crimes were committed, and unless he had some personal involvement as a young man that statement makes no sense.
- Gravitas - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 11:26 am:
It is fairly commonplace for elected officials to notify family members about prisoners who are scheduled to appear before the parole board. It is also a frequent practice for the same officials to send a spokesperson to appear before the parole board to express opposition to inmates being released from prison in cases of heinous crimes.
Pritzker does not personally parole prisoners, but if his administration failed to notify the family that Veal was scheduled for a parole hearing and did not send a person to object, there is a basis for the complaint.
- levivotedforjudy - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 11:34 am:
I call it the “key wording” of society. A lot of people do not take in information precisely. They sort of listen to key words and may even rearrange them. This strategy by Proft works on a lot of folks. Not enough to get Bailey in office, but it is an aria to the base.
- Big Dipper - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 11:36 am:
If you appoint only people who will always deny parole it kind of defeats the purpose of having a parole board.
- Ron Burgundy - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 11:41 am:
-but if his administration failed to notify the family that Veal was scheduled for a parole hearing and did not send a person to object-
There is no evidence of that. It is well documented that the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation and even Kim Foxx objected at the time of the hearing.
- Amalia - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 11:58 am:
the daughter in law of one of the cops who made the arrest in this case was a long time Republican elected official, active including at State party conventions, ethically challenged, and cost Cook County hundreds of thousands of dollars in ARDC fees for her trial mis statements. Suspensions from the practice of law are unheard of for conduct from ASAs but that’s her. That said, Kim Foxx is an albatross. she should speak up but her office now has a policy against sending ASAs to speak on cases. albatross.
- H-W - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 12:03 pm:
@LeviVotedForJudy -Key wording. I like that.
- Donnie Elgin - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 12:05 pm:
JB failed to get members appointed to the PRB so from March 2022 - till he just appointed Jeff Grubs on 11/1/22. These folks were getting paid for doing nothing.
Chairperson, $103,037 per year; Members, $92,305 per year
- Arsenal - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 12:09 pm:
==Attack the PAC and Proft and the claims made in the ad - but leave the poor lady out.==
The ad never mentions the woman.
It’s always interesting which of us *are* allowed to lie.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 12:16 pm:
===The ad never mentions the woman===
It shows her, tho.
- Donnie Elgin - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 12:16 pm:
“The ad never mentions the woman”
Watch the Ad - they have the poor women’s image on the video with a JB counterclaim posted over the frame.
- Arsenal - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 12:18 pm:
==It shows her, tho.==
Fair, but there’s a lot of daylight between that and “calling her a liar”.
- Arsenal - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 12:19 pm:
==they have the poor women’s image on the video with a JB counterclaim posted over the frame.==
They do indeed, but you said they “called her a liar”. They don’t.
- Arsenal - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 12:22 pm:
I also like the “poor woman” framing as if she didn’t voluntarily put herself in a political ad that lies about the parole process.
- Soccermom - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 12:51 pm:
To be fair, I’m pretty sure Rod would have opposed parole in this case. Because he was a piece of garbage who saw every bid for parole or clemency as a threat to his dazzling political future.
About that…
- JS Mill - Friday, Nov 4, 22 @ 1:58 pm:
=Watch the Ad - they have the poor women’s image on the video with a JB counterclaim posted over the frame.=
If only you were this compassionate with regard to crime victims used in proft ads.