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Trump 2.0

Ice is targeting and harassing ordinary people in Chicago in an escalation of militarism

Sara Paretsky is the award-winning author of the hugely popular VI Warshawski novels. Sara spoke to Judy Cox about militarisation and the threat to democracy in Donald Trump’s America. 

SW: What have you been seeing in Chicago?

I live in the South Side of Chicago, which means something specific in terms of race and class. It’s a more upmarket area, and it is very racially mixed. There is an Afro-American community and now there is a significant Hispanic population, mainly Mexicans.

The North Side is mainly populated by white Europeans. 

There is a lot of Ice—Immigration and Customs Enforcement—action on the South Side, where the largest Hispanic population is. 

I go to events to look out for Ice activities. I live near the Museum of Mexican Art, which was set up by women in the community. I go there to check for Ice, but they have not targeted it yet. 

They are targeting ordinary people. A few days ago, they targeted an apartment near where I live with tear gas and pepper balls. They ripped the building apart and wrenched babies from their mothers’ arms and handcuffed them. They were left naked in the streets for hours. 

They are reprising what happened in the 1930s in Germany and in Spain. 

We hear Black Hawk helicopters circling overhead. It is not Syria—they are not dropping bombs—it is all about intimidation. 

The administration has banned the use of civilian drones because they were being used to track Ice activity.

SW: Why do you think this militarisation is happening now?

We are thinking that the goal is the militarisation of the city so free elections can’t be held next year. They know the Maga Republicans would be voted out. 

Donald Trump has dementia. It is Russell Vought who is the policy setter. Vought wrote Project 2025 and he runs the Heritage Foundation. In the summer before the election, Vought recruited 4-5,000 volunteers. 

As soon as Trump was inaugurated, Vought had all the executive orders ready to sign. And these thousands of volunteers were ready to comb through the websites of organisations and end federal funding for any that used the language of diversity, equity and inclusion. 

That’s things like food programmes and programmes for low income children. I have a friend who runs a programme aimed at cutting infant mortality. She erased 400 words from the organisation’s website to protect its funding. 

Another friend runs a programme researching uterine thyroids. She has to write an application without mentioning the word “women”. 

Another friend who is a biomedical researcher had her funding threatened because she had too many women on her team. 

America was never perfect. But we had people trying to expand the concept of social justice and welfare. It is a great grief to see what is happening now, how things like medical research are being gutted. 

The vaccination programme in Sudan has been cut. A friend who runs a programme for children with cancer in Malawi is facing draconian cuts. 

SW: The proceeds from your latest book are going to reproductive rights campaigns

Reproductive rights vary from state to state. My state, Illinois, has one of the best provisions for abortion and women’s health care because the two go together.

Our governor, JB Pritzker, is pro-choice and supports fundraising for abortion groups. 

About 40 percent of the women having abortions here come from out of state because Illinois is near the southern states which have the most restrictions on abortions. 

Women are arriving here not just for abortions but with serious health problems, things like ectopic pregnancies that they can’t get treated where they live. 

Hospitals are charging women $17,000 to save their lives, so we are fundraising to help women with that. 

SW: Are there other ways we can resist the attacks?

I joined a rapid resistance unit. More and more people are joining in Chicago and across the country. Because more and more people are seeing the danger we are in and the damage being done. 

What we are seeing is shocking. I am named after two of my grandmothers who died in the Shoah. I think about what they went through, being dragged from their beds, being marched away—and it is happening right here and right now to my neighbours.

I don’t expect the regime to care, any more than Joseph Goebbels cared. I am the third generation since my grandmothers’ time. Trauma lingers through the generations. 

It is not enough to write about what is happening—we have to be in the streets and we have to protect people.

The writer Rebecca Solnit said no football coach goes into the dressing room before a game and says, “look, we’re going to lose but we have to play anyway.”

I have to believe we will prevail. I hope it will be in my lifetime, but anyway, I hope that what I do helps make that possible.     

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Dr. John E. Fleming, a distinguished museum leader, historian, husband, father and mentor to many in the museum profession, passed away on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. He was 81 years old. He had lived in Yellow Springs for 35 years. Dr. Fleming was well known as a pre-eminent scholar, academician and author whose life’s work was the preservation and interpretation of African American history and culture.

His career was firmly rooted in the historic black community as he came of age. A native of Morganton, North Carolina, he received his bachelor’s degree from Berea College and in the 1960s served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi, East Africa, where he was assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture. After his return to the United States, he worked for Pride Inc. under Marion Barry and as a program analyst for the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

Dr. Fleming went on to pursue advanced degrees, earning both a master’s degree and a doctorate in American history from Howard University in Washington, D.C. While serving as a Senior Fellow at Howard’s Institute for the Study of Educational Policy, he wrote two books on African American education: “The Lengthening Shadow of Slavery” and “The Case for Affirmative Action for Blacks in Higher Education.”

Dr. Fleming’s museum career began in 1980 when he joined the Ohio Historical Society as the Afro-American Museum project director. He was the founding director of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio, and later became the director and chief operating officer for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Over the course of his career, he was directly involved in the development of six museums, including the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina; the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, Mississippi; and the National Museum of African American Music, in Nashville, Tennessee, where he served as immediate past director. He also served as director emeritus of the Cincinnati Museum Center and as an adjunct professor in the department of history at the University of Cincinnati.

His leadership extended across several respected historical and cultural organizations. He was president of the Ohio Museums Association, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and the Association of African American Museums. He was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the commission for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. He was the immediate past chair of the board for the American Association for State and Local History and was recently appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine to the Ohio Semiquincentennial Commission. Locally, he was an active member of the YS Men’s Association.

Dr. Fleming was also a prolific writer and scholar: He was author of five books and 50 articles throughout his career. In addition to his scholarly works, he published two memoirs: “A Summer Remembered,” about his childhood in North Carolina, and “Mission to Malawi,” about his time in the Peace Corps.

He was a recipient of numerous accolades, including distinguished service awards from the Association of African American Museums, the American Association for State and Local History, the National Peace Corps, Berea College, the Ohio Library Association, and the National Peace Corps. In his honor, the Association of African American Museums named its highest honor the John E. Fleming Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, he was named one of the Top Ten African Americans in Dayton, Ohio.

But Dr. Fleming was proudest of the time that he devoted to his family and community. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, a psychologist and writer, of Yellow Springs; and his two daughters, one a lawyer and the other a museum professional who followed in her father’s footsteps as a curator of American art. Dr. Fleming is also survived by two grandsons, a brother, a sister and numerous relatives.

He was a former board member and volunteer for the St. Vincent de Paul Homeless shelter in Dayton. And he was a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Sigma Pi Phi, known as the Boule.

Dr. Fleming’s family plans to hold a memorial service in his honor at the National Afro American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio. The date and time of the memorial will be posted online and in the Yellow Springs News.

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