Facts Matter: State bill won’t relabel all offenders

A bill that recently passed both houses of the Illinois General Assembly would reclassify some offenders in the state justice system.

“Satire is now reality: Illinois just passed a bill to change the word ‘offender’ to justice-impacted individual. HB 4409 passed both chambers,” read a May 22 X post that was shared more than 10,000 times.

But that’s not the whole story, according to the Associated Press. This post left out some details about the bill.

HB 4409 would not apply to every criminal in the state. The intention of the bill is to relabel those in Adult Redeploy Illinois, a program focused on developing “less expensive community-based alternatives to incarceration,” according to the group’s website. The program is open to people charged with an offense that is eligible for probation. If the bill is signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, individuals in the program would be called “justice-impacted individuals” instead of “offenders.”

“HB4409 represents a small change to an incredibly successful diversion program that simply seeks to better reflect the program’s intention,” Democratic State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, who co-sponsored the bill, told the AP. “Those who choose to fan the flames of misinformation and fearmongering do all of us a disservice.”

However, some legislators put the focus on the victims of crimes.

“Through all these changes — change this, change that — the only thing that you don’t want to change is the behavior of criminals. And guess who’s paying for that right now? Victims all across this state. I urge a no vote,” Republican State Sen. Steve McClure said May 21 on the floor before the bill passed.

And Republican State Sen. Terri Bryant, during that session, pointed out the financial impact.

“Each time we make that change, each agency has to make that change on every one of their documents. So right now in the Department of Corrections there’s multiple changes that have been made and it’s costing thousands and thousands of dollars just to do a name change,” she said.

Photos don’t show Trump in NY

Former President Donald Trump held a rally May 23 in New York City’s Bronx neighborhood, prompting social media users to offer various claims about the number of people who attended.

“Notice anything about Trump’s rally crowd size????” read a May 26 Facebook post showing the former president in front of a large crowd, along with four highlighted areas showing the same people at the rally repeated throughout the photo.

But nothing about this photo is real, according to Reuters. And it has nothing to do with the New York event.

The image originated on a satirical Facebook account called “Taunt The Elephant,” first appearing on June 27, 2022. It was created by mostly using a photo of Trump from a June 2021 rally in Ohio, and repeatedly adding a group of Trump supporters from an October 2020 rally in Pennsylvania.

A different Facebook post included a birds-eye view of a large crowd.

“This was the Trump rally today in the Bronx, NY!!! WOW!!! AOC said Minister would show up and the crowd went on as far as the eye could see!!! There were literally people lining the streets for MILES!!!,” read the May 23 post.

But that photo wasn’t taken in New York, Reuters said.

The image is from January 2015, showing the crowd gathered to see Pope Francis during a visit to Manila, the Philippines.

Bird flu not a ‘scamdemic’

During a news conference in April, World Health Organization Chief Scientist Dr. Jeremy Farrar said at least three U.S. farm workers have been infected with H5H1, or the bird flu, and he urged health officials to keep an eye on the virus.

A recent Instagram post appeared to link the virus to the general election.

“Tell me the Presidential elections coming up without telling me Presidential elections coming up: 70 people In Colorado are Are Now Under Surveillance For Having Potentially Contracted Bird Flu #WAKEUPAMERICA #BYDESIGN #SCAMDEMIC,” read the May 12 post, which included a video of Farrar speaking about the virus.

But the bird flu has nothing to do with the presidential election, according to PolitiFact. It’s unclear how the Instagram user is making this connection.

The H5N1 virus occurs naturally and it has been around for more than 100 years.

Sculpture was built digitally

A photo circulating online appears to show a sculpture of the Statue of Liberty made up of building fragments.

“This was built by a Syrian artist from the ruins of his house. With the slogan: ‘This is the freedom they brought us,’” reads an X post that included the photo.

But no parts of the artist’s house were used to create this, according to The Associated Press. The image was built in Photoshop.

The digital image, titled “Statue of Liberty,” was done by Syrian artist Tammam Azzam in 2012.

“I created the image using Photoshop by scanning and piecing together various fragments of photographs of destroyed buildings in Syria. Regarding the misrepresentation, it is unfortunate that the image has been falsely attributed to a specific narrative. It was not built from the ruins of any house, nor does it carry the slogan attributed to it,” Azzam told the AP.

• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.