WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Sen. Mark Kirk wants mass arrests of 18,000 young black Chicagoans he labels as GDs.

Chicago Magazine's Whet Moser

I saw a headline the other day in which Mark Kirk proposed to arrest literally every single Gangster Disciple in Chicago. That's an estimated 18,000 people, the equivalent of arresting every man, woman, and child in East Garfield Park or Kenwood. An entire Chicago community's worth of people. It's putting it mildly to say this idea is not entirely thought-out:

 Thomson has 1,600 cells. So at the tight fit of ten prisoners to a cell...you're still gonna need a bigger jail. (Cook County Jail holds about 10,000 people, but it's almost full.)  Maybe this is what we could do with all the closed schools. Anyway, those are mere logistical details. This is America, and if we're good at anything, it's mass incarceration. -- The 312

N.Y. Principal Carol Burris

The proliferation of high stakes testing — mandated standardized assessments with critical consequences for the student, teacher and school– has led to the inevitable rise of the testing bullies. The testing bullies are the high stakes testing companies. They, along with policymakers and politicians, are harming our children to the point of abuse. -- WaPo

 Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies

“It’s the first time in Turkey’s democratic history that an unplanned, peaceful protest movement succeeded in changing the government’s approach and policy.” said Sinan Ulgen, the, a research group in Istanbul. “It gave for the first time a strong sense of empowerment to ordinary citizens to demonstrate and further their belief that if they act like they did the last few days they can influence events in Turkey.” - NYT