'Southtown' M.E.: Cops Harassing More Of Our Journos

By: Mark Fitzgerald In the days since two police officials in Harvey, Ill., instigated a crowd to taunt a Daily Southtown photographer, police have harassed two more reporters for the suburban Chicago paper, its managing editor told E&P Monday.

Managing Editor Dennis Robaugh said two staffers were stopped by Harvey police officer since the newspaper reported on the May 31 incident in which the deputy chief and a commander of the department shouted that Southtown photographer Mary Compton, who was photographing a car crash, was an ?ambulance chaser? who was ?sick in the head.? He urged the crowd that had gathered to chant ?paparazzi? at Compton. The crowd soon began physically pressing in on Compton, who fled the scene.

Robaugh said one staffer has since been stopped on the way to a photo assignment and ticketed for speeding.

And a reporter was stopped after leaving the Harvey police station, where she and a trainee reporter had gone to report the crime blotter. She was cited for rolling through a stop sign.

?She has never had a traffic violation in her life, and she is adamant that (police) followed her from the police station,? Robaugh said.

Robaugh said the newspaper will hire a lawyer to represent the two staffers in court.

The alleged harassment followed the latest Southtown investigative piece on the police and mayor?s office in the impoverished south Chicago suburb.

In a story Sunday by staff writer Jonathan Lipman, the Southtown portrays a city that is running out of money -- and, in fact, that may already be broke. The paper reviewed the community?s financial documents, and found that Mayor Eric Kellogg, who came to office promising to clean up a financial mess, had actually increased Harvey?s debt to at least $5 million by running up deficits, and, in 2003, writing $2.4 million worth of checks with insufficient funds.

Despite disciplinary problems in the past, the top officers who allegedly harassed Southtown photographer were re-hired by the department when Kellogg was elected mayor. A spokesperson for the city and police department could not be immediately reached for comment.