SOUTH SHORE — The feelings of regular Chicagoans toward disgraced former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, former Ald. Sandi Jackson, was in the past day scrawled on their South Shore headquarters in the simplest of terms.
“Crooks.”
The word was written twice, in faded letters, between a photo of the couple, and is believed to have been written sometime late Friday or early Saturday.
The Jacksons both pleaded guilty to their crimes this week.
Jackson Jr. copped to living a lavish lifestyle based on the $750,000 in his campaign coffers.
He admitted to using campaign funds to buy such collectibles as Michael Jackson’s fedora, Bruce Lee memorabilia and two stuffed elk heads.
Sandi Jackson pleaded guilty to cheating on her family’s taxes and underreporting $600,000 between 2005 and 2011.
She admitted that she and her husband used the campaign fund for food, clothing, movie tickets, health club dues, personal travel, dining expenses, tobacco shops and more.
Prosecutors are seeking 46 to 57 months in jail and a fine of $10,000 to $100,000 for Jackson Jr., according to the plea agreement.
The feds say Sandi Jackson faces 18 to 24 months in prison.
On Saturday, Tim Bush, 42, a local resident, said he didn’t have a problem with the graffiti condemnation.
“They’re only expressing how they feel,” he said of whomever wrote the words. “I’m with the people. It’s disappointing what (the Jacksons) have done, but they’re going to get everything that’s coming to them.”
Not everyone in the South Shore neighborhood agreed.
One woman, who would not give her name, said she was disgusted by the Jacksons, but didn’t condone the vandalism.
“I don’t think it’s right,” she said.
Bush said the guilty pleas this week have taken away two figures that the community used to look up to.
“You look up to people like that to help the community out,” he said. “A lot of us don’t know who we’re going to trust now.”
