Pointed Tile

Howard Brookins Jr. is the alderman for Chicago’s 21st ward. He has been an outspoken opponent of what he sees as one of that city’s biggest threats – urban squirrels. The rodents are in the habit of chewing through plastic trash can lids; an appetite that has cost Chicago upwards of $300,000. In October Brookins recommended that the aggressive beasts be eradicated. A few weeks later the alderman was cycling along the Cal-Sag Trail when the squirrels launched a counter attack. One of them threw itself into the spinning bike spokes, sending Brookins to the hospital with a fractured skull, a broken nose and several missing teeth. The alderman is expected to eventually make a full recovery, but the kamikaze squirrel will not.