89 Comments - Election Lawyer Abe - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:30 am: The most striking thing is that no one mentions the fact that any arrests based on gang affiliation alone would probably violate the First Amendment and get us nowhere. - 47th Ward - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:31 am: I’m Bobby Rush and I approve of Chicago’s high level of violence. What, pray tell, is Bobby Rush’s solution to the violence that plagues his district? - train111 - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:32 am: I thought that I would never do it, while not in any way defending his language– I really think Rush has a point here. To quote the Sun Times “Just think of what the greatest generation did here in Chicago, pretty much crushing the Capone organization.” In my opinoin that is a ‘law and order type’ thirty second talking point. The end of prohibition probably did a whole lot more to crush Capone’s organization than throwing money into any enforcement did. Rush’s point is that if ‘opportunity’ is created in the district instead of just blindly arresting people, then the $30 million would go further towards fixing the problem–I agree with him. train111 - Carl Nyberg - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:32 am: Did Kirk come out for arresting people based on who they associate without waiting for them to commit crimes? If Kirk took this position, it seems like this is an extreme example of attacking the U.S. Constitution. And far more significant that Bobby Rush offending the social code. - b - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:32 am: Rush’s words were not the ones I would have chosen, but he is correct in what he is saying. Check out the documentary La Vida Loca by Christian Poveda for an interesting perspective. - I'm with ya - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:33 am: Sheesh is about all you can say Rich Lets see if any of Rush’s colleagues call him out on it. - Ahoy! - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:37 am: So what was Rush’s solution? After all, his constituents are most impacted by gang violence, what is he doing about it? - Carl Nyberg - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:37 am: BTW, Durbin and Kirk are dead wrong. The USANID should be focused on corruption and white collar crime. By historical standards, crimes is not high. If the Cook County States Attorney can’t handle violent crime, maybe we need to replace Anita Alvarez and the political crony ASAs with people who are actually competent. If the plan is to outsource serious crimes to the Justice Department, then let’s cut the budget of the Cook County States Attorney 35%. They don’t get to push their work to the feds and get the money as if they were actually working too. There is supposed to be more to being an ASA than sitting around until you get tapped to run for judge. - John A Logan - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:40 am: Blatant Racist Language by Rush. Shameful. He should resign. - Formerly Known As... - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:42 am: @47th Ward - bingo. He’s only had a few decades to address the problems in his own backyard. How well are your plans to address the poverty, drug and crime rates working out for you Mr. Rush? Yeah. I think I’ll listen to just about anyone other than Bobby Rush on this one. - dupage dan - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:42 am: What is Rush’s solution? He wants that 30 mil to be spent on a “job creation and job training” program. Now, why didn’t we think of that? What a novel idea!! Let’s get to work on that right away!! - 3rd Generation Chicago Native - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:42 am: As I was reading Bobby Rush’s comments, and criticisms, I was thinking the same thing as “47th Ward” And wondering why Rush has not let us in on his solutions, and why he has not implemented them? - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:44 am: Apparently it’s still a lot more popular in Chicago to target thirty thousand southsider “Gangster Disciples” (pretending to the public that such an organization is still organized) than the Indiana straw purchasers/gunrunners or white collar criminals that state resources can’t effectively target. How very far we’ve come. It’s not paranoid when they’re really out to get you. Is it playing the race card when a policy is actually racist? - Cook County Commoner - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:50 am: Congressman Rush’s solution is to “invest” more money into these troubled neighborhoods, and, coincidently, he has a list of people who will take the money to run new programs. - Endangered Moderate Species - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:51 am: Drugs are illegal, therefore there is a black market, therefore gangs like the Disciples and the Sons of Silence are able to operate and supply the demand, along with controlling their turf. Legalize, tax and regulate the drug industry and you will end 90% of the violence and costs associated with the drug war. At the very least, legalize marijuana and get the trafficking out of the hands of the gangs. ===If there is $30 million for Congress to spend, better most of it be allocated for “job creation and job training,”=== Throwing money at job creation is not a good long term strategy but I will agree with providing more money for job training programs. - Loop Lady - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:52 am: On a more positive note, I thought Barack Obama’s commencement address at Morehouse College this month got to the heart of the matter in AA communities, and specifically the responsibilities and prospects for AA males in our society. I drove home through the west side of Chicago yesterday, and I don’t think $30 million is enough of an enticement for businesses to venture into these blighted, no opportunity communities. Besides, how could they ever compete with the gangs? I don’t have the answers, and politicians that throw money, ideas that have been tried ad nauseum that don’t work, and platitudes at this complex issue just don’t get it. Jail is not the answer, and I think Rush is showing his frustration and lack of progress in this arena. He was out of line and should apologize. - Joe McCarthy - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:53 am: Crazybleedingheart- your argument would be more compelling if Kirk hadn’t been the lead Republican on gun trafficking legislation. - ArchPundit - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:54 am: ===Apparently it’s still a lot more popular in Chicago to target thirty thousand southsider “Gangster Disciples” (pretending to the public that such an organization is still organized) than the Indiana straw purchasers/gunrunners or white collar criminals that state resources can’t effectively target. Actually, I think Kirk would be for both. That isn’t to entirely defend Kirk’s position here as I think there are some problems with it, but Kirk has been fairly strong on going supporting bills to crack down on straw purchases. The larger problem with Kirk’s idea is that it’s a short term solution to a long term crime problem. We can throw people in jail (many have warrants on them so there is reason) and I’m not opposed to doing that. However, there has to be a long term strategy in these neighborhoods that improves the relationships between the police and average citizen in those neighborhoods. That takes a lot of time and patience and can be jeopardized by too wide of a sweep that catches not only Gangster Disciples, but also others who aren’t the core problem. - Living in Machiaville - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:54 am: Rush is racist? Who knew? Rush uses race-baiting language in the press? What a surprise. The voters in his district must like him, think he’s representing them well, why else would he get re-elected. - Excessively Rabid - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:55 am: “It’s a sensational, headline-grabbing, empty, simplistic, unworkable approach.” Ignoring for the moment the merits of the two arguments, Rush ought to look in the mirror. - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 11:57 am: Yes, I know that Kirk is anti-gunrunning and thinks it’s a federal issue. That’s why one would think that HE would avoid engaging in the race-baiting, choosing to talk to the new USA about guns, not eyeroll-inducing Gangster Disciple “proposals.” - Section B - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:06 pm: I have to agree with ArchPundit, locking up drug gangs is only a short term solution. If there are no job opportunities, there is going to be a new gang controlling these neighborhoods and this vicious cycle will continue. There has to be well paying jobs/job opportunities to show people in these neighborhoods that gangs, drugs, and violence are not the answer. On the other hand, Bobby Rush says “job creation and job training,” but he has been a Congressman in this district for over 20 years. You would like to see some more specific details or a better game plan in mind. - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:08 pm: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr955 - wordslinger - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:08 pm: –To quote the Sun Times “Just think of what the greatest generation did here in Chicago, pretty much crushing the Capone organization.”– Say what? When was Capone’s organization crushed? They’re still around. They’re not as powerful as they once were, but they’ve lasted long after Al went to Alcatraz and Prohibition ended. At one point, they had the Hollywood unions and a studio, a good chunk of Las Vegas, enormous amounts of California real estate, the Teamsters pension fund, not to mention other unions and plenty of influence in both major parties. They had the Cook County criminal courts, the CPD chief of detectives, and on and on. - OneMan - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:09 pm: Yeah locking them up is a short term solution, but considering how many people were shot and killed yesterday alone in Chicago, a short term solution is still, well a solution. - ArchPundit - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:10 pm: ===a short term solution is still, well a solution. Well, yes and more than that, more than a few deserve it. It just can’t be the end of it and needs to be done with some thought. - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:11 pm: It used to be easy to stop being considered a gangster, worslinger. Being white is a pretty reliable get-legit-quick scheme. - Chavez-respecting Obamist - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:13 pm: If we’d get serious about ending poverty we’d be solving more than just the gang problem. - dupage dan - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:15 pm: === Legalize, tax and regulate the drug industry and you will end 90% of the violence and costs associated with the drug war === I note that you mention that the legalization of the drug industry will “end 90% of the vioence and costs associated with the drug war”. I doubt you can say with certainty that legalization will end 90% of gang violence, tho. You may be able to say that gang activity will shrink, at least in the short term. However, criminals will go on being criminals - legalization of drugs won’t turn those bad guys into choir boys. It just doesn’t work that way. - homunculus - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:23 pm: Let’s not forget the Hamburg-style Machine gangs that fueled racial violence in Chicago and helped organize groups like the Gangster Disciples. Rush’s point is about context instead of a myopic prosecutorial perspective on gang violence that simply says ‘lock them up.’ - Precinct Captain - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:23 pm: ==a short term solution is still, well a solution== You can patch all the potholes, but that doesn’t mean the street needs resurfacing. Kirk’s “solution” isn’t a solution. It’s racist, classist nonsense. - Precinct Captain - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:26 pm: Let me re-write that: ==a short term solution is still, well a solution== You can patch all the potholes, but that doesn’t mean [you can avoid the fact that] the street needs resurfacing. Kirk’s “solution” isn’t a solution. It’s racist, classist nonsense. - Curmudgeon - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:31 pm: Did Cong. Rush explain how government ‘creates jobs’??? I mean real jobs!!!! - Fan - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:32 pm: Well, you tried Mark Kirk. Let them (Chicago) keep doing what they have been doing. Don’t spend one nickel to help anyone until they try and help themselves. - danlinn - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:39 pm: ——However, criminals will go on being criminals - legalization of drugs won’t turn those bad guys into choir boys. It just doesn’t work that way.——— Ending the drug war won’t end all of the violence but it would be a significant start and combined with any type of an increase in legal economic opportunity may deter entry into criminal activities. For example teenagers might be able to get a job instead of drug dealing which in time prevents them from being arrested, labeled a felon and have little to no chance of legal employment down the road. Criminals remaining criminals misses the point that there are different degrees of criminal behavior, people who break minor traffic laws are not cannibals or pedophiles. Both Kirk and Rush are appeasing their base here, nothing new. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:41 pm: In all fairness to Mr. Fardon, who is currently a nominee for the job, I’m going to stay out of this one (especially speculation regarding the “consitutionality” of Mr. Kirk’s “plan”) until he has an opportunity to speak and take whatever action he deems appropriate, based on his new role. - Northside Blogger - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:45 pm: I am shocked that no one is calling for Rush’s resignation for his racist comments. If it were reversed, there would be tons of outcry and demonstrations calling for Kirk’s resignation. - Wensicia - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:49 pm: Kirk used to push for stronger law enforcement and more arrests to stop gang problems in our far north community when he was Rep for the Tenth. Well, he’s moved on and the gangs are still here, along with double the unemployment rate for the state. Rush does have a point. - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:49 pm: Anonymous, you don’t think locking up 30,000 black people based on a race-related group affiliation is constitutional? Like, people are free to form associations? You must have read that one amendment that comes right before the 2nd one. - Shore - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:49 pm: Not a fan of senators trying to be beat cops. let law enforcement and the justice department do its job and then evaluate their work in committee hearings and their bosses on election day. - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:50 pm: Northside Blogger, are you missing the fact that some people here think the situation is indeed reversed? Kirk “played the race card” as surely as Rush. It’s just that the genteel language trips people up. - Wumpus - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:54 pm: Who wants to hire too many of these gang bangers? Too many have made them selves bsically unhireable. If we are talking job programs, it is often too late to matter. Get parents involved. - jake - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:55 pm: I am recalling that Bobby Rush is the only person who ever beat Barack Obama in an election, and thinking that the American right wing is doing a mirror image imitation of Rush in how they attack Obama, but from the opposite wing of demagoguery. - Wumpus - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 12:58 pm: crazy. you must have the GD’s confused with NAACP or Kappa alpha Psi. - danlinn - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:02 pm: I would also add that if drugs were legal, there would be fewer parents, specifically fathers, incarcerated and having a positive male role model would make significant progress at curbing violence in Chicago. - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:04 pm: The problem, wumpus, is that people have 2013 confused with 1994. - Anon - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:05 pm: The issue here is Rush’s offensive language. Imagine if Kirk had called Rush’s solution of more “job’s training” a “populist lower class black boy” solution. Imagine the howls of outrage in certain circles. - Elo Kiddies - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:10 pm: I hope those urging the next US Attorney to focus on violent street crime are not hoping that will mean a reduction in political corruption investigations. If there’s still a problem, there should still be corruption units in the US Attorney’s office. - been there - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:12 pm: We who live in Bobby Rush’s district remember: He was a Black Panther when the Panther headquarters were raided and the leaders, asleep and unarmed, were shot to death. Bobby had a bodyguard during his entire campaign for alderman, which he won. Whether anyone else likes it or not, he speaks for his community. He’s fought throat cancer and seems to have almost won. Probably his energy levels aren’t very high. So no, he doesn’t get awards for being the best congressman and yes, he plays the race card, but he gets re-elected. Voters in his district may sometimes think he goes too far, but we’re glad he’s there. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:13 pm: =You must have read that one amendment that comes right before the 2nd one.= I’ve read the Constitution, bleedingheart–and stand by it. - Mason born - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:16 pm: Okay Please don’t bite my head off but does anyone really think that Mark Kirk’s statements were racially motivated? Yes he mentioned the Gangster Disciples which is a group that is overwhelmingly black. I tried to find, and if i am wrong please correct me, which gang is the largest in Chicago it appears to be the Gangster Disciples. So if they are the largest gang wouldn’t it make sense to focus on them?? I mean he could say they are targeting the Hell’s Angels but they don’t seem to be players in chicago. Again i am just asking please don’t rip my head off. - Anonymous 1:14 - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:20 pm: Mason Born. I don’t think Kirk’s comments were racially motivated. I do think they were showboating and not helpful. - Keyser Soze - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:26 pm: Disgraceful. No wonder there is little respect for life and property in gang-banger neighborhoods. - 47th Ward - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:26 pm: === I mean he could say they are targeting the Hell’s Angels but they don’t seem to be players in chicago.=== It used to be the Outlaws were the dominant, mostly white biker gang, but the Hell’s Angels moved in over the last decade and are a pretty major player in prostitution, meth, gambling, extortion and other organized crime. They do a lot of hits for the traditional Chicago mob, the Outfit, too, and bombings are their signature. The motorcycle gangs operate throughout the metro area, but used to be based in the SW suburbs and the rural parts of Will County. They should definitely be included in the US Attorney’s target list, but they aren’t very involved in the day-to-day Chicago shootings that we tend to focus on. But if you visit a strip club in an unincorporated area near Chicago, chances are you’ll run into some Angels. - wishbone - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:29 pm: “Legalize, tax and regulate the drug industry and you will end 90% of the violence and costs associated with the drug war.” Bingo, and then spend part of the money wasted on fruitless prohibition efforts on the medical and mental health treatment of addiction. African-Americans living in all our urban areas would benefit in so many ways from this approach. Where are you Barack and Bobby? - SO IL M - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:35 pm: Actually if you look at Rush’s reaction, as well as some of the posts here, you will see why violent street gangs of all races continue to rule their neighborhoods. Until they are recognised by the residents as the violent criminals that they are, and not defended or protected, they will continue. Until that time, locking them up will only be a temporary solution, because someone else will step up to take their place. To make a permanent change would take at least 20 years, and more permanent solutions. - Steamer - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:51 pm: Jobs & training has always worked in the past……..said absolutely no one! Rush can stand on his reputation (snark)! - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 1:59 pm: Mason born, 1. being in a gang is not against the law; 2. violence by gang members is not necessarily gang-related, even when the news says it is; 3. the Gangster Disciples were pretty organized once upon a time. Now they’re not, and a lot of so-called “GDs” are in fact splinter groups whose territory is a handful of blocks. Previous law enforcement attempts to splinter the GDs were “successful” but resulted in turf wars - more death instead of less is a pretty extreme downside of “targeting” a gang. Increased violence following the removal of larger gangs (creating an economic vacuum for more numerous, smaller groups) is not a surprise/accident but entirely predictable, so let’s take that into account in developing an approach to gang violence. 4. It used to be that someone joined a gang for the purpose of engaging in the black market. Increasingly, people (kids) are assigned to a gang for the purposes of individual/neighborhood protection. 4. Because the “30,000 southside GDs” (as classified by the feds, the ones being told to target them) don’t actually exist in the way that is claimed, identifying and targeting them is racist. 5. CPD doesn’t need federal help in order to target everyday gang violence. It needs federal help for real federal issues (like the political corruption, white collar crime, and cross-border gunrunning mentioned). 6. People who know about gangs know all of this, but the demise of the formal gang structure in Chicago isn’t mentioned much in polite society because the specter of tens of thousands of black people wreaking organized and uniform havoc and raking in millions of dollars sends people into a panic and gets law enforcement agencies a LOT of cash even when crime rates are way down. As they currently are, overall. (IMPORTANT) 7. It doesn’t matter to anybody but Kirk’s conscience whether his comments were racially “motivated.” What matters is that they are highly misleading and contained a racist dogwhistle. A dogwhistle is a politically-calculated statement intended to wink at a specific constituency while being inaudible to everyone else. When you say that a federal agency should target 30,000 black people you are pretty much going to have to deal with race. NOT dealing with it IS the constituency wink. Bobby Rush, on the other hand, prefers megaphones to dogwhistles. People apparently find that indelicate. - Plutocrat03 - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 2:07 pm: Let’s see…. if green jobs are costing around 1 mil per person to create, how many people would be working with a 30 mil investment? Government does not create jobs efficiently. People have to have skills. How do you create an atmosphere which would allow people to develop their skills to the point they are employable? Big prize to those who have the answer. - Waldi - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 2:07 pm: OK - maybe its just me - but I bet if Kirk had labeled Rush’s suggestions for a solution to this problem as a “black boy solution” everyone would be rightfully outraged. Personally, I find Rush’s comment disgusting and racist and I think he owes Kirk an apology. There shouldn’t be a double standard. Its OK to disagree, but Rush is over the edge and should be called on it. - Mason born - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 2:26 pm: Crazy –(IMPORTANT) 7. It doesn’t matter to anybody but Kirk’s conscience whether his comments were racially “motivated.” What matters is that they are highly misleading and contained a racist dogwhistle. A dogwhistle is a politically-calculated statement intended to wink at a specific constituency while being inaudible to everyone else. – Do you really and Honestly Believe that Mark Kirk, one of the most Liberal Republicans in the Federal Government, was intentionally using a “racist dogwhistle”??? In order for it to be a dogwhistle wouldn’t he have to mean to use it for a dogwhistle? I mean come on here. Maybe instead of going for headlines Mr. Rush could have explained to and informed Mr. Kirk. 47th thanks for the info on Hells Angels. what i was trying to say was that Kirk used what he was told (and what i saw on UIC tracking map) and stating a group not a player just because they had no racial undertones would not have made sense. Seems my selection was a poor one. - dupage dan - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 2:33 pm: === I would also add that if drugs were legal, there would be fewer parents, specifically fathers, incarcerated and having a positive male role model would make significant progress at curbing violence in Chicago === You’re right, they won’t be incarcerated. They’d just be high. - Judgment Day - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 2:40 pm: A thought… Neither Mark Kirk’s or Bobby Rush’s approach is going to work. But there is a gem of an idea from what Mark Kirk talked about, and that is “Do Something Different”. What we are doing currently (and what Bobby Rush is talking about) are pretty much a path to continued failure. Why don’t we start to implement a biometric/data based analysis approach like ended up being used by US forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan. They built enormous amounts of data, and used the data to uncover all the ‘invisible’ relationships which weren’t otherwise visible on the surface. As a result, they could go after the truly bad folks. Instead of just randomly clogging up the courts system, build a flexible intel base for identifying and tracking all the truly bad actors. I’m sure that somewhere, somebody is going to talk about this type of activity violating individual’s civil rights. But it’s a far better approach than just pushing 15-20k into the criminal justice system (some deserving or not), and it’s a better solution than anything Bobby Rush has come up with (which is a whole lot of nothing). - wordslinger - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 2:54 pm: –Why don’t we start to implement a biometric/data based analysis approach like ended up being used by US forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan.– JD, about $6-$8 billion a month (average cost in Afghanistan) and 100,000 troops would probably pay off a lot better than it has in Afghanistan, and in a much shorter time period. - danlinn - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 3:07 pm: ——-You’re right, they won’t be incarcerated. They’d just be high. ——– Being an alcoholic parent isn’t against law unless one is abusive, negligent or in acustody battle in civil court. So there shouldn’t be a double standard for different substances. What exactly is a positive role model we could debate all day but when 10 year old boys don’t have a present father (whether incarcerated or not) I would bet those young boy will struggle learning how to properly deal with their aggression, responsibilities for their actions, how to be a good father and how to keep their ego in check. - Rod - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 3:18 pm: I agree in large part with crazybleedingheart’s post, the part I don’t agree with is that the motivation of the Senators is racist or effectively racist. I think that they share something with Rep Rush and that is a realization that assorted members of the fragmented GDs are effectively terrorizing large parts of Chicago’s black communities. Let’s recall that Rep Rush’s own 29-year-old son was shot down on the street in 1999 coming home from a grocery store at 8:30 p.m. I agree with crazybleedingheart that using RICO to destroy what is already fragmented, the GDs, probably will not solve the problems huge parts of the city I live in face. - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 3:28 pm: > Yes, Mason, I do, and why not? Democrats do it too, not sure what one’s degree of liberalness has to do with anything. White supremacy pays. Still. And whites have money. Pols cater to them, including to their biases, including under the radar and/or subconsciously. I know everybody has a soft spot for Kirk (hey, so do I) but come on. It’s basic base politics. Why NOT offer up the GDs as a target? They’re not voting for Kirk! Scared suburbanites do. I don’t really care about anybody’s racist intent. I care about racist effect. And I’m not sure why Bobby Rush needs to spend his time “educating” a longtime U.S. Senator who should know better — and, moreover, claims to! He’s giving advice to the US Attorney-to-be as to where his priorities should lie! Frankly, Durbin’s advice is no less misplaced, though less explicitly racial. It’s Kirk’s own responsibility not to advance bad policy for political gain. Who told him the GDs are the biggest, baddest, most federally-targetable threat? Would LOVE to know. As said about Reagan in Raising Arizona, “They say he’s a decent man, so maybe his advisors are confused.” - been there - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 3:52 pm: Thank you for this, wordslinger: “JD, about $6-$8 billion a month (average cost in Afghanistan) and 100,000 troops would probably pay off a lot better than it has in Afghanistan, and in a much shorter time period.” We don’t need troops on the south and west sides of Chicago, but maybe 100,000 more teachers at all levels—preschool through college. And wow! A few billion dollars every month! We could even have an oversight panel of all of the naysayers who’ve posted here today, to be sure the billions got spent properly. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 4:08 pm: The important question should be whether Kirk’s federal-based approach is appropriate or effective. But as long as we are playing the “who’s a racist” game, ask yourself this: if you substitute “Latin Kings” for “Gangster Disciples” would it change Kirk’s position at all? I don’t think so. If you did the same with Rush, would it change his? Not only yes, but I would bet he would not even react to it. Pathetic. - walkinfool - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 4:08 pm: @crazybleeding: I’m pretty much with you the whole way until the dog whistle part. Kirk and most Illinois voters don’t know enough about gangs to even know that mentioning GD might be a dog whistle. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 4:16 pm: =The important question should be whether Kirk’s federal-based approach is appropriate or effective.= Really? I’m leaning more toward “timing” being the “important question.” - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 4:17 pm: I’m not sure it needs to get so technical, either, walkinfool. I personally suspect “gang” is its own dog whistle. Voters don’t hear “crack down on gangs” and first picture Juggalos and white bikers. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 4:18 pm: And if you’re confused regarding my 4:16 statement, Anonymous 4:08, read my previous comment. - pizzajohnny - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 4:19 pm: Maybe all those Gangster Disciples are maturing into beter people. Just like the former Black Panther Army AWOL man arrested with an unregistered pistol, rifle, shotgun,pistol ammunition, and explosives training manual who was arming himself agaisnt the police pigs. He understands that AAs need to arm themselves and take offensive violence against the power structure. Those are quotes from Bobby Rush. Really think Bobby Rush is not a racist? I say follow the money. Maybe it leads back to GD’s financial backing of Congressman Bobby Rush. That pursuit would be just what Rush says is appropriate - corruption. Be careful what you ask for Bobby - you might get it. - Precinct Captain - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 4:26 pm: ==Did Cong. Rush explain how government ‘creates jobs’??? I mean real jobs!!!!== I guess being a police officer, firefighter, paramedic, teacher, or sanitation worker aren’t “real jobs.” I guess the statisticians and demographers at the federal Census Bureau or accountants at the Department of Revenue aren’t people with “real jobs” either. ==Don’t spend one nickel to help anyone until they try and help themselves.== Yeah, I guess when those gangbangers were little kids they should have been tracking down parents, rallying for more equitable education funding, or fixing up deplorable housing conditions themselves, particularly if they grew up in the atrocious CHA housing. What great advice: ‘Help yourself little one with no tools or knowledge to do so because the world ignores you most of the time and only patronizingly acknowledges you once in a blue moon.’ ==Those are quotes from Bobby Rush== Really? I didn’t see any marks. And none of your fake not-quotes quotes actually indicate in any way that Bobby Rush is racist. I don’t think he’s a good congressman and I think is statement is way over the top, but there is no doubt about it that Mark Kirk’s solution and statement were racist. That doesn’t mean Kirk is a racist as much it I believe it means he is ignorant and quite possibly stupid. - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 4:29 pm: COINTELPROLOL - Responsa - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 5:37 pm: The broad interest created by recent high profile stories about school closings highlighted for many people the intractable unpolice-able gang territories and Chicago’s inter-block gang turf wars in a way that is seldom felt. The descriptions of kids having to walk to and from class daily through these war zones is why something has got to be done. If what has to be done hurts somebody’s feelings then so be it. These little kids need to have a chance to succeed. Bobby Rush has had years of chances to help fix the problem. The bangers or the kids. You decide. - crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 6:19 pm: So what you’re saying is that now that outsiders care about the problem (for a while) it should be defined in the way that outsiders define it (bangers vs. kids, that’s a good one) and solved in the way that outsiders ask (apparently federal intervention? unclear). Why don’t we listen to the people who actually live there and want to protect their children? Are they asking for troops or teachers? Feds or jobs? Do they want more or fewer men shipped downstate as grist for someone else’s state job, then returned more dangerous and diseased and less employable? Who says the neighborhoods are “unpoliceable” anyway? “I care now, and I’ll call the shots” isn’t a winning strategy for resolving decades of vicious segregation and disinvestment. - Chris - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 6:31 pm: -Who says the neighborhoods are “unpoliceable” anyway?- The police - park - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 6:39 pm: Bobby Rush is a loser from forever. Who cares. Remember his endorsement of Sen. Burris? - Judgment Day - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 7:19 pm: “Why don’t we listen to the people who actually live there and want to protect their children? Are they asking for troops or teachers? Feds or jobs? Do they want more or fewer men shipped downstate as grist for someone else’s state job, then returned more dangerous and diseased and less employable?” It’s hard to listen to the folks who need help when their elected representative immediately plays the ‘race card’ - moreover, immediately plays it on the junior senator from the opposite party, who is actually showing an interest in trying to face the problems. Rep. Rush obviously hasn’t learned anything from Mike Madigan - you win by addition, not by striking out at anybody else who has ideas that don’t absolutely agree with your viewpoint. He had an opportunity here, and decided not to take it. After this, why should Mark Kirk go any further trying to see if he can jumpstart some sort of assistance to Rep. Rush’s constituents? Kind of tough to work with someone like Rep. Rush who apparently wants to accomplish nothing more than to demonize you at every turn. - wordslinger - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 7:31 pm: –After this, why should Mark Kirk go any further trying to see if he can jumpstart some sort of assistance to Rep. Rush’s constituents?– Of course, they’re Sen. Kirk’s constituents as well. I don’t have a problem with a stronger federal role in prosecuting organized crime, whatever names they choose to go buy. But if you called them Taliban, you’d get a lot more federal money for schools, infrastructure and economic development for the South and West sides — Afghanistan-type money. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 7:34 pm: =After this, why should Mark Kirk go any further trying to see if he can jumpstart some sort of assistance to Rep. Rush’s constituents?= Is this a trick question? - What is to be done? - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 7:49 pm: If there is $30 million for Congress to spend, better most of it be allocated for “job creation? The jobs are out there, look around. They are being done by mexican immigrants. - Responsa - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 8:09 pm: ==Of course, they’re Sen. Kirk’s constituents as well.== Thanks for reminding all of this important point, Wordslinger. The parents’ primary arguments against the school closings were a real eye-opener to a whole lot of people. The arguments were seldom that their children couldn’t learn in the new school environment, or that the teachers and administrators wouldn’t be as qualified in the new school. Sometimes they even admitted the physical plant and accommodations were actually better inside the new school than the one being closed. The parents’ fight was a more personal and primal one– about survival and safety and would their children be able to get to and home from school over a longer journey that crossed additional continually contested gang turf boundaries. Anybody who has ever had children to raise immediately understood this, and realized that the status quo is not acceptable. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 8:15 pm: Kirk’s proposal is probably illegal and unworkable. Capone went to prison, but his organization continued to operate in Chicago for decades after Prohibition was repealed. Despite agreeing with Rush his rhetoric is out of line. Sometimes, Bobby Rush shocks me. One of his own children was gunned down some years ago too. He claims to have found religion, but he talks like a racial demagogue. Recall when he protested the killing of Trevon Martin by dressing up and appearing on the floor of Congress in a hoodie. Rush did beat Obama by belittling him as “an educated fool” and insufficiently black to serve in Congress. - Amalia - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 9:17 pm: hey bobby, do something about the violence in your district. as in get criminals out of the way of the good folks. believe it or not, arresting criminals does not mean you can’t also work on jobs and education. some individuals are simply bad apples and they have to go. - Anonymous - Thursday, May 30, 13 @ 10:17 pm: Bobby Rush=NWA!!! - Harry - Friday, May 31, 13 @ 4:09 am: Oh, come on, the only issue for Rush is he wants to pass out $30M to his supporters and friends. We’re talking Chicago, don’t forget. Which is not to say “mass arrests” would be legal or long-term effective. They’re all just out for #1, each in his own way… but they’re Illinois politicians so that’s hardly news. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.