* Remember the Ohio pastor who told President Trump that he’d talked with “top gang thugs” in Chicago who said they’d commit to lowering Chicago’s “body count, [if] we come and do some social programs”? Yeah, well, not so much…
FOX 32: So, there are no gang leaders offering to reduce the body count in exchange for federal funds?
“No! I mean, c’mon now! (laughs) No!” Pastor Darrell Scott said. […]
Pastor Darrell Scott also told FOX 32 a lack of sleep caused him to tell President Trump that Chicago gangs had offered to “lower the body count.” He said he actually spoke to one former gang member, and not to any gang leaders.
* Scott also tweeted this…
So, it’s plural again?
* Mary Mitchell thinks the whole story is goofy…
Frankly, it sounds like a bunch of bull to me and to other activists who have worked with street folks for years. […]
“There are no major gang leaders in the city of Chicago,” noted Hal Baskin, a grass-roots activist in Englewood who was once a gang-banger.
“My reality — and I have been at this for 45 years — talking about bringing the body count down in exchange for social programs, you and I know that is a ridiculous idea,” he said. […]
Tio Hardiman, president of Violence Interrupters, said he doesn’t blame the pastor for wanting to help, but agreed there isn’t any real gang structure in Chicago.
“Chicago is too divided politically, religiously and on the streets and that’s why we can’t stop the violence,” he said.
Either way, let this be a lesson. Whenever somebody says they have a simple solution to a horribly complex problem, that person is lying or incredibly misinformed.
* Back to Mike Flannery’s story…
FOX 32 asked one of Chicago’s smartest anti-violence crusaders what he would tell the president if he were invited to the White House.
“I’d tell him that we can’t just look in one area. When you look at public safety, it’s linked to public health. It’s linked to education. It’s linked to a whole number of things. It’s linked to jobs,” said Christopher Mallette, Executive Director of Chicago Violence Reduction Strategy.
* And you know things are bad when we get stories like this one…
A man was killed and his coworker wounded in a Logan Square neighborhood shooting early Friday on the Northwest Side, according to Chicago Police.
About 2:30 a.m., they were driving in the 3700 block of West Fullerton when a black four-door vehicle pulled alongside them and someone inside it opened fire, police said. […]
It was the city’s first fatal shooting since Tuesday night, a span of nearly 55 hours that marked Chicago’s longest stretch without a gun homicide so far this year.
Emphasis added because ugh.
*** UPDATE *** DNAInfo…
In response to questions on social media, Scott said the people he spoke with include the Rev. Corey Brooks of New Beginnings Church, Kublai Toure, a longtime activist and former Chicago firefighter, and Torrence Cooks.
Brooks is a Republican and backed Gov. Rauner’s campaign. He’s hardly a “top gang thug.” Kublai Toure has worked with gangs in the past, helping set up meetings between gang leaders and aldermanic candidates in 2011. And I’m not sure who Cooks is, but there might be a semi-possible lead.
- A guy - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:33 am:
When we start keeping murder stats by the hour….we’ve really lost our way.
- Cheryl44 - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:42 am:
So now he’s a Dr.? Of what?
- Porgy Tirebiter - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:42 am:
Wow. 55 hours. Paxrahmana?
- Huh? - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:45 am:
So a preacher got caught using alternative facts? What was that commandment about bearing false witness?
- Arsenal - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:45 am:
Between this and the Australia phone call, have these guys considered taking naps in the early afternoon? It worked for Churchill!
- Amalia - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:46 am:
um, yeah. plus the gang structure is so fragmented now that it’s not like it’s a sit down with the Jets and the Sharks, or remotely near that. it is gangs, guns and drugs, but it’s just way more difficult and detailed than portrayed. Of course, given Trump is into showmanship and ratings, any show of this sort and any following drop in murders, however small, would cause Trump to tweet away his “ratings win.” After all, anyone who hijacks the National Prayer Breakfast to taunt someone is likely to do all sorts of out there things.
- Arsenal - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:47 am:
I mean, look, at the end of the day, the basic idea- that an investment in social programs in violent neighborhoods would ease the violence- is sound.
- Pundent - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:50 am:
=Whenever somebody says they have a simple solution to a horribly complex problem, that person is lying or incredibly misinformed.=
And this is my main fear with our new president. A great deal of our problems our horribly complex and the simple solutions that are being offered fail to recognize that. At some point the potential for horrible consequences from these simple solutions becomes very real.
- wordslinger - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:51 am:
Meh, the pastor had his fictional gang leaders, Trump had his fictional “top cop” who could end the violence in a week.
–”I know it very well,” Trump replied. “They don’t have the right people in charge. . . .I know police in Chicago. If they were given the right authority to do it, they could get it done.”
“How?” O’Reilly asked. The answer: “By being much tougher than they are right now. They’re right now not tough. . . . When I was in Chicago, I got to meet a couple of very top police. . . .(One of them) said, ‘Mr. Trump, I’d be able to stop it in one week.’ And I believed him 100 percent.”==
https://capitolfax.com/2017/02/03/it-wasnt-top-gang-thugs-it-was-just-one-person-or-community-activists-or-whatever/#comments
- sulla - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:59 am:
“Whenever somebody says they have a simple solution to a horribly complex problem, that person is lying or incredibly misinformed.”
This is the sentence that every internet poster ought to be forced to read out loud before being allowed to comment on anything.
- A Jack - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 9:59 am:
How would you convince a young person that working for fast food at minimum wage is a better career choice than pulling down a few grand a week dealing drugs?
You obviously need better paying inner city jobs, and a way to take money out of the drug trade if you want a long term fix.
- Ahoy! - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:03 am:
–Whenever somebody says they have a simple solution to a horribly complex problem, that person is lying or incredibly misinformed.–
I feel like this should go on a poster that I can hang it on my wall. Kind of like dispair.com takes motivational posters and turns them into something more realistic. Either way, it’s a good mantra to remember.
- Doug - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:06 am:
Yeah, but what is Rahm’s solutions? Let them kill each other?
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:06 am:
Lots of people like authoritarian-tinged apporaches to problems. Simple “tough guy” talk and slogans. I think Trump has been brilliant in messaging.
- GOPgal - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:09 am:
So rather than point out the fact President Trump is dedicated to bringing economic development AND educational reform to the inner cities, you lefties just want to sit around and nitpick and play gotcha games. Sad. Try actually assisting with something positive losers.
- Peoria Citizen - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:15 am:
I feel for y’all in Chicago.
All the Best,
Peoria Citizen
- Longsummer - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:23 am:
Ending the drug war is one thing that could be done to help decrease violence. Pointless exercise in futility. Quit throwing money away and make our communities safer. Why doesn’t Trump just ask Amirosa what should be done?? I feel like she would have answers. Lol
- 47th Ward - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:29 am:
===So rather than point out the fact President Trump is dedicated to bringing economic development AND educational reform to the inner cities,===
He’s dedicated to that, is he? Can you cite any evidence of that? Any detailed policy proposals, a speech that lays out his plan and what it might cost? Anything more detailed than 140 characters?
I’ll wait.
- ChrisB - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:31 am:
Heh, I remember when my Press Secretary had to get the elected official to stop using the term “gangbanger.” The term means something entirely different than it did 20 years ago.
To the post, I really wish “officials who have the answers” would listen to the people living in these areas. The overwhelming answer I’ve heard is jobs. Plain and simple. Give these kids real jobs, where they learn actual skills. The unemployment rate in these areas is what is criminal.
- Arsenal - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:32 am:
==So rather than point out the fact President Trump is dedicated to bringing economic development AND educational reform to the inner cities==
That must be one of them “alternative facts” like the Bowling Green Massacre I guess, because Trump has demonstrated no such dedication. The only thing he’s done on the issue is nod while the Pastor in question indulged in sleep-deprived rants.
- Dee Lay - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 10:52 am:
Another “Christian” Snake Oil Salesman.
He hold a Doctorate of Divinity from the unaccredited St. Thomas Christian University in Florida.
An illegitimate title for a legitimate charlatan.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 11:00 am:
Regarding the update: how many of these conversations occurred after Pastor Scott’s White House meeting, lol?
- AlfondoGonz - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 11:01 am:
I heard, from many people, that is was Frederick Douglass, right after he finished up his atrocities at Bowling Green.
- FormerParatrooper - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 11:16 am:
This kind of messaging degrades us all. Pastor I hold you to a higher standard to speaking the truth. Please stop talking, you have done enough damage and have turned the issue into you and away from the problem we must solve.
- Anonymous - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:24 pm:
Simple answers are usually wrong, even those that sound good and well intended. “Jobs” in the depressed areas for instance. Who in their right mind (I’m clearly eliminating Government Programs people) would invest their own money in an area that is rife with almost every social ill? Many idealists have tried, and failed. Hard headed business people wouldn’t even consider it. I may be wrong, though. The philosophy of the Black Muslims is one of self-sufficiency and self-reliance. That is an All-American trait. I have no better ideas than those floated, faltered and failed for the past 70 years or so.
- West Side the Best Side - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:31 pm:
Thought you couldn’t BS a BSer. How did “Top cop” Trump let Pastor “Top gang thug” get away with it? Maybe he was distracted by the horrific memories of the Bowling Green Massacre. We are not going to get any help for Chicago’s murder rate from this White House. Just more stuff mentioned in the first sentence.
- Keebler - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:53 pm:
Wait. I thought Chicago was a left utopia? I could NEVER have guessed it could have gone so wrong. It all sounded so good. /s
- JoanP - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:43 pm:
@Chery44 -
Presumably he’s a DD, Doctor of Divinity. It’s pretty common among pastors.
- Daniel Plainview - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 3:08 pm:
Good to see Brooks still chasing the $. Also good to see the president has the capacity to entertain complete BS from anyone willing to sling it at him.
Great times.