The Chicago Tribune’s suggestion for how ordinary Chicagoans can help stem the tide of violence that has engulfed Chicago is by joining a mentoring program:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday announced the expansion of mentorship programs through the city’s Department of Family and Support Services to bolster the connection between the city and the nonprofit agencies in the trenches. Twelve existing providers will be able to reach, hopefully, an additional 660 at-risk youths beginning this month.
But the city alone cannot spend its way toward dramatically improved crime statistics. That’s where you come in. Mentor a child or a high school student from a low-opportunity neighborhood. You don’t need a fancy degree. All you need is a willingness to listen, to care, to be reliable.
They present no evidence that their suggestion might be effective; they assume it.
Quite to the contrary although mentoring might be virtuous, it’s also irrelevant. I don’t believe that a single gang member does what he does because of a lack of mentoring. I think they’re gang members because they don’t have viable alternatives.
I don’t follow Chicago news closely anymore. Is this the Mayors suggestion or the Tribs??
In either event, this looks like midnight basketball redux.
Both.
And just to remind people midnight basketball turned out to be a way of paying protection to the gangs.
This, of course, is the money line.
“I don’t believe that a single gang member does what he does because of a lack of mentoring. I think they’re gang members because they don’t have viable alternatives.”
Or set of values. By time any mentoring could take place 99 out of 100 people are already lost, probably intractably. A pox on Rahm for a cynically empty “fix.” Shame on the Trib for providing any support whatsoever. They should know better.
A lot of them are gang members because it’s WHAT THEY LIKE. A lot of middle class black kids from middle class backgrounds get involved, too, and they’ve certainly got other opportunities.
Oh, I don’t know, ice. I think with a little mentoring, or if not for those damned Republicans, this would never have happened.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-04/chicago-teens-broadcast-alleged-kidnapping-trump-supporter-live-social-media
That is a really loathsome situation. Local activist Andrew Holmes is saying that the crime should be prosecuted as a hate crime.
Don Lemon stated on CNN that the torture wasn’t evil, just the result of bad home training.
He said that live, on air.
Hmm. Is it not possible it could be both?
According to him it can only be the latter. Torturing and scalping a man and broadcasting it live is bad home training, voting for secure borders is a crime against humanity. There’s a reason the media is held in such contempt.
More from CNN: “Although they are adults, they’re 18. Kids make stupid decisions — I shouldn’t call them kids; they’re legally adults, but they’re young adults, and they make stupid decisions,” [Chicago PD Cmdr.] Duffin said.
Yeah, that’s it, scalping someone is a stupid position.
Stupid decision, that is.
I have seen a few of the gang members stating why they were doing what they were doing and stating their attitude towards the violence, and basically, it has little to do with drugs. It is gang warfare involving nihilists. Tomorrow is a meaningless concept. Being alive or being dead are conceptually the same.
If these are not isolated cases, Chicago has a bigger problem than anybody imagines, and I suspect that is the case. I suspect that it is the case in many other places.
These are the walking dead, and there is nothing that can be done with them. For those who cannot grasp what is happening, it is not hopelessness. It is nothingness. It is not that tomorrow will not be any better than today and probably worse. It is that tomorrow never comes. There is only this exact moment. The consequences of one’s actions do not exist because they do not occur now, and therefore, they have no connection to one’s immediate action.
It is the Hatfields and McCoys, but the participants have no idea of how or why it started. They do not care whether it ends or continues, and they have no conception of anything other than this as their way of life.
Regarding the Facebook video:
First, there was no water, and therefore, it was not torture. It was just a little horseplay by a few wayward youths.
Second, the same people who cannot bring themselves to say “radical Islamic terrorist” are unlikely to admit that a black teenagers could commit a racially motivated crime. As long as you refuse to accept reality, it is easy to claim to be reality based.
Third, white progressives have a solution for the problem – gated communities, cul-de-sacs, private security thugs, zoning laws, increased property taxes, and suitcases and U-Hauls as a last resort.
@Icepick
I saw your comments a few posts back. Would you call the police on some of the outstanding members of your community? Then, would you go into a courtroom and testify against them? Do you think you would make it to the courtroom? What about your wife or daughter, your house, or pet? Finally, do you think the police can protect you, and does that include a corrupt police force?
I hope that if you answered “yes” that you would get the hell out of there. @Drew may still have the old homestead you could rent, and the Chicago school system seems to have a generous pay package for your wife. You would need to get “President Obama for Life” T-shirts and bumper stickers to let the misguided youths know that you were “down” with them.
Yeah, I think that’s about right. Their definition of racism is that it’s something that white people do (along with some gobbledygook about power and privilege).
Cue, Michael.
As for could it be both. Yes, of course. In fact it probably is. The problem is what I believe ice and Tasty are saying – to let evil or total lack of character slide and use the excuse of home environment, or “society,” solves no problems and protects no innocents. Some of us (me) would argue that this mantra of the progressives/liberals, used now for at least 40 years, is part of the problem and not any solution.
And Tasty, no IL presence anymore. None. Damned shame, but I think you see parts of the problem here. There was a time I would drive from the loop through the west side to the western suburbs. Not for the last five years.
Of course this is evil, of course they should be prosecuted and we should see no more of them in free society. I don’t know a single liberal who doesn’t agree. But as usual, you do love your straw men.
@Drew
I was just using your situation and ongoing relationship with @Icepick for color, but I have followed your saga from IL to IL & FL to FL. I know your daughter was looking at Tulane, but it was probably best if she went somewhere else. I love the city, but it can be a little tricky if you make a wrong turn.
Progressives can write about “the Other” all day long, but when they meet a young black man in a hoodie walking down the street after dark, most of them will defy logic to convince themselves their actions are not racist. (What’s a little “white privilege” between Progressives? Honestly, what is the point in being a Progressive if you cannot be a racist once in awhile?)
In your comments, I have also noticed there has been a subtle shift. I noticed it several years ago, but then, I tend to notice when things are out-of-place.
Regarding the Facebook video:
First, there was no water, and therefore, it was not torture. It was just a little horseplay by a few wayward youths.
Well played, playa.
Would you call the police on some of the outstanding members of your community? Then, would you go into a courtroom and testify against them? Do you think you would make it to the courtroom? What about your wife or daughter, your house, or pet? Finally, do you think the police can protect you, and does that include a corrupt police force?
I’ve done the first thing. The second thing doesn’t matter, because the police and the courts don’t do jack shit unless a camera with a TV station logo on it is handy.
As for me, well, I have a couple of things going for me. One is that I pay attention to my surroundings. The second is that I don’t scare easily, not visibly, anyhow. Perhaps it is better to say that I have mastered my fear. The perps are mostly cowards and won’t try much if you keep looking right at them. They’re animals, and like most hunting animals, they prefer to prey on the sick, wounded and inattentive. I’m also big enough that most people, even most young black men, will think twice before confronting me physically. My bad neck doesn’t actually show!
So I don’t worry about the rest of it. They leave me alone. (It’s also obvious that I’m a non-playa, so no one suspects I’ve got anything worth stealing.) When the shit gets bad in the near vicinity, I call the police. Usually when the police show up that at least gets the crowd to move on, which is all I’m really after.
As for the police – they can’t protect anyone anywhere, regardless of whether or not they’re corrupt/incompetent/apathetic. As the saying goes, when seconds count, the police are minutes away.
…
More to the point, philosophically, is that if all or even half of the people that saw that woman get shot would have stood up and talked to the police, retaliation risk would be minimized. As it was, the police got what they needed off of security cameras.
Wars aren’t won by one brave man facing down an army by himself. They’re won by people who tend to out-organize their enemies. Part of that is bravery, but it’s the bravery of doing what you need to do, knowing that others will do the same. Societies get organized the same way, and fall apart when that commonality of spirit and purpose dies. Calling them ‘hoods makes perfect sense, because in places like this, the “neighbor” part doesn’t really mean anything.
Tasty, if finances permitted it, I’d be out of hear in a heart beat.
I briefly thought that might happen a few days ago. The house next door sold in the last month, and the listed price on the property appraiser’s office is about $95,000. That’s almost 150% higher than I would have guessed. But looking into it more today (through other county records), that $95,000 number looks more like $10 (not ten thousand – just ten), that it is a transaction between Pakistanis(!!), that a large mortgage was taken out on the house afterwards, and that none of it makes any damned sense whatsoever, especially for the stated purpose of the house being a second home, and NOT a rental. (That’s clear in the mortgage paperwork.)
So I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe there’s money laundering going on somehow. Maybe I’ve got some Taliban moving into the neighborhood. Maybe I can sell to one of their cousins at an inflated price and get out. Probably I’ll just be lucky if they don’t catch and skin all the neighborhood cats. We’ll see.
Tasty
Tulane and Vanderbilt fell out of the running fairly early. Driven somewhat by the tours through UNC, UVirginia, Richmond and William & Mary, which she liked. After that only Villanova seriously crossed her radar, which she also passed on. Didn’t bother me at all. With first semester finished I think she chose very well.
I really mean it that it’s a damned shame to leave Chicago metro, but I really see no evidence it has the will to recover. I could camp out in Naperville or Hinsdale but the weather has gotten tiresome as well. Now just marking time in Naples until we decide on Naples or Sarasota. I prefer Sarasota. Florida is an odd state. So much ugly swamp land with swamp people, and that horrid thing called Miami. But the western gulf shore areas from Naples up just past Tampa are some of the most beautiful places in the country, and I’ve been everywhere. Sarasota is a still somewhat hidden gem, plus the climate officially changes classification up there – about 5-6 degrees cooler and less humid.
As for posting style. I’ll take your word for it, but since I spend so much time just poking fun at people and their (odd, hypocritical etc) positions I wonder how one could tell. Am I a Trump supporter? No. I just think someone had to come in a break shit, and I don’t believe he will do anything like the handwringers so disingenuously imply. Who has special forces on the Russian border right now? Trump or Obama? Spittle speakers like Kieth Olberman or one of our own just make me laugh. I hope they don’t have heart attacks along the way. And Hillary? My God. She has no respect for the rule of law or even a shred of common decency with respect to average people. None. Game over. And good riddance. I hear she may run for mayor of NYC. The only thing that could be said is she is marginally better than the Neanderthal they have now.
And since I’m on a roll. Here’s a prediction. Down the road, when it’s safe, Obama will be known only for presiding over a 90% increase in our debt, participating in a charade about a YouTube video to cover incompetence of a matter important enough that it should make any decent citizen cringe, and being the first black president. The rest has begun swirling around the toilet.
Radical islamic terrorism is just right wing PC. Of course black racism exists. Will stop to go clean off the straw.
Steve
@Icepick
My experiences are different. Back in the 1980’s & 90’s, NOPD was dirty, real dirty. First, they took hush money from the drug runners. Then, they provided security for the drug runners. Finally, they took over the drug running. It was not the entire force, but you really did not want to cross the wrong cops or anybody associated with them.
There was a joke back then about a victim of a police shooting being turned over and having an arsenal under him because every NOPD officer would drop a weapon and push it under the body. Many of them carried “drop weapons” and “drop drugs”. Until crack became popular, everybody was a heroin dealer. If they had accidentally shot a six year old, he would have been the best armed and youngest heroin dealer in the US.
I still do not trust any law enforcement, and none of their more recent shenanigans inspires any changes in that attitude. I would advise the law abiding and criminals to keep their mouth shut until they can get a lawyer and to get the best lawyer they can afford. (I really, really, really do not like criminals, but the justice system is totally f*cked-up.)
I have told my stepson to keep his mouth shut, but I have no doubt he will think he can talk his way out of whatever it is they are questioning him over. The sad truth is that the police and DA are not your friend. They are there to lock you up any way they can, and your public defender is going to advise you to plea down to a lesser charge.
However bad NOLA might be, I doubt it can beat Chicago. For years (decades, actually) Chicago’s Chief of Detectives was being paid off by the mob. That’s not ancient history, back in the 20s. It’s recent.
I am not unsympathetic (as in resonate not pity) to the the power and privilege aspects of racism, but it should be re-labeled. There is a difference between hating somebody and hating somebody that you have the power to cause negative effects upon. It might be called “power racism” or something. “Institutional racism” is too impersonal, and because it is all encompassing, nobody is guilty.
Not all white people have the power, and not all black people lack it. I find it rather interesting when the white people with the power want to blame the white people without the power for the problem, but I do understand black people being a little wary of white people.
TB- I am not as negative as you are on police, but I do think the safest way to deal with them is to tug the forelock. At my sister’s wedding a couple of months ago I sat with the relatives who are police for a while. Socially, good guys. Did seem like there was more badass talk than I remember in the past. Meh, maybe it is me.
Steve
@steve
I personally know or have heard of too many incidents about law enforcement and DA’s trying to railroad people to plea down charges. It is a game they play, and if you get caught in their trap, you are totally fucked unless you have a good (expensive) lawyer.
I do not like criminals. If you knew some of the sh*t I have done, you would throw me under the jail, but on the streets, people knew that I would be straight up, unless I had to start writing a report. Criminals knew that there are rules to the game, and if you play, you might get hurt. If I wanted to fill the jail, I could have stood in one of the projects for an hour and arrested everybody who broke any law, but everybody knew most of the people were not hurting anybody or anything, and the laws were mostly bullshit anyway.
(It was never a “calling”, and I was only there for the paycheck. It was interesting, and it could be exciting. I was really good at dealing with criminals, but I never saw the point to getting worked-up over dumb sh*t.)
It is probably a result of the Left’s desire to coddle criminals, but whatever the reason, it seems like law enforcement officers today are more concerned with keeping their hands and uniforms from getting too messy, and civil forfeiture has turned the justice system into a profit making racket.
Over at OTB there was a post about the Indigent Defender in a NM city (or somewhere). “Back in the day” (I love being able to say that), criminals were locked up for crimes they did not commit, and they got poor legal defense. The difference is that usually they were guilty of something else, and they just did not get caught. With the three-strikes laws, doing time for bullshit charges is a big f*cking deal, and if you are going to go away for life, why not go out in a big way?
It is possible that your relatives and other law enforcement officers do not have the foggiest idea of the destruction they are causing, and I do not mean the typical Leftist talking points – blah, blah, blah. I mean the real live sh*t that goes on in real live people’s lives – people who have names and live in homes with addresses and have children with birthdays (and possibly death dates).
The destruction that takes occurs in places where law enforcement officers rarely leave their vehicles except for an incident, in places where progressives rarely visit except for political rallies, the places that are warehouses for what has been explicitly or implicitly labeled as human garbage.
I guess a chorus of Kumbaya, a Coke, and a tax reduction will make everything all better. I have no idea why these sh*tholes are not more appreciative of the largess rained down on them by their betters. Nope, not one f*cking idea. If I only had a big brained IQ.
I know a former NOPD officer. They would tend to back you up, Tasty. Sad, but true.
One of my partner’s brothers is a prominent Chicago attorney. Can’t say more. But unfortunately Dave is similarly accurate.
No country for old men.