“Stop the violence!”
“Stop shooting!”
“Stop killing!”
These are very typical chants that are common in the streets
of Chicago when a group of people get together to protest recent shootings in
their communities. I am sure that
everyone would agree with those chants but are the chants in vain?
There have been many ideas to stop the violence in Chicago
and one of them was to incarcerate all the gang leaders because they thought
that people would just automatically walk away and it would end it all. The FBI tried this back between 1993 through
1998 and failed because today we are suffering from the actions taken back
then. How you ask? Great question!
A gang leader was indicted in a Federal case that took him
down and several others and in that process people started to make deals with
the FBI to avoid prison time. As the
Feds start to vet these people they realize that if they flip them they can
flip others as well so they hit the streets to find more people with more “information.” Once the Feds used who they needed they would
determine their value and many times they would simply cut them loose and tell
others within that gang who they used as an informant. Then we get a surge of violence because
people are trying to get those that “snitched” and in that process sometimes
the wrong people get hit and when that happens it creates a whole new
cycle. The Feds got who they feel they
needed to get and send him away for life but left a world of confusion out on
the street. So now you have a teenager
pissed off because now they have a world on their shoulders and other guys out
there see an opportunity and take action and now everyone is at each other’s
throats.
I hear you, “then why be part of the street!?” Good point
but then why do schools have to run on lower budgets in poor communities? Yes those two are connected!
So here we are in 2012 and the Cook County state’s attorney wants
to create a RICO Act for the state of IL here’s the definition of RICO. That means that they want to recreate what
others did back in the mid 1990’s meaning that they must have not done their
homework or they just don’t care how this goes down. So that brings up the question of, who is benefiting
from the violence in Chicago?
We look at down state prisons where whole communities depend
on a job at the local state prison rather than an industry like automobiles,
textile, machinery, or any type of Farming! The industry in these communities
is based on the demise of mostly poor people in the city of Chicago! Doesn’t that turn your stomach just a bit? There are people out there that DEPEND on
someone to commit murder so that they can have a job and a pension! Does that turn your stomach?
Our society has chosen to lie to ourselves by giving false
hope that we can “stop the violence” when the truth is that NO Governor, Mayor,
or any other politician is going to put whole communities out of work to save
lives of the poor. Is this what OUR life
is about? Do we eat our young? It sure looks like it according to recent statistics
on the ages of the people that commit the crimes and the ones receiving the
crime. We rather watch entire
communities on the South and West side of Chicago go to SHIT than to provide
EVERY possible city and state service that are due to them for the simple fact
of being HUMAN! I’m not saying that we have to hand feed anyone for a special
reason but living on the North Side of Chicago I know that if I complain about
my garbage can being broken I’ll get a new one the following week. I can complain about a car sitting in the
same spot for more than a week and the following day someone has already come
out and marked up the car for towing. Go
to the South side and street lights are out, pot holes are so much part of the street
you swear the street was paved like that, trash is overflowing in the alleys,
and empty lots have abandoned cars that have been burnt out a long time ago.
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) recently said that they
are cutting train service from 63rd to 95th street to
repair the line for 5 months, They will
provide shuttles to replace the service and they said it was either this or a
long 4 year project with many more delays.
People complained and said that this would never happen on the North
Side and they are right! Why? Because for as long as I can remember the CTA
is on a constant maintenance schedule on all the train lines on the North Side
to prevent having to close down the system in the future for needed
repairs. This action from the CTA is a HUGE
sign of how this city “works” for some people and how it doesn’t work for
others. How is this connected you
ask? Great question!
IF the city had made EVERY school a priority since day one
and provided 100% equally funding to every school as well as services our city
would look and feel differently today! But
the reality is that our city runs on a neighborhood mentality which means no
one is going to look out for anyone else unless they from their HOOD!
So when a “pastor” talks about “ending violence in America”
but wants to flush $15million into a building that will RECREATE if not
triplicate services that already exist in the Chicago area you really have to
ask yourself is it really being done for everyone or just for the people in
that HOOD?
I’ll let you look into that if you want to know the answer.
Peace/AMOR
Gerardo
