Posted on 04/28/2008 2:03:14 PM PDT by mdittmar
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Barack Obama (D-IL) today asked for a meeting with Justice Department officials and Illinois Congressional Delegation members to discuss including the Chicago metropolitan area in the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative – a program created in 2006 to enhance gang prevention, enforcement, and anti-recidivism efforts. The Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative has so far provided ten metropolitan regions with $2.5 million each for anti-gang efforts.
“Chicago is home to some of the largest and most violent gangs in the country, but has been left out of one of the most highly touted federal anti-gang initiatives,” Durbin said. “We are asking the Justice Department to make combating gang violence in Chicago a top priority this summer and in the future.”
“With as many as 40 gang-related shootings in the past week alone and so many tragic deaths this year, the violence in our neighborhoods and schools is heartbreaking and has got to stop,” Obama said. “Chicago has experienced some of the highest rates of gang violence in the country, and combating it must be a top priority for the Department of Justice’s anti-gang initiative and for the federal government. We also know that we must involve the entire community – from our schools and churches to teachers and parents – it makes a difference and it saves lives. Senator Durbin and I are committed to working with Mayor Daley and Chicago's dedicated law enforcement personnel to ensure the city has the resources it needs to protect our families and keep our children safe.”
Since April 18, at least 48 shootings have taken place in the Chicago area resulting in at least 15 deaths. Law enforcement officials have expressed concern that as the weather warms, gang violence will remain elevated. In April 2006, DOJ released the results of its latest National Youth Gang Center survey, which indicated that over half of all homicides in Chicago were considered to be gang-related. Los Angeles was the only other city in which gang activity accounted for such a high percentage of the city’s homicides.
The Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative is a key component of DOJ’s anti-gang strategy and is designed to support law enforcement combating violent gang crime, while also promoting prevention efforts that discourage gang involvement. The Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative complements existing Department of Justice programs to combat gangs and reduce gun-related crime throughout the country.
Text of the letter appears below:
April 28, 2008
The Honorable Michael Mukasey
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20530
Dear Attorney General Mukasey:
We urge you to take immediate steps to focus additional resources of the Department of Justice on combating gang violence in the Chicago metropolitan area. The past 10 days have witnessed a spike in violent crimes in Chicago, with at least 48 shootings resulting in at least 15 deaths. Also, this school year 24 children in the Chicago area have been killed by gunfire. Much of this violence is attributable to gang activity, and gang violence in the region is expected to remain at an elevated level in the coming warm weather months. Reducing this level of violence will require an enhanced commitment from the Department of Justice in conjunction with state and local law enforcement and gang prevention organizations. We strongly urge the Department of Justice to make the reduction of gang violence in the Chicago area a top priority of the Department’s anti-gang efforts. We also request a meeting with you and appropriate Department of Justice officials, along with members of the Illinois congressional delegation, to discuss this issue.
While Chicago-area law enforcement agencies are working hard to head off a surge in gang violence, targeted assistance from the Department of Justice would greatly boost their gang prevention and enforcement efforts. For example, a key part of the Department of Justice’s anti-gang strategy is the Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative, which was created in 2006. The Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative has so far provided ten metropolitan regions with $2.5 million each in order to enhance gang prevention, enforcement, and anti-recidivism efforts in those areas. In January, you testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that “focused enforcement efforts under the Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative are showing strong early results.” However, Chicago is not one of the regions selected for participation in the Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative. Given the severity of the gang problem in the Chicago area and the existence of established infrastructure to support enhanced prevention, enforcement and anti-recidivism efforts in Chicago, the inclusion of Chicago in the Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative appears both appropriate and justified. We urge you to include Chicago in this Initiative.
Also, after your January testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Durbin asked you in writing to provide information on the Department of Justice’s current efforts to address gang violence in the Chicago region. You have not yet responded. Before our meeting, please provide this information in writing.
Ridding our communities of gang violence will require a sustained, cooperative effort involving effective prevention strategies, active enforcement, close coordination between local, state and federal governments, and a renewed focus on addressing the underlying factors that contribute to gang behavior. The Department of Justice plays a vital part in these efforts, and the Department’s urgent attention is needed now in the Chicago metropolitan region. We look forward to working with you to address this challenge.
Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin
U.S. Senator
Barack Obama
U.S. Senator
You mean one of the running US Sentaors is actually still doing HIS JOB?????????
This is just some facetime B.S. meeting to act like he really cares. Why now?....
Left out? Maybe the DOJ doesn’t think the ‘Rat politicians of Chicago are capable of running the program with any results except more corruption and depravity.
btw, in reading about the Obama/Ayers “leadership” of the Annenberg funds for school reform in the ‘90s, it appears that nothing at all was accomplished except the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars for Chicago activists and so-called “educators” — that program was a train wreck that ought to be publicized as an example of Obama’s leadership and competence.....
Why should there be any assistance to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, etc.? These are liberal Democrat paradises. Haven’t seen a GOP mayor, let alone councilman in years. It’s all theirs, with the police hating rants of dregs like Art McKoy preventing law and order. Wall ‘em off, I say.
Why is Chicago so baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad when community organizer, Barack Obama and the Reverend Wright have been working to make it gooooooooooooood for twenty years?
Sure is heartbreaking, but I would still like to see the stats..
What is the breakdown of ethnicity of the victims?
What is the breakdown of ethnicity of the perps?
How many of either were illegals?
Is this to deflect from the ad running that Obama is weak on the death penalty for gang members?
Damn, sounds worse than Baghdad or Basrah — when will we decide to cut-and-run from Chicago?
Is he including the Democrat party in that?
End the damn WOD it causes gang killings and gang wars just like PROHIBITION did
YES
<...Obama’s leadership and competence...>
Um, that really should read “Obama’s lack of leadership and incompetence”. Wouldn’t you agree?
oh, yes, but I thought the sarcasm tag might be unnecessary
I do wonder why there has been absolutely no media attention (or none that I can find) to Obama as Chairman of what was supposed to be THE big educational reform project in the Chicago schools in the ‘90s.... tens of millions of dollars received, and what was accomplished? According to the program’s own document, little to nothing.
Are the media simply unaware of it (in which they are incompetent) or are they consciously trying to leave it out of the spotlight because it was such a radical collectivist cluster-F of incompetence...... in which case the media types are both dishonest and incompetent.
Could you tell me where I could find that information or source? Or provide a link if it is available online? I would greatly appreciate it.
Obama has had extensive contacts throughout his life with communists of every stripe. The MSM has to know, but are holding back on the info.
Note: I don’t think the first title below is quite right, it does not appear accurate to say Obama worked FOR Ayers on the project but Ayers was one of the 3 originators of the grant proposal and Obama became Chairman of the project, so Ayers may well have had a lot to say about Obama moving into that role. It also appears very likely that Obama and Ayers have known each other quite well since they have collaborated on several projects and boards over nearly 15 years. But we’d have to know more about the specific positions and lines of responsibility before we could say who worked for whom. Anyway, it sounds like it was supposed to be run as big lovey-dovey radical “collective” and not surprisingly it seems to have accomplished nothing despite the expenditure of around $50 million:
Did Obama work for Bill Ayers?
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/04/27/did-obama-work-for-bill-ayers/
Why is Obama Hiding the Truth About William Ayers? Follow the Money
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2007847/posts
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/04/27/did-obama-work-for-bill-ayers/
Update: A tipster sends along the EdWeek article via Lexis-Nexis. Here’s the relevant passage, which doesn’t tell us anything about whether Obama and Ayers worked together:
But Sen. Obama may have a unique perspective among the candidates seeking the presidency in 2008. As a private citizen, he led Chicago’s portion of the Annenberg Challenge school reform initiative financed by the late philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg–an experience that shaped Mr. Obama’s perspective on the critical importance of principals and teachers.
The Chicago Annenberg Challenge spread $49.2 million across the city’s schools in an effort to support emerging community-based public school reforms in the nation’s third-largest district. It was ultimately unsuccessful in raising student achievement, according to evaluations of the project. But its leaders and participants agreed that high-quality teachers were the key ingredient the school system was missing.
“All of the networks [of Chicago schools] we were funding came to that same conclusion after about three years,” said Ken Rolling, the former executive director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. To improve urban schools, said Mr. Rolling, “we have to increase and improve the pool of qualified teachers.”
Mr. Obama led the Chicago group’s board from the start in 1995 and for about the next three years, Mr. Rolling said. He stayed on the board until the project closed in 2001.
So, reading between the lines:
They’re proposing to give the money to the existing programs, most of them Demo-tied, and most of them also ineffective. Where’s the ‘real change for America’ here?
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