Why can’t Chicago DO anything about these thug gangs.
“Why can’t Chicago DO anything about these thug gangs.”
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It is really quite simple.
Gangs are what Chicago is all about.
The street gangs are just a visible image
of the behind the scenes gangs that run the place.
The answer is in this article:
http://www.suntimes.com/special_sections/crime/37624,cst-nws-gang22.article#
Candidates lean on gang members to get out the vote
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December 22, 2002
BY FRANK MAIN AND CARLOS SADOVI STAFF REPORTERS
Come Election Day, gang members across the city will likely trade their baseball caps and street colors for white shirts and ties.
On Feb. 25, they’ll take a holiday from the round-the-clock drug dealing that fuels Chicago’s billion-dollar narcotics trade. Instead, they’ll be selling candidates.
Fanning out into the neighborhoods, they’ll hand out palm cards, shuttle elderly voters to the polls, tally the votes and—on the less admirable side—tear down opponents’ signs, intimidate opponents’ supporters and maybe pick a few fights.
And then, when their candidates win, the gang-bangers will step up and ask, “Where’s mine?” In at least 10 of Chicago’s 50 wards, a Sun-Times investigation has found, gang members are expected to work in next February’s elections as political foot soldiers, a practice loaded with dangerous ethical conflicts for the candidates. Just as no politician in Prohibition Chicago ever cracked down on Al Capone after accepting his money, the fear is that no politician today will stand up to a street gang after accepting its manpower. Though no one could offer proof of a gang engaging in wholesale thuggery on Election Day—or of an alderman coddling a gang in return—the potential for corruption is evident.
“If you think about it, if the gangs get an alderman elected, is he beholden to them?” asked Joe Sparks, a Chicago cop who spent most of his 32 years on the police force going after the gangs. “I think it has a pretty big effect. An alderman is a heck of a guy to step up on your behalf. If you’re a gang member, he carries a lot of clout and weight.”
On Saturday, Mayor Daley weighed in with a similar view, saying, “Gangs and drug dealers are really the enemy of society.... If they are dealing with those individuals, they are dealing with destroyers of life.”
Gangs—from street punks to mobsters—have been involved in Chicago politics since immigrant youths rousted voters to the polls 100 years ago. They’re “part of the fabric of the community,” said U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, the former 26th Ward alderman. “I’ve seen evidence in every aldermanic campaign, at some level, of gang members.”
On Nov. 5 in Humboldt Park, a gang leader halted drug sales and ordered gang members to get out the vote for the Democrats, said a police investigator who asked not to be identified.
“These guys passed out palm cards for $5 an hour when they could have made $40 an hour selling dope,” he said.
Some candidates say they are simply reluctant to turn away enthusiastic volunteers, gang members or not. Other candidates openly court gang members.
“I try to use them in every election,” said Ald. Shirley Coleman (16th), who estimated a fourth of her workers in the November election were gang members. She paid 40 to 50 gang members $25 each to get out the vote, she said, and plans to recruit gang members for the Feb. 25 aldermanic election.
(excerpt)
What? Those aren't gangs. Those are training sessions for future community organizers. That's how the Daley Machine trains officials for the Democrat Party in Chicago.
If I were a member of the IOC that voted for Rio, I would start to worry about somebody with a big board ringing the door bell at 3 AM.
That would be racist!!