1. "In an interview with WGN on Monday evening, Jackson said the city is in "a state of emergency" after the closing of 50 of its public schools, the shuttering of dozens upon dozens of grocery and drug stores and a growth in the number of vacant lots, particularly on the city's south and west sides where much of the weekend's violence occurred. "We need not just more policemen, but more teachers and more coaches and some plan for an economic reconstruction," he said. "There's nothing wrong with the people, the structure must change."
Actually don't you think it is time we started to look at the people, be sure there is not something wrong with the people. Don't get me wrong - I am not blaming the people or even saying it is their fault. But the systems - the "structure" - is the people. They create the structure, they emerge from the structure, they are duped into supporting the structure. They are lead to believe that they cannot handle this on their own, cannot be trusted. Jackson's tried and true strategy of getting more money thrown at abstract issues instead of looking at the behaviors of the people is on full display here. The people are waiting for some structure to come and help them, they are not encouraged to or amendable to the idea of helping themselves. It is someone else's problem to fix. It is time to let the people themselves protect themselves, not convince them to hide in the shadows waiting for someone else to do it. The cavalry is not coming.
2. "In response to the violent holiday weekend -- during which more than 60 people were wounded and 11 killed in shootings -- Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said lax gun sentencing laws were playing a major role in the continued bloodshed. Mayor Rahm Emanuel called on all the city's residents to "take a stand" against violence."
Oh, Rahm: Take a stand with what? How? By standing shoulder to shoulder with you in denying themselves the right to protect themselves? Those words mean nothing when uttered by someone who wants to disarm every law-abiding citizen and leave them at the mercy of criminals. Perhaps you and your superintendent of police should pay attention to what he said; stop trying to find new and creative ways to punish law-abiding citizens, to prevent them from defending themselves and "taking a stand" and start really putting criminals who illegally possess and use firearms in jail for long periods of time. Law-abiding Chicagoans are left to live as prey and the criminals are slapped on the wrist and sent back to prey on them.
No comments:
Post a Comment