Saturday, September 06, 2008

“I Think We Should Just Pull Out of Chicago”

The other day Glenn Reynolds noted this story, and had a good solution to the problem -

WITH VIOLENCE, AND AN IRRETRIEVABLY CORRUPT POLITICAL LEADERSHIP, I think we should just pull out of Chicago.

It seems that Chicago has had a busy summer. So busy that the death toll is higher than it is in Iraq:

Total Is About Double The Death Toll In Iraq

CHICAGO (CBS) - An estimated 123 people were shot and killed over the summer. That’s nearly double the number of soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period.

In May, cbs2chicago.com began tracking city shootings and posting them on Google maps. Information compiled from our reporters, wire service reports and the Chicago Police Major Incidents log indicated that 123 people were shot and killed throughout the city between the start of Memorial Day weekend on May 26, and the end of Labor Day on Sept. 1.

According to the Defense Department, 65 soldiers were killed in combat in Iraq. About the same number were killed in Afghanistan over that same period.

In the same time period, an estimated 245 people were shot and wounded in the city.

Further down in the story, CBS2 Chicago lists a breakdown by neighborhood of the killings and woundings. Since I am not familiar with Chicago at all, I can only hazard a guess that these murders did not take place in upscale areas. Had that been the case, we would have had major headlines from the MSM. But, hey, it’s just poor people killing each other, so it doesn’t rate national attention.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Two things come to mind here:
- - - - - - - - -
The first is that perhaps these neighborhoods need some community organizers. Maybe Barack Obama left his old job too soon. Perhaps he forgot to tie up a few loose ends before moving on? In this puff piece from a 2007 issue of US News and World Report, they note his hard work:

Far from the centers of power and privilege that have spawned so many commanders in chief, it’s an unlikely place to incubate a future president. But the seemingly endless clumps of drab brick apartment buildings and patchy lawns on Chicago’s South Side are where Sen. Barack Obama learned some of his most enduring lessons about politics, leadership, and the paths to social change. His experiences here, in fact, amount to a Rosetta stone that reveals the essence of the man who has catapulted out of nowhere into contention for the Democratic presidential nomination for 2008.

As a community organizer in the Altgeld Gardens public housing project in the mid-1980s, Obama, then 23, quickly emerged as a tireless and pragmatic advocate for the community-traits that characterize the kind of president he says he wants to be. “His work as a community organizer was really a defining moment in his life, not just his career,” his wife, Michelle, told U.S. News. It helped him decide “how he would impact the world”-assisting people in defining their mutual interests and working together to improve their lives.

In a speech in February announcing his presidential bid, Obama said, “It was in these neighborhoods that I received the best education I ever had.” His work, he added, “taught me a lot about listening to people as opposed to coming in with a predetermined agenda.”

Hmm…let’s not even unpack this particular suitcase. It’s so full of predictable puffery (can you say “far from the centers of power and privilege” with the straight face this writer used?) that even frankly leftist partisans like The Nation wouldn’t be able to keep up with the cloud machines manufactured just for this one article, not to mention the thousands of airy-fairy puff pieces that would follow.

But, hey, you can’t argue with success. This story, plus the thousand others that followed, got the MSM’s chosen candidate to the top of the heap. It’s okay as long as you don’t look too closely.

That’s one aspect of the story. Another is the fact that Chicago has one of the toughest gun control laws in the country. Look at this exchange on a City-Data Forum. Someone considering a move to Chicago is asking for advice on his handgun:

Sumerset asks:

Hello,

I am very seriously considering a move to your wonderful and exciting city. I am confused by the research on the Web I’ve turned up about gun laws there. I want to be able to keep one in my apartment for protection, but the wording on some sites has me baffled.

Example:

“The City of Chicago requires all firearms possessed in the city to be registered. Handguns not previously registered in Chicago cannot be registered.”

Meaning what? You can only own a gun that has been purchased there?

I also found out that concealed carrying is not permitted. Lots of states have this, but it is extremely important to me to be able to have one in my home.


Gardener34 replies:

IL[linois] has very strict gun laws. There is no concealed carry in IL. Oak Park and Chicago they are completely illegal to own. Not the place for you to live. Try a suburb.

[…]

Math Guy responds:

Wow, what a utopia….surely Chicago must have almost no gun crime.

Thus, Chicago has zero tolerance for handguns, yet it has so many gun killings that it’s more dangerous than Iraq.

I have some questions at this point:

How come the mayor hasn’t asked for the National Guard to assist the police?

How come the MSM is ignoring this story?

How come Chicago isn’t reconsidering its gun laws?

How come the rest of the country, including the State Department and Immigration are not suggesting that the suffering of Chicago be offered asylum in safer places?

How come Michael Moore hasn’t moved in to film the horrific numbers of victims and their families in this lawless mess?

How come George Bush hasn’t been blamed yet?


Hat tip: Instapundit

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why would a leftist media report on the downsides of leftist policies?

Anonymous said...

This is nothing -- you should read the homicide figures for Detroit, New Orleans, Philadelphia, LA, San Francisco.

Anonymous said...

Greetings:

I was born in New York City in 1948. Pistol ownership was controlled by what were referred to as the "Sullivan Laws." If I remember correctly, you had to apply to the Police Department, have your fingerprints taken, and have some kind of "reason" to have a handgun. In the 1970s, a law was enacted that required owners to register rifles and shotguns.

I don't recall anytime prior to my relocation in 1983 that any type of gun was not available in my neighborhood. Those were the days; those were the ways.

Fjordman said...

The more I read about the situation in the US, the less I believe the country will survive the 21st century in its present form. We will have a Multicultural disintegration throughout the Western world.

Dymphna said...

Fjordman--

Nothing survives for very long anywhere. The disintegration of the 20th century has taught us that.

I am reading Winston Churchill's account of his early life. After Sandhurst, so eager for war was he that WC and a friend sail for Cuba just to find some action. This, of course, necessary because war has passed out of Europe and must be found elsewhere.

There are too many unknowns to be able to predict what life will be like by the end of the century -- and we'll all be beyond caring anyway.
----

Mr. Sullivan--

I think you're right about the Sullivan Laws. Now, though, NYC prides itself on a gun control law that is akin to Chicago's.
--------

queen--

I don't think you'll find the number of dead in those cities listed anywhere close to Chicago's carnage. Look at the limits: we are talking about ONE summer. Four months or so.

San Francisco alone would be shrieking with indignation at such numbers. Unless they were military dead...that would be okay.
-------
randian --

Beats me. I think the reporters are gob-smacked by the numbers; they *live* in Chicago.

Just wait, though. It'll be Bush's fault somehow.

Afonso Henriques said...

Fjordman,
not even Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Brazil would be "Western" by the end of the century (if current trends continue...)

By the way, to when an essay about the Southern Cone? Not about islam, just abut the Southern Cone and its "Westernness"? It would be refreshing, don't you think?

talnik said...

Nice skyline, by the way. Beautiful view from the lake when your boat goes down. Plus we have a "corruption tax" (Google "Cook County corruption tax")!

laine said...

John Lott's book "More Guns Less Crime" is worth a gander because it proves statistically that all jurisdictions where gun control is brought in have a steep rise in gun crime e.g. Britain.

It makes sense when you think about it. Law abiding citizens are disarmed by the state. Criminals can still get guns by criminal means and now they know that the houses they break into and the people they mug on the street are almost certainly disarmed...

A missing variable in most media reports (but addressed by Lott) is that most of the gun crime in North America is among blacks, both perpetrators and victims. If you removed them from the equation, American cities would not have the scary gun death statistics that other countries quote in their view of Americans as trigger happy yokels.

Countries with high gun ownership like Switzerland have very low gun crime because they do not have the black culture (mostly Jamaican in the USA) with a toxic brew of not just guns but gangs and drugs as well. It is rife in Jamaica proper and half of Jamaicans have emigrated, mostly to the United States and Canada, taking this problem with them.

Discussion of these facts has been shut down most effectively by PC rules and cries of racism. Even on this site, there are posters who have been indoctrinated to the extent that they call mere discussion of facts that are unflattering to the black community "fomenting race strife".

Well, so far the people suffering from this enforced silence the most are black victims of black crime. Whites still have the wherewithal to escape the worst effects by moving elsewhere. So the net result for the black community of tiptoeing around this issue is very destructive. But if that's the way everyone prefers it, so be it.

Unknown said...

If we pull out of Chicago can we leave Chicago politicians behind too? It would upset the Democratic presidential race, but so it goes...

Diamed said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
X said...

Afonso, have you ever been to South America? Argentina feels more "western" than southern spain to me. It felt like a hispanicised version of the United States and far more friendly than the Iberian peninsula ever felt. It's in a depression at the moment so there's a lot of poverty around - walking around the streets of Buenos Aires is like looking at film of depression-era New York, only with modern cars. If they could manage to elect someone like Reagan, they'd be in pretty good shape.

Afonso Henriques said...

Archonix,
No, unfortunately I've never been there. Not that I don't want go there but, it's a big voyage.
Also, I don't like planes much and I am hoping to visit Cuba befoe it becames a Capitalistic country... so that's my American priority. I would like to go to Havana very much...

Nice to know that you liked Buenos Aires. Sad to know that you did not like Southern Spain, why is that? I know that they (in the Southern Cone) are now poor but, for what I see, they are going in the wrong path: I saw recently that they are more to the left (politically) than ever and that they are receiving enormous quantities of Peruvian, Bolivian, North Chilean and African immigrants.

What worries me in Latin America the most is not Argentina and the Southern Cone, they will - are! - recovering fast, what scares me is the axis that is forming in the North and East of South America. And when Brazil elects a man who says this:

"Damn it! How hard it is to read a book!", a man who instaured ridiculous racial quotas for entries in Universities... things are not going well.

By the way...
Watch out what will happen to Colombia in this next three years. If that happens to Brazil in the next ten, there will be no "Southern Cone" in the future (yes, there is a threat).
Just pay atention to Colombia when you see it in the news this next three years...

Anonymous said...

It's black on black crime of the most part. It's been going for years and it's traceable back to US President Johnson's 1960's 'Great Society' that turned US cities into welfare magnets and destroyed the black family structure. This is largely a problem with the American black sub-culture and the leftist mentality that excuses them from any sort of personal responsibility. Government bureaucracies created this problem. Democrat grievance/identity group politics have perpetuated the problem for decades.

The US has its 'no-go zones' too. It's had them for years. Like Paris, Chicago and most other big US cities has neighborhoods that are best avoided.

But of course, it's racist to call attention to the obvious. /sarcasm

Afonso Henriques said...

Oh! I forgot, and I proposed that because when somoenoe thinks about "The West" or "European Civilisation", that person usually thinks only of North (Anglo) America, Europe, and then, he/she may remember Australia and New Zeeland and wonder about Russia. Latin America? Not even comes to their mind...

X said...

North and east. Yes... I have a friend in Brazil, I'll have to ask him what he thinks about the goings-on there. paraguay might be a problem to after their recent election, which is going to cause ltos of very interesting arguments in my family now since my brother's wife supports the new guy.

Southern Spain is too hot and too full of English ex-pats and Moroccans for my taste. Not to mention my Aunt and Uncle... blech, if I have to go near them again I might just pretend I'm dead or something. The wine is pretty good though. From the look of the place I would have thought it was somewhere on the African coast rather than Europe.

One_of_the_last_few_Patriots_left said...

Afonso,

It has been some time since I read Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations" but if I remember correctly he pointed out that Western Civilization has several branches. Latin America is clearly a distinct branch of the West, with its own specific mix: Spanish or Portuguese but with large numbers of speakers of Indian languages, and mostly Roman Catholic as far as religion. Sadly, I would argue ( as he did ) that it is also one of the least successful branches of the West. Just look at their economies: if I remember correctly the average income is about 1/5 or 1/6 that of the USA. The problem appears to be their culture. Repeated revolutions, military dictatorships, and rule by ultra corrupt, entrenched oligarchy is the norm in this entire region and always has been. Doesn't it make you feel warm and fuzzy all over knowing that our Quisling politicians here in the USA are importing millions of people from Latin America every year. The unique Anglo-American culture that created the USA is not good enough for our politicians and so must be "enriched" by illegal aliens.

Graham Dawson ( Archonix ) wrote:

"Argentina feels more 'western'.....like a hispanicised version of the United States.....If they could elect someone like Reagean, they'd be in pretty good shape."
Indeed, but they elected Juan Peron, instead.
I can remember people saying" if only....." about Argentina when I was in high school 30+ years ago. The point is, Argentina has NEVER been as prosperous as we would expect it to be. Hhmm...something about their culture, maybe.....

Henrik R Clausen said...

A _credible_ threat of walking out might work wonders. During the construction of the current European Union, that particular threat was hardly ever present in a meaningful way, and our politicians always had to settle on a compromise. Most of which turned out to be rotten when it was too late.

If Ireland (or Denmark, for that matter) launches a credible threat of withdrawing, there should be some pretty intense panic in Brussel :)

Fjordman:
The more I read about the situation in the US, the less I believe the country will survive the 21st century in its present form.

Having read Thomas E. Woods on the constitutional situation in the US, I agree. The current presidential regime has distinct fascist leanings, but a return to the constitutional order won't be easy.

That might eventually break the Union.

Afonso Henriques said...

Last Patriot,

Samuel Huntington says rightly that Latin America will have to chose between being "Western" or non Western. I do not contest that, we can see that. What I can not accept is the treatment of Latin America as if it is a monolhitic block. It is not.

I've read countless times that Argentina was "one of the richest countries in the world". In Wikipedia I found this:

"from 1880 to 1905, this expansion resulted in a 7.5-fold growth in GDP, averaging about 8% annually. One important measure of development, GDP per capita, rose from 35% of the United States average to about 80% during that period.[12] Growth then slowed considerably, though throughout the period from 1890 to 1939, the country's per capita income was similar to that of France, Germany and Canada"

I also believe that untill receltly, (1986, when we entered to the European Uniom) Argentina was not poorer than Portugal and Spain.

I do not think that the problem is "cultural". Well, it definetly is but, as you're putting it, it seems that it is a problem of Hispanic culture proper. I do not think so.

It's their non-Westerness. Those States usually have a large black or indian (non-western) influence.

That's why I compared those three countries:
Mexico, 10% white but with strong cultural ties to Spain, the United States and a strong and all emcopassing European presence in it. It's principal cultural component, I argue, is European. This is an half-Western, half successfull state.

Guatemala, less than 5% white, weak ties to the Western World, unsuccessfull state.

Haiti, the black slaves revolted and killed all the French, instauring the first African independent Nation of the Americas. Very anti-Western. The result? It is the greatest hell whole in the Americas. I heard zombies actually walk the streets there...

As you can see, the successfull of American States can be measured in relation of its "Westernness". I know it's racist but, the percentage/number of Europeans, aka whites, is a great indicator.

Take this into account: (Brazilian States)

Santa Catarina - 88% white - 7868 dollars GDP per Capita

Bahía - 20% white - 2880 dollars GDP per Capita

You see, I have some difficulty in considering all Latin American States Western, but I think that some must be.

Anonymous said...

What worries me in Latin America the most is not Argentina and the Southern Cone, they will - are! - recovering fast, what scares me is the axis that is forming in the North and East of South America

The recruiting being done by Hamas and Hezbollah in those countries should scare you just as much.

Afonso Henriques said...

Yes Henrik!

But we've seen what the E.U. has done to Haideger's Austria, to the Vlaams Belang in Belgium and how they managed to attack its own member State, Greece, when Greece made its voice heard over the dismemberment of Yugoslavia and the plight of Serbia.

Afonso Henriques said...

Oh Radian, you are so naive...

Henrik R Clausen said...

Afonso, am absolutely aware of the problems in the EU, as you know from my other posts. That just happens to be a different topic than this thread.

Dymphna said...

I haven't been back to this thread since yesterday. That's the drawback to having visitors...you can't watch your back and still entertain family.

First, Diamed: you're toast. No one gets on a post of mine and calls for a racially divided America. What? I'd need a visa to go visit my black friends? Peddle your apartheid ideas elsewhere.

Second, this is a post about Chicago, which is in the US. We have many, many posts about Europe and the EU, but this is *not* one of them.

I'm too tired to see who derailed this thread, but whoever it was, you have a nerve. You darn well know the rules here. An important rule at GOV is to stay on topic. It has been broken repeatedly here.

What, Fjordman's post wasn't sufficient? You had to continue it here? Why?

Thanks a lot for spoiling what could have been an interesting discussion.

And *Americans* are pushy? Sheesh.

Afonso Henriques said...

Dymhpna,

It probably was me.
Sorry :( But I just can't help it!

It was very innocent this time...
Chicago is a +10 million people, it's kind of normal nowadays...

One_of_the_last_few_Patriots_left said...

Jeez, Dymphna, you're right! We do tend to, uh...wander around a lot.
Ever since I turned 50 I just can't FOCUS like I used to. B r a i n s l o w. S y n a p s e s n o t f i r i n g . . .

One_of_the_last_few_Patriots_left said...

I believe it was a year ago (?) or was it two years ago (?) there were several extensive write ups in American Rifleman magazine ( one of the official publications of the National Rifle Association in the USA ) about the situation in Brazil. ( Stay with me, Dymphna! :) )
It seems that there was a national referendum question up for a vote for a comprehensive gun ban. This was all the more ludicrous because Brazilian law is so draconian that LEGAL gun ownership is rare. The impetus for the proposed gun ban was the extremely high murder rate involving the use of ( ILLEGAL ) firearms. ( Does any of this sound familiar? )
All the usual idio... uh, I mean"suspects" were out in force: all the politicians, the slanted news media, and even soap opera stars!
Fortunately, the proposed ban was defeated, apparently by a grass roots organization.
Unfortunately, Brazilian law remains, as far as I know, so draconian that for the average working stiff the right of self defense simply doesn't exist. And, of course, the murder rate remains sky high.
A similar state of affairs exists in several ( perhaps all? ) Latin American coutries. Mexico is another example.
Now then, how is Chicago, which is, after all, part of the United States, different from a greasy, south of the border, third world cesspool?
It ISN'T different.
The key ingredient seems to be rule-by-oligarchy. I've been reading about "Mayor Daley" since I was about 10 years old. I'm 52 now.
Apparently, his son got the job after his father.
Note that within a couple of months there is a good chance that we will wake up to find that a Chicago machine politician is now the President of the United States.
God help us!