Even more Chicago shootings ...

[spin]

Residents call for peace after more gun violence
Saturday, April 17, 2010

April 17, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Chicago residents were calling for peace Saturday as they searched for solutions after multiple shootings occurred over the last several days.

Many of the victims have been teenagers and young adults.

Since Thursday night, Chicago police say at least 32 people have been shot. Out of all those gunfire victims, at least eight people have died.

Rev. Jesse Jackson and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley talked Saturday about the ongoing problem and how it could be solved.

***snip***

"It's the officials in office. They are not doing anything. They collect our tax money. They do what they want to do, not what we need," said aunt Regina McKinney. "Safety."

***snip***

The mayor says he is happy with the police response.

"What can they do? If you shoot somebody, they come to it. They ask the victim; they say, 'I don't know who did it.' They ask the community; they say, 'I don't know who did it.' They can't rouse them out of their house and on the street," Daley said.

"It is up to people to take responsibility. We can blame the Chicago police all you want, but look at the mirror and say, 'What are you doing?'" Mayor Daley said.

"Most of the killings have gang affiliations. In several incidents either the victims or witnesses refused to cooperate. Once again, the code of silence only helps the offenders," Supt. Weis said.

Reverend Jackson at RainbowPUSH Coalition headquarters Saturday morning said the answer is to keep young people occupied with activities, jobs and values.

***snip***

Both Mayor Daley and Reverend Jackson echoed concern Saturday over the accessibility of guns and say that there should be a federal ban on all assault weapons.

Some community leaders say they might be heading down to Springfield to lobby for more state gun control, although the city of Chicago already has some of the toughest gun control laws. emphasis added
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7391338&rss=rss-wls-article-7391338

[spin]

1. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over ...

and expecting a different result.

[virgogal]

2. 32 people shot since Thursday? Awful,just awful.

[spin]

5. "Most of the killings have gang affiliations" ...

it would make a lot more sense to figure out how to crack down on gangs than try to get the state to pass stricter gun laws.

A large percentage of the violent crime and homicides are committed by gangs fighting over turf and respect. All the effort to regulate and restrict firearms would have little effect on these gangs as many are tied to the drug trade and would have little problem smuggling in even more powerful fully automatic weapons if the supply ran thin.

Mayor Daley and his cronies have blamed the NRA for years while they failed to address the crime problem Chicago faces.

It often makes me wonder if perhaps the politicians in Chicago benefit from gang activities. Considering the record of corruption in Chicago, it is a possibility.

[PavePusher]

3. What can they do?

""What can they do? If you shoot somebody, they come to it. They ask the victim; they say, 'I don't know who did it.' They ask the community; they say, 'I don't know who did it.' They can't rouse them out of their house and on the street," Daley said."

Well, you can stop rendering the Citizens essentially defenseless against the retribution of criminals, you bloated, sack-of-shit, dictatorial, tin-pot Hitler fuck.

How's that for a start?

[cowman]

4. And you just got to love

their police chief that runs away like a little pussy when he hears a gunshot.

[Euromutt]

6. It just beggars belief, doesn't it?

John Paul Vann, a U.S. advisor in Vietnam who had a damn sight better idea of the situation than just about anyone, once said of counter-insurgency something along the lines of "it doesn't matter whether providing security is 10% or 90% of the counter-insurgency effort, it needs to be the first 10% or the first 90%."

The citizens make it clear that they perceive the problem to be one of security. Victims and witnesses won't talk because they don't expect the police to be able or willing to protect them from retribution.

The mayor and police chief argue that they can't provide security because the populace can't or won't provide the intelligence they need to apply their resources effectively. Bit of a Catch-22 there.

But the one thing everybody agrees on by default is that availability of firearms is not the reason the authorities can't tackle the problem. So what does Daley do? He blames the lack of gun laws. Never mind that Illinois' gun laws are already among the most stringent in the country, and that Chicago's are even worse, and that this has done diddly squat to stop gang violence, just like narcotics laws and the fact that you can't grow coca or opium poppies in the Midwest hasn't stopped the gangs from dealing drugs. As other people have observed, "gun control is what you do instead of something useful."