ScottsBigMouth

To Save His Legacy, Daley Must Walk The Walk In Chicago's War Zones

With the latest round of killings sending shock waves through Chicago's gang-infested neighborhoods, local activists are clear on one thing.  Mayor Daley is in danger of losing the latest battle to save our city in the larger "war" with they city's street gangs.  Under duress, he appears to be closing ranks in the post-Olympics-loss blame game, while simultaneously being exposed as having allowed the Olympics to consume his administration's attention as Fenger High, Uptown, and countless other hot spots flared into mini-versions of "Lord of the Flies."

Where is the leadership that Daley so proudly proclaimed last year in attacking the gang problem across the city?  Sure, Taste of Chicago was relatively tame this year, but we have all-out war in the neighborhoods.  When he was wining and dining the Copenhagen glitterati, posing with Oprah and Obama, and cajoling  every reporter in town that the Olympics were coming; his embattled police command couldn't even keep their cameras pointed down range to insure officers were where they needed to be when the mobs turned into wolf packs out for a kill.

When you look at the videos of the wilding gangs chasing victims in Uptown, the lynch-beating murder of sixteen-year-old Derrion Albert, or the tearful soul-ripping pleas from victims' mothers and grandmothers for help from our city fathers; what don't you see?  You sure as hell don't see the Mayor, political candidates, Aldermen and Alderwomen, county board members, or business luminaries descending upon our blood-stained poor neighborhoods giving real triage to the root of the problem.

Nope, they're still nestled safely in their chauffeured cars, protected by staff behind marble-lined, cordoned-off, wood-paneled environs; glass-and-steel towers, and echelons of security personnel to keep them "safe" to do the "people's business." All the while, the city's children are slaughtered in the streets.

Its time for these political opportunist power-brokers and money-hounds to leave the damn Loop to really walk the walk with the ministers and community activists who are trying to pick up the pieces of our duct-taped-together neighborhoods before another entire generation of young kids are either dead or incarcerated.  It is time for our city and county leaders to actually prioritize REAL attention and money to what matters, instead of chasing a dream off to Copenhagen, or DC, or whatever glitzy benefit happens to be on at the Four Seasons or Peninsula that night.  Its time for them to ride-along with our cops, social workers, teachers, and EMTs; to see what's really happening out there in the REAL Chicago instead of the "idealized" version that's been rolling in the 2016 promo videos.

Mr. Mayor, it starts with you.  You need to leave City Hall for a few weeks, and spend every day in the neighborhoods, listening, learning, and then acting to save the city you say you love so dearly.  Your legacy, and your loyalty to us...the people who got you there, is at stake--not to mention hundreds of thousands of young lives who should be preparing to take over and lead in our city's uncertain future.

Schiller Has Some Explaining To Do

Disclaimer:  I wasn't present at the CAPS Meeting Last Night.  I am working from multiple accounts online on what happened, as well as multiple-source reporting.  I am currently traveling in Bella Vista, AR, and Corpus Christi, TX; but I am STILL very disturbed about what happened JUST BLOCKS away from my home.  I'm coming back on Monday night the 24th.

That said...

Helen, you have screwed up, again.

The excuses for the gangland behavior in Uptown are absolutely unacceptable.  Let's cut the crap.  You have some explaining to do.

I have watched the video of our local thugs out wilding over the weekend in the streets at Sheridan and Leland.  We all know where they hang out between Wilson and Argyle along Sheridan.  We all know that the police are doing a little bit of patrolling, but seem to have almost no support from you.

We are noticing how you show up for meetings that involved moneyed people like developers, Chicago 2016's folks, and of course, the Mayor.  We always seem to see you where there is money, or a camera present...but we rarely if ever see you on the street in our actual neighborhood.  You seem to move through our neighborhood like a ghost, unseen.

I'm not sure if anyone has told you this, Helen, but people are pissed at you.  Pissed enough to not vote for you, give you any more money, and to run other candidates against you.

WE EXPECT ACTION.  SERIOUS ACTION.

We are not going to give up our neighborhood to a bunch of pushers, thugs, drunks, and crazy people.  We live here, and we intend to take back our neighborhood, with or without you.

You had a distinct and unique opportunity to do the right thing when you showed up to talk about how great the 2016 Olympics will be for Chicago.  The right thing to do, in this case, would have been to make a forceful statement against ANY and ALL violence in the Uptown/Edgewater corridor, and then call on CPS Supt. Jody Weiss to get his butt up to our ignored neighborhood and make it so.

But, instead you made excuses.  Unlike some neighborhoods in Chicago whom are too scared to take back our own streets, we're going to stop the problem before it declines into all out war.  The on-the-street officers who protect us now, as much as they can with limited resources, deserve the support from all of us.

What we seem to be getting from you, though, is a shrug and a very weak statement that "shit happens."

If you think this is going to cut it, you're wrong.

Now I wasn't there, so I only can go by what I've been seeing from here...albeit limited by distance, but the distance lessened by the all-seeing-eye of the Internet.

Helen, we're waiting for you.  You weren't at the CAPS meeting yourself, but instead sent some "aides."  That was not the right call.  You should have been there.

As for me, I'm on my way home soon.  When I get back, I'm coming to you with a mike and a recorder to find out where you're coming from...you get a chance to explain why 5 people getting shot in 48 hours just down the street in my neighborhood doesn't demand your direct and personal attendance at the meeting.

I hope to hear from you Helen.  My email is scott@foval.com and my phone number, in case you need it, is 773-570-0011.  I expect that we're going to have a civil, on-the-record discussion, that I can bring back to ScottsBigMouth's audience to tell them what you're going to do to support us in our effort to hold the line on the thugs, take control of our turf.

It's time to explain, Alderwoman Schiller, and your constiutents expect you to respond directly.

Regards,

Scott

Chicago's Violent First Half-Year Reflected in WBEZ's Gun Survey Data

23 Chicago Public School students have been killed this year at the hands of someone with a handgun.  WBEZ Chicago Public Radio has published on its website (www.chicagopublicradio.org) a report with survey data containing shocking realities about CPS students' knowledge and experience with handguns.  The reality of the situation is that fully half of the "nearly 400" students surveyed said they could get a gun if they wanted one.  Not all of them said they ever wanted to get a gun, but as we have seen in the past, it only takes one to make a tragedy.  What does it say about our city that fully a third of the surveyed students say they know someone who could get them a gun if they wanted to get one?

Despite efforts to reduce gun violence in the city, it seems the students are speaking the truth about the reality of the current situation.  It is questionable whether all the bloodletting, and resulting marches, speeches, and mothers' tears have had any effect at all on the violent reality of being a kid in our city.  It seems in fact that it is dangerous to be a CPS student; simply based on the survey results.  Talk to the kids themselves (WBEZ does) and they'll tell you that its not just at school...the violence from everyday life is dangerous, and many have been exposed to violence.

View and listen to WBEZ's wake-up call of a report at HERE .