Posts Tagged ‘black lives matter’

Welcome to Detroit, Chicago

Posted: August 16, 2020 by John Ruberry in crime, culture, News/opinion, politics
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

By John Ruberry

About twelve hours after I finished my DTG post last week about Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s get-tough policy on sunbathers in Chicago at Lake Michigan, Chicago became Detroit. That’s not to say that you can now drive for miles in America’s third-largest city–for now–and see nothing but a few lived-in homes among the vacant lots and abandoned houses. Just as you didn’t encounter that in Detroit after the destructive riots there a few days after the 1967 riots faded away.

The Motor City hit rock bottom in 2013 when it declared bankruptcy.

These things take time. Detroit is turning things around now. But its vacant lots will be there for many years.

“Seventy percent of Chicago’s economic activity takes place in and around downtown,” Mike Flannery said last night on his Flannery Fired Up program on Fox Chicago, “and it’s in more peril now than ever before.”

And that’s where the looting, likely directed by Antifa, was centered late last Sunday night and early Monday morning–in and around downtown. Flannery called it “Sad, organized-crime looting.”

So the simple story is that economically speaking, the heart of Chicago is the Loop and North Michigan Avenue, the latter has been known as the Magnificent Mile for decades. You kill that and Chicago dies. Welcome to Detroit.

Last Sunday afternoon a 20-year-old Englewood man was shot by Chicago police officers; he has since been charged with first-degree attempted murder. The accused allegedly shot at the police. A rumor spread online–or was it a manufactured lie?–that the cops shot instead shot an unarmed 15-year-old boy in the same impoverished Englewood neighborhood.

Then came the looting later that night.

The coordinated manner of the looting consisted of mobile criminals, a few of them armed, that quickly descended on the Mag Mile. Some of them came with specialized tools such as drills to hasten the break-ins. There were reports of U-Hauls being packed with stolen goods. The thieves were more organized, Flannery remarked, than the 400 police officers dispatched downtown to confront them.

Much like the people of Englewood, the residents of the downtown area–and the business owners–don’t feel safe there. That’s not to say the folks of the South Side–or the even-worse off West Side–don’t deserve to feel safe. They certainly do. Some of that 70-percent-of-Chicago’s-economic-activity makes its way to the city’s poverty-stricken areas. Should they receive more of it? Probably, but that discussion will belong to shoulda-happened-looking-back rants that you’ll find on Reddit soon.

A few days after the most recent round of looting it was reported that Macy’s is considering leaving the glitzy Water Tower Place mall on North Michigan Avenue, or just perhaps they’ll just downsize there. Under the Marshall Field’s name Macy’s was an original tenant of the mall. What of the smaller operations, the family-run retail outlets who have been devastated with two rounds of looting in just over two months? When they leave, because they don’t have the big names, it won’t make big news. But when Chicago’s downtown area is dominated by boarded up store-fronts with signs declaring “Move in now–lease rates reduced again–first month free!” you’ll know the downtown descent is well under way.

As for the residents of the Loop, the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, and Lakeview, unlike those people in Englewood, they can afford to move and swallow selling their homes at a loss. A lot of them will. “Why should I stay here?” many will wonder, “there is so much crime, there are no good restaurants here, and there are no decent places to shop.”

You don’t believe me? Here’s what Alderman Brian Hopkins (2nd), a Lightfoot opponent, said on that same Flannery Fired Up show. He decried “the economic devastation and the blow to our collective psyche,” as well as “the sense that people have that they can’t live here anymore, their safety is at risk if they try to live here.” Hopkins believes with the right actions Chicago can be saved. Lightfoot certainly knows that she is facing a severe crisis. But I suspect because she is an ideologue she is incapable of instituting meaningful policy changes.

Right now I believe that for Chicago it’s a matter of mitigating its decline and fall. The looting and riots are of course just a symptom. Chicago hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1931 but it’s best-known mayor–and possibly its best-ever–was machine boss Richard J. Daley, who ruled America’s then-second-largest city with an iron fist from 1955 until 1976. He was a New Deal Democrat–with a strong law-and-order bent. But Lori Lightfoot is Chicago’s first leftist mayor. After the spring round of looting and riots she seemed more interested in protecting the rights of protesters than protecting citizens and businesses. Sadly the line between rioters and protesters in 2020 is blurry and that sentiment was expressed by a Black Lives Matter organizer who said last week in front of a Chicago Police station about looting, “That is reparations.”

Yesterday a march on the South Side evolved in a violent confrontation downtown between protesters and the police. Cops were attacked with mace, one police officer was repeatedly struck with a skateboard.

Who brings mace to a “peaceful” protest?

The elected prosecutor of Cook County is another leftist, Kim Foxx, Jussie Smollett’s protector, who in one of her first acts in office announced that she would not prosecute shoplifters charged with stealing merchandise worth less than $1,000, even though state law gives a $300 threshold. For the last three years–Foxx was elected in 2016–retail strips have been hit by flash mobs of shoplifters, including some on the Magnificent Mile.

Many accounts of this latest round of looting mentioned that the criminals seemed emboldened. Of course they are.

Chicago has other serious problems. Its municipal pension programs are the worst-funded of any major city. Detroit’s fall was hastened by enacting a commuter and municipal income tax in 1963. Chicago doesn’t have either of those but it has its pension bomb. So does Cook County and the rest of Illinois. Lightfoot, to be fair, didn’t create the Chicago pension crisis. It was Boss Daley’s son, Richard M., another long-serving mayor, who bears most of the responsibility for that disaster.

Welcome to Detroit.

If there is a way out for Chicago, here it is. State law needs to be changed so municipalities and government agencies can declare bankruptcy. This move will in the short-term be painful as pensioners will receive a “haircut” and vendors will end up with ten-cents on the dollar or so for money owed to them. And the federal government needs to allow states to do the same.

Yep, just like Detroit.

I’m not gleeful about such a move. I have friends and relatives who are collecting those pensions. And as a man of the private-sector I don’t like seeing businesses getting short-changed. As a property owner living just five miles from the city limits I might get caught up in the financial tsunami too.

But the money wasn’t there for pensions in Chicago before COVID-19 and the riots. There’s less of it now.

I was born in Chicago and I’ve lived one-third of my life there. This story is tragic.

Agitators in Chicago complain of “systemic racism” and “white supremacy.” Perhaps. But then again perhaps not. Lightfoot, Foxx, as well as the Cook County president, Toni Preckwinkle, are African-American women. Chicago’s new police chief is a black man, he succeeded another African-American male. The chief judge of the Cook County Circuit Court is a black man too.

Another way to cushion Chicago’s fall is its citizens to vote, regardless of party-affiliation, for leaders who are results-oriented and not ideologues.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The Klan Would be Envious of Today’s Political / Professional Media Left

Posted: June 27, 2020 by datechguy in culture
Tags: , ,

So let me get this straight, because a cop (who is now charged with murder) went over the line in Minneapolois killing a black suspect the Democrat/Media/Political/ Left

  1. Allowed black business to be looted and burned in the city it happened
  2. Allowed looting and rioting affecting black neighborhoods across the country
  3. Allowed an “autonomous zone” to be set up without law where a black man died because police could not escort paramedics to protect them.
  4. Called for and in some cases began the process of removing police in the areas where black residents are targeted by criminals for crime.
  5. And after proclaiming that black Americans are suffering inordinately from a pandemic encouraged them to assemble enmass without restriction or distancing and even pressureed medial professional to profess that this risk was worth doing, and then two weeks after said protests viola cases of said virus are spiking in those areas.
  6. Made no attempt to stop and even spoke in favor of the destruction descreation and or removal of monuments to…
  • A famous opponent of slavery who served as a Union officer and was killed in the fight to end slavery.
  • The commander of the Union Army who took was responsible for the surrender of three Rebel armies including Robert E. Lee’s which brought about the surrender of the Confederacy
  • Abraham Lincoln who declared the emancipation of the slaves and stuck by it despite pressure to recend it.
  • The 1st US president to invite a black leader to the White House for dinner.
  • And a monument celebrating emancipation paid for entirely by freed slaves.

all under the slogan of “Black Lives Matter”.

So given these facts I have an obvious question to ask:

If you took black hating Democrat Klansman from the 1870’s angry about the results of the just ended civil war whose only asperation was seeking to inflict the maximum possible harm to the black community in the United States in revenge, and put that man in charge of the Democrat/Media/Political left actions and reactions starting on the day after George Floyd’s death, how would his actions and reactions of said Democat/Media/Political to the situations I’ve listed be different?

I submit and suggest that not only would said actions/reactions not be different but if you approached such a man as I’ve described and offered him the leadership of the Democrat/Media/Political left he would decline on the grounds that he couldn’t do a better job undermining black america and americans on a national scale they those already in charge because unlike the current Democrat/Media/Political left he would not be able to convince large swaths of the black community to support their own undermining.

He would look at them in awe.

Government officials are picking and choosing which individuals get to exercise which rights

Posted: June 11, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,

I’m living in midsized town called Webster Massachusetts.  Because of the Coronavirus lockdowns the Memorial Day parade was canceled in my town along with fireworks on July 4th.  The local high school canceled graduation.  Businesses were forced to close.  There are three Catholic Churches here, along with a Baptist Church, and several other denominations; all of which have not held services for months. While all of this was not going on a Black Lives Matter protest was held. 

I have no problem with the Black Lives Matter protest being held in my town even though I have many issues with the sponsoring organization, mainly their connection with many attacks on police officers, their anti police officer message, and their Marxist message.  I completely support their right to hold protests and to spread their message.  It bothers me greatly that all of us locals are denied so many of our most fundamental rights while an outside group was able to exercise their rights.

This type of injustice is going on all across this great nation.  Yes free speech and freedom to assemble are such fundamental rights that they are listed in the First Amendment.  The right of all of us to attend which ever church service we wish to as often as we wish is also listed in the First Amendment. 

The right of all of us to do as we please, to come and go as we please, to work where we please, and to run what type of business we want to are all covered under liberty. This most fundamental right is being denied to tens of millions across this nation.   Some individuals are allowed to come and go because they are deemed essential workers, and some businesses are allowed to open because they are classified as essential.  Far too often these classifications do not make sense.  They are made for political reasons.  Governments should never pick and choose winners and losers.  Liberty is a fundamental right that can only be denied to individuals who have been found guilty in a court of law

The Black Lives protests are welcomed by local and state officials.  Conservative groups in many states held protests against the unjust lockdowns.   Were these anti lockdown protests welcomed as warmly?  Were any conservative protests denied or harassed?  I haven’t heard of any instances of conservative permits being denied or harassment but I’m guessing they happened.  If you are aware of any please let me know in the comments.

These lockdowns are unjust along with the business closings.  It is wall past time to restore the liberty and rights of everyone in the United States by opening every state back fully.

Society Without Police: The Return of Riding Shotgun (for real)

Posted: June 10, 2020 by datechguy in business, News/opinion
Tags: , , , ,

One of the advantages of being a man of my age is that you grew up at a time when westerns were rather popular on TV. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Western was the lack of a police department in all but the biggest cities. That gives those of us who are old enough a reference to a society where you have no police department.

As I suspect a lot of our friends on the left do not have a reference for a society without police as they go all in on the “Defund the Police” business over the next week or so let me illustrate just one of the may consequences that our ignorant at best or idiotic at worst leftists are not considering because they’re well ignorant and/or well IDIOTS.

Likely you have heard the term “Riding Shotgun” which over the last 50 years has meant riding in the front with the driver.

However 150 years ago riding shotgun meant just that.

If you had someone “riding shotgun” that meant that next to the stagecoach driver whose attention had to be on the horses and what passed for roads you would have a 2nd person next to him, armed with a shotgun.

His job was to watch for armed attackers on any stripe. In an age when lawlessness was common and the entire population was acquainted with death as an everyday risk and thanks to a bloody civil war inoculated against horror over the killing of another a shotgun guard would not have too much to worry about if he found it necessary to discharge his weapon at a potential attacker.

Now with the advent of the automobile, quicker travel, communications and of course a regular police force the necessity for additional armed guards for all but the most valuable cargoes (like a brinks truck) became unnecessary. Furthermore as laws have become stricter and death less familiar the risks of discharging a weapon in defense of a cargo have increased and of course the presence of police who can be called in case of trouble makes the risk of going after a lesser cargo not worth the reward.

But the removal or de-funding of police changes that equation.

First of all if you are a thief looking for a quick score , or an addict in need of money for a fix these lesser targets, a UPS truck making deliveries, a Tractor trailer heading for a store, a mail truck delivering packages or even an UBER driver taking a passenger from an event become very inviting. The absence of police, either due to the force being abolished or because limited resources means nobody to respond to a call & even fewer available to follow up on a robbery after the fact.

This means bad news for a delivery driver who will be taking his life into his own hands in such a city. While any individual package might not be worth a lot a UPS Truck with anything near a full load would be worth enough to hit and loot and what isn’t kept for oneself will turn up at a flea market or pawn shop or sold on eBay.

This means a you need a 2nd person in the truck but if there are no police to call or no prospect that any would come a 2nd person would have no function other than to watch the truck get emptied, unless he was armed.

And if you are talking about a tractor trailer making regular delivers which might have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of items in tow the necessity of an armed guard ready to shoot exists every single day.

So while there a lot of downsides to the de-funding or departure of the police force on the plus side this will mean literally thousands of job opportunities for those both with steady nerves and the willingness to take a risk as shotgun riders for trailers, and UPS trucks and other cargo, jobs that have not been available in such quantity in a century and a half.

Alas for our friends on the left burdened with student loans who are triggered by a speaker who disagrees with them or who can’t function if the wrong pronoun is used, it’s unlikely that these new jobs will head their way. Much more likely a maga man, familiar with a gun and who knows how and when to use it (or not) will get that job.

I’m sure the sight of such a armed fellow in the delivery truck as it pulls up to their house or apartment building will be a great comfort to those inside.

Older Entries
Newer Entries