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Tag: Armed robbery

The Week in the rearview mirror

Published by pvbella on May 6, 2022
Image: PV Bella

This week Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced what everyone knew. Bally got the nod for Chicago’s first casino. It will be located on the Tribune publishing site. Some alderpersons are going all NIMBY over the selection. Alderpersons and community groups were screaming Not In My Back Yard over the casino proposals during the selection process. They wanted the casino, just not in their communities. There were only a few areas where the casino should be built. They were near downtown and the convention center at McCormick Place.

CWBChicago, the only crime and justice- or lack thereof- reporting worth reading in this city, obtained a video of a vicious robbery in the Lincoln Park/DePaul neighborhood. The video shows the robbery victim being shot while lying on the ground. It is about time people see how vicious some of our pampered criminals are.

 The whiny bike people are once again complaining about the inadequate bike lanes in some parts of the city after a cyclist was killed in an accident. It appears some streets are not suited to the whims of the cyclists. The intelligent thing to do would be to ban cyclists on those streets during certain hours. Also, it is past time for the city to crack down on lawless cyclists who do not obey traffic laws. The city could make a boatload of money ticketing cyclists. Like reckless drivers and motorcyclists, there is one set of laws the most reckless cyclists keep violating to their fatal peril: the laws of physics.

The City of Chicago has a new publishitty (Misspelling intentional) stunt. Free branded canned water. Yep, instead of going to the nearest water tap, you can get Chicagwa. It may be an old Native American word for idiot or stench of leaders. Indicted Aldercreature, Ed Burke promoted bottling the city’s water years ago. People thought he was, ahem, off. It looks like our current leadership is way off.

The oldest operating neon sign in Chicago hit the auction block. The sign outside the Orange Garden restaurant, also the longest operating Chinese restaurant in the city, was bought by Chloe Mendel, wife of Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan. Her winning bid was $17,000. Corgan is currently touring in Mexico with the band.

There are two things you can count on in Chicago. The politics and the weather suck. “It’s not your imagination: It truly has been more gloomy, rainy and wet than usual in Chicago this spring.” I don’t remember a cold, dreary, and wet spring like this one. Politics and weather, misery loves company.

Nine people were shot this week in the downtown area. It appears “Tex” Brown ran out of plans, strategies, and deployments to keep the public safe. Once the weather gets warm, the spring and summer offensive will be in full force in our neighborhoods. One would hope the City Council would finally do something or say something. Hope dies in City Hall.

The Grades are in Fs Across the Board

Published by pvbella on December 6, 2021
Image: PV Bell
  • Mayor Lori Lightfoot- F
  • Chicago City Council- F
  • Cook County Commissioner Toni Preckwinkle- F
  • Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx- F
  • Chief Judge Tim Evans- F
  • David Brown, Superintendent of Chicago Police- F
  • Chicago News Media/Editorial Boards- F

If you get an F in public safety, you have no business holding elective or appointed office or publishing or airing news.

One of the nice things about being an elected official in Chicago is never having to take responsibility for your failures. Elected officials are not responsible for anything. It is always someone else’s fault. They keep coming up with systemic lame excuses instead of effective solutions. Yet, you gullible voters believe their logomachy and keep reelecting them.

There were over 1000 homicides in Cook County this year, with one month left. 803 homicides were committed in Chicago. In Chicago, 4304 people were shot, and 3549 were wounded this year. Over 80% of the victims were African American. Over 14% were Hispanic. 3.9% were white or of other races. Add to those numbers the 1444 carjackings this year, most of them armed. (Cook County Medical Examiner and HeyJackass)

There is a daily spate of armed robberies in various entertainment neighborhoods. High-end stores are being burglarized and robbed by groups who steal thousands or tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise while traumatizing the employees. Flash mobs are causing havoc, injury, and shootings downtown and along Michigan Avenue near Grant Park.

Chicago witnessed out-of-control violent crime in every neighborhood for over one year. No area of this city is safe. Any citizen is at risk of becoming an innocent victim of violence or a shooting. Even children, toddlers, and infants are innocent victims.

Our elected officials are silent over the unrelenting violence in Chicago. The Mayor, Cook County Board President, State’s Attorney, and many Alderpersons and Cook County Commissioners are mute. When and if they do speak, it is word soup and jabberwocky.

Everyone keeps seeking the causes for this rampant criminality. Experts with no expertise are brought in and paid to give their reasoning and solutions through their narrow-minded mercenary lenses. The Chicago Police Department continues with its merry-go-round of plans, strategies, contingencies, and realignments. The politicians come up with solutions based on their communication spoke’s weasels. They toss around systemic this or that. They are not seeking effective solutions.

We are beyond looking for causes. We are witnessing the effects- death, wounding, and traumatization. We need effective solutions to curb this criminality. Effective being the operative word. The politicians threw effectiveness out of the window in their quest for the “why.” The most compelling question is “what.” “What” is a direct question that yields specific effective solutions. “Why” gives us more logomachy, nonsensical word soup.

There is a total lack of empathy and sympathy for the victims and their families. Our politicians are cold-hearted, devoid of pity, mercy, and basic humanity. The only time they display emotion is when they are harshly criticized. Then, after their faux over emotional Academy Award appearance before the news cameras, critics are slapped down and silenced. 

The Chicago news media goes right along with this. It appears they are working hand in hand with the politicians’ spoke’s weasels. The news media in Chicago is no longer courageous. The editorial boards are silent on the rampant violent criminality. They, like the gullible voters, believe whatever the politicians tell them. Like well-trained parrots, they repeat it.

We no longer have the luxury of time to figure out the causes- the “why”- of this criminality. We need to find effective solutions to curb it. We can figure out the why later. How many more people must die, suffer, or be traumatized before our elected officials start caring?

We do have one stubborn verified systemic problem in Chicago. It is the systemic stupidity of the voters. They keep reelecting the same people who are responsible for the criminality. Public safety is one of the most important, if not the most important, government responsibility. The voters keep voting for failures.

Public safety is not even a consideration to the politicians. They are all talk and no action. The county and city elected officials are gearing up for their next re-election cycle. They will tout their various supposed successes. There is only one solution. Shed the mantle of systemic voter stupidity. Embrace Critical Election Theory. Do not reelect anyone who did not and will not keep us safe. Throw all the bums out. Bring in new people who believe in public safety.

Maybe some long ago pundit was right. One of the most profane, obscene, and vulgar terms in our language is “career politician.”