Tag: violent crime

Come to Chicago Go home in a box

Published by pvbella on May 3, 2022

“Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday that she was “not happy” about violence that again touched downtown Chicago over the weekend and ended with a cancellation of Sunday night’s performance of the musical “Moulin Rouge.”

“We’re working our tails off every single day. Obviously not happy about this weekend,” Lightfoot told reporters at an unrelated news conference.

Particularly distressing is, again, the number of young people that seemingly are involved in acts of violence. It’s clearly not acceptable and that’s why we’ve got to keep doing the things that we know are working.” (Chicago Tribune/Emphasis Mine)

There was another shooting downtown early Tuesday morning. Four people were shot at an intersection. 30-forty casings were found at the scene, some of them rifle rounds. “Tuesday’s victims are the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth persons shot in the Loop this year.” (CWB)

I do not know what delusional world Mayor Lori Lightfoot lives in or if she believes the lies of her subordinates and police superintendent. She wants to keep doing things she “knows are working.” Nothing the city is doing to mitigate violent crime is working. Not one damn thing. The only thing that curbed crime so far this year was the cold weather. As temps rise, crime will rise. So will the body count.

The streets are not safe. Public transportation is not safe. Businesses are not safe. There is no safe in Chicago. The criminals are winning. The public is losing. It is long past time for City Hall to realize that Superintendent David “Tex” Brown is a complete failure. He has no idea what he is doing. Brown has no credibility. His data and data analytics are not credible. They are just pornography for the hormonally charged news media.

Where are the alderpersons? The crime is happening in their wards- their backyards- yet most are dead silent. It appears they do not care about the safety or lives of their constituents, or themselves.

Where are the business leaders and organizations? They, too, are silent. They keep bosting Chicago while the headlines tout the violence downtown, on Michigan Avenue, and Near North, the tourist and business travelers’ areas.

How many people must go through emergency rooms or bodies stacked up in the morgue before someone wakes up and says ENOUGH? Nothing they “know is working” will work when the weather warms up. All the plans, strategies, deployments, and other nonsense the Superintendent of Police keep washing, rinsing, and repeating will fail again and again.

The problem is that elected officials and their appointees can never admit that they are wrong, even to themselves. Failure is an option is a better strategy than admitting failure.

Where are the news media editorial boards? They have been silent for way too long. They should be scorching City Hall and David Brown. They, like the alderpersons, are silent.

Where is the outrage from the citizens, each and every one a potential victim? Do people really believe nothing can happen to them? Are people really that blind? There should be an uprising over this city’s lack of public safety.

Chicago is a city of silent scoundrels. The silence is just as criminal as the violence. Public safety is the most critical issue in governance. Lightfoot failed Chicago. Most of the alderpersons failed Chicago.” Tex” Brown is a failure. How many failures will it take for people to demand change?

There is this false narrative-misinformation- in the news media that the COVID pandemic was a driver of violent crimes. Oh, how convenient. The new mantra from Brown and Lightfoot? “Guns, gangs, drugs, and COVID are the reasons for violent crime. ” The gullible people will suck this up and believe it.

There is one way to curb crime in Chicago. You, the people. You can flood your alderpersons with emails, phone calls, and in-person visits. You can make your voices heard in public when they have meetings. It is time for citizens to be literal pains in the arse to the elected officials.

Politicians’ greatest fear is unemployment. If the public outcry is loud enough and large enough, they will do what really works. As long as you are silent, you are a potential innocent victim. People need to stop believing if it doesn’t happen to them, there is no violent crime problem.

Mayor Lightfoot bid for the 2024 Democratic Convention to be held in Chicago. I guess touting Capone era violence must have charm appeal. Maybe we should raise our collective voices and not just say no, but HELL NO! No one asked us if we wanted that convention here. By 2024, Chicago could be a dystopian war zone. They want to throw a party. What are they going to celebrate? Murder and mayhem?

The Grades are in Fs Across the Board

Published by pvbella on December 6, 2021

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.”

Another attempt to free Larry Hoover

Published by pvbella on November 22, 2021

Larry Hoover/Image: Essence

Gangster Disciple gang leader Larry Hoover, 70, has been in prison since 1973. He was sentenced to 150-200 years in the Illinois prison system for murder. While in state prison, Hoover created the Folks faction of gangs, uniting many local Black, Hispanic, and the few White gangs left in Chicago under the banner. This created more opportunities for drug distribution and eliminated the violence competition causes.

In 1997, after an almost two-decade-long investigation, Hoover was convicted by the federal government for running his gang from Illinois prisons and running a 100 million dollar a year multi-state drug operation, something most in local law enforcement already knew. He was sentenced to six life sentences in prison. He was transferred to the ADX Florence supermax prison in Colorado.

The Gangster Disciples were not just a Chicago street gang. They were a super gang, a multi-state criminal enterprise specializing in narcotics, violence, extortion, and murder. They were responsible for the massive social and human destruction drugs, and drug sales caused.

There have been attempts to have Hoover released on parole for over a decade or his sentences commuted. While in state prison, he ordered his minions to change the gang’s name to Growth and Development, a supposed social, community, and political organization. This was a ploy to change the public’s perception of him. It was an attempt to get a grant of parole or commutation.

A new attempt to get Hoover out of prison was launched by Drake and Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. They announced a benefit concert at the LA Coliseum titled “Free Larry Hoover.” “The historic” concert will “raise awareness and support for Larry Hoover and the cause of prison and sentencing reform, according to the venues event page.” (Pitchfork)

Larry Hoover will never be released from prison. Even if his federal sentence is commuted, he must still serve out the rest of his 150–200-year state sentence. He is being credited by some for all the supposed good he did in and out of prison. It is all nonsense. The so-called community efforts were a sham and cover for his gang’s criminal activities. Al Capone, the last celebrity gangster, was a do-gooder too.

As a police officer, I witnessed some of the human and social destruction caused by Larry Hoover’s gang and the factions he created. It made the lives of impoverished and working poor even harder. Many young people’s lives were ruined by using the drugs his gang sold. Other young people went to prison for selling his drugs and committing other crimes, including murder under his flag.

Larry Hoover does not deserve a commutation(s), parole, mercy, or leniency. He is responsible directly and indirectly for violence, murder, and running a continuing violent criminal enterprise.

Hoover does not deserve the celebrity treatment and status he is being given. He is a career criminal and crime boss who perpetrated evil in our city and other places on a grand scale.

Oh the beautiful lies they tell

Published by pvbella on October 4, 2021

“So that’s what they wanted: lies. Beautiful lies. That’s what they needed. People were fools. It was going to be easy for me.” (Charles Bukowski)

Chicagoans are not willing to deal with reality. Most citizens can’t handle the truth. The politicians, their spokes weasels, and the news media know this. They create soft language to protect us from the harsh reality of the ugly truth staring us in the face. These are called euphemisms.

Smug, overpaid spokes weasels, and wordsmiths create euphemisms to conceal our overlords’ sins of omission. When the spokes weasels and wordsmiths get stymied, they turn to academia. They seek experts with no expertise to create new language to hide the epic failures of our elected officials and their appointees.

Large urban areas were plagued with gangs. The gangs became racketeers. Their crimes became the rackets. Then, they changed the wording to crime syndicates, then organized crime. Organized crime morphed into organized criminal enterprises. Now, we have cartels.

Equality and inequality were bantered around for decades. The politicians finally woke up and realized humans are not all created equal and never will be. They now discuss equity. Equity is good. Inequity is bad. They no longer seek equality. They strive for equity. If they bring equity to the city, it will solve our problems.

Crime is no longer the result of human activity. It is part and parcel of systemic and intractable somethings or others. Crime should be understood in that context with a dose of nuance thrown in for good measure.

We no longer blame people for crimes. We blame their environment. Crime, like climate change, is now an environmental issue. I am sure that brings cold comfort to the victims, who the environment is victimizing.

Criminals, like the former physically and mentally handicapped, are referred to as challenged people. They have obstacles to overcome. Society must remove the obstacles that challenge them. I thought society elected people to do that.

Out-of-control violent crime in Chicago, especially gun violence, is not just an environmental issue. It is also a public health issue. It starts as a breakout, becomes an epidemic. Now, it is a pandemic, deadlier than COVID. All the city’s holistic treatments and measures failed. Chicago politicians hope the CDC and FDA can develop solutions, vaccines, and cures before we perish.

The Chicago Police Department is supposed to police the city. Yet, our masters tell us we cannot police our way out of the Olympic Games of Violence plaguing every neighborhood in Chicago. Go figure.

“We” must solve the decades-long systemic issues plaguing underserved communities. Once that major feat is accomplished, “we” can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. Who is this “we” “they” keep talking about?

There is another name for euphemisms, beautiful lies. Politicians and the news media tell us beautiful lies. We, the fools, believe them. It makes their job easier. They are terrified if we realize the ugly truth one day, and a pandemic of fear breaks out in Chicago. Fear leads to outrage. Outrage leads to unemployed politicians.

Politicians never admit they have no clue how to resolve issues. By the way, issues used to be called problems. Problems- a mathematical term- must be solved. They cannot solve problems. They changed the word to issues. Issues must be resolved. Resolved buys them time, even decades, to figure out solutions to the problems they will never solve.

There used to be numbers. Numbers turned into statistics. Statistics transmuted into data. In the age of technology, data is a sexier term. When politicians or appointees roll out data, the news media and citizens tingle and slobber like hormonally charged teenagers. When the sexiness of data wears off, the spokes weasels are ready. The next pornographic word is analytics. Data and analytics do not lie. Politicians use data and analytics to tell beautiful lies.

Politicians keep talking about accountability and transparency, sometimes in the same breath. Those two words replaced responsibility and truth. Elected officials are neither accountable nor transparent. We do not hold them responsible for their lies as we keep reelecting them or electing the same ilk. Politicians talk about change. The only thing they change is words. They are inept to change things. So, they change the vocabulary. Voila, ~~problems solved~~ issues resolved.

Chicago is a long dark dangerous alley

Published by pvbella on September 3, 2021

Rush Steet alley at night Image: PV Bella

Would you walk or drive down a dark Chicago alley? Chicago is turning into a proverbial dark alley. The well-lit streets are as dangerous and fearsome as nighttime alleys.

“We deeply understand how important it is for our residents to feel safe within our neighborhoods across the city,” said Brown said in a statement. “We are retooling our crime-fighting strategies to stop the spike in crimes that we are seeing so we can bring a greater sense of safety to our communities.” (Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown/WGN)

Retooling? is that the new word for another plan? When all else fails, change the vocabulary. He had plans. Now, he is retooling. His retooling will fail too. Brown does not get it. The violence in Chicago is wanton and has nothing to do with the supposed root causes of crime or gangs, guns, and drugs. The violence is caused by people just because they can do it. There is a sub-culture of violence all across the city. Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites are fueling violent crimes, depending on the neighborhood.

This cultural violence cannot be curbed. The people committing violent crimes believe this is what they should be doing. They are like the Taliban. Instead of violence on behalf of Allah, these terrorists are committing violence on behalf of themselves. They know there will be few if any, repercussions.

We are heading into a three-day, four-night holiday weekend. If the 4th of July was an indication, this will be another bloody, violent, and deadly weekend in Chicago. Some are projecting that by year’s end, over 1000 people will be killed by gunfire.

I talk to many people. They all say they used to feel safe in the city. They no longer feel safe. They lost confidence in the police department to keep them safe. Many blame Mayor Lightfoot, Brown, Kim Foxx, Toni Preckwinkle, and the court system. Their blame is well-founded.

The street cops are confused, overworked, understaffed, and distraught. They no longer know what is allowed, and they will not risk their jobs or lives because of the confusion. They do not trust that the Chicago Office of Police Accountability performs fair, balanced, accurate, and legal investigations. They do not trust that Brown has their best interests in mind. He is an outsider mercenary.

Some of the alderpersons are fed up. They see what is happening in their wards, yet, the mayor controls the police. They have no power. Since the City Council is fractured into various caucuses, there is no large block of alderpersons to demand the mayor hold Brown accountable or send him back to Texas.

The question is, when will enough be enough for the citizens? When will we demand better from the mayor and Superintendent of Police? She is accountable, and there is no accountability. There is no transparency. There is only talk, and talk is cheap.

The criminal element has no fear. They are taking every opportunity to prove who has the power in Chicago. They do. They are wielding their power and exploiting the leadership vacuum. Vacuums create chaos. Chicago is a city in chaos. Havoc rules.

We deserve better. We need to demand better. The reformers, activists, and news media lied to us. They claimed criminal justice reforms would not impact public safety, even though they knew better. Instead of public safety, we have criminal safety. The criminals are safe from arrest, prosecution, and punishment. The citizens are not safe from murder, mayhem, or violent death.

This violence is a pandemic, now worse than COVID-19. Masks, social distancing, and lockdowns will not curb it. There is no vaccination. If anything is taking away our freedoms, it is the criminal element in this city. They rule with impunity. We live in fear, and if you do not, there is something wrong with you. Anyone, no matter where they live, can be a violent crime victim in Chicago.

Chicago is nothing more than one long dark dangerous alley, too dangerous to walk or drive down.

Don’t go out at night

Published by pvbella on August 29, 2021

This was updated. I found a video to download and it runs faster. See below.

Downtown Chicago used to be safe at night. From the Loop to River North, Gold Coast, and beyond, you could walk down State Street or Michigan Avenue in relative safety. You could even walk on the lakefront until closing hour.

The street lights, store windows, neon, and other attractions lent a romatintic atmosphere. The crowds were gone. People were out enjoying themselves. You could go to the movies, walk to dinner, then just wak. Maybe you would stop into a watering hole for a drink, or two or three. There were clubs with all kinds of entertainment.

During the Christmas season, there was a festive air. Christmas lights, street decorations, store window decorations, and Sal Army Santas ringing their bells. There was a festive athmosphere. People were in a happier mood.

No more.

Criminals own the night. Bands of violent criminals attack, and brutalize people for no reason, or violently rob them. No one steps in to stop them. No one steps in to help.

The video below shows two men attacked, brutally beaten, and robbed on the 400 block of Noth State Street.

https://vimeo.com/594283524

For over four minutes,, two men were robbed and brutalized while bystanders shot phone videos, celebrated, danced, and twerked. Motorists kept driving by, trying to avoid hitting anyone.

Nowhere is safe in this Mad Max era of Chicago. Michigan Avenue, River North, and the Gold Coast, are no longer safe at night. The romance and festivity turned into a nightmare. Even the parking lots are not safe.

People used to be able to go out to dinner, walk, stop in one or two places for a late-night drink or two or three. There are clubs for entertainment. Now, people are the entertainment for criminals and their bystander fans.

Downtown, North and South Michigan Avenue and River North turned into violent crime-ridden areas. There are roving bands of robbers, thieves, groups wilding, and other violent actors. Even during the day, bands of thieves invade designer stores, stealing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. They will pummel anyone who tries to stop them.

Nighttime is the worst. The night is when there is no value for human life. The night is when you are most vulnerable. The night is when you could be beaten, shot, wounded, or killed. Areas once known for safety are now dangerous.

The revitalized gem, Grant Park turned into a staging ground for wildings, groups of young people running amok, terrorizing the area because they can. The Magnificent Mile is no longer magnificent. River North and River West are dangerous. The night turns these neighborhoods into the Wild West.

It is a pity our city came to this. The places we should be proud of are turning into violent,, crime-ridden battlegrounds at night. This criminality is not new and has been building up over the past few years. It started to get worse last year and is worsening this year.

The alderpersons representing the wards are complaining. Their complaints land on deaf ears. One alderperson was the victim of a battery while waiting for friends outside of a restaurant. Mayor Lightfoot is trying to please everyone and is pleasing no one. The citizens, news media, and City Council cannot figure out what she is doing.

Thanks to City Hall, an incompetent Superintendent of Police, a State’s Attorney who cares more about coddling criminals than prosecutions, and a court system that enables a revolving door of catch and release, the Loop, Mag Mile, and River North went from being attractive, safe places to visit or walk around to places to fear.

Nowhere is safe at night in those areas. The criminals know there are cameras all over the place. They do not care. They do not fear arrest or imprisonment if, by fat chance, they are prosecuted. This is not just criminality. It is a culture of violence. Violence is acceptable and expected behavior.

Criminals are waging war. There is no rhyme or reason for their actions. They do it because they can. They do it because they want to. They do it for fun. They do it because no one will stop them. They do it because they know there will be no consequences.

Don’t go out at night.