According to a new report in Chicago Magazine, many Chicago politicians routinely meet with Black and Latino gangs for their support with promises and favors given in return. In other words, there is no shade between gangs and many politicians. There is also no hope of cleaning it up with these criminals in office.
Politicians in Chicago want the support of the gangs and former gang leaders who try to keep kids off the streets:
Some of the most notorious gangs on the South and West Sides, including the Vice Lords, Gangster Disciples, Black Disciples, Cobras, Black P Stones, and Black Gangsters. Before the election, the gangs agreed to set aside decades-old rivalries and bloody vendettas to operate as a unified political force, which they called Black United Voters of Chicago. “They realized that if they came together, they could get the politicians to come to them,” explains community organizer, Hal Baskin.
The politicians often buy all manner of drugs:
A high-ranking Latin King claims that a Latino elected official, still in office, and a member of his staff routinely buy drugs from the gang. “They do PCP, coke, smoke weed, drink, everything,” he says. Several gang members call such actions common. “That shit that goes on behind closed doors is outrageous,” says a Latin King from another part of the city.
It leaves the police with no recourse. They can’t touch the corrupt aldermen:
Two police sources—a former gang investigator and a veteran detective—bluntly acknowledge that even if the police know of dubious dealings between an alderman and a gang leader or drug dealer, there is little, if anything, they can do, thanks to what they say is the department’s unofficial rule: Stay away from public officials. “We can’t arrest aldermen,” says the gang investigator, “unless they’re doing something obvious to endanger someone. We’re told to stand down.” The detective concurs: “It’s the unwritten rule. There’s a two-tier justice system here.”
Politicians often tip off the gangs about raids or surveillance.
As you watch the Democrat Party release hundreds of thousands of prisoners, demand an end to the prison system, allow felons to vote, call for defunding police and abolishing police nationwide, consider that they then vote for the people who will keep corruption going. The entire country could become Chicago. Who do you think will stand up to the disintegration of our society? Biden?
FINDINGS FROM THE REPORT
- While they typically deny it, many public officials—mostly, but not limited to, aldermen, state legislators, and elected judges—routinely seek political support from influential street gangs. Meetings like the ones Baskin organized, for instance, are hardly an anomaly. Gangs can provide a decisive advantage at election time by performing the kinds of chores patronage armies once did.
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In some cases, the partnerships extend beyond the elections in troubling—and possibly criminal—ways, greased by the steady and largely secret flow of money from gang leaders to certain politicians and vice versa. The gangs funnel their largess through opaque businesses, or front companies, and through under-the-table payments. In turn, grateful politicians use their payrolls or campaign funds to hire gang members, pull strings for them to get jobs or contracts, or offer other favors (see “Gangs and Politicians: Prisoner Shuffle”).
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Most alarming, both law enforcement and gang sources say, is that some politicians ignore the gangs’ criminal activities. Some go so far as to protect gangs from the police, tipping them off to impending raids or to surveillance activities—in effect, creating safe havens in their political districts. And often they chafe at backing tough measures to stem gang activities, advocating instead for superficial solutions that may garner good press but have little impact.
The President wrote a letter to Governor Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot, offering his help, but all they want from him is taxpayer money and money won’t do it.
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