Category: The Law

That reparations are off the table?

While Brandon Johnson, the mayor of Chicago was blaming white extremists for some of the problems in Chicago he said one thing that really stuck out from all the usual diatribe.

“It is abysmal and it is an affront to everything that is good about this country for the extremism in this country to use people as political tools to settle political scores for something that happened over 400 years ago. They’re still mad that a black man is free in this country,” – Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago.

Is he suggesting that we should stop trying to settle scores for something that happened 400 years ago?

If so, does he mean all scores? Since reparations have been paid at least once, (40 acres and a mule) I’d take Brandon Johnson at his word and say, “Okay, The black community needs to stop asking for more reparations and those evil white extremists will stop doing whatever you’re accusing them of.”

Let’s face it, the majority of this whole white supremacy/ white extremist narrative is nothing more than a reuse of “The Monster in the closet/ Boogieman” designed to terrify black folks into voting for the Democrats. It’s a lot like the Hamas children’s shows extolling the evil of the Jews and teaching little Palestinian Children that killing Jews is a good thing.

In fact you could take one of those Hamas children shows and replace the word “Jew” with the word “White” and not have to reshoot a single frame of the show. A lot of black folks would eat that shit right up and be burning and looting inside a week. Especially if you made sure that everyone knew the show was from Palestine. (After all if it’s from Palestine it has to be “good and right” doesn’t it?)

Chicago is a shit show and has been a shit show for a very long time. I have an acquaintance who talks about driving into Chicago for a Thanksgiving gathering in the late 1970’s and getting shot in the leg, sitting inside the car after filling his tank with gas. No warning, no altercation, he just happened to be a white guy passing through South Chicago. The family was selling their home due to the rising crime and this was to be the last Thanksgiving in Illinois. The round was a .22 and had to be surgically removed. The police of course never found the shooter, and couldn’t even say if he was a target or if the round ricocheted from a gun fight happening half a block away.

The issue isn’t White Supremacy or extremists. The issue is one of law and order. If someone breaks the law and gets arrested, it doesn’t matter what the color of their skin is, or their financial circumstances, or in fact anything except that they broke the law. They should pay the price! End of discussion.

The only variation I’d offer is for children. Sometimes a kid gets caught up in something that escalates so fast they’re in the middle of a storm. I’d suggest we go back to the time when a judge could show lenience in the case of a first time offender. The judge could sentence the youthful offender to supervised public service. 

Paint buildings in the park. Pick up trash. Have the kid do something useful and make it clear that if they wanted a part time job it’s available depending on their grades, their parents permission, and how hard they work. Try to instill a sense of pride in the community.

Oh yes, that can’t work right now because there are too many people with completely different views of pride in their communities and simply too many people committing crimes.

Johnson doesn’t want to say it out loud. 

Chicago is the mess it is due to poor public policies, lack of law enforcement, lenient courts, and being a sanctuary city. Lightfoot didn’t help matters and he does have a mess to clean up, but Lightfoot is not solely to blame for that mess. Johnson needs to blame half a century of poor Democratic leadership. People who wouldn’t learn from their mistakes and who simply kept doubling down instead of discarding failed ideas.