With the latest round of killings sending shock waves through Chicago's gang-infested neighborhoods, local activists are clear on one thing. Mayor Daley is in danger of losing the latest battle to save our city in the larger "war" with they city's street gangs. Under duress, he appears to be closing ranks in the post-Olympics-loss blame game, while simultaneously being exposed as having allowed the Olympics to consume his administration's attention as Fenger High, Uptown, and countless other hot spots flared into mini-versions of "Lord of the Flies."
Where is the leadership that Daley so proudly proclaimed last year in attacking the gang problem across the city? Sure, Taste of Chicago was relatively tame this year, but we have all-out war in the neighborhoods. When he was wining and dining the Copenhagen glitterati, posing with Oprah and Obama, and cajoling every reporter in town that the Olympics were coming; his embattled police command couldn't even keep their cameras pointed down range to insure officers were where they needed to be when the mobs turned into wolf packs out for a kill.
When you look at the videos of the wilding gangs chasing victims in Uptown, the lynch-beating murder of sixteen-year-old Derrion Albert, or the tearful soul-ripping pleas from victims' mothers and grandmothers for help from our city fathers; what don't you see? You sure as hell don't see the Mayor, political candidates, Aldermen and Alderwomen, county board members, or business luminaries descending upon our blood-stained poor neighborhoods giving real triage to the root of the problem.
Nope, they're still nestled safely in their chauffeured cars, protected by staff behind marble-lined, cordoned-off, wood-paneled environs; glass-and-steel towers, and echelons of security personnel to keep them "safe" to do the "people's business." All the while, the city's children are slaughtered in the streets.
Its time for these political opportunist power-brokers and money-hounds to leave the damn Loop to really walk the walk with the ministers and community activists who are trying to pick up the pieces of our duct-taped-together neighborhoods before another entire generation of young kids are either dead or incarcerated. It is time for our city and county leaders to actually prioritize REAL attention and money to what matters, instead of chasing a dream off to Copenhagen, or DC, or whatever glitzy benefit happens to be on at the Four Seasons or Peninsula that night. Its time for them to ride-along with our cops, social workers, teachers, and EMTs; to see what's really happening out there in the REAL Chicago instead of the "idealized" version that's been rolling in the 2016 promo videos.
Mr. Mayor, it starts with you. You need to leave City Hall for a few weeks, and spend every day in the neighborhoods, listening, learning, and then acting to save the city you say you love so dearly. Your legacy, and your loyalty to us...the people who got you there, is at stake--not to mention hundreds of thousands of young lives who should be preparing to take over and lead in our city's uncertain future.
