On Tuesday February, 14th at 1:30 PM Lavontay White was shot and killed in a gang related shooting while riding in the car with his aunt and her boyfriend. He was two years old. He was two years old.
Below you can listen to the sounds of him being shot and killed.
On Saturday February, 12th Takiya Holmes and her friend Kanari Gentry-Bowers were both shot. Takiya died immediately, Kanari died four days later in the hospital. Kanari died at age twelve. Takiya was only eleven.
In 2016 754 people were murdered in Chicago. 4,338 were shot. While this situation might be tolerable for those living outside of the affected communities, it is not for victims of these crimes, or the communities that are destroyed by the violence.
This is not a tenable situation for them and it has been ignored for years by Americans everywhere because the people being killed and victimized are poor, and black or hispanic. It is time to end the violence.
The bottom line is there are American citizens who are having their inalienable and constitutional, their civil, rights violated. The local police department and community have proven incapable of doing so. There is only one option at this point; “Send in the Feds.”
On September 24th, 1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock Arkansas to protect the “Little Rock Nine” and their civil rights as American Citizens.
On June 11th, 1963, President John F. Kennedy sent national guardsmen to the University of Alabama to protect three African American Students and their civil rights as American Citizens.
In 2017, it is time for President Donald J. Trump to“(s)end in the Feds,” to Chicago, Illinois and protect the 2.719 Million people of Chicago and their civil rights as American Citizens .
The Situation
According to FBI statistics 1.4 Million gang members, from 33,000 gangs, commit 48% of violent crime in the United States despite making up less than .4% of the population.
In Chicago there are 150,000 gang members, making it “the most gang infested city in America” according the Chicago Crime Commission’s 2012 report.
These criminals are divided into dozens if not hundreds of gangs. The largest and most powerful of which are the Gangster Disciples, Black Disciples, Black P Stones, Vice Lords, and the Latin Kings.
Gangs in Chicago are further divided into two main alliances, the Folk Nation, led by the Gangster Disciples and Black Disciples, and the People’s Nation, led by the Black P Stones, Vice Lords, and Latin Kings.
The two rival factions fight for control of territory in order to sell drugs, extort, recruit, and otherwise victimize the local population. This fighting results in the deaths of gang members, but also innocent men, women, and children.
In the City of Chicago in 2016 24 People were shot by police. 13 of them died. 10 were African American. In same year 624 African Americans were shot and killed, 64.1% of whom were likely killed by African American Assailants, 18.5% by Latinos, and 3.1% by Whites.
In the city of Chicago in 2016 only 1 in 62.4 African Americans shot and killed was done so by an officer. It is clear even the CPD presents less of a threat to African Americans than members of the African American community.
Even those not directly hurt are harmed by it, and have their constitutional rights violated by the violence.
Sending in The Feds
Twenty-four “federal agencies employ more than 250 or more full-time personnel with arrest and firearm authority.” Another sixteen “federal agencies employ fewer than 250 or more full-time personnel with arrest and firearm authority.”
There are approximately 120,000 Federal Law Enforcement Officers, but to conduct a concerted and prolonged operation fought to win in Chicago would require tens of thousands of agents. And that is what the goal must be, not reduce, but to defeat and destroy the gangs of Chicago.
The only federal force that can be realistically deployed in such high numbers are the United States National Guard. In the United States there are 358,000 Army National Guard and 105,000 Air National Guard, including several special forces units.
Under the 2010 National Defense Act passed by Congress under Titles 10 USC § 332, 333, and 12406 the President of the United States the President of the United States domestically. The plain text reading of all of these statutes make a National Guard deployment legal. There is also plenty of legal precedent
Method
This is not the first time Chicago has been a hotbed of crime for the United States. From the start of Prohibition, “Chicago Outfit,” or the Chicago Mafia was one of the most brutal in the United States. In this criminal history also the lies the method to defeat Chicago’s latest surge of gang crime, enforcing the law.
Al Capone, the most famous American mob boss and Chicago criminal, was convicted for tax fraud, not murder. Many mob bosses were defeated this way. Gang members in the city of Chicago commit numerous crimes and while this means they might not necessarily convicted murder, they can be arrested and tried for others.
Possession, distribution, and production of child pornography (sexting), especially if the servers are located interstate, tax fraud, pirating music online, stealing mail, littering in a federal park, all of these and more are Federal Crimes. In addition any crime that crosses state lines or international borders becomes a Federal crime
Implementing this “broken windows” policing will allow the Federal Government to pursue criminals with more aggression than previously thought. In addition employing the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute that devastated the mafia can be used to great effect.
Why It Matters
Being courageous means feeling terrified. Courage is “the ability to do something that frightens one;” unless you are scared it is not courage. That means directly facing adversity and confronting it. That is what America must do in the City of Chicago, combat our nation’s fears. Fears of racism, fears of prejudice, and fears of our complicity in that.
Many believe that sending additional law enforcement agents into Chicago will only worsen the situation. Democrats and the Left commonly feel that the best way to deal with America’s history of racism is to “do no harm,” ignoring the fact that harm has already been done.
The federal government and its agents have a long history of protecting members of minority communities and their civil rights. During the civil rights era the FBI was instrumental in dismantling the Klu Klux Klan and has helped investigate countless hate crimes committed against African Americans and other minorities since. The National Guard also helped forcibly bring an end to segregation.
America has a long history of neglecting and abusing racial minorities and low income communities. The gang violence in Chicago is without a doubt related to our history. Ignoring this problem will not make it go away. Harm has already been done. Our nation is far from unique in this regard, but this in no way reduces the consequences or responsibility associated. To not police Chicago is to continue a legacy of racism and unequal treatment by proxy if not outright.
