Speaking of Chicago...

[Sindawe]

I came across the following on another web site.

ISRA Press Release:
Blagojevich Ally Calls for House to House Gun Searches

CHICAGO, July 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by the ISRA Political Victory Fund (ISRA-PVF):

The ISRA-PVF is asking Governor Blagojevich to explain why one of his political allies is calling for house-to-house searches to locate and confiscate legally-owned firearms.

Earlier this month, Cook County Board member Joseph Moreno stood before the county board and called for "...house to house searches to pull every gun out of Cook County." Moreno's statement comes within days of Blagojevich claiming that anyone in Chicago who owns a gun is a "gang banger" and is "...up to no good."

"I think the timing of the Blagojevich and Moreno remarks is more than just coincidence," commented ISRA-PVF spokesman, Richard Pearson. "During the July 6th dedication of the Sparta shooting complex, Blagojevich didn't mince any words when he essentially declared that any gun-owner north of I-80 is a criminal. Then, days later, a powerful member of the Cook County Board calls for police sweeps against the homes of lawful gun owners. These statements didn't happen by accident -- the intent is clear."

"Normally, the Blagojevich and Moreno statements would be laughable," continued Pearson. "However, Blagojevich has the potential means for authorizing police raids on gun-owning homes. House Bill 2414 remains alive in a House committee awaiting a call for a vote. If passed into law, HB2414 would result in the banning and forced confiscation of millions of lawfully-acquired firearms from law-abiding Illinois citizens. The raids would be aided by a database of firearm owners being maintained illegally by the Illinois State Police."

"Blagojevich is fond of saying that gun owners have nothing to fear from him," said Pearson. "If vilification of gun owners and wild-eyed calls for house to house gun searches aren't reasons to fear this administration, then I don't know what are. It's time for the governor to address the gun owners of this state and tell us why we should trust him."

------

The ISRA-PVF is a political action committee affiliated with the Illinois State Rifle Association. A copy of its report is available for a fee from the Illinois state board of elections

Source: http://www.isra.org/

Hmmm.... House to house searches for weapons. Now where have we heard of THAT before I wonder?

 

[fedlaw]

A big question in IL: Will Governor Howdy Doody be indicted before or after the Nov. election?
Obviously, sooner would be better than later.
Same goes for his fat little buddy in Chicago.
BTW: amazing coincidence that the Democratic candidate for president of the Crook County board has the same last name as the recently resigned pres!

 

[RaetherEnt]

If BlahBlahBlahgojevich order LE officers in Illinois to begin house to house searches for legal weapons, it could get VERY ugly in my opinion.

Based on his comments about law-abiding gun owners in Chicago being "gangbangers" or "up to no good", I'd like to see someone file a slander lawsuit against him...he deserves at LEAST that.

 

[anotherinkling]

I hate to play the race card, but it'd be nice if someone would ask him why white trapshooters get a pass while blacks and Latinos living in high-crime areas in Chicago are demonized and not trusted to defend themselves and their communities responsibly. About once a month Blago jogs by my office with his little security detail. It's all I can do to keep my window and mouth shut.

 

[Deanimator]

I hate to play the race card, but it'd be nice if someone would ask him why white trapshooters get a pass while blacks and Latinos living in high-crime areas in Chicago are demonized and not trusted to defend themselves and their communities responsibly. About once a month Blago jogs by my office with his little security detail. It's all I can do to keep my window and mouth shut.

I'm from Apartheid Chicago. It is without doubt the most racist place I have ever been IN THE WORLD, including two foreign countries and a dozen states.

Whites hate Blacks, Blacks hate Jews, Mexicans hate Puerto Ricans, etc., etc., etc. When I was in highschool, the Sicilian teachers hated the Italian teachers. And it's not a casual thing either. For some people, it's a VERY important part of their lives.

I've got an old "Chicago Magazine" from the late '80s or early '90s. It's got a story where they reported that an aid to the Black acting mayor (after the death of Harold Washington) was distributing audio-tapes and other literature claiming (among other things) that Jewish doctors were intentionally infecting Black children with AIDS. The magazine asked several Black city councilmen about the situation. One of them termed the accusation "plausible". To the best of my recollection, NOBODY they talked to would condemn either the aid or his message.

My mother still lives there, but I hate to go. The place makes me feel dirty. She once asked me if I would move back if she couldn't take care of herself. I gave her a flat "no", and told her any time she wanted to move to the United States, I'd make room for her.

Any place that attracts both neo-Nazi leader Frank Collin AND Louis Farrakhan has to be deeply corrupt at its core...

 

[Pilgrim]

Earlier this month, Cook County Board member Joseph Moreno stood before the county board and called for "...house to house searches to pull every gun out of Cook County."

Nice grandstanding for his constituency, but it sounds like Moreno has no idea how much time a thorough search takes to find what the police are looking for in a single dwelling. He's going to do this in every dwelling in Cook County?

 

[Henry Bowman]

I'd hate to see have to happen, but a massive door-to-door confiscation might be what would tip the scales enough to precipitate a backlash.

 

[eastwood44mag]

They can't confiscate what isn't in their jurisdiction.

Dang, I love having an apartment in a free(er) state.

 

[Phetro]

"Blagojevich is fond of saying that gun owners have nothing to fear from him," said Pearson. "If vilification of gun owners and wild-eyed calls for house to house gun searches aren't reasons to fear this administration, then I don't know what are. It's time for the governor to address the gun owners of this state and tell us why we should trust him."

No. It's time for him to see that he is a waste of space and jump off the Hancock Building. Seriously--far, far more worthy people have killed themselves throughout history. Why doesn't garbage like this ever do society the favor of following suit?

 

[ilbob]

If BlahBlahBlahgojevich order LE officers in Illinois to begin house to house searches for legal weapons, it could get VERY ugly in my opinion.

My guess is a few citizens would object, but most would turn them in quietly, especially if some kind of exemption was made for "sporting" guns so hunters would not be affected.

I would bet this would be very unpopular downstate (like south of I80), and you might even have whole police and sheriffs depts just ignoring such an order, especially since he has no legal authority to make such an order.

I would bet even money the Chicago PD would comply, because they are already doing these kind of things on a limited basis.

The state police would not even blink an eye. They were part of Blago's attempt to eliminate legal gun ownership in Illinois by just refusing to issue FOID cards. the claim was they did not have enough help. The fact is that issuing FOID cards is clerical work and clerical workers are readily available. They just thought they could get away with it, but it backfired on them when all the hunters started screaming about the delays in renewals. The ISP response was almost laughable if it wasn't so pathetic, claiming lack of staff, and problems with some new kind of ID card system, but never admitting it was a deliberate tactic. I believe they deliberately set out to make criminals out of hundreds of thousands of otherwise law abiding citizens just to prove a political point, and to scare people into not keeping guns. Thats the kind of people you have running the ISP these days.

 

[Don Gwinn]

Call me dense, but something is not clear to me. Is this guy saying that he thinks:

1. That Cook County should ban all firearms and then confiscate them, or

2. That it's already illegal to own a gun in Cook County, so they should be rounded up?

From the small blurb we have, he sounds like he thinks it's against the law to own a firearm in Cook County. Surely not?

 

[isp2605]

It would require a search warrant for each and every resident. A search warrant would require someone to testify there were weapons in such and such an address. Without that it's a 4th Amendment issue.
In response to ILBOB - inspite of your ill-informed opinion the reason FOID cards weren't being issued in a timely manner was exactly because of clerical shortage. Clerical employees were not available. Prior to this governor most of the FOID employees doing the issuing were contractual meaning they were not ISP employees but hired from a temp firm to work for the ISP at the FOID section. This governor ordered temp contracts to be terminated and temp employees let go. The ISP warned that if temps were terminated there would be seen an immediate and major backlog of FOID renewals. The governor's office granted a 1 yr extension on the temp termination order however the governor's office would not extend that period past the 1 year. So when the time was up all the temps were terminated. That office was almost bare of employees for several months. It's nice you have the opinion that issuing FOID cards is a simple task but it's obvious you have no knowledge of the process. You would not believe the volume of renewal and new applicants that hit that office every week. There are about 1.25 million FOID cards in IL. 20%, over 225,000, of those have to be renewed every year. In addition new applications are received. That's over 4500 per week if averaged, but it's not averaged. The fall always sees a huge increase because people wait until hunting season to renew and flood the system. Everyone of those applications have to be checked for criminal and DV records. That's very time consuming and definitely not automated.
ILBOB is right with one thing. When the hunters started complaining the governor relented and allowed temp employees to be rehired. Eventually the governor's office "out sourced" some of the process, reportedly to save the state money. The ISP had absolutely no control over it. Hiring was controlled by the governor's office.
So please, if you are going to spout something, at least do some research and have your facts straight.

 

[vynx]

WOW I thought we have it bad in LA, California but at least no one haas suggested totally outlawing firearms or going house to house.

 

[bclark1]

just move out of cook, come to the good old red enclave of dupage. a part of me almost hopes this happens, not for the gun owners, but just so the hippie legislators can see just how full of it they are. so, there's no (legal) guns left in chicago? then why are we still posting the same total murders annually as LA, a coastal city in a border state rife with gang warfare that's three times our size and has a republican governor?

i hate this state. ohio here i come, 1 month to go.

 

[Zundfolge]

I'm from Apartheid Chicago. It is without doubt the most racist place I have ever been IN THE WORLD, including two foreign countries and a dozen states.

Its odd that you mention that.

The other day my wife and I were enjoying an ice cream cone down in Old Colorado City (old section of Colorado Springs, full of shops and such).

We watch the people and have a good time.

This mixed race couple walks by ... the wife and I think nothing of it but then this older (like in his 60s) white guy walks up to us and says "Man I hate to see that crap ... sorry to bother you two, but it just irks me to see that."

We stare at him blankly, and he continues "... I guess I'm just old fashioned, but I'm from Chicago and we just don't put up with that there."

Then he shuffled off ... the wife and I were stunned and didn't say anything at all for a couple minutes.

Weird old coot.



(sorry for the thread drift, but now I wonder if the problem wasn't this old man, but Chicago itself)

 

[Deanimator]

Thats the kind of people you have running the ISP these days.

I can't believe that. The police are our friends and would never do anything untoward.

 

[Deanimator]

We stare at him blankly, and he continues "... I guess I'm just old fashioned, but I'm from Chicago and we just don't put up with that there."

I moved to the Cleveland area from Chicago in 1986. Being the fanatic reader that I am, I had pretty much identified every bookstore in Cuyahoga County and visited it the first weekend I was here.

In my travels, I hit the East side of Cleveland, Slavic Village I think. I was literally astonished to find myself in a neighborhood where I simply could not identify the neighborhood as Black, White or Hispanic.

With the minor exception of a small area of the Near North Side, somewhere around Sandburg Terrace, and Rush Street, I have NEVER had the slightest trouble telling what the designated race of a Chicago neighborhood was. And when I was a kid, you'd bloody well better be observant. Blacks in White neighborhoods could be beaten or shot. White tourists who got off of the Dan Ryan Expressway around Comiskey Park and the Illinois Institute of Technology had a way of never making it to their destinations alive.

With the sole exception of a trip to the Customs House to take the Foreign Service oral exams, I intentionally avoided Chicago from 1986 to 1999, when I returned during Christmas.

The grandnephew of one of my uncles needed a ride home. So my mother gave him a ride. I went with them. My mother and her sister live almost out of Chicago near Blue Island. We drove west to Western, then headed north. We kept going north without seeing any White people. We kept going north, still no White people. We turned west on Marquette. Still no White people. The last time I lived in Chicago, Arabs had JUST started moving into that area. Western Ave. was the dividing line between Black and White Chicago. We keep going west. Still not a White face. We eventually get to where Frank Collin and the Chicago Nazis of "Blues Brothers" fame used to hang out. Still no White people. It was like driving from the Golan Heights, into Syria and seeing nothing but synagogs and Kosher delis. I'm nearly speechless. When I was in highschool, we pretty much should have been dead or arrested by now.

Chicago has really changed... unfortunately, White racism and hegemony have merely been replaced [with the exception of the mayor's office] with Black anti-Semitism and Blacks and Hispanics murdering each other with abandon. When I visited my cousin's apartment for the first time, she pointed out the candles on the sidewalk, a memorial to the Puerto Rican guy who got shot next to her doorway in Humboldt Park. But I'm sure she was mistaken. After all, they have gun control in Chicago...

 

[GoRon]

This white boy has been living in the suburbs and working in Chicago for 20 years.

Only two times have I ever experienced anything remotely racist toward me. One time the guy was definately deranged and the other was gang bangers.

I am all over the city including the near west side and the south side Englwood nieghborhood.

I get a real chuckle out of the comment about dead tourists around the ballpark where the Sox play. How about a link or reference. More felony arrests are made in yuppie ville around Wrigley Field than around Commisky Park/Cell field.

Don't get me wrong, you don't want to be in the wrong place in the middle of the night. But the chances of you wandering into those places if you have any sense (and a map) are slim.

Chicago is a beautiful world class socialist run city.

 

[lamazza]

I guess if they were to start their searches in and around south Damen there wouldn't be enough police left by the time they got to the north side

 

[ilbob]

That's very time consuming and definitely not automated.
ILBOB is right with one thing. When the hunters started complaining the governor relented and allowed temp employees to be rehired. Eventually the governor's office "out sourced" some of the process, reportedly to save the state money. The ISP had absolutely no control over it. Hiring was controlled by the governor's office. So please, if you are going to spout something, at least do some research and have your facts straight.

I find it ironic that on the one hand you basically admit everything I stated is true, and on the other hand defend the ISP to the death. The political hacks that infest the upper management of the ISP did indeed know by your own admission what eliminating the clerical workers would do, and went along with it because they are hacks. They could care less if they made hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents criminals because they could not get their FOID cards renewed, as long as they get to keep their cushy jobs. The weak claims that they informed the governor about this are laughable since they not only went along with it but willingly went along with it in support of the governor's extreme anti-gun agenda.

The whole reason the thing is a problem in the first place is that the ISP refuses (and I use that word deliberately) to follow the law that says they have to issue in 30 days. My feeling is if they can't do the background checks in 30 days, than they should just issue anyway on the 30th day.

If a few criminals slip past the net, so what? They would still have to pass a NICS check to purchase a firearm at a dealer anyway. The whole FOID card mess serves no useful purpose in the first place except to harass law abiding gun owners. Criminals just ignore it.

I understand your need to support and defend your employer and fellow troopers, and no doubt there are plenty of decent, honorable people serving as troopers. But that does not change the plain fact that at the top of the agency there is serious rot, and an extreme anti-gun agenda. And that attitude permeates downward, whether you want to believe it or not.

 

[Deanimator]

Don't get me wrong, you don't want to be in the wrong place in the middle of the night. But the chances of you wandering into those places if you have any sense (and a map) are slim.

Note that I said "tourists". These things used to happen periodically when I was a kid living at 69th and Indiana Ave., some place YOU probably wouldn't go, then or now. I drove by last Christmas. The old neighborhood looks a lot like news footage of the West Bank. "Link"? Try microfiche. I only refer to the things I've seen in the newspapers and on local TV. At the time, the internet existed in an ARPA (NOT DARPA) lab.

How exactly does somebody who pulls off the highway for gas and gets lost know whether he's in a "bad" neighborhood? And what is the definition of "bad"? I've known people here in Cleveland who tremble at the idea of driving from Cleveland State to Case-Western. To ME, the east side of Cleveland is Lake Woebegone. When I moved to Cleveland, that was the first time in YEARS I hadn't heard shooting at night, either from the tank ranges at Fort Knox or from my neighbors in Chicago. Every 4th of July, I swear there was a guy somewhere off in the distance shooting a BAR. Certainly there were a lot of Thompsons floating around Chicago at the time. The Black Panthers got to see some of them when the Blackstone Rangers (now the El Rukns) invited them out of Chicago for attempting to impair their drug business. The week that I left for Korea, I was sitting in traffic on Ashland Ave., when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy walking into the street. He had something big in his hand. Before I could react, he had pitched a chunk of concrete through the passenger side window of some woman's car, leaned in and grabbed her purse. I started carrying my M1911 after that, until I had to pack it for shipment to Korea. And before you waste your time telling me, I know it's illegal. Gunlaws are widely ignored by one and all in Chicago. Who you are determines whether you'll be punished for it. A member of the Daley administration was apprehended for drunk driving. He was discovered to be unlawfully carrying an unregistered handgun with the serial number filed off. A call to city hall resulted in his being released... and the handgun returned to him. THAT'S Chicago.

 

[mainmech48]

An exercise for the class: If we substituted the words "illegal aliens" for "guns" and demanded house-to-house searches, what do you think Sr. Moreno would have to say about it?

 

[HankB]

Chicago began apartment-to-apartment warrantless gun searches in the housing projects some years back. They claimed since the housing projects were city owned, and just rented out to people, they had the right to do that. Even the Clinton Administration weighed in, saying it was a good idea.

The courts disagreed, and put a halt to it.

The Clintonistas said they were going to try to "help" Chicago find a way around the court ruling - but fortunately, that pesky 4th Amendment kept getting in their way.

Any attempt to institute warrantless house-to-house searches of privately owned, owner-occupied homes in Illinois will result in gunfire.

BTW, I grew up in Chicago . . . in those days, the saying was "If you're white, do NOT go east of Ashland Avenue if you're south of Pershing Road."

My aunt still owns a home about a half-mile west of White Sox Park, and that area is being renewed and "gentry-fied." Conversely, my old neighborbood - about 1 1/2 miles east of Midway Airport - is beginning to look like Little Mexico.

The last time I visited Chicago, on seeing all the litter, trash, and just grime all over, my impression was "Boy, this city sure has gotten DIRTY since the last time I was here."

 

[PershingRiflesC-7]

Writing as a person who has only been a tourist to Chicago once (in July of 2000), I know I felt somewhat uncertain as to how things would be. My family and I stayed about about a block west of the Hancock Bldg., spent a lot of time visiting the stores on Michigan Ave., went to a Cubs game via the train, rode the train & buses to get to the Museum of Science and Industry, attended the Taste of Chicago, visited Navy Pier, did the Field Museum/Shedd Aquarium, etc. About the only time I was really concerned about the neighborhood was during the ride to the Museum of Science and Industry -- the further south and east we went, my anxiety level kept going up until we arrived on the campus of the University where the Museum is located.

Here is my question for current/former Chicago residents: how prudent was I with the decision to use CTA for the visit to MOSI? Until that time, I generally felt safe on the streets and on the transit system. I generally enjoyed my time in Chicago and my kids (now ages 25 & 20) say that was the best family vacation we ever took.

 

[Deanimator]

BTW, I grew up in Chicago . . . in those days, the saying was "If you're white, do NOT go east of Ashland Avenue if you're south of Pershing Road."

My aunt still owns a home about a half-mile west of White Sox Park, and that area is being renewed and "gentry-fied." Conversely, my old neighborbood - about 1 1/2 miles east of Midway Airport - is beginning to look like Little Mexico.

And conversely, "If you're Black, don't go west of Western on Marquette if you're Black." That's Marquette Park, home of the Chicago Nazis. True story:

Some time in the '70s(?) I was taking the bus home from Quigley South Prep Seminary (now Saint Rita's - What's up with that???). I got on the eastbound 79th St. bus. The bus was sitting in the station, so there was a wait until the schedule called for it to leave. A few minutes later, a White guy got on. He was wearing a leather jacket, but when it swung open, you could see that he was wearing a brown shirt and a Sam Browne belt. Looking more closely, I could see that he had a record album under his arm. It was an album of Nazi marching songs. Apparently he'd mistaken the eastbound bus for the westbound bus. Unfortunately, at the last moment the driver leaned over and asked him, "Are you sure you want to go EAST???" All the blood drained from the guy's face and he said, "This bus is headed EAST???" He flew off the bus without touching the stairs, and ran for the westbound bus. It was a shame, because he missed a fascinating trip to Lake Michigan and back... or maybe not back...

Regarding "gentrification", my mother showed me the areas where we used to live and where we used to go when I was a little kid. The El tracks that used to go to the lake, just STOP in mid-air. All of the old tenement buildings in the neighborhood have been torn down. It looks like now, that you have to make $100,000/yr. in order to live in the "poor" part of town.

Chicago is rapidly becoming a Mexican city. When I first came back after a thirteen year absence, I noticed that you pretty much couldn't find even a Black face behind the counter of any fastfood restaurant. It was something like 80% Mexicans. Of course this is a good thing for me, since I love both Mexican food and Mexican women. My mother lives just up the road from Cortez Mexican restaurant in Blue Island. There are a ton of great Mexican restaurants in Pilsen along Ashland too. Unfortunately, when it comes to the women, I wouldn't date anybody from Chicago, because if you live there by choice, you've got no more in common with me than Sheikh Nasrallah and Kim Jong Il. They're nice to look at though...