Cops: 1 dead, dozens displaced in string of arsons in Heart of Chicago
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.html
"A man was killed and about two dozen people were driven from their home in a string of fires set within blocks of each other in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood early Friday, police and fire officials said.
At least seven separate fires were reported around 3 a.m., apparently set in alley trash cans that spread to garages and at least one home in the South Side neighborhood, according to officials."
* * * *
"Ocampo’s mother, Sandra Ocampo, said she was woken up by a noise that sounded like fireworks. She thought it was part of a celebration for Mexican Independence Day until she got out of bed and saw police in the neighborhood.
As she watched firefighters, she was amazed. “How many engines are here?” she said. “My God.”
She has lived in the neighborhood since the 1970s and remembers when vehicles would sometimes be set on fire in the alleys. She thought that was the case early Friday until she saw the apartment building down the street on fire."
Am wondering when the UN peacekeepers are finally going to be sent in - Yes? No? Maybe?
Search found 3 matches
Return to “In Chicago, 35,000 people have been murdered in 50 years”
- Sun Sep 18, 2016 12:19 am
- Forum: Gun and/or Self-Defense Related Political Issues
- Topic: In Chicago, 35,000 people have been murdered in 50 years
- Replies: 17
- Views: 2798
- Thu Sep 08, 2016 5:53 am
- Forum: Gun and/or Self-Defense Related Political Issues
- Topic: In Chicago, 35,000 people have been murdered in 50 years
- Replies: 17
- Views: 2798
- Thu Sep 08, 2016 5:52 am
- Forum: Gun and/or Self-Defense Related Political Issues
- Topic: In Chicago, 35,000 people have been murdered in 50 years
- Replies: 17
- Views: 2798
Re: In Chicago, 35,000 people have been murdered in 50 years
Some reading that helps explain -
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magaz ... s-Explain/
Long article, but here is a sample of what's in store -
"The Daleys are the most visible example of another characteristic of local government: It’s a family business (with friends welcome, too). Just as the Flying Wallendas have their high wire, the Daleys have their government positions—as do the Strogers and the Madigans and the Hyneses. But it’s not just the dynasties for which public office has become a birthright. “I’m talking about the people whose grandfathers were precinct captains, and now they’re precinct captains,” says Dominic Pacyga, a political science professor at Columbia College. “The father worked for the waterworks; now his kids work for the waterworks; and his grandchildren are getting ready to work for the waterworks—or the fire department or the police department. So you get these families that have controlled large swaths of the city for a long time. It reaches way down deep into the political system, and it maintains itself. When you’re in power for so long, the downside of this autocracy is corruption and a system that begins to fail the people.”
* * * *
"Owing to historical factors, Illinois developed a labyrinthine governmental structure that offered fertile ground in which corruption could sprout. The Illinois constitution of 1870, in effect until 1970, limited the amount of debt counties and municipalities could carry and taxes they could levy. When cities needed to fund improvements, they got around those constraints by creating new units of government with the capacity to borrow—a library district, for example, would be created to build and administer a new library. “The 1870 constitution almost forced you into multiple units of government if you were going to deliver services beyond your municipality or modernize your municipality,” says Redfield. Today the state contains almost 7,000 separate governmental fiefs—far more than any other state—ranging from counties, towns, and school and fire districts to water reclamation and mosquito abatement districts. Most have budgets to protect and authority to wield. “It’s very hard to stay on top of it all, and it creates many more opportunities for patronage,” says Cindi Canary. “It creates ways for small islands of graft and corruption to stay hidden.”
* * * *
"One way incumbents stack the odds in their favor is by designing legislative districts to produce the electoral results that they—not the voters—desire. Much ink has been spilled on the ludicrousness of Illinois’s redistricting process. If representatives from the two parties can’t agree on legislative boundaries when it’s time to redraw them, they resort to a “tiebreaker”—pulling a name out of a hat to determine which party gets sole power to design the new map. Lawmakers from the winning side have not seemed terribly interested in promoting competitive races, employing cartographic artifice to create districts with grotesque bulges connected by narrow, snaking corridors—usually assuring the outcome of races before the first vote is cast. Under the current legislative map, drawn in 2001, 45 percent of House and Senate races have been uncontested (not including this year’s November 2nd elections), according to CHANGE Illinois!, a coalition advocating political reforms. And in contested races over the past ten years, incumbents have won 98 percent of the time."
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magaz ... s-Explain/
Long article, but here is a sample of what's in store -
"The Daleys are the most visible example of another characteristic of local government: It’s a family business (with friends welcome, too). Just as the Flying Wallendas have their high wire, the Daleys have their government positions—as do the Strogers and the Madigans and the Hyneses. But it’s not just the dynasties for which public office has become a birthright. “I’m talking about the people whose grandfathers were precinct captains, and now they’re precinct captains,” says Dominic Pacyga, a political science professor at Columbia College. “The father worked for the waterworks; now his kids work for the waterworks; and his grandchildren are getting ready to work for the waterworks—or the fire department or the police department. So you get these families that have controlled large swaths of the city for a long time. It reaches way down deep into the political system, and it maintains itself. When you’re in power for so long, the downside of this autocracy is corruption and a system that begins to fail the people.”
* * * *
"Owing to historical factors, Illinois developed a labyrinthine governmental structure that offered fertile ground in which corruption could sprout. The Illinois constitution of 1870, in effect until 1970, limited the amount of debt counties and municipalities could carry and taxes they could levy. When cities needed to fund improvements, they got around those constraints by creating new units of government with the capacity to borrow—a library district, for example, would be created to build and administer a new library. “The 1870 constitution almost forced you into multiple units of government if you were going to deliver services beyond your municipality or modernize your municipality,” says Redfield. Today the state contains almost 7,000 separate governmental fiefs—far more than any other state—ranging from counties, towns, and school and fire districts to water reclamation and mosquito abatement districts. Most have budgets to protect and authority to wield. “It’s very hard to stay on top of it all, and it creates many more opportunities for patronage,” says Cindi Canary. “It creates ways for small islands of graft and corruption to stay hidden.”
* * * *
"One way incumbents stack the odds in their favor is by designing legislative districts to produce the electoral results that they—not the voters—desire. Much ink has been spilled on the ludicrousness of Illinois’s redistricting process. If representatives from the two parties can’t agree on legislative boundaries when it’s time to redraw them, they resort to a “tiebreaker”—pulling a name out of a hat to determine which party gets sole power to design the new map. Lawmakers from the winning side have not seemed terribly interested in promoting competitive races, employing cartographic artifice to create districts with grotesque bulges connected by narrow, snaking corridors—usually assuring the outcome of races before the first vote is cast. Under the current legislative map, drawn in 2001, 45 percent of House and Senate races have been uncontested (not including this year’s November 2nd elections), according to CHANGE Illinois!, a coalition advocating political reforms. And in contested races over the past ten years, incumbents have won 98 percent of the time."