The Streets Run Red With Blood

"The streets run red with blood...."

We could be talking about the tragedy and violence in Cairo this weekend, but we're not.  The above quote comes from right here in the United States, right here in Chicago, where gun violence, shootings and murder continue in epidemic proportions year round.  The six murders and twenty-eight other shootings are this weekend's toll on Chicago's South Side, our own mid-east microcosm of murder.

President Obama and the State Department issued warnings to Americans not to travel to Egypt and to leave the country as quickly as possible.  Similar warnings should be issued to Chicago's South Side, where the police are both incapable and unwilling to stop the rampant violence.

In spite of the fact that Chicago has one of the strictest gun control laws anywhere in the United States, the law is basically unenforced and, many say, unenforceable.  This is in part because courts strictly limit or outright forbid "Stop and Frisk" practices by the police as racist or otherwise unlawful.

In a broad, sweeping and scathing ruling this past week, Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin severely restricted New York City's practice of "Stop, Question and Frisk."  The long and thoroughly documented ruling will eliminate most of the stops and appoints a Federal Monitor to oversee NYC Police tactics.  

NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly defended the practice and claimed it had saved over 7,000 lives and removed thousands of illegal guns from the streets.

The fact the courts chose to ignore is that while only 60% of the people stopped by police where black or Hispanic, 97% of the murder victims are black and Hispanic.  

The real racism is in the murders.  Courts routinely and purposely overlook this fact.  

Meanwhile Kelly predicted New York would become another Detroit or Chicago if the judge's ruling is not overturned.

"Stop and Frisk" is rarely used in Chicago.  But blacks are murdered in genocidal numbers.  Someone needs to file a racism suit against the Chicago Mayor, government and Police for their failure to protect blacks.  After all there are relatively few white murders in Chicago.  The police MUST be discriminating by protected whites disproportionately while allowing blacks to die.

Making Criminals of Law Abiding Citizens

Real Criminals are tough targets.  They run, they move, they hide.  Criminals cover-up their activities.  And they're good at doing it. Criminals tend to operate in the dark of night, and in the shadows.  They do not report their activities.  Criminals do not fill out forms.  They don't file taxes.  They don't seek out permits for their activities.  They certainly don't worry about compliance.

Law abiding citizens do all of those things and more.  Most go out of their way to obey both the letter and the intent of the law. They're good citizens, dependable and honest.

Government agencies who are charged with enforcing the laws have one hell of a tough time with criminals.  Law enforcement is dangerous work when it comes to criminals.  They are hard to find, harder to catch and it's dangerous to try.  Often it is life threatening work.

Getting law abiding citizens to comply is easy, simple and safe.  They follow willingly.

Laws that regulate activities of the law abiding citizens get excellent results, even if they accomplish no real good for society.  That's why we're seeing so many mayors in troubled cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York turn their efforts away from criminals and instead focus their limited budgets toward passing and enforcing laws aimed solely at law abiding citizens.  

Drug dealers, thieves and even murderers can breathe easier in New York beginning March 12th as the city, under the brilliant leadership of Ivory Tower Occupant and City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, focuses the attention of the entire city on eliminating soft drinks over 16 ounces from NY City streets.

The Mayor's massive bureaucracy has rolled out the details of the new regulations on sugary drinks to all the cities law abiding citizens and they are truly bizarre, indeed.

I'm not sure what frightens me more, the Mayor's regulations or the city's citizens who will willingly follow Bloomberg's yellow brick road all the way to Orwell's Animal Farm.

The New York Post reports:

Take a big gulp, New York: Hizzoner is about to give you a pop.

Nanny Bloomberg unleashes his ban on large sodas on March 12 — and there are some nasty surprises lurking for hardworking families.
Say goodbye to that 2-liter bottle of Coke with your pizza delivery, pitchers of soft drinks at your kid’s birthday party and some bottle-service mixers at your favorite nightclub.

They’d violate Mayor Bloomberg’s new rules, which prohibit eateries from serving or selling sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces.
Bloomberg’s soda smackdown follows his attacks on salt, sugar, trans fat, smoking and even baby formula. 

And consumers, especially families, will soon see how the rules will affect their wallets — forcing them to pay higher unit prices for smaller bottles.

Typically, a pizzeria charges $3 for a 2-liter bottle of Coke. But under the ban, customers would have to buy six 12-ounce cans at a total cost of $7.50 to get an equivalent amount of soda.

“I really feel bad for the customers,” said Lupe Balbuena of World Pie in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

Domino’s on First Avenue and 74th Street on the Upper East Side is doing away with its most popular drink sizes: the 20-ounce and 2-liter bottles.

It will also trash more plastic into the environment.

Deliveryman Philippe Daniba said he had brought countless 2-liter bottles of soda to customers over his 19 years at the restaurant. The ban, he said, “doesn’t make sense.”

Dallas BBQ at 1265 Third Ave. will retire its 60-ounce pitchers and 20-ounce glasses, manager Daisy Reyes said.

“We have to buy new glasses,” she said. “We’re in the process.”

Notice in the above excerpts how every one of the city's law abiding citizens are doing their level best to comply even as they protest the silliness of the regulations.

How about a boycott of New York? Perhaps not as much to protest the Mayor's actions as to protest the citizens willingness to go along with this absurdity.  

POST SCRIPT: Doug Powers wryly observes, "Bloomberg is still going to allow pizzas to be delivered?  Unbelievable. It seems like the obesity from the pizza combined with the global warming from the delivery vehicle would be enough to convince The Nanny to put a stop to it. Maybe that’s next."