Act Like You Know, RICO

I glossed over this story yesterday, but wanted to come back to it today.

What essentially happened is that just about every Chicago gang-banger on parole or probation was forced by their POs to go to a meeting where Chicago Police Chief Jody Weis got on his knees and begged them to behave.

He also said that if they misbehaved, that the local, state and Federal authorities were “going to come down on them with all the firepower we have.”  <Zell Miller> With spitballs? </Zell Miller>  J-Fed also said that “we’re focusing on group responsibility.”  Sorry, Jody.  That’s been illegal since 1964.

The main point of the article is that the U.S. Attorneys are mulling the use of RICO statutes to send gang-bangers to Federal prison, based on the fact that their gang is a corrupt organization.  Fine, in theory, except that it’s got two big Everests ahead of it:  (1)  Black and Hispanic street gangs don’t really keep good records that a Federal prosecutor can subpoena to prove who is and isn’t part of the gang, and (2)  Even with competent jurors, and even if the defendants are part of corrupt organizations with credible paper trails, RICO is as hard as the hell known as the Southside to prove.  Obviously, even a Federal trial in Chicago and against a ChiCongo gang’s thugs will have black jurors.

Oh, and one more thing?  The U.S. Attorney in Chicago whose office would file those RICO charges?  That would be one Patrick Fitzfong, who is batting a stellar .042 against Rod Blagojevich.

UPDATE 8 PM: From the CST’s version of this story:

When one of those gangs is involved in a killing, sources said, authorities plan to make their leaders’ lives miserable, doing everything from towing their cars for parking violations, to ramping up parole visits, to pulling them over repeatedly for traffic stops.

Everything indeed……except for arresting them for murder.  BTW, Second City Cop, hardly a friend of black gang-bangers, is right when he says about this part that:

Gee, let’s just get it on the public record that we are suspending Constitutional protections and engaging in an organized campaign of harassment against certain individuals based on their past or suspected criminal records. We certainly hope every officer involved in this public record disaster has their house in trust.

Yeah, especially in a city like Chicago, whose judicial system loves to hang cops out to dry even when they did nothing wrong.  Imagine how much worse it will be when the cops’ behavior truly enters the gray area.

Read further down in SCC’s article and the comments, and you’ll find out that this very same kind of “negotiation” and begging in the 1960s practically created the Jesse Jackson Rainbow/PUSH empire, because the CPD gave Jackson legitimacy by “negotiating” with him when he would have otherwise been one of a million nobody/street agitators in that city.  J-Fed has probably gone and created another five Jesse Jacksons.

UPDATE 9/2: The first fruits of J-Fed’s open mouth insert foot:  Current and former gang bangers hold a press conference denouncing the idle threats, and the media show up and cover them like they’re some sort of legitimate organization.

UPDATE 9/3: A CPD officer (guess), has links to the press conferencing gang-bangers.

Feh, You Learn Something New Every Day

5:

Daniel Boone Bridge repairs require closure for two weekends in September, could affect Mizzou travel

(snip)

The closures are expected to impact all drivers traveling from Chesterfield to St. Charles County those weekends, in particular fans heading to Mizzou home games against McNeese State and San Diego State.

I had no clue there were so many McNeese State and San Diego State alums and fans in St. Louis City and County.

Today’s Headlines (8th Cousins In Love Again)

NYP:  Obama calls former President George W. Bush ahead of Iraq speech

Obama needed permission from Bush, who in turn needed permission from Dick Cheney.

BBC:  India growth rate rises to 8.8%

Congratulate “Mark” and “Sharon” the next time you need to call customer service.

The National (UAE):  There is no struggle between Islam and America, imam says

As late as nine years ago, I might have believed you.

Tuesday’s Tidbits

*  While Beckapalooza wasn’t much to write home about, Sharpton’s “counter-rally” was nothing more than pure astroturf.

*  Oh joy.  If the same low-IQ students have near perfect attendance, and their low-IQ parents attend PTO conferences regularly, to meet their low-IQ Harris-Stowe “graduate” teachers who are teaching their low-IQ children, the parents will get some straight cash homey.

Thankfully, it’s not your straight cash, homey.  At least I hope it’s not.  Then again, I’ll write this today, and tomorrow I’ll find out this foundation is awash in Federal or state grant money.  Then I’ll look like an ass.

*  CST has this profile about the former tech entrepreneur turned CPD officer after 9/11 who is spearheading the CPD’s Racial Profiling By Any Other Name effort.  In it, we find out that he was amazed that cops do push-ups, are interested in firearms and ammunition, and engage in foot chases of criminal suspects.

What this means is that Mr. Goldstein was Captain Oblivious before and is Captain Obvious now.

*  Strange Maps has its first new post in a very long time.  It’s about French settlements on the North American continent whose real estate parcels were thin and long, especially in the river bottoms.  This was the way it was near (what would become) St. Louis, too, but I’m surprised none of the people who have left comments have come up with the real reason:  It had to do with Indians.  They had the bad habit of attacking white settlers, and if you had big farm fields in two dimensions, you were pretty much all by yourself up against an army of attacking Indians.  The French deliberately put farmers on thin strips so that men working in the field would almost always be close to other men working their fields, due to the narrow dimension of length.  So that means when the Indians popped up over the horizon, there was enough time for the settlers to gather together to defend the house, as the Under Armour commercials would say.

*  More like Aisle WIN.  I need a few more of those picnics, to be quite honest.

I understand why the batteries are there, in order to power those “toys.”  I also understand the Excedrin — That’s there for the S&M freaks.

*  Sorry, Tiki.  There’s no PR-ing yourself out of this one.

AFAIC, justice came when the Giants won the Super Bowl the season after you retired.  Ultimate slap in the face.

*  Carl Paladino, the candidate for NYS-GOV-R who wants to repurpose abandoned state prisons to become life skills centers for welfare recipients, has probably chimed in with the best explanation thus far about the controversy over Obama’s religious faith.  I’ll let you read it for yourself, but I’ll give you a hint before hand:  Black velvet in that slow Southern style.  A new religion that’ll bring you to your knees…

Today’s 48th State Stack of Stuff

*  The Sue-Me State:  Now DOJ is suing the Maricopa County Junior College district for doing is job too well when it comes to preventing illegal aliens from gaining employment.

*  Sheriff, don’t be hatin’ on vermin.  It, unlike the UN, has it uses.

About that — The more I think about it, the more I think this State Department report to the UN didn’t come from Obama, it came from HRC.  And it came from HRC because she’s trying to get in on the Hispandering bandwagon herself.  The signs are all clear — She’s gonna challenge Obama in the primaries.