By: Mark Glennon*
Crime is actually a gun problem, which is a health crisis, the root cause of which is systemic racism. It took some imagination to characterize today’s crime wave that way, so maybe it’s appropriate that Gov. JB Pritzker refers to his new initiative the “Reimagine Plan.”
It also took some imagination for Pritzker to say he “pledged” $250 million to his plan. Four-fifths of that money has not been appropriated and would come in future years only if approved by the General Assembly. Only $50 million is available for the plan now, part of which is attributable to recent federal assistance. The “pledge” of another $200 million is empty.
Read Pritzker’s executive order for the plan, issued Monday. It’s mostly about guns and gun violence being a health crisis.
The first problem is that characterization is a little tired. Pritzker and others have been saying that for over a year, as Mark Konkol pointed out in The Patch, yet Pritzker did nothing on crime as violence continued unchecked.
Read further and you’ll see that it all stems from systemic racism, as Pritzker sees things, at least for Black-on-Black crime, which is vast majority of the violence. Specifically, the order says Illinois “recognizes that firearm violence has a disproportionate impact on Black, Latinx, and other communities of color as a result of systemic racism.”
There’s no mention that unwed parenthood is the undisputed, leading cause of crime — something on which experts universally agree. No mention that the only solution for some criminals is that they be locked up. And certainly no mention that crime is simply evil.
Ominously, the plan seems eerily similar to former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s scandal-ridden $54 million Neighborhood Recover Initiative in 2010. Like Quinn’s new plan, the idea is to hand out cash to various neighborhood groups. Like Quinn’s plan, it comes as an election is on the horizon.
Quinn’s plan was exposed in a scathing report by the Illinois auditor general, described here by the Associated Press. The cash often went to political favorites and was subject to no controls. Countless stories are easy to find on it. It was a political slush fund used to buy votes and it may have worked for that purpose. We wrote in 2014 why a good case could be made that the cash tipped the election to Quinn, essentially by buying the vote with taxpayer money.
I do not rule out the possibility that the street-level anti-violence efforts that Pritzker’s new plan calls for may have some value and that the right community groups can have a role. I don’t know. Pritzker says it is “evidence based.” I wish he had pointed to his evidence.
But I do know that crime has other causes that Pritzker did not address and that he better be darn careful about what groups his administration hands out cash to and for what purpose. The recipients of the grants under Pritzker’s program will be chosen by a new Office of Firearm Violence Prevention in the Department of Human Services.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Does anyone realize Pritzker is a fraud and a phony politician, yet alone a very vindictive individual, 2022.
The only value you could find in this slush fund is Porky votes. The Quinn fiasco was hilarious! If questioned he’d give the weather forecast for yesterday. It’s a blatant vote buying scheme. All the money probably goes to Toni. Porky should simply give her a pallet of cash and skimp the anti violence charade; and laughing!
It’s a new version of throwing mud against the wall and observing whether it sticks. Here the issue is how to get money that is not your own to toss to your political supporters. Can’t take it from highways? Then expand the meaning of infrastructure. Can’t underpay the teachers so can’t take it from education. How do we get it from the health budget — particularly the federally paid portion? Maybe it worked for seat belts. (Can’t remember.) But how about we say gun violence is a health problem. Tenuous, sure. But what’s the harm in suggesting it. The bureaucrats… Read more »
Arrest, prosecution and incarceration to address crime are extremely blunt tools with terrible unintended consequences (expensive, mass incarceration, fatherless children (at a minimum, no paychecks to garnish for child support), high recidivism, difficulty reintegrating into society)…. Because the issue the left refuses to address is that the United States has a lot of people in prison because WE HAVE A LOT OF CRIMINALS. These aren’t political prisoner in a gulag – they’re drug dealers, violent criminals, swindlers, recidivist petty criminals incapable of reform… Unfortunately, JB’s ‘Reimagine Plan’ shows that the left has no viable alternative to incarceration. Handing out cash… Read more »
Father Pfleger will probably get some of that money so he can hold hands with the gang bangers and block I-90 some more,the gang bangers just need some hugs and warm chicken noodle soup,that’ll stop the shootings
the country was overthrown in March 2020, in order to use criminals to break the country apart they need to keep them out of jail and take guns from lawful citizens- reimagine plan. Hasn’t anyone been watching them destroy democratic countries the last 20 years using the same playbook?
We need a new list of grievances.
So its all about a legal way to fund groups that support you politically with federal money. Hey its Illinois so it makes perfect sense.
I’d like to know how money navigates the violence prevention process. Say you give Neighborhood Group X $50,000. How do they spend it? Do they hire previous or likely offenders to be violence preventers? Are they hiring gang members? It’s not like regular folks are doing the shooting. What do these violence preventers do? Do they harass some guy whose brother was shot, constantly in his face so he doesn’t retaliate and shoot someone else? Counseling for victims? Free Tae-Kwon-Do lessons? Or maybe buy everyone PS5’s and have them fight each other in the virtual world?
There is no such thing as “systemic” racism. If you want to look at the face of racism in Illinois look at the many decades of urban decay and government housing projects. The Democrat party did an excellent job of placing people of color on a form of plantation to win votes and hold them under check. If allow education for a black person in America they thrive and grow and go on to become Conservatives and Republicans. No clear thinking person would be a Democrat unless you want to be a Socialist or worse. The violence comes from people… Read more »
I believe there is systemic racism. It exists in the form of teacher’s unions preventing poor kids and minorities from having school choice. It exists in the form of Progressive policies that continue to allow crime to go unabated, crushing poor area property values, quality of life and economic prosperity. It exists in the form of Progressives teaching minority kids that they are victims and that their only recourse is to “get theirs” from oppressive white racists. It exists from Progressives teaching poor black kids that the only way to be financially successful is to get it from the government… Read more »
***—Read Pritzker’s executive order for the plan, issued Monday. It’s mostly about guns and gun violence being a health crisis.—***
If they would put half as much effort into battling *gun crime*, as they have into fighting against a *virus*…
They might have some success…
You’re absolutely right, it’s not ‘gun violence’ it’s ‘gun crime’. But some solidly D constituencies refuse to look in the mirror.