Defunding the police has long been a signature agenda item for Black Lives Matter. Locally, BLM Chicago goes further, demanding complete abolition of prisons and the Illinois Department of Corrections plus other radical steps.
And it would be difficult to find a community that more enthusiastically embraced BLM than ultra-left Oak Park, Illinois.
BLM yard signs abound and the “overwhelming majority” there endorsed a BLM road mural, which the village quickly assisted with, according to a video about the mural on its Facebook page.
But when it came time to act on defunding the message was clear: Not In My Back Yard. By over two-to-one, village residents voted ‘No’ last week on an advisory referendum calling for defunding.
Nobody should be surprised. In truth, polls consistently show that blacks themselves want more police in their neighborhoods and oppose defunding.
In other news that’s not at all unrelated, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, the co-founder and leader of Black Lives Matter and a self-described Marxist, went on a real estate-buying binge as protests broke out across the country last year. As reported here, she snagged four high-end homes for $3.2 million in the US alone, according to property records. Her purchases included a $1.4 million home in an exclusive area in the hills near Malibu, California where the vast majority of residents are white. The BLM organization has been showered with cash from corporate and individual contributors thanks to its cheerleaders in places like Oak Park.
-Mark Glennon
This story was updated to included further news regarding Khan-Cullors’ real estate purchases.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
People expect rational thinking from leftists fools? That is the reason they are Leftists, they are not rational!
Take a close up look at Austin Ave on Google maps between Austin and Oak Park. Funny how so few of the east west streets coming from the black east are contiguous west of Austin! That is racist infrastructure if there is such a thing. So if you’re a black guy driving west on any number of streets in Austin, as soon as you get to that Oak Park border wall you cant continue, you have to turn left or right on Austin. A few streets are just too major for the racist Oak Park city planners to have blockaded,… Read more »
They’ll lie and claim it’s to keep traffic off side streets rather than the real reason to keep out Chicago Blacks. But it’s OK because like the Catholic who pays an indulgence to make up for a past sin, today’s Oak Park residents keep a sign in their front yard instead, to signal they are sufficiently anti-racist. Both the indulgence, and the ‘Hate Has No Home Here’ sign have the exact same purpose: A meaningless virtue signal to counteract their own sins.
This is actually more common along the northern border where every N/S street on the Chicago side of North Ave either doesn’t connect or has a slight jog with every N/S street on the OP side.
It occurs within Chicago, east of Austin Ave. on North Ave. sometimes too.
One can walk from Austin (Chicago) into Oak Park, via side streets.
Realist, not Reu.
I guess the “woke” government officials aren’t in sync with their constituents! Or maybe the wealthy Oak Park residents are just blatant hypocrites like the rest of the leftist Democrats! Either way, they have no clue as to the true nature of BLM, however Wirepoints hit the nail on the head!
Does anyone know why the Republicans have not gone to court with this executive order to open the borders? Why haven’t they taken it to court with all the reasons why we shouldn’t be doing it and why aren’t they asking a judge to decide?
It would first require the Republicans to oppose open borders.
Ted Cruz showed up last time with teddy bears and soccer balls. Not really a champion of the cause.
Oak Park’s eastern border is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago (Austin).
https://heyjackass.com
I remember when I was young what a beautiful area the Austin neighborhood was then guess what, cur plunk
It may be interesting to post all the Woke CEO’s in Illinois that gave corporate monies, i.e., profits, to BLM rather than to employees or shareholders to ‘virtue signal’. Then note the neighborhoods where these Woke CEO’s reside.
When the Mag Mile get’s tore up this summer again in part by BLM and their sympathizers, who will these Woke CEO’s blame?
I encourage everyone to look at your favorite corporations’ websites to see what they support. Normally under the “About” header. You may be surprised! Even more surprising are the charities that are actually supporting these communists. I’ve cut my charitable donation list in half. Stupidity – alienating at least half of the people that support you! Like the scumbags who riot provide any support to ANY charity!
I no longer shop at Walmart, Target, Menards, Kohls and Amazon. I have deleted all my accounts with them. All too woke for me. No more flights with Delta or United. I will adapt. This is the way……
You might want to learn to live off the land. Many of them are effectively monopolies. The large corporations control everything. You only have the illusion of choice. We live in actual fascist times where the corporations control the state and the culture. Fascism isn’t a strong man at the helm, like they accused Trump. It’s the merger of corporate and state.
Then live off the land I will.
If we believe this is fascism then I have a bridge to sell you.
Many moons ago there was a famous British sitcom call “The Good Life”.
Google it, it can be done.
Yeah, they should have a vote about all the cul de sac streets that intentionally were made to keep blacks from Austin stepping foot or driving into Oak Park as well. White Oak Park and LaGrange liberals talk the talk but they don’t walk the walk. Let them have a vote on all the Mexicans mowing their lawns and cleaning their toilets too.
Exactly!
The cul de sacs don’t stop pedestrians.
BLM Founder Branded “Fraud” After Buying Million-Dollar Home In Mostly-White LA Enclavehttps://www.zerohedge.com/political/blm-founder-branded-fraud-after-buying-million-dollar-home-mostly-white-la-enclave
One articale i was reading on collars new digs says shes in a zipcode that’s 1.8% black!! For me the whole blm stick is 95% about giving upperincome libs & hippsters types a forum to guilt shame, virtue gaze and feel righteous on social media and little to do with the day to day realities of poor folks of color or poor folks in general….but the Illinois machines happy to ride it 100% to the $bank$
This weeks FOX- Flanery Fired up has a good interview (middle intsrview) w village trustee on defund cop bill. He says the defund the cop bill was pushed by ONE village trustee and shockingly 85% of crime in Oak Park is commited by folks from outside Oak Park…(one can draw thier own conclusions on who those folks are) Flannery Fired Up: April 9, 2021
fox32chicago.com/video/920419
Mark: Good op-ed, and you nailed it…….it’s all about trying to appear virtuous — aka showing that they’re “woke”. I’m not afraid to say I’M NOT WOKE. I believe in two-parent privilege, stable job by at least one parent privilege, stable home/apt environment privilege, and importance to do well in school privilege. And I believe in MORE prisons, cheaper prisons, longer sentencing, death penalty for attempted murder not just murder. And on and on, basically the opposite of what we’ve been seeing and hearing.
right on brother!!
Same here! Good for you!
Thirty or forty years ago Oak Park was a leader in well thought out programs and electing moderate Democrats who did great things for the State and their own city. Senate President Phil Rock is the best example of that. Now Oak Park just looks silly and hypocritical– not to mention that the quality of life there has deteriorated significantly with the current nitwits running it.
We all know to never watch what they say, but what they do. It comes down to the fundamental dishonesty of progressives. They choose their “aligned” special interest groups over any iota of common sense in just about every issue. It is teachers telling them that they won’t educate their children due to ever-moving goalposts, and progressives showing even more support for the teachers. Then they meet in secret, complaining about their kids out of school, but they won’t say anything publicly. It is the BLM issue, where they virtue scream about BLM, and then quietly vote for everything that… Read more »
I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to understand how today’s left thinks. I read all I can of their commentary and take every opportunity to talk to any of them who can do so politely. I have to say that at this point I think there is some form of mass psychological phenomenon at work that has made so many of them irrational. We called it TDS before, and personal contempt for Trump was largely understandable, but Trump was a victim of the phenomenon as much as he was a cause of it. The central concern on the… Read more »
in laymans terms,a lot of the leftists are whack jobs!!
“I have to say that at this point I think there is some form of mass psychological phenomenon at work that has made so many of them irrational.” Mark, my thoughts below are my own, I haven’t seen any one else opine on these ideas; but the best example I have for what is going on now is the French Revolution. The revolutionaries started with a laudable idea to overthrow the ancien regime, which was basically feudalism, to join the modern world industrializing world. But then it went haywire, and it over time, became a contest to see who could… Read more »
I agree. It seems many on the left are in a permanent contest to prove themselves by being more woke, more foul-mouthed, more “equitable” and so on than the the next guy on the left, leaving sanity in the dust.
Sanity left long ago, and likely will not return until later this decade, but unfortunately, many institutions and cultural values will be destroyed in the process. The recent legislation to remove the ‘at will’ employment relationship kind of shocked me; but newer, and crazier bills will come, and likely pass, in the upcoming years. I saw that some couple in new york is trying to overturn incest laws so that a father and daughter can marry. We’ve already seen polyamorous relationships in child rearing and it just keeps getting crazier. I’ve always said myself that the next attack will be… Read more »
Meanwhile, while they send the woke minions chasing after windmills, the real power goes after HR1.
HR1 is nothing short of a direct assault on democracy in America.
Liberte, egalite, fraternite always leads to the guillotine. Liberals refuse to see it, too busy erasing all history.
There is a herd mentality which creates an echo chamber, particularly in academia. But there is a laziness and lowering of standards in place too. I avoided English classes for my humanities requirements at JB Pritzker’s undergraduate school in the late 70’s. To do well meant competing against wealthy private high school kids with a rigorous understanding of Shakespeare, Joyce et. al. Tough stuff. I took religion courses because with zero personal religious background I could treat the texts critically and not conflate them with theology (I had a good academic adviser). Today, I would take humanities courses that would… Read more »
Mark, I have wondered about this a lot as well. I think much of it comes right down to people craving social acceptance. They know what they have to think, say and chant to be accepted. They don’t understand the issues, worry about facts or data, but they know what they are supposed to believe in order to stay in the club. They are also acutely aware of what they are forbidden to say or think. This is brought home every time they see one of their own canceled and then banished from their group. Comparisons of leftism to religions… Read more »
It’s not social acceptance, it’s power. The person with the crazier idea gains followers, and power, until the next person comes along with something even crazier. There are no crazy ideas on the left and they are tossing any all previously held beliefs out the window, because they know that will bring them power over those who disagree or dissent.
“personal contempt for Trump understandable’? Uh no, you have fallen for the media blather also.
Trump was a complete scumbag. I liked his policies, despite his limited follow through, but don’t kid yourself, he is a bad, immoral person. But I still want him as my president. and I donated $$$ to his campaign knowing these things.
But I won’t be voting for him next time around if there is a better choice.
Big thumbs-down my friend. He was not at all immoral in office and the year or so before. And prior to that, who knows and who cares, he almost certainly cheated on wives but not on taxes, Being unfaithful to spouse is somewhat common, sad but true.
I agree 100%. The scary part is the apathy of the general public. If Biden and the other Democrats succeed with their voter laws, we will never see another fair election to rid of these imbeciles in office.
Mark, I’m with you brother! And most alarming is how Leftist legislators and city councils do the opposite of what would improve their own cities and communities— not tough on crime, not enforcing immigration laws, permitting ‘Ers to hire illegals, always raising taxes and increasing size of govt, incentivizing irresponsible behavior, and on and on. And media and local radio & TV ignore the issues. I see it in Baltimore, you see it in Chicagoland, it’s stupifying.
believing in ones delusions and acting on them is called schizophrenia.
On a national level I refer to this as Collective Schizophrenic Personality Disorder
Unreasonable and mental for sure.
Without double standards they wouldn’t have any standards.
Thank you for noting that many of the “woke” do not have children; they view their pets as children. Liberals often seem like college students who never managed to grow up.
I see it all the time. I usually mutter under my breath, “what is it with liberals and their dogs?” Then I remember that kids require patience, kindness, toughness and the ability to focus on someone other than yourself, just about all the time. It requires maturity to raise a child. And there you have it.
Raising children also gives you insights on the realities of human nature and motivation that liberals seem to lack entirely.
Many SJWs in Oak Park are also ultimately prudent white-collar folks who are most interested in welfare of their individual families, of their kids and their homes. Oak Park residents face significant property crime and street-crime risks within Oak Park proper; read local paper’s weekly coverage of crime events. Oak Park has very high residential tax-assessment rate. Many less-unusual suburban-municipality costs here are associated with SJW-type social programs, including village-provided public housing and other subsidy programs. But residents also acknowledge their significant need for OPPD police protection, given crime stats. It’s very easy to own an Oak Park house with… Read more »
Paying $20,000 a year in property taxes to live in high-crime anti-social community is self-flagellation. https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/06/05/self-flagellation-a-means-to-repent-and-self-healing-in-medieval-europe/ The flagellants, for those who are interested to know, were a 14th century European cult that would walk through towns, in a procession, and whip themselves really bad, and bleed everywhere, as penance for their sins before god. Crazy stuff. Today’s flagellants are Oak park Property owners concerned not with penance, but rather, anti-racism; and anti-racism means living in a community where you will likely be mugged or assaulted, which you must dutifully accept as the cost of being sufficiently anti-racist. There’s a high… Read more »
This is why they immediately submitted HR1. They need to be able to manipulate elections. People will fall all over themselves to virtue signal, but the progressive agenda cannot win in fair elections.
Cullors has proven her grifting pays well. Ask folks on the south and west sides how shes helped them. She’s a cultural fraud. Good people have been deceived and my antipathy towards said peoples views and overt embracing of this organization hasn’t waned. Frustrating to say the least.
blm is a fake organization,never hear a peep from them when a black shoots another black or when an innocent black child gets shot ,wheres Reverend jessie jackass or al sharpton when these things happen?-only hear from these people when a black ” criminal” gets shot by a white cop-that racist cop shot that poor black guy out of racism,not because he was trying to rob or carjack someone