By: Mark Glennon*
Oh, the people and things that are taken seriously in Chicago these days.
The Chicago Sun-Times had a perfectly serious article Tuesday about Ja’Mal Green’s proposed $5 billion public safety plan, and why shouldn’t they? Green will be at the top of the ballot in Chicago’s mayoral election in February.
However, there are a few things about Green’s standing on public safety matters that some of you just might consider serious but were not mentioned in the article.
Green was criminally indicted in 2017 for nine felony charges alleging he hit one Chicago Police officer and tried to disarm another following a July 9 “die-in” protest against police brutality at the Taste of Chicago festival in Grant Park, according to DNA Info. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office dropped the felony charges in exchange for Green pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of resisting police, according to DNA Info.
Green was the leader of that Black Lives Matter protest that vowed a shutdown of the Taste of Chicago festival, according to The Patch.
As riots began erupting in Chicago and many other cities in June 2020, Green said the following things to The Chicago Reporter:
Riots have always been the language of the unheard. Riots have been here since the beginning of time, since the Boston Tea Party on down. People riot and loot for less reasons like the Cubs winning the World Series….
The bigger demand is to defund the police department…. We got $2 billion that we’re giving police departments. What folks are asking for is to defund the police and move that money to more preventative measures….
We shouldn’t look at this and say ‘looting should stop, but killing the black man is horrible.’ We have to flip and prioritize correctly. Black men have to stop being killed by police. We know the looting is horrible, but we got to focus on human life. We can’t focus on property; it can always be rebuilt….
There are some who are acting out…not in the name of the movement, but taking advantage of the movement. We’re going to hold them accountable. What’s important is that we stay focused on this racist system, and what’s happening to folks like George Floyd, Eric Garner and Laquan McDonald and get them to understand the message and the narratives….
Let’s not forget about white people doing it: looting and rioting and burning stuff down and knocking stuff over for something far less. People have acted out all over this country for many years. Don’t allow this protest to make you look at a different message because essentially what it will show is that you have racist intent.
And where would Green get the $5 billion for his public safety plan, which would be about three times the budget for the Chicago Police Department?
Nothing about that in the Sun-Times article or in his plan. Seriously.
* Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
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.
That was a good article. I agree Jamal Green is a poor gadfly choice for Mayor. Especially with his felonies. My guess he’s working for another candidate to distract votes from Dr Willie Wilson. Vallas and Wilson are the most worthy candidates in my opinion.
Another delusional Marxist joins the fray. And Minorities just lap it up!
My plan would be to give transportation vouchers for one way bus trips to somewhere else. If you want to be “Safe” the Chitty of Chicago is the wrong place to be.
Great Job Mark, thanks for Telling It Like It Is.
Here, Jamal, let’s make a deal… Two parent households, values, standards, expectations, respect for others, other’s property, life, an education… You wave your magic, princess’s wand and instill those in our “urban honor students” and we can talk about lowering the spend on police… The same police who keep my family and me safe.
This guy is exhibit 1 for the Dunning Kreuger Effect…
He’s no different than every other communist. He’s promising his potential voters a progressive utopia where they can burn loot and murder and sleep it off at a Healing House. Everyone else suffers, sure, but his people will be excited to get out of jail free.
The days of having to know someone to get a cushy city job with a nice pension are gone. CTA, and govt agencies in general, are hiring anyone with a pulse. All these gangbangers and ne’er-do-wells have a wide open shot at landing a great steady job. Better yet, met your significant other on the job, and suddenly your thrusted into upper-income territory with two fat pensions waiting for you in your early 50s as you live the rest of your days in Floribama. The road to a stable adulthood for the mildly competent and under-educated has never been more… Read more »
“…and suddenly your thrusted into upper-income territory with two fat pensions waiting for you in your early 50s as you live the rest of your days in Floribama. The road to a stable adulthood for the mildly competent and under-educated has never been more wide open than it is today.” For the last 12 years anyone that was hired in one of those “cushy” jobs is not eligible to retire in their early 50s but rather 67. It’s also not a “fat” pension as those tier 2 pensioners are paying more into the system than it cost. Sure go get… Read more »
My lifelong friend has a son who was an assistant superintendent in his late 20’s in a system in a southern state. He is from the North Shore, and well educated, but certainly impacted by the education machine at Illinois State. He moved back to Illinois because the southern state did not have his brand of politics. I mentioned to his Tier 1 pensioner mother just how poor of a deal Tier 2 types receive, and whether he put a price tag on his politics, including of course heavy tax burdens. Not exposed to economics or finance, he did not.… Read more »
CTA doesn’t have a Tier 2.
Tier 3 then? I think a tier 2 change happened in September of 2001. Another tier change occurred in 2008. Normal retirement at CTA is considered 65 years old. For early retirement there are different tiers of eligibility. Any CTA employee hired after January 17, 2008 would not be eligible for early retirement until age 64 if they have at least 25 years of service. Wow, a whole year earlier. That means someone that has 25 years of service would be looking at a big “fat” pension of around 40k per year. If you think that’s a lot of money… Read more »
Still far better than Social Security. I say default on all pensions and give all workers 401K just like honest hard working private sector workers get. Screw the greedy bastard teachers, cops and firemen. Let them eat their own young.
We’re talking about workers with no prospects in the private sector. A generation or two ago, you had to know someone to get these city jobs. Solid, good paying jobs with excellent job security, primo health benefits and a retirement plan that, if not what their parents got, beats anything they’d get in the private sector with their qualifications.
As I said before: no excuse.
What’s your address? I am sure the cops and Firemen would like to say screw you back.
What’s amazing is that he actually has a real chance of becoming the city’s next mayor. If the people really want someone like this they will live with the consequences. Everyone else will move out.
Good luck to all the law abiding citizens who can’t move out.
Nah, Ja’mal is staring squarely at 8th place.
So happy to have moved to a home on a cul de sac in a quiet suburb outside of Chicago & Crook County. Haven’t been to Chicago in 8 yrs. I look at Jamal and his ilk and simply shake my head in disbelief that ANYBODY could take him seriously.
So who will respond to the next murder scene if law enforcement is defunded? Will social workers and Jamal round up all of the gang bangers for a restorative circle?
Green dreams of utopia, but I bet he can’t spell it let alone fund it.
At least he admits that crime is a problem. His progressive solutions are naive at best, nefarious at worst. He’s basically offering socialism and communism. More free government assistance, more government intervention, more surveillance state, less policing, less prosecution, with new age nonsense (healing houses? Come ‘on man!). And this is somehow magically going to reduce crime? Call me crazy, but we’ve already tried many of these progressive policies (except healing houses!) since 2016 and crime is back, at least in the black community, at 1990’s levels. But like all ideologues say, “Real Progressivism Has Never Been Tried!”, and that’s… Read more »
Actually, he described the problems pretty well:
“Businesses are leaving. Families are leaving at a record [pace]. Young people are hopeless. Young people are carjacking. Young people are killing and being killed in our city. We’re in a state of emergency. And we can’t continue to do the same things that aren’t working.” As for solutions, at least he has specific proposals. Whether they’re workable is another subject.
Look, Jamal bought a suit!
Why didn’t he go for the Fetterman look and be really avant garde?
Yep and he can tie a tie!
We tend to internalize the need for police. In a Chicago full of Mark’s and nixits, would we need the same level of policing that exists today? Sure, a Mark might speed and run through a few stop signs and a nixit might run an illegal gambling operation out of his basement and a Mark and nixit might get into a heated argument, but we’re not robbing and shooting each other. In this world, we could get by on a small police force. I’m sure Ja’Mal thinks in a Chicago full of people thinking like Ja’Mal, there is no need… Read more »
Wonderfully said, nixit. But how can we expect you to be law abiding given that you don’t even capitalize your name?
Branding.
The spelling police will definitely be on his tail……until the pursuit is called off by their superiors.
The Sun-Times and Tribune should merge into one newspaper. Both report news excluding pertinent facts. Spinning specialists. Ja”Mal conveniently makes no mention of Black men being killed by other Black men. That far out weighs police killing Black men. Ja:mal is the ultimate con man! The Black Henry Gondorf?
I wonder if Lightfoot will bring any of these points up in debate? To do so she will have to move to the right, next to Vallas. Politically she has to make Vallas into a right-wing extremist and this dude into a left wing anarchist. And try to fool the voters into thinking she’s a moderate. This guy can’t run on his record, just his looks maybe.
Another person running without real knowledge concerning elected officials, sad that he believes the crap in his own head.
Don’t forget how Green’s BLM Chicago said that looting was totally justified “reparations”
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/blm-organizer-loot/
Does anyone actually read the Sun Times?
Another black scholar attempting to be intelligent. Police killing black men, ok in 2022 a total of 23 people were shot by members of CPD. 2 killed, 21 wounded. Armed citizens, not cops, shot 25 with 9 killed and 16 wounded. Yeah them bad POlices are on a rampage. Meanwhile over 700 murders and almost 3000 people shot 95%of those shootings involved blacks and hispanics, yeah them white folks are the problem. Hey Mr Scrabble name, shut up. PS, the Slum Times is a worthless rag that I wouldn’t house break a puppy on.
And every one of them had it coming. Cops don’t shoot people because they have an itchy trigger finger. Usually.
Anyone involved with the Black Lives Matter terrorists who rioted, looted, and burned Chicago should be disqualified from any public office.