“Chicago’s Real Crime Story”

By Michelle Malkin  •  January 15, 2010 03:12 PM

In October, I gave you a closer look at Altgeld Gardens — a long-troubled public housing complex on Chicago’s South Side where youth violence has proven immune to “community organizing” solutions and the grand redevelopment schemes hatched by Mayor Richard Daley and slumlord/Obama crony Valerie Jarrett.

In this month’s City Journal, Heather Mac Donald shines light on other hidden angles of “Chicago’s Real Crime Story:” rampant illegitimacy, fatherlessness, an anti-police culture, and the nonjudgmentalism of the social justice crowd.

Bookmark and read the whole thing here.

Heather is America’s Anti-Political Correctness Czar.

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  1. #1
    On January 15th, 2010 at 3:23 pm, verogolfer said:

    Yes, what a tragedy.But “community organizers” and government can’t solve a problem when they refuse to be honest enough to admit what actually causes the problem. No one on the left wants to admit that “fatherlessness” is a lethal problem in the inner cities.

  2. #2
    On January 15th, 2010 at 3:30 pm, BadIdeaGuy said:

    Before I even read this link, let me just give you a preemptive “you’re raaaaaacccciiiiisssssttt” for bringing up public housing.

  3. #3
    On January 15th, 2010 at 3:34 pm, orlandocajun said:

    The new age entitlement class. Rather than waiting for Obama to steal the money of the producers, and for terrorists to kill them, we get a two-fer with these thugs. They cut out the middle man.

  4. #4
    On January 15th, 2010 at 3:35 pm, Old Tanker said:

    Wow, that’s a heck of a piece and a great lesson in history….

  5. #5
    On January 15th, 2010 at 3:42 pm, Teddy Kennedy said:

    Errah didn’t Snake Pliskin escape from there??!!

  6. #6
    On January 15th, 2010 at 4:15 pm, SpeakEasy said:

    Government housing creates a tribal situation- no outsiders welcome and we make our own law. Biggest mistake my generation made.

  7. #7
    On January 15th, 2010 at 4:26 pm, J S Ragman said:

    From the article;

    Most tellingly, Obama’s narrative is almost devoid of men. With the exception of the local ministers and the occasional semi-crazed black nationalist, Obama inhabits a female world. His organizing targets are almost all single mothers. He never wonders where and who the fathers of their children are. When Obama sees a group of boys vandalizing a building, he asks rhetorically: “Who will take care of them: the alderman, the social workers? The gangs?” The most appropriate candidate—“their fathers”—never occurs to him.

    My question; Why would it occur to him? He is cut from the same bolt of cloth.

  8. #8
    On January 15th, 2010 at 4:39 pm, RedDog said:

    And just think, they want to help Haitians the same way. May G_d help Haiti.

  9. #9
    On January 15th, 2010 at 5:27 pm, TooMuchTime said:

    In fact, “there is zero legacy from when Obama was here,” says Phillip Jackson, director of the Black Star Project, a community group dedicated to eliminating the academic-achievement gap. Jackson, like other local leaders, is reluctant to criticize Obama, however. “I won’t minimize what Obama was doing then,” he says.

    There’s the problem. They know that Obrainless did nothing but they are unwilling to say it. So they’re just playing into the hands of the socialists.

    Dr. King would be crying right now…

  10. #10
    On January 15th, 2010 at 5:33 pm, rightisright said:

    “the projects”…what did congress think when they decided through giverment programs to destroy black neighborhoods and build high rise ghetto’s then reward fatherless families by having more kids? That was a demonratic congress by the way.

    that doesn’t even qualify as “good intentions on the road to hell” or how ever that goes.

  11. #11
    On January 15th, 2010 at 6:01 pm, vickisoup said:

    That was a long, but worthy, read. I have sent it to my friends for their own edification and sharing. Wow. Just WOW.
    :-(

  12. #12
    On January 15th, 2010 at 6:46 pm, graysonret said:

    Throughout history, and in every city in the world, there was, and continues to be, a section of the city, that most people avoid. The problem is either ignored by those in power, or used for political gain, like Obama. Many times they don’t have any idea how to fix the problem areas, so they throw money on it, to show “they care” and get the residents’ votes, then hope it just goes away. Unfortunately, there will always be city-poor, no matter what is done. The solution is to reduce it to a minimum; something politicians are reluctant to do. Giving “caring” speeches and promising money, means votes; the more the better.

  13. #13
    On January 15th, 2010 at 6:57 pm, ScottyDog said:

    Until the federal Government stops funding girls to spread their legs under the war on poverty, fathers will continue to be absent and black families will continue to be destroyed.

    The solution is no husband, no financial assistance…you know just like it was before LBJ started this stupidity back in the 1960′s.

    Why should Americans be forced to pay the costs for unwed mothers to bring another future criminal into the world.

    This whole social experiment with single unwed mothers has proven that fathers are essential to the child rearing process despite the protestations of the feminist’s and liberals.
    The solution is obvious too, cut off the funding.

  14. #14
    On January 15th, 2010 at 7:00 pm, simcoe said:

    Heather MacDonald’s narrative may as well be about what we see going on in Haiti right now. Haiti and the Chicago neighborhoods are interchangeable in her context. Uproot the neighborhoods and drop them into Haiti and you wouldn’t know the difference between those from Chicago and the Haitian locals.

    A while back Bill Cosby tried to bring attention to the very same thing and almost got drummed out of the black race completely by other blacks including Jackson and Sharpton.

    Discipline in the family context is forcing the children to allow themselves to bend in the right direction for their own good. Community discipline is needed here.

    Build a fence around the community, put them in the context of a family with 20th century societal norms as the parents and break out the razor strap — over there’s the wood shed. But with black leaders like Jackson, Sharpton, and Jeremiah it’s not gonna happen.

  15. #15
    On January 15th, 2010 at 7:16 pm, Leatherneck said:

    What African tribe is that? I know Americans taught right, and wrong would not do that.

  16. #16
    On January 15th, 2010 at 7:17 pm, rocketman said:

    ***
    Didn’t Detroit have to tear down many multi-story apartments for the poor to stop the killing, raping, and drug dealing?
    ***
    Bill Cosby is a very brave man–he told it like it is and tried to improve things. And our racist Politically “Correct” Black “community” trashed him for it.
    ***
    John Bibb
    ***

  17. #17
    On January 15th, 2010 at 7:42 pm, TooMuchTime said:

    Bill Cosby is a very brave man–he told it like it is and tried to improve things. And our racist Politically “Correct” Black “community” trashed him for it.

    Yes, he was just saying the same things that MLK had said, but the socialists didn’t want to hear it. He made a valiant effort to help the black community but their “leaders” (and I use that term loosely) didn’t like the fact that he wasn’t towing the socialist/victim line.

    Too bad. Had Sharpton, Jackson, et.al. rallied around Bill Cosby, the country would be a lot better off. Instead of caring about the black community they just care about their wallets and power.

  18. #18
    On January 15th, 2010 at 8:20 pm, graysonret said:

    he was just saying the same things that MLK had said

    Maybe it is just as well that MLK died when he did. Today, he would be branded as an “oreo” or “Uncle Tom”. He certainly wouldn’t have a holiday named after him.

  19. #19
    On January 15th, 2010 at 8:43 pm, cheapseat said:

    we sophisticated yokels in st louis found that the problem with public housing was elevators don’t you know. you see our illustrious civic leaders decided that the high rise housing caused elevators, and elevators caused crime, and crime caused gangs, or maybe the other way around, but one thing is for sure, get rid of those damn elevators. so we tore down the high rises in st louis city, and since st louis city has a plethora of vacant housing because anyone who can escape has abandoned their houses and the city, and we set about building row townhouses. unfortunately, the gangs just exchanged sitting around the elevator shaft, to sitting around the corner of their block, but we spent (excuse me, invested) billions of federal HUD money on these shovel ready hovels. the problem now is keeping the plumbing in the housing, it seems to walk out alot, but the resale flea markets are full of slightly used sinks. so it’s all good, dog.

  20. #20
    On January 16th, 2010 at 10:52 am, TigerLady said:

    Cheapseat said:

    Two words–Pruitt Igoe

  21. #21
    On January 16th, 2010 at 11:57 am, jangar said:

    OBAMA: They’re just a bunch of boys gettin’ jiggy in da hood…dat’s all.

  22. #22
    On January 16th, 2010 at 11:58 am, jangar said:

    OBAMA: More basketball courts need to be built using stimulus money!

  23. #23
    On January 16th, 2010 at 12:19 pm, Send_Me said:

    Why is it that when talking about “race relations” or “racism” or “color” or “social justice” or what have you, we are not allowed to talk about culture? We can talk about the education disparities between blacks and other ethnic groups. We can talk about the economic disparities between blacks and other ethnic groups. We can talk about drug use, teen-pregnancy rates, single parenthood, criminal activity, gang violence, divorce and all the rest of it, but never is culture discussed, or even allowed to enter the conversation. It always goes back to “race”. Either they are saying that because these folks are black that these things happen, which is nonsense. Melanin content has nothing to do with it and they know it. Or they are saying that someone else of a different melanin content is making this happen to them, which is also ridiculous. No one is holding anyone else back. We need a little intellectual honesty here. Why can’t we acknowledge that the culture that dominates the black community is bankrupt and in need of some serious changes. It wasn’t always this way. They’ve gone from the proud people of old to the victims of our society, brought on mainly from their perceived leaders, especially those who claim to preach the Word of God. They need to start preaching the Gospel, not the “social gospel”. Preach Jesus crucified. Preach the roles of men and women. Preach the role of family. Preach the role of church. But again, above all, preach Jesus crucified above all else, rather than this social justice garbage.

  24. #24
    On January 16th, 2010 at 12:25 pm, greenfairie said:

    Leftists and liberals practice the fine art of completely ignoring reality if it contradicts their ideology. The welfare state has been an utter failure. It drove men from the black family and kids in the inner city become more feral with each generation. People who have been “cared for” their entire lives cannot and will not take any responsibility for their attitudes. I’m disgusted with people who complain about all of the crime, gangs, drugs, and violence in their communities, but refuse to cooperate with the police. Or they’ll happily take drug money earned by their sons, boyfriends, or baby daddys. Or they’ll just shrug when Junior joins the Crips. I have half a mind to say to heck with it, build a wall around these hell holes and let them slug it out. If you want to be a decent, productive member of society, you’re welcome to come out. But I’m tired of subsidizing bad behavior and rotten attitudes, enabled by white “do-gooders” who only want to keep taxpayer money coming their way and to protect their turf/political power. Fine, keep ‘em behind the wall with their “clients.”

  25. #25
    On January 16th, 2010 at 3:50 pm, Send_Me said:

    Obama ignored the primary cause of their escalating dysfunction: the disappearance of the black two-parent family.

    “The family in crisis produces the attitudes which predispose men for blind submission.” ~ Max Horkheimer, former President of the Frankfurt School (Marxist think-tank)

    When Obama sees a group of boys vandalizing a building, he asks rhetorically: “Who will take care of them: the alderman, the social workers? The gangs?” The most appropriate candidate—“their fathers”—never occurs to him.

    Well, it’s always been the goal of communists to destroy the Christian patriarchal view of family structuring. If fathers are the providers, protectors, priests and the voice of families at the city gates, then what need would people have for government aid?

    “Right now we have a society that talks about the irresponsibility of teens getting pregnant,” [Obama] told the Reader, “not the irresponsibility of a society that fails to educate them to aspire for more.”

    And who in society should be doing this?
    “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4

  26. #26
    On January 16th, 2010 at 5:18 pm, graysonret said:

    It wasn’t always this way

    That’s true. I remember talking to a couple of black seniors about how they took care of their neighborhoods and took pride in them. I also remember Walter Williams remarking that it was safer in the black neighborhoods, in Philadelphia, than the white neighborhoods. This was before the “War on Poverty”.

  27. #27
    On January 17th, 2010 at 3:10 am, emjem24 said:

    I also read Heather MacDonald’s article and what is even more saddening is how black, single mothers in the seediest parts of Chicago are starting to abdicate THEIR responsibilities as parents by dumping their kids (or burdens) on other family members with the result that these kids are being “bounced around” (according to local authorities) or end up being abused and neglected like their own mothers.

    Poverty and fatherless children is an endless cycle that are direct results of illegitimacy. And they are preventable. There seems to be a culture of not only dependency, but complacency, and irresponsibility in the black community which fails to take into account for the role personal choices, especially personal, sexual behavior has on children. Children are the helpless victims in all this.

    I also found it very troubling that the kids involved in the after-school programs, about 8 out of 10 kids didn’t have fathers in their lives. Some didn’t know what their fathers did for a living while others would greet their own flesh and blood with violence if they darkened these kids’ doorsteps.

    I find it absolutely abominable how the black community refuses to see what’s in front of their very eyes. I also find it absurd how the federal government ignores this and instead even financially supports such behavior. I think MacDonald’s article is not only enlightening, it’s a rather harsh indictment on something that has been going on and continually ignored in the black community for years.

    The bottom line is that the high rate of black juvenile crime, poverty, joblessness, and even high school drop out rates has nothing to do with racism or an unfeeling society that doesn’t care. It has to do with the ramifications of poor choices that the black residents of South Side Chicago are making.

    That Uncle Sugar with the money of unwitting American taxpayers feels the need to step in, try to make it all better, without asking for any kind of accountability from these folks is all the more wondrous in its ignorance.

  28. #28
    On January 17th, 2010 at 8:45 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    It is a cancer spreading it’s poison everywhere. The ILLEGITIMACY rate among “hispanics” is higher than among blacks now and the ILLEGITIMACY rate of whites is becoming epidemic.

    Yes I know that no child is ILLEGITIMATE as that is harsh. Well that kind of Feel Good Bull got us here. This society has become very good at this BULL. How about the term “single moms”? Excuse my judgementalism but there is a world of difference between widows or abandoned women-abandon by rats, and these little whores who pop out one illegitimate child after another by any gang banging punk with a bottle or bag of drugs.

    Yes good people make mistakes and things happen. But it was not until we actually celebrated whores and punks, gave them money to be whores and punks, that we got the epidemic.We have people applauding Mel Gibson for leaving his wife as he is having a child with his mistress. Perhaps he should review Passion of the Christ again.

    Our local TV news likes to promote this vulgarity. A young “hispanic” punk was killed doing a home invasion. The homeowner was also hurt. So who was the victim? The home invading punk-”He was turning his life around and trying to provide for his 16 year old fiancee and their two children”. The TV station set up a fund to help the his 16 year old fiancee pop out future gang bangers. No mention of help for the injured homeowner-”hispanic” but judgmental as he is married to his childrens’ mother.

    We have too long let the vulgarians of the Left define the argument, define the terms.

    A whore is a whore
    A punk is a punk
    A rat is a rat-even if a Hollywood legend
    ILLEGITIMATE

  29. #29
    On January 17th, 2010 at 9:59 am, happyscrapper said:

    On January 17th, 2010 at 8:45 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    Yes, AZ…those are very harsh words!! They sound judgemental and unsympathetic. But truth is truth and I happen to agree with everything you said.

  30. #30
    On January 17th, 2010 at 11:43 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    Thank you happyscrapper-my sympathies lay with our citizens trying to live decent lives preyed upon by the thugs which this epidemic has spawned.

  31. #31
    On January 18th, 2010 at 8:52 am, John Deaux said:

    Who does she think she is, telling them how to behave?

    -Paraphrased from Jesse Jackson.

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