CHICAGO TRIBUNE ASKS YOUR ADVICE ON REDUCING HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO

Josey1

CHICAGO TRIBUNE ASKS YOUR ADVICE ON REDUCING HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO * I$RA REMAINS SILENT ON JIM RYAN GUN STING * ILLINOIS GOP: A SLOP BUCKET OF CORRUPTION * LAKE COUNTY GUN BUY BACK DISARMS CITIZENSHAGGERTY TRIAL IN TWO WEEKS! HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL AT THE MARION COUNTY COURT HOUSE AT 8:30AM, JAN 7THQUOTE OF THE DAY: "But the way to make the streets safer for everyone isn't to cling only to current strategies. Chicago doesn't have all the answers. Search hard for new ones." Chicago Tribune Editorial BoardTHE OBLIVIOUS SOLUTION TO REDUCING HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO By John Birch, President, Concealed Carry, Inc., PO BOX 4597, Oak Brook, IL 60523-2708 Tel: 630 660-3935The Chicago Tribune editorial on Chicago being the murder capitol of the world follows. Since the Tribune suggests we "search hard" for new ideas I decided to oblige them:Dear Editor:In your Dec 24th Editorial "Chicago's stubborn murder rate" you ask that we search hard for the answers to reducing homicides. I'm happy to oblige with two suggestions for the Mayor:1. Repeal Chicago's de facto ban on handguns owned by law abiding citizens immediately.2. Work with your pal, Governor Ryan, to give all trained and background checked citizens the same right as you and your alderman have to carry concealed weapons.Some will say my suggestions will make Chicago streets less safe. I agree. Gang bangers won't feel safe at all anymore.John BirchPresidentConcealed Carry, Inc.Feel free to write your own letter to the editor at: ctc-tribletter@tribune.comELSEWHERE IN CC NEWS: We are pleased to offer the Family Taxpayers article "The Worst Politicians Money Can Buy" by Jack Roeser. Mr. Roeser does not write about guns, but it will give you deep insight into our hard working elected officials. I hope in reading it you will dedicate this year to ridding Illinois of criminal politicians. Only then do we have a chance of moving our agenda forward. Also, Mr. John Nudo gives us some insight into the failure of the Lake County gun buy back program.REARRANGING THE DECK CHAIRS: Did anyone else get the I$RA sexist spam with the model strategically posed to show she has large breasts? Why is the I$RA so deadly silent on Jim Ryan's gun sting against law abiding gun owners while still having time to sell windbreakers? Why is the I$RA covering for Jim Ryan? *********************************Chicago's stubborn murder rateChicago Tribune Editorial Published December 24, 2001For the second time in four years, Chicago is on the verge of a deadly distinction: home to more murders than any other city. Although the number of homicides here has declined over the last decade, to 629 last year, the drops in other cities have been more precipitous.This year Chicago will actually record an increase. There's no single explanation for that. But what's hard to swallow is the Chicago Police Department's suggestion that the statistics don't call for much concern--or greater accountability among command-level officers.One department official told the Tribune: "There's no history of support in this organization for bouncing command level personnel out of their assignments because of the crime rate." The official suggested that there's always more to policing than crime statistics.Well, here's a blunt statistic: New York, with more than twice the population of Chicago, will record fewer murders than Chicago this year.Lots of factors affect murder rates. Patterns of drug sales drive gang wars over turf. As the Rev. Donald McFadden observed in anguish after the murder of his niece, Tamika, outside his church last month, the tolerance or intolerance of law-abiding citizens for serious crime influences how much of it occurs.But policing techniques also influence murder rates--sometimes a lot. Strategies in cities with steeper murder declines than Chicago's range from sensitive sit-downs between officers and gangbangers in Boston to the highly controversial zero-tolerance policy in New York, where police aggressively stop citizens for minor infractions and search them forweapons.Chicago's strategy of community policing has improved relations in many neighborhoods, especially between officers and minorities. But to suggest that commanders shouldn't be held accountable, within reason, for the rate of crime that occurs on their watch sounds nonchalant.The trend line is the bottom line: Homicide totals here have stubbornly refused to keep dropping. That suggests the need for better strategies to accompany community policing.Murder rates trouble cops. Two of this year's victims were tactical officers, Brian Strouse and Eric Lee, whose slayings brought to 419 the total of Chicago officers killed in the line of duty.But the way to make the streets safer for everyone isn't to cling only to current strategies. Chicago doesn't have all the answers. Search hard for new ones.**********************************************FAMILY TAXPAYERS NETWORKFTN Champion "Hot Wire" December 21, 2001**********************************************THE WORST POLITICIANS MONEY CAN BUY or RYAN, RYAN, WOOD, and the ILLINOIS DEBACLEBy Jack RoeserRyan's Follies, the sad morality play, is now being seen in Federal court. Having indicted and convicted 40 corrupt politicians in the Secretary of State (SOS) scandal, the Feds are now indicting the close associates of Governor Ryan, and the question is being asked if these culprits have given enough testimony to cause indictment of the Governor who was there but says, like Sergeant Schultz in Hogan's Heroes, "I know nothing." The evil that was done goes far beyond small bribes for driver's licenses, or even the granting of valuable truck licenses such as the one that wiped out a whole family. The higher-ups were also involved in bribes, bribes for leases to government agencies, and laundering of campaign money. Those are the illegal things, not to mention $12 billion of pork politics, gambling expansion, grants to pals, and pandering to the homosexual lobby.It is now known that many of those already indicted have been plea-bargaining, getting a lesser sentence for informing on those on the higher rungs of corruption. There are also some who worked in the offices of these betrayers of the public trust who have given testimony. Quite a few have "worn a wire," giving a direct view of the machinations of the top guys. For instance, the December 20th Sun-Times article reveals, "Susan Twiss, who was the financial director for Citizens for Ryan has been granted immunity in the Federal probe of campaign corruption.she is not a target of the probe."Our sources report that it is likely that a RICO indictment will include many of those politicians who cooperated or colluded with each other. Interest is reportedly very high about the fate of Larry Hall, Scott Fawell, and Governor Ryan. Scott Fawell was George Ryan's deputy at SOS, the top guy under Ryan. Fawell was later Chief of Staff for Ryan's campaign, and then appointed to head Navy Pier for a $195,000 salary after the election of Ryan to governor. Fawell is innocent until proven guilty but our sources indicate that he will shortly be indicted and that the possible 10-year sentence plus heavy fines will cause him to sing. Other leaders, Republican mostly but Democrats too, may get pulled into the grand jury and possible indictment depending on whether their involvement with the spoils of government office became illegal or just plain disgusting. The unindicted co-conspirators, dupes, and go-alongs are innocent of criminal acts until convicted. While Governor Ryan has not been indicted or convicted so far, the expectation is that there is just too much testimony to ignore. Won't that create a nice problem for the Republican campaign and those who said, "He's our Governor."? As this sorry mess spirals down into the political sewer, it is evident that Governor George Ryan has presided at a debacle for Illinois and the Republican Party. Remember when he came to office there was $1.1 billion of excess State receipts beyond the budget needs. Now, after all that corruptive politics the State is at least $500 million in deficit. The sad and disgusting fact is that almost all the Republican leaders, except Senator O'Malley and his supporters in his campaign for governor, went along with all this. They said, "He's our Governor," and they shared in the spoils, kept mum, or even praised Gov. Ryan. The poll that FTN ordered showed that had George W. Bush dismissed George Ryan as his campaign chairman, Bush would have won by 4%, not lost by 12%. Why have so many Republican leaders failed to dump this political pariah? All that money from pork politics, from the $800 million of excess profits from gambling expansion and from bribes and corruption, will make it difficult or impossible to elect decent people to office. Attorney General Jim Ryan, now running for governor, praised Gov. Ryan on TV, and introduced Gov. Ryan at political gatherings as a "great Governor." It's the Federal prosecutor, not Jim Ryan, who is pushing indictments ever closer to Gov. Ryan. Where was the proper indignation of the A.G. charged with the responsibility to investigate corruption? He said he wouldn't run if Gov. Ryan did. When questioned by a Tribune reporter on December 16th, Jim Ryan said, "My basic approach should I become Governor is not to try to undo everything. that this governor did." Although not a target of this investigation, is he guilty of complacency or non-performance?Corinne Wood, Lieutenant Governor to George Ryan, has praised him all along, and now this person of little political experience is running for governor. She also is not a target of this investigation. However, as George Ryan's political prot?g?, she doesn't possess the credentials to clean up the Governor's mess.Minority House Leader Lee Daniels is the newly appointed Republican State Chairman. Gov. Ryan attempted this a year ago, apparently because Lee Daniels has been a strong advocate of George Ryan as Governor and has pushed the Governor's rotten political agenda as strongly as he was able. On this second attempt, Daniels now heads the GOP and continues his failed political tactics. Not many are enthused about this leadership. Then there is Alan Fore, who Daniels and Senator Syverson (also a State Committeeman) somehow appointed as the Executive Director of the Illinois Republican Party, and who apparently carries such strange baggage that neither Daniels nor Syverson wants to admit that they appointed him. So what you have here is a Governor Ryan cabal running the GOP in Illinois. They have called themselves "moderates," these RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and have rejected the core of the Party. Now they call for unity. The unity they have demonstrated is toward the Party that they have helped to corrupt. Now at election time, they want their misrule to be endorsed by the very core that they betrayed. Those who refuse to repudiate Governor Ryan cannot lead this Republican Party successfully, and are not fit for public service. Our only hope for a happy ending to "Ryan's Follies" and to save Illinois and the part of the GOP worth saving is to elect Senator Pat O'Malley as governor. He is clean, knowledgeable, and electable in the general election. His Reagan-like principles have carried him to victory even in predominantly Democrat areas. He sticks to his principles, he listens, and he isn't corrupt or vindictive. Get active for O'Malley or the crooks and fellow travelers will beat you with your own money spent in pork politics.**********************************************Gun buyback program didn't make us saferDaily Herald Letters to the EditorHats off to Sheriff Gary Del Re on his recent gun buyback program. Your newspaper reported that last weekend more than 200 law-abiding Lake County citizens were successfully paid to disarm themselves. Regardless of the fact that the sheriff cannot guarantee the safety of Lake County's residents, I am glad he has the funds, our tax dollars, to disarm them.Before we start concerning ourselves with this program's "success," let me remind your readers that not one criminal was disarmed after the expenditure of taxpayer funds through this program. Now many of you may be saying that these guns are off the street thereby making our streets safer. I respond by saying that these guns were in the households of law-abiding citizens, many of whom are older and need the safety and security that Sheriff Del Re cannot provide. These people, although with noble intentions, may have traded their well-being for some Christmas shopping dollars. When crime comes to their homes, they can blame only themselves.Let me close by saying it already has been proved in countries where gun ownership is not encouraged that crime has skyrocketed. Look at England and Australia. These nations lead the world in home break-ins while the owner is home. Let me also say that if just one airline passenger had been armed Sept. 11, just one pilot or air marshal, this year's holiday season would have been a season of joy and not a season of sorrow for thousands of families.John NudoRound Lake Beach**********************************************ATTENTION! All candidates, volunteers, campaign workers, grassroots activists, and concerned voters!Register today to attend the CHICAGO CONSERVATIVE CONFERENCE 2002 January 18-19, 2002 at the Oak Brook Hills Resort & Conference Center Sponsored by these leading conservative organizations: American Conservative Union, The Heartland Institute, The Leadership Institute, Americans For Tax Reform, The Howard Center, Lincoln Legal Foundation, Concerned Women For America, Illinois Eagle Forum, National Taxpayers Union, Family Taxpayers Network, Illinois Family Institute, United Republican Fund. Nearly 300 candidates and political activists attended the Chicago Conservative Conference in 2001. The next CCC, on January 18-19, 2002, will be bigger and better than ever! This year's program focuses on the "nuts and bolts" of winning campaigns. Experts from around the country will share their secrets for success during intensive workshops especially geared for candidates, their campaign managers, and key supporters. Plus candidates for statewide office will face off in plenary sessions!Details: Conference begins Friday, January 18, at 3:00 p.m. with a plenary session featuring Illinois candidates for U.S. Senate, followed by three breakout sessions and dinner featuring a keynote speech by James Glassman. Saturday's program starts at 8:00 a.m. with a plenary session featuring candidates for Illinois Governor and a day-long program (including lunch) ending at 5:00 p.m. The Oak Brook Hills Resort is located at 3500 Midwest Road in Oak Brook, at the 83 and Midwest Road exits off Highway 88. Exhibiting opportunities are available. For more information, call 312/377-4000, or visit www.conservativeconference.com. http://www.friendsofliberty.com/concealedcarry/2002/122701.htm