23536
Bluelight Crew
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/15595706-legalizing-drugs-will-stop-the-killing-in-chicago
Just a little more than one day after 13 people (including a 3-year-old boy) were shot during a night basketball game in a school's recess yard, 11 more people have been shot – four fatally – from downtown (the Loop) to the far South Side of Chicago, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Back in the '20s, right here in Chicago, Al Capone invented the art of drive-by shooting. Capone and his gangsters were not mowing people down because they were drunk on the illegal liquor he sold.
No. Capone was protecting his turf. He smuggled liquor into Chicago and sold it in specified, delineated, controlled and exclusive areas – territories. When other gangs violated those boundaries, Al exacted much more than a pound of flesh. He conducted actual, real, and lethal gangland wars against all intruders and interlopers.
Thus, the federal prohibition against liquor created Al Capone and organized crime. Prohibition did not stop people from drinking. Talk about unintended consequences.
Likewise, today's federal, state and municipal “war on drugs” has created an eerily similar situation, again, right here in Chicago.
I have lived in Chicago since the 1960s. I have never seen crime like this in this once vibrant, exciting, beautiful city. Yes, there has always been crime in Chicago (as in all major cities), but nothing – I repeat, nothing – like this.
Today's gangsters outpace even Al Capone. Al was careful to avoid killing innocent bystanders. He killed only his rivals (and perhaps their innocent associates) in the illicit liquor business.
These guys today, these often teenaged gangsters, however, have absolutely no regard whatsoever for human life – not even their own. Indeed, the ones doing most of this shooting and killing – most of them – will tell you that they do not expect to live to see 25 years of age.
And, they regard jail and prison time as a kind of graduate school, a proving ground, an occupational hazard, a rite of passage.
And so, the solution to Chicago's guns and gangs problem is staring us all in the face. It may be easily accessed by simply watching the latest iteration of the “Scarface” movies, or by even a cursory reading of the history of the Roaring '20s.
When Prohibition ended, so did Al Capone's drive-by shootings. He and his successors had to find other ways to make their illegal livings. Gambling. Prostitution. Extortion. Drugs. These activities, though illegal, did not require the deadly enforcement of territorial boundaries. Mass shootings and killings stopped and became more individualized, personal, directed.
Legalize drugs, all drugs. Not decriminalization, but legalization. To do so immediately removes the profit motive from these modern-day gangsters. No more territories to protect. No more reasons to spray machine-gun fire into crowds of basketball watchers.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/15595706-legalizing-drugs-will-stop-the-killing-in-chicago
Just a little more than one day after 13 people (including a 3-year-old boy) were shot during a night basketball game in a school's recess yard, 11 more people have been shot – four fatally – from downtown (the Loop) to the far South Side of Chicago, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Back in the '20s, right here in Chicago, Al Capone invented the art of drive-by shooting. Capone and his gangsters were not mowing people down because they were drunk on the illegal liquor he sold.
No. Capone was protecting his turf. He smuggled liquor into Chicago and sold it in specified, delineated, controlled and exclusive areas – territories. When other gangs violated those boundaries, Al exacted much more than a pound of flesh. He conducted actual, real, and lethal gangland wars against all intruders and interlopers.
Thus, the federal prohibition against liquor created Al Capone and organized crime. Prohibition did not stop people from drinking. Talk about unintended consequences.
Likewise, today's federal, state and municipal “war on drugs” has created an eerily similar situation, again, right here in Chicago.
I have lived in Chicago since the 1960s. I have never seen crime like this in this once vibrant, exciting, beautiful city. Yes, there has always been crime in Chicago (as in all major cities), but nothing – I repeat, nothing – like this.
Today's gangsters outpace even Al Capone. Al was careful to avoid killing innocent bystanders. He killed only his rivals (and perhaps their innocent associates) in the illicit liquor business.
These guys today, these often teenaged gangsters, however, have absolutely no regard whatsoever for human life – not even their own. Indeed, the ones doing most of this shooting and killing – most of them – will tell you that they do not expect to live to see 25 years of age.
And, they regard jail and prison time as a kind of graduate school, a proving ground, an occupational hazard, a rite of passage.
And so, the solution to Chicago's guns and gangs problem is staring us all in the face. It may be easily accessed by simply watching the latest iteration of the “Scarface” movies, or by even a cursory reading of the history of the Roaring '20s.
When Prohibition ended, so did Al Capone's drive-by shootings. He and his successors had to find other ways to make their illegal livings. Gambling. Prostitution. Extortion. Drugs. These activities, though illegal, did not require the deadly enforcement of territorial boundaries. Mass shootings and killings stopped and became more individualized, personal, directed.
Legalize drugs, all drugs. Not decriminalization, but legalization. To do so immediately removes the profit motive from these modern-day gangsters. No more territories to protect. No more reasons to spray machine-gun fire into crowds of basketball watchers.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/15595706-legalizing-drugs-will-stop-the-killing-in-chicago
