The summer of 2008 will be remembered as especially violent. Blagojevich said there's been a child shot nearly every day since June 26, with 29 Chicago Public School students shot since last fall.
Check out what happens right in Obama's front yard, his own city... crime is so bad the Democratic Governor (and Rezko pal) wants to call in the National Guard.
Now, imagine what wil happen to the US while he's out spending billions in Asia, Africa, Middle East (promising to double foreign aid to failed despots) and cavorting with terrorists". (hat tip trk)
Change. Change. Change you ain't gonna believe. With Obama in the White House, I bet the trains wouldn't even run on time.
CHICAGO -- As Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday signed a new law that will put in place tougher penalties for selling guns to minors, he also announced he's got a new idea to help combat the violence that Chicago is experiencing: he's talking to the Illinois State Police and the National Guard to see if they could help.
The Chicago Sun-Times depicted Blagojevich as the "new sheriff in town" Thursday morning in its coverage of the governor's plan to form an "elite tactical team" to help the city fight crime.
"Violent crime in the city of Chicago is out of control," Blagojevich said at the bill signing ceremony. "I'm offering resources of the state to the city to work in a constructive way with Mayor Daley to do everything we can possibly do to help stop this violence," said the governor. The summer of 2008 will be remembered as especially violent. Blagojevich said there's been a child shot nearly every day since June 26, with 29 Chicago Public School students shot since last fall.
"Twenty-eight of those kids are African-American and Latino. Hard to imagine that that would be acceptable if that were, in fact, the case in other parts of the city or in a middle-class suburb somewhere," he said. "Something is wrong, and this violence has to stop."
Bringing in state troopers -- even National Guard helicopters to high-crime areas -- is still very much in the planning stages.
"It might be able to free up some resources that the Chicago police uses for capital needs, to be able, to maybe to, hire more police officers, or possibly ask some to come out of retirement, to put them into these violent zones, hot zones, where, clearly, I think, part of the challenge is that gangbangers outnumber police officers five to one," Blagojevich said.
The governor said Chicago Mayor Richard Daley hasn't asked for help, but Blagojevich said he'll call the mayor once he has some concrete suggestions about what help he can provide. He didn't have many specifics, but he said it's more likely that state police will be brought in than the National Guard.
In fact, Daley's office said the mayor did not know anything about Blagojevich's comments and did not know he was going to make them. "The mayor welcomes partnerships, not just on this issue but on a variety of issues," said spokeswoman Jody Kawada. "Beyond that, it is difficult to comment because we don't have any facts."
And police department spokeswoman Monique Bond said they learned of the comments after Blagojevich made them as well, and said it was too soon to comment. But Bond took issue with the governor's contention that crime is "out of control" in Chicago, pointing out that if the current murder rate holds in the city, 2008 may end with fewer than 500 homicides and that it is expected to be one of the least deadly years in the city in the last 40 years.
