Elliott Ness symbolizes the forces of reform that stood in the gap when gangsters in Chicago joined forces with corrupt public officials, including the police.
As a kid in Chicago, I read the true story of “The Untouchables” and wondered why honest merchants and others who were subject to murder and mayhem did not join together and stand against corruption. Many merchants and working people enjoyed Al Capone’s products, services and largesse. Some honest folks were terrified or busy trying to keep their jobs, just like the honest politicians that were forced to make compromises.
Pervasive corruption exists today in the modern Windy City. I think of Mayor Daley’s father standing on the steps and giving the finger to Martin Luther King when the Freedom Marchers passed City Hall. Northern industrial cities like Chicago, with a history of segregation, also seem to be the cities that enact aggressive gun control laws.
Anti-gun cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco also have a shameful history of crimes against minorities resembling the pattern of racism in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other big cities. Some of the earliest widespread efforts at gun control were Jim Crow laws enacted in the Deep South to disarm black people while whites continued to exercise the constitutional right to own guns.
Many governments are working under the auspices of UN programs to disarm citizens. Some under-developed governments have virtually declared war on their own people in such efforts. Uganda is one example of extreme violence perpetrated by the Ugandan government against selected tribes that hold onto their guns as protection in the midst of appalling ethnic conflict that is all too often enmeshed with governmental policies.
Many of the worst human rights violators around the world sit on UN committees that condone violence against Israelis or those of other ethnic and national origins. You could almost say that the world has become a mirror image of Chicago. The dictators around the globe are like the aldermen that receive favors for keeping the neighborhoods in line. Every now and then, we hear about genocides (often after the UN disarms the victims as it did in Rwanda) that remind us of the Valentine’s Day massacre, when gangsters dressed like cops gunned down Capone’s Irish rivals on the North Side.
Last month, over 57 people campaigning against an incumbent were shot, raped and hacked to death in the Philippines, including at least 30 journalists. The alleged perpetrators are the incumbent’s family, friends and local police that supported President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The mob may one day come to your door to persuade you that they just want to “make your place safe from unfortunate accidents.” Do you believe them as they give your child a stick of gum and assure you, “It sure would be a shame if anything happened to such a cute kid?”
Do you trust politicians in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and the UN to make decisions about your ability to defend your family?
