courtesy newyorker.com

Rahm Emanuel has tried almost everything a lefty anti-gun big city mayor can think of to cut back on the murder epidemic in his increasingly violent city. He’s fired and hired police superintendents, he’s tried (unsuccessfully) to eliminate gun stores within city limits, he’s tried (unsuccessfully) to keep shooting ranges out of his town.

He fought concealed carry to the bitter end, and he’s mumbled meaningless platitudes like “public-private mentoring partnerships” and wrung his hands over the perpetual need for more “neighborhood resources.”

He’s tried bogus “violence interruptor” programs, basically paying gang bangers (with city tax dollars) to stop banging. He’s even written big checks to the Second Amendment Foundation to further civilian gun rights when he’s lost in the Supreme Court, although, to be fair, he did that while kicking and screaming.

What he hasn’t done is encourage Chicagoans to exercise their Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. A move that would let the city’s persistent criminal population know that trying to victimize the law-abiging could be hazardous to their health. Neither has he lifted a finger to reform the city’s joke of a criminal justice system. A sorry “catch and release” operation that puts violent criminals back on the streets to cause more havoc, frequently before their victims have left the hospital.

But now Mayor Rahm has a new idea that’s sure to cut the city’s murder rate down to size:

Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel has come up with a brilliant new plan to stem the city’s gun violence problem and cut down on the approximately 600 homicides committed within the city each year: punish banks who make loans to weapons manufacturers.

That’s right, he’s jumping on the same bandwagon that got rolling when the American Federation of Teachers and the New York State Comptroller began threatening big banks with the loss of their deposits if they didn’t stop doing business with gun manufacturers.

Emanuel echoed calls from other anti-gun agitators, including Parkland student David Hogg, to force lending organizations and investment banks to drop gun-related clients, even if those clients are freely engaging in the flow of commerce.

The mayor’s plan is a little different from Hogg’s, however. Instead of pulling support and interest from financial institutions, Emanuel would cut those same financial institutions off from receiving contracts with the city of Chicago unless those same institutions filed affidavits “verifying that their customers ban the sale of bump stocks and high-capacity magazines” and wouldn’t sell guns to anyone under 21 years of age (three years older than the federal minimum age for firearm purchases, 18).

But Emanuel doesn’t have nearly as much clout with the banks as he thinks he does. That’s because his city’s financial situation is a shambles.

If Chicago is hesitant to do business with banks, banks are more hesitant to do business with Chicago. Chicago’s credit rating is hovering just above “junk bond” status, and the city has sold off so much debt, financial institutions are already wary of entering into contracts with any aspect of Chicago city government.

So Hizzoner is going to have to rack his brain to come up with some new ideas as to how to keep his citizens from gunning each other down at an already alarming rate. As always, we’d be happy to pitch a few ideas his way, but we won’t hold our breath waiting for his call.

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51 COMMENTS

  1. I’m curious about his administration. Is this mayor a petty tyrant surrounded by advisors too enthralled by Chicago power to tell him about reality? Or are they synchophants that live in the same false reality the mayor’s ego has created for him? Maybe a combination of both or something else entirely?

      • . . . and, just as with all other Leftists, they sincerely believe that, while things are not going exactly as they’d like them to so far, if they merely keep going in the same direction, trying each and every Liberal Progressive thing that comes to mind, they will happen across exactly the right combination of Liberal Progressive things that will magically cure everything, and the gumdrop trees will blossom again in the cotton-candy forests.

        • Liked your overall comment but truly loved the blossoming gumdrop trees part. That right there is a true thing of beauty. Makes me wish we could up vote comments like you can with Disquss.

    • Rahm Emanuel is an Obama crony from way back. He had gotten into some trouble for trying to buy the senate seat vacated when obama became potus. He has been in several investigations of fraud and his election of mayor was questioned for almost a year. He is also a student of Obamas mentor Sal Alinsky.

      • As I have said many times before, the hellhole of Chicago has been, as it is now for many DECADES!!! The city runs the state, and Madigan runs the state…has for decades. His cronies around Midway airport have good jobs thanks to Madigan, and the patronage/machine politics, and Emanuel has never been anything but Obama’s lapdog. He is a pathetic excuse for a mayor and I wouldn’t hire him to walk MY dog, let alone elect him to run a city!! Like his buddy Hillary, he’d lose my dog and then exclaim “well, what difference does it make now?”

  2. Maybe Rahm should worry more about the fact that Chicago has, for years (to be fair it started long before he ever even dreamed of running the city), been financing their debt with more debt at higher and higher interest rates. [Essentially the same idea as using higher interest rate credit cards to pay off the debt on lower interest cards.]

    When that news became public the death spiral became really, really real for the city. Chicago’s finances are, in a word, fucked.

    • I’m sure they were counting on being ‘too big to fail’ and getting a bail-out from the federal government.

      But, nooooooooooooooooooo! The HildaBeast didn’t win like she was supposed to.

      All because of those meddling kids (Trump)!

      • They’ll get their bailout in the next few years, likely when Dems are in control of Congress next term.

      • Actually they’ve been counting on the state to bail them out, but the problem is that the state isn’t in much better shape.

  3. I’d think you’d support the “Boston Miracle” and it’s iterations. 40% reduction in urban homicides in 18 mos. The Baltimore version “Safe Streets” only pays the mentors. Their success is amazing. While the homicide rate rises in that city the area that these men work has had no deaths.

    It is hard to think of paying bangers not to bang. Imagine if you will no one had depended on you to do a thing right or wrong. Suddenly someone is and you’re held responsible for your actions. That’s the effect of this program. The pay to the bangers is insignificant as they have far more than $1000 a month in their pockets. The effect is to represent true honest parenting that these kids lacked. The cost to tax payers is far less than the first responders showing up to one homicide.

    Quoting that we are paying bangers to stop banging is as off target as the left saying teachers are forced to carry in schools.

    In this case success is now here without that controversial aspect.

    Can we support something that Hillary and Barack wouldn’t? Biden said there was no political will to fund an extension of the program. “Only for Newtown like events.”

    • Bullshit. Its more self imposed cultural genocide.

      Pay the lowest rungs of society to procreate. Pay criminals to not be criminals. All it does is suffocate the law abiding, tax paying people who have to make sacrifices to support the squatters, deadbeats and thugs.

      The only thing bangers need to be banging is rocks, in a chain gang. And when they are used up and broke down they can be turned loose having paid their debt for being a piece of shit. Their salvation is in finally contributing something to society.

      • Chiraq(and Illinois)are bankrupt.Wait’ll that obese Jewish billionaire (PRICKster)wins the guvnership. He plans to raise taxes even higher to fund ludicrous state pensions. The gangbanger’s are better than the democrats…

        • And, there you have it! He’s not a bad guy because he’s a billionaire, he’s not a bad guy because he’s fat, and he’s not a bad guy because he’s a Liberal! He is, however, a bad guy because he’s a fat, billionaire Liberal Joo!
          Yep, them Joos are the reason for the world’s ills–the Heartbreak of Psoriasis, Communism, obesity, the dying off of the Great Auk, bad TV programming, scabies, the lack of a good 10-cent cigar, male pattern baldness, the death of Pontiac and Oldsmobile, and mange.
          When do them Joos find time to sleep, with all of that EvilDoing to EvilDo?

        • And all these liberal socialists are moving to red states where there are jobs and lower taxes while not abandoning their failed policies. There should be a quarantine to make these idiots stay in place for the eventual collapse.

    • +1 The exception isn’t the rule, and CeaseFire and similar programs have seen a LOT of success. Anything that reduces violence without gun control should be embraced by our side. The author badly mischaracterized that program. That’s like saying we need to ban AR-15s just because a handful of them are used in the commission of heinousness. Both are fallacious arguments that should be rejected.

    • I was dismissive of these programs until I saw them profiled on Vice on HBO last weekend (yes, they skew left, but they actually investigate). My numbers are from memory, so they might be a little off. They profiled Richmond, CA, which dropped the homicide rate 70%. Prior to the program, they had identified 26 people as responsible for the murders. The program takes reformed bangers (middle aged guys who served their time and realize they were wrong) and uses them as mentors for at risk youth. The youth participate in a rehab-like program where they learn to be responsible people, hold jobs, etc. After 9 months, they’re eligible to get $1000 for the next 9 months. The raw savings are $9k per mentoree (plus mentor salaries) vs. $200k/year for incarceration This doesn’t count the savings of victim costs, the mentorees becoming productive citizens (one said, “yeah, I’ll clean toilets”), and the mentorees being involved in their own kids’ lives, which can break the cycle of the next generation coming up as thugs. I’m still skeptical, but they seem to work if done right. There need to be quality mentors who spent time in prison regretting their poor choices instead of using it as criminal grad school, which is the opposite of “catch and release.” Upstanding citizens like us can’t do it because we’d be ignored for not having the relatable experiences.
      This anti-bank crap won’t do a thing and is just antigunner virtue signalling.

      • Anymouse: I noticed the “seem to work IF DONE RIGHT,” which begs the question: are we talking about our Proven-Too-Huge-To-Work-Effectively-At-Any-Level Government?

  6. Easy for banks to retaliate. Don’t Support the second amendment but want financing? No problem! A 3% “socialist jerk fee” will be added to your premium.

    You’re welcome, bank executives!

  7. “force lending organizations and investment banks to drop gun-related clients, even if those clients are freely engaging in the flow of commerce”

    Does that include US.gov and all of her subsidiaries?

    I ask cuz the U.S. is a huge proliferator of arms and it gives and receives a ton of money. Do we boycott them too?

    • The anti-gun mafia wants all firearm manufacturers closed. Then the US government can purchase all their weapons from other countries.

  8. There are federal regulations. A bank cannot decline to take a credit app from legitimate businesses and individuals.

    They can decline the app, but then they’d be exposed to disparate treatment claims.

    Gun related industries need to send their people to open lines of credit, be turned away, then file suit.

    • I think you may be misunderstanding how this is supposed to work.
      What the city wants isn’t for the banks to refuse to work with people who want to buy a gun (someone using his/her credit card to buy a gun), but instead to refuse to do business with banks who offer credit to businesses that make or sell guns, along with to those businesses who have their own branded credit cards they offer to their customers (think Cabella’s).

  9. F SChitcago. It’s just another bastion of evil POS (D).

    The only reason we don’t pop it like a zit, is because we don’t want to get any of that (D) sh_t on us.

  10. If he was really concerned about violence in his city, he isn’t, he would step down and let someone that actually knows what they’re doing run the place.

  11. Time to try a new approach…maybe prosecute and jail criminals with illegal guns…for YEARS…instead of giving them probation

  12. Wouldn’t this violate equal protection clauses? You can’t discriminate against banks and financial institutions for the business they conduct, or can you?

  13. Any active gang banger worth his salt is also a city employee, being part of the Democrat “get out the vote, whether they want to or not” machine, which is as old as organized crime in America. As the chief criminal, the Mayor is naturally obliged to favor his hirelings, so jail time is both comfortable and brief. The fact that these particular city employees are also responsible for most of the murders in the city, is just the price of doing business. Nothing will ever be done to fix this, as long as the Dems maintain their cozy relationship with criminals, who are so indispensible.

  15. Rahm and the Demonrats could improve things by going to Deadhorse Alaska and staying there.

    • If it were up to me, that poor excuse for a mayor along with so many in Washington would take a one-way trip to Afghanistan, right to the heart of Taliban country. They are not patriots in any way, shape or form and I am sick of their utter, abominable disregard for the truth! The hellhole of Chicago has stayed intact for DECADES…corruption runs rampant and I wouldn’t trust any of these people to walk my dog, let alone hold public offices! The “machine” politics has driven away any decent, law-abiding individuals that might run for office, so Chicago is well on the way of Detroit. Personally, I don’t hold any regard for politicians and their lies, their thievery and their utter hypocrisy, so I hold no hope that Chicago will ever be noteworthy for anything other than their corruption and their murder rates.

  16. Personally I want to see all of these idiots drug tested so that we can understand which drugs effect their thought processes!
    Emmanuel isn’t interested in lowering the murder rate in Chicago, he is just wanting the gangs to stay in power, so that they can keep him (and the Democratic Party) in power.

  17. Maybe Emanuel can host a dance class for the gangsters that own Chiraq’s streets. Then, instead of the thugs shooting each other, they can perform a scene from a West Side Story and call it South Side Story.

    It could work! And we all know that Emanuel is a wonderful dancer by the way he’s been dancing around the truth for his whole political career.

  18. Paying Bangers not to Bang is closely akin to paying the neighborhood bully to not take your lunch or beat you up.

  19. Requiring welfare recipients and their female children age 14 and older to be on birth control might also end the cycle of poverty and resultant gang behavior in Chicago and other slum cesspools. No birth control, no welfare, SNAP, Section 8, or anything else. Norplant so that we can be sure. Add mandatory drug testing like virtually all working people have to agree to. Put the gangstas to work on chain gangs right in Chicago itself cleaning up the graffiti and other filth in order to get their $9,000. Is this draconian? Absolutely. Is it correct use of tax money? Absolutely. Would it require a sea change in the Supreme Court and no D Presidents or Congressional majority for at least 20 years? Absolutely. Is it freedom of choice for the welfare recipients? Absolutely. If they want to do drugs and breed non-stop, go right ahead. But none of my money or yours goes to them. Not one dime.

  20. If I remember certain classes from law school that type of conduct could be construed as tortious interference with a contractual relationship. That is an intentional act subject to punitive damages.

    The manufacturers have contractual relationship with a bank and Sh!tcago is attempting to adversely interfere with that contractual relationship to the point of causing intentional harm to the manufacturers. I believe attorney fees may be awardable depending on the state law!

    I expect there to be litigation over this intentional interference with the manufacturers and their banks!! I certainly hope so!!!

  21. Chicagoans already have Second Amendment rights and the means to exercise them. It isn’t the Mayor’s responsibility to encourage them to do what they should be doing for themselves.

    As for the criminal catch and release, well, the Mayor only has authority over the police, the ones who catch suspects. By catch and release, you concede that they’re being caught, but released. So the Mayor has done his job. If the release part bothers you, go take it up with the D.A’s office, the local judges, and the juries.

    Ultimately, Chicago’s problem us that it has too many people of a certain demographic. If Vermont had the same population profile, then they’d have the same problem. Unless Chicago starts exiling people, which just moves the problem elsewhere without solving it, nothing will improve in Chicago.

    • Gunfree: It’s not about what you do, it’s about what the voters will believe [AKA Keep buying lottery tickets if you’re playing for the odds]

  22. A great website to follow Chicago violence is http://www.heyjackass.com. Some great stats in their about shootings and multiple repeat violent offenders. Most Chicago violence is gang related. Some interesting stats on shot placement to end a threat as well.

  23. How many times were standard (30 rounds) capacity magazines used in committing one of Chicago’s 600 murders?
    I’m not even asking about bump stocks, for as far as I know there was exactly ONE case of murderer using bump stock. (Las Vegas).

    How is this supposed to help?

  24. Rahm Emanuel’s Big New Idea for Attacking Chicago’s ‘Gun Violence’ Problem

    Run for President, and let someone competent try to fix it? Oh, wait, that’s Holder.

  26. Rahm ‘take it to the back allies’ should team up with Eric Holder as his VP BFF,
    when Holder runs for POTUS 2020. You know all of them will announce,
    free meals, hotels, first class and or private plane rides, etc etc.

  28. Where do I go to claim I am a gangbanger and promise not to murder anyone if he pays me an annual premium of say, $20,000 a year. I will sign a paper making that promise also.

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