President Obama’s hometown of Chicago has been controlled by his political party since at least 1931. The city is a reflection of a certain style of politics and philosophy, one in which single-party rule, corruption, and the casual disregard of human rights all go hand-in-hand. Perhaps the city’s residents have become accustomed to this state of affairs, but for the rest of us, the Windy City is a cautionary tale of what America could look like if Barack Obama and his cronies were allowed to reign unopposed and unchecked.
Last year, for example, we reported on a lawsuit by a group of Chicagoans that claimed a “civil right” under state law to impose Chicago-style gun control upon other localities. Among those leading the charge in this effort was antigun activist and Obama “spiritual advisor” Father Michael Pfleger, infamous for engaging in provocative and dramatic publicity stunts, which among other things have included leading his flock in a gun shop protest that included threats to “find” and “snuff out” the business’s owner.
The plaintiffs asserted that illegal gun use in Chicago’s African American neighborhoods leads other local residents “to seek and obtain guns,” including by legal means, which supposedly leads to “a high level of disorder and violent crime” that makes these neighborhoods a less desirable place to live. They asked the court “to put in place by ordinance or regulation the kind of measures or methods of administration … set forth in the City of Chicago’s own municipal code to replace or supersede the current lax methods of administration or licensing of dealers ….”
In perhaps the most unsurprisingly legal development to date in the 21st Century, the court dismissed that suit on Feb. 25, finding that the plaintiffs’ allegations were too generalized and indistinct to establish their standing to sue. The court went further, however, noting that even if the plaintiffs were able to establish standing, they failed to establish the requisite link between the gun control policies of the defendant villages and the extreme violence of Chicago’s mean streets.
For the plaintiffs, however, articulating a serious legal theory, much less prevailing in court, was likely beside the point. The suit served the purpose of giving them a few days’ worth of headlines, the appearance of activism to the uninformed, and yet another soapbox from which to scold and point fingers. Rarely at a loss for words (or shame), Pfleger indicated that the legal fight would continue with an appeal or an amended complaint and expressed his “sadness” that “the judge cares more about the rights of the (gun) stores than the rights of the people ….” Fortunately, the judge (though expressing sympathy for the plaintiffs’ goals) cared most about the law, as is his sworn duty.
Regard for the law, sadly, did not hinder the murderer of Tyshawn Lee, the victim of a crime so brutal and shocking that it managed to distinguish itself from the carnage that has become so routine in Chicago as to pass mostly unnoticed. According to police, nine-year-old Tyshawn was playing basketball in a park on the city’s South Side last November, when he was lured into a nearby alley and shot multiple times, including in the head, in an execution-style killing. Investigators believed the killing was gang-related retaliation against the boy’s father, who media reports indicated refused to cooperate in helping to bring his son’s murderers to justice, even as he was reported to be selling $50 Tyshawn memorial t-shirts.
This week came the welcome news that police have identified and charged the suspected triggerman in Tyshawn Lee’s slaying, 22-year-old Dwight Boone-Doty. Fox News reports that Boone-Doty had been sentenced to five years in prison in July 2013, but he was paroled just three months before he allegedly killed Tyshawn. The Fox report also notes that Boone-Doty has additionally been charged in an Oct. 18 shooting that killed an 18-year-old girl and wounded a 20-year-old.
Against this dystopian backdrop, Barack Obama and his inner circle of Chicago activists would have America believe that the fault lies not with inept leadership, the revolving doors of justice, the prioritization of theatrics over policy, or the collapse of civilized norms in his adopted hometown. Rather, they would tell you it’s the “ready availability” of firearms, if not in Chicago itself, then within a continually expanding sphere that eventually reaches to America’s borders and beyond.
Fortunately, America is a lot a bigger than Chicago, but we’ve already seen the effects of seven years of Chicago-style politics emanating from the White House. That can be stopped this November, but only if freedom-loving Americans make their voices heard at the polls.
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