The wasteful and futile $412-million 'crime-fighting' program for Lori Lightfoot's Chicago
A lot of "community groups" are going to get grant money, so I suppose that's a political accomplishment for Chicago's Mayor Lori Lightfoot. But when it comes to actually combatting the wave of violent crime that is ruining Chicago, her lavishly funded "Our City, Our Safety Plan" is mostly futile. Its focus on the "root causes" renders it as inapposite as Vice President Kamala Harris's "root causes" effort to stem the flood of illegal aliens across our southern border. Maybe someday, it will pay off a little bit. But the magnitude of the catastrophe underway will not be stanched by its measures.
David Struett has a good article on the plan in the Chicago Sun-Times:
[T]he Lightfoot administration is planning to pump more than $400 million into its own community safety plan that targets 15 of the city's most violent community areas.
The plan, "Our City, Our Safety," was unveiled more than a year ago and has produced few results so far, according to crime data kept by the Sun-Times that shows many of those communities have gotten more dangerous.
The mayor told the newspaper she is hoping the unprecedented level of spending over the next two years will eventually narrow the "safety gap" by concentrating on violence prevention, street outreach, affordable housing, job training, health and wellness, and community development. [emphasis added]
The specifics of where the money will go:
The budget drafted by Lightfoot and approved by the City Council contains $411.6 million to implement "Our City, Our Safety."
- $85 million on violence intervention, including victim services, street outreach and other violence reduction programs.
- $62 million for affordable housing and homeless programs.
- $80 million for assistance to families and youth jobs.
- $40 million for health and wellness programs.
- $114.6 million for community development and parks.
- $30 million for small business.
This caught my eye:
The city's list of investments under the plan was last updated in July. It shows more than $50 million going to more than two dozen organizations for street outreach, victim services, transitional jobs, scholarships and domestic violence.
About 2 million per group. What does that work out to per vote?
Writing at Wirepoints, Mark Glennon comments:
It should come as no surprise that the Our City, Our Safety Plan has not worked. Look through it yourself. It's mostly social justice gibberish. "Equity" appears 30 times. "Violence is an equity issue," it says. "Empower and heal people" is its "Pillar No 1." "Racism" appears 105 times. "At the root of violence is systemic racism which has been pervasive throughout Chicago and its history," it says. "Participate in local and national collaboratives to elevate policy positions," whatever that means, is one of its strategies.
Seventy percent of the funding for the plan comes from the feds, via The American Rescue Plan — the pandemic-induced slush fund. That money is going to dry up, and keeping the plan going will require a lot more money from Chicago taxpayers, already hard pressed to keep the pensions of retired city workers funded. Otherwise, it will be a temporary way of buying votes. Call me cynical, but hey, it's Chicago.
Hat tip: Peter von Buol.
Graphic credit: YouTube screen grab.
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