Fake Passage
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy on Thursday echoed Byrd-Bennett’s sentiments that officials aren’t starting from scratch, saying: “It’s not a new concept in the city of Chicago for school kids to cross gang lines on their way to school. Kids have been doing it for quite some time even when the schools were open. -- Sun-Times
With 2 weeks to go before another chaotic school opening, the Mayor's so-called Safe Passage plan is blowing up (literally) right before our eyes. Two of the 23 shootings (4 dead) over another bloody Chicago weekend happened right below newly-installed Safe Passage signs.
Chief McCarthy and BBB are already spinning for the worst. Yes, "this is nothing new", they tell media (notice they've both got the line down pat). Students on the south and west side have always crossed gang lines to get to school. As if this offers some comfort to terrified parents. And all the Safe Passage signs in the world, along with community volunteers (not a bad idea) and some yellow-vested, minimum-wage temps on street corners aren't going to change that.
So long as you have a city of blighted, racially-isolated neighborhoods, awash in drugs and guns, with the highest unemployment rate of any major city in the country, young lives are going to be particularly at risk. The mass school closings, teacher and counselor firings, along with a horribly-organized safe passage plan will only make things worse.
Chaos and neighborhood instability still rule the neighborhoods as Rahm continues to divert money and desperately-needed resources from increasingly blighted neighborhoods and