Chicago’s Violence Is Fueled By Neoliberalism

It has been said that under [Mayor] Rahm Emanuel there are two Chicagos, one for the haves and one for the have-nots. That distinction could also be characterized as the wanted and the unwanted. Many people in Chicago do, as Emanuel stated, have criminal records — including this author. Rather than concerning himself with the conditions that fueled their criminalization, or how they might successfully contribute or reintegrate into society, Rahm Emanuel cites their very presence as a root issue. While most people in Chicago who have a criminal record have not committed a violent crime, and with many hailing from disenfranchised communities, Emanuel would blame our very presence for the city’s violence, rather than holding his own administration accountable for its failure to govern.

Emanuel has also stripped many community members, both law-abiding and non-law-abiding, of crucial services in his neoliberal push to privatize the city. Having closed over 50 public schools and half of the city’s publicly funded mental health clinics, Emanuel has consistently imposed policies that take from the needy and give to the rich — and like most leaders whose rule is punishing to the poor, he is very concerned with security. Under Emanuel, the city spends $4 million a day on a famously racist and incompetent police department. A shooter in Chicago has less than a five percent chance of being apprehended by Emanuel’s police, and yet the city continues to throw good money after bad.

You can read the rest @
https://truthout.org/articles/chicagos-violence-is-fueled-by-neoliberalism/

Since Emanuel was (and possibly still is) representative of what the DNC leadership wants to do to America once they are back in power, these claims need close scrutiny. 

Emanuel's 2006 book The Plan: Big Ideas for America actually had some great ideas (at least in my opinion). The fact that he instead focused on neoliberal privatization while mayor of Chicago suggests that either his book was BS, or that even he can't find a way to make his "big ideas" work.

No matter who is in the White House, the US eventually is headed down the road Chicago is on. Both are broke, and the only difference is that the feds can print their own money while Chicago cannot. Our shared future is not a pretty picture.

We need a different plan.