Proposal for mass gang arrests is an 'elitist, white-boy solution,' congressman says
Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush isn’t impressed with a proposal to arrest up to 18,000 gang members in Chicago.
U.S. Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., appeared at a joint news conference on Wednesday to talk about their push for a gang crackdown, report the Chicago Sun-Times and NBC Chicago.
“I’m pretty focused on crushing the Gangster Disciples,” Kirk said. “It’s a pretty big project, could involve upwards of 18,000 arrests. I think it’s within the capability of the United States government to crush a major urban gang. … Just think of what the greatest generation did here in Chicago, pretty much crushing the Capone organization.”
Kirk said he’s working with the Drug Enforcement Administration to put together a strike force to target the Gangster Disciples, linked to the death of 15-year-old honors student Hadiya Pendleton. He also said he plans to seek $30 million in appropriations “to go after gangs like the GDs … and pick the biggest and baddest for a federal effort.”
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., criticized the plan in an interview with the Sun-Times. Kirk’s approach, he said, is an “upper-middle-class, elitist white-boy solution to a problem he knows nothing about.” Rush said he does not excuse gang activities, but an arrest sweep is not going to work. A federal appropriation would be better used, he said, for job creation and training.
Rush issued a follow-up statement to the newspaper. Kirk’s “current plan does not include the option to create jobs, provide affordable and safe housing, quality health care and improve schools in urban areas,” he said. “Certainly a plan to incarcerate 18,000 black men is elitist. Why is incarceration the sole option instead of rehabilitation, which is proven to work?”
The newspaper also talked to U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., who sits on the House Appropriations Committee. He said he appreciates Kirk “going after a plague in Chicago” but the focus should be on prosecuting “gun traffickers who put weapons in the hands of gang members.”
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