Army General Says It's Time for Federal Intervention
A well-known retired army Lt. Gen. feels it's time for Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police Superintendent Garry McCarthy to ask for federal assistance to help stop Chicago's gun violence.
"The Federal government has the capacity to come in and reinforce what is happening with the local government," said LT. General, Russel L. Honore, U.S . Army (Ret).
Honore, who emerged as a national hero after leading federal troops in the rescue of thousands stranded in New Orleans days after hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in the summer of 2005, made his remarks during a press conference held at the Chicago Military Academy in the Bronzeville neighborhood, Thursday afternoon.
Julieanna Richardson, founder and executive director of The History Makers, a nonprofit organization with the nation's largest video oral history archive, led the press conference that included community leaders and Military Academy students and administrators.
"These students spent the last hour talking to Gen. Honore about the lack of community centers and parenting classes for parents who have lost their way, the need for role models and mentors to be brought into the schools. I'm just hoping Mayor Rahm Emanuel will listen as he grapples with the issues of bringing order into our schools and our communities. I'm hoping he also will bring leaders and advisers in like a Lt. Gen. Honore because he knows how to do things and he also listens...there has been too little listening."
Honore said looking at history to see where one comes from, where one needs to go and how one should get there is imperative within the inner city community.
"Some of the solutions these young people came up with are absolutely brilliant," Honore said. "Investment in our children is an investment in our nation. One student quoted from my book, (Leadership in the New Normal) saying 'People who are poor are not free.' When you're poor you don't have the freedom to select where your kids go to school or what doctor they go to. What we face today in terms of violence is centered (in) poor communities. But if we don't fix it in the poor communities, as we see in New Orleans where I'm from in South Louisiana, that violence can spread out into other communities."
Honore stressed the city's violence is fixable.
"It's still a great city but to deal with the issue today, when I hear a student today talking about hearing gun fire in the neighborhood where elderly people are afraid to go out, it's up to the government to fix it and if the local govern can't fix it, they need to ask for help from the state and if the state government can't help, they need to get help from the federal government."
Honore said federal relief can be used to help stop the gun violence just as it's used during Tornados and floods.
"Maybe you can handle it," Honore said of city officials. But, if you need help, get federal help in here and let's control the streets so our children and the elderly people can be in a safe community."
This crime Honore said, stems from an inflow of drugs and jobs moving out of this city, creating pockets of poverty and violence.
"We need to reinvest in our inner city and our infrastructure," Honore said.
When asked about bringing in the National Guard, Honore said, "I think we're a few steps from using the National Guard. I don't think we're using all the resources we have. I'm not quite sure we're using all the police now and all of law enforcement to include everything that's available in the county and everything that's available in the city."
Honore laid out a strategic approach to stopping the crime, saying a block by block approach works.
"You come in and make the block secure then you expand from that," Honore said. "If New York can do it, I know Chicago Police can do it but you may also need federal help...Trust me, we can tap this now but it's going to take a commitment and it's not going to be popular. People are going to say 'why are you bringing that to our community'...well do you want law enforcement or do you want people shooting day and night and destroying the lives of innocent young people like the little girl (Hadiya Pendleton) who lost her life a few weeks ago?
By Deborah Bayliss
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