“What are you prepared to do?”
“Everything within the law.”
“And then what are you prepared to do?”
This exchange between Sean Connery (Jimmy Malone) and Kevin Costner (Elliot Ness) comes as Malone explains “the Chicago way” to Ness in the 1987 film “The Untouchables.” Set in 1930’s Chicago, Federal Agent Ness is determined to put an end to rampant corruption besieging the city, and sees bringing down its most notorious mobster, Al Capone, as the key to getting it done.
If re-written for contemporary times, the key to stamping out rampant modern-day corruption in Chicago might be to bring down the liberals who have monopolistic control of the city’s government.
Like New York City, Chicago is, and has been, run by liberal Democrats for decades. Of New York’s 51 city council seats, all but three are currently held by Democrats. Not to be outdone, Chicago’s city council has 50 seats: one Republican and 49 Democrats.
But, Chicago’s city government is known for much more than its one-sidedness. From Mayor Richard J. Daley’s well-known rackets of yesteryear, to former U.S House Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., (who recently completed his prison sentence having pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges including fraud, conspiracy, wire fraud, criminal forfeiture, and more), the list of Democrats committing — and getting caught for — fraud, bribery, scams, and other malfeasance while in office, is very long.
Last week, Chicago alderman, Willie Cochran, received a fifteen count indictment. Included in the allegations are charges of wire fraud, federal program bribery, and extortion. It’s additionally alleged that he solicited a $3,000 bribe from a liquor store owner seeking to sell his store. His buyer needed a liquor license in order to complete the sale (imagine that), and, guess where those come from? If convicted on all counts, he faces 280 years in jail. But, not to worry Alderman, I’m sure you can find a liberal judge who’ll reduce that to 150.
Cochran, 64, served 26 years with the Chicago Police Department, retiring in 2003. He ran for alderman as a Democrat, in 2007. Ironically, the woman who previously held the office, Arenda Troutman, was under indictment for bribery at the time he ran against her! She lost the election to Cochran and subsequently spent four years in jail following her conviction.
Cochran pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charges, and appears poised to battle it out in court.
As reported by Gazette.com:
“According to Illinois corruption researchers Dick Simpson and Thomas Gradel, more than 30 Chicago aldermen have been convicted of crimes since 1973, most of them on bribery and extortion charges.
More than 1,000 public officials and businessmen in Illinois have been convicted of public corruption since 1970, including imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But corruption among politicians on Chicago’s premier lawmaking body has been ‘particularly persistent’, the researchers wrote in an anti-corruption report.”
Blagojevich is still in federal prison serving a 14-year sentence as you read this. In an odd bit of irony, Blago is hopeful that Barack Obama — the man whose Senate seat he got caught trying to sell — will commute his sentence.
One might wonder: are Chicago aldermen volunteers, or underpaid to the point where some are working side deals to make ends meet? Chicago Alderman’s salaries range from a current low of $104,928 (Brendan Reilly, D 42nd District) to a high of $117,333 (17 earn this wage.) To put this into context, the median household income for Chicago today is about $63,000.
The third most populous city in America is under total and complete liberal Democrat rule. The results are clear: sky-high taxation, toll booths on every major freeway (with roads still full of potholes), out-of-control gun violence and other violent crimes, abysmal black unemployment rates (nearly half of young black men neither working nor in school), highest home foreclosure rate of any major U.S. city — and that’s the good news!
Downtown, elected officials are running scams and rackets, taking bribes and using money earmarked for children for their own personal benefit.
This, friends, is the Chicago way.
Derrick Wilburn is the Founder and Chairman of the Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives and BlackandConservative.com
He is a sought after speaker/presenter, a renown author and columnist, contributing columns and editorials to multiple national blogs and publications including: the Colorado Springs Gazette, Politico, American Thinker, Allen B. West, Strident Conservative and the Tea Party News Network.
His online videos may be viewed on the Black&Conservative YouTube channel and he frequently delivers the Tea Party National Weekly Address.
