That's the claim of a former convict and gang member, discussing the arrival of Venezuelan gangs in the city.
After serving 20 years in state prison for murder, former gangbanger Tyrone Muhammad never expected to return to the city’s tough South Side and find Venezuelan migrants and the criminal Tren de Aragua gang moving in.
But Muhammad, 53, who’s gone straight and runs a street patrol and violence prevention program called Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change says Venezuelan criminal gangs flooding shelters and taking over apartment buildings are the last straw for the struggling African-American community. He says they are furious at seeing government money going to what they call “non-citizens.”
“It is impossible to release gang members and criminals into our country through the borders and broken walls and infiltrate them in our community that’s already impoverished and broken,” Muhammad told The Post last week on the O Block, a stretch along South King Drive that’s considered the most dangerous in the city.
“When the black gangs here get fed up with the illegalities and criminal activities of these migrants or non-citizens, the city of Chicago is going to go up in flames and there will be nothing the National Guard or the government can do about it when the bloodshed hits the streets. It’ll be blacks against migrants.”
The latest figures show Chicago has spent almost half a billion dollars over the last two years on the more than 42,000 migrants who’ve arrived since 2022.
Many have been given money for rent, food stamp cards and even cars — and some landlords have pushed out local African-Americans because they can get more government money for housing migrants.
There's more at the link.
It's far more widespread than Chicago, of course; it's just that no other city has (yet) experienced the sheer size of the "invading force" of South American gangs. It won't take long. New York City is another that's on the brink; so is Denver, Colorado. I don't think that local gangs are yet aware of the very bloody history of South American gang conflict, either. Their "hood" and their reputation won't scare anybody who's lived on the streets of Caracas, Rio de Janeiro or other crime-ridden cities like them.
This conflict appears to be spreading to prisons as well. When I served as a prison chaplain, gangs and conflict between them were a daily fact of life behind bars (I wrote an entire chapter of my memoir of prison chaplaincy about them). Friends who still work in that environment tell me that it's becoming a necessary security element to rigorously check incoming inmates for membership of South American gangs, and keep them out of general population if there's already a strong Crips, or Bloods, or Gangster Disciples presence on the yard. If members of the "wrong" gang are released into their company, bloodshed is almost assured. I won't be surprised to learn that in the not too distant future, certain prisons will be "reserved" for South American gangs, and other prisons for US gangs, in an effort to prevent them coming into contact with each other. That's been a standard practice in many US prison systems for many years, preventing racial and other conflict between local gang-bangers.
The problem is made worse by the relationship between certain gangs and city administrators - even certain police forces. If some gangs are in a relationship with the authorities in any way, the latter may order their law enforcement agencies to act against certain other gangs. That, in turn, will make the cops into targets for those other gangs, and that can lead to utter anarchy on the streets. (Think it can't happen? Think again. It's nothing new.)
If you live in any American city that already has a gang problem, brace yourselves . . . it's about to get a lot worse (and more dangerous).
Peter
That $500 million sounds like a lot of money until you do the math and find out that it comes out to approximately $6,000 per person per year.
ReplyDeleteFor comparison, that is about a third of what Chicago public schools spend per pupil.
Not enough zeros still not what the school system pays but the the figure is $12K
DeleteIt is not the reality of how much money per person, it is the perception that they are getting something for free that they do not deserve. The perception that they are getting something that should go to my tribe.
DeleteGovernments of any stripe are just gangs too, now. Adjust expectations....
ReplyDeleteWere I more cynical, I might suggest Chicago's gangs not wait and start now to try to dislodge them, as it's only going to get harder the more of them show up.
ReplyDeleteSelf-cleaning ovens.
ReplyDeleteWorked at a prison for a while. At one point some Amerinds got ticked off at one black gang. When the reaction squad showed up the outnumbered Indians had the blacks backed into a corner and were...beating them quite severely.
ReplyDeleteI worked for the phone company to pay for college in the mid 70s in the Black Slums of South Central LA for 4 years on a multi-racial crew and it was bad.
ReplyDeleteWhen I graduated and was leaving I was replaced by a guy from Gary, IN and he thought the area was good. I was surprised and asked him where was Gary and he said it was south Chicago. He said they lost about 9 people per year shot off poles. Where we only lost about 1 shot in various locations.
Anyone familiar with Gary and worked there will tell you "Don't go north of the Borman after dark."
DeleteAnonymous, the per capita is irrelevant. It's still a half billion dollars of American taxpayer (current or future) money that's been spent on immigrants that could have been spent on Americans, either by government or, better yet, through lower taxes or less debt.
ReplyDeleteMeh.
ReplyDeleteMrs. O'Leary's cow already did that.
Chicago needs to be burnt to the ground about every 100-150 years, just to clean out the vermin.
Sooner would probably be better.
Just wall the current problem children inside once the conflagration starts, to maximize the benefit.
Those black gangs had better start cracking if they don't want to be overrun by Central and South American gangs, or they'll find themselves hanging from overpasses, beheaded. Guess we'll see who is really tough.
ReplyDelete