What good is being a 'global city' if you can't keep the people safe?

 Can you be a global city when you can't keep your most vulnerable people safe?

This heading caught my attention.  It told a 'tale of two cities', New York and Chicago. One was able to grasp a hold on the safety of its citizens two decades ago, one still 
has not.

Neither is unaware what it takes to reduce the murders, both have the resources to address the problem, but only one took the required steps to reduce the murder rate.
 
When Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel welcomed international visitors to a forum on
 'Global Cities', he did not mention the dangers of living in some sections of the city, 
and the well understood warning, "if you are young, poor, Black and male, you're in constant mortal peril."

It has long been said all local politicians have to do is "fix pot holes and pick up the 
trash" to get reelected. There was never  a quote about keeping citizens safe, it was 
a given!

But why is Chicago unable to reduce the murder rate while most other cities have?

It can't be resources, Chicago has an eight billion dollar budget, but within the annual budget report I may have stumbled on the answer.

I found the Chicago budget report to be the equivalent of a new car brochure, full of  "feel good" initiatives such as 'bike ways', 'corporate investments', funding 'museums'  
and other amenities. 

Its a 173 page online document which does not allow readers to "look under the hood" 
to see how poorly the engine of public safety is running, which you can read for yourselves.  http://bit.ly/1V7o9xQ

As I perused the document I was trying to find references to policing. I did a search  
and found more than a dozen, but in these instances "police" was in references to  
their pensions!  

I did find on page 36 that 300 police will shift from administrative positions back 
into neighborhood, hopefully the most violent! That was the extent.  You would think 
the most pressing problem facing Chicago would warrant more than a single reference.

Its disturbing to imagine that, in Chicago, Black lives don't matter at all.

The story on this 'tale of two cities' can be found at New York Slant, bit.ly/1UgV7wa


Unless residents rise up and demand the mayor and city council direct more of its resources to the citizen's safety don't expect to see the weekly carnage end!


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