Riley is special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration Office in Chicago and in four neighboring states.
Daily turf battles over drugs and distribution, he said, are turning parts of this Midwest city into a Mexican border town.
"One of the hardest jobs I've had in the past couple of years is to convince our law enforcement partners that we need an enforcement mentality as if we're on the border," Riley said.
Miles away, Riley says, Mexican cartels have a significant influence in Chicago's gang violence problem.
More than ever, Chicago's problem is turning into a Midwest problem. Cartel operations are also spreading to Milwaukee, St. Louis and Detroit.
Mexican drug cartels fight turf battles in Chicago - CBS News
murder is up 30% in the windy city this year
obama 2 weeks ago---at a fundraiser, naturally: chicago is an example of what makes this country great
Obama: 'Chicago Is an Example of What Makes This Country Great' | The Weekly Standard
meanwhile house speaker mike madigan thursday took a second $100,000 from the seiu on the morrow of killing pension reform
Madigan reports $100,000 more from union with members opposed to pension reform - Sun-Times Politics
folks in the burbs are watching on tv, nitely newscasts must by unutterably ugly
cook county, according to a mckeon poll published this week, has moved forty one points away from barack hussein obama since that glorious nite at grant park
Shock poll: Obama could lose Illinois | The Daily Caller
4 years ago obama took cook, 76 to 23
a similar phenomena prevails in the suburbs of philly, denver, detroit... each of which moved 20 to 30 points towards red between 2008 and tsunami tuesday, november, 2010
President Map - Election Results 2008 - The New York Times
even the reliably blue regions surrounding the city of angels has swung as dramatically
California Senate election results
chicago's troubles plague all our big cities
the suburban vote has abandoned obama ubiquitously
the same mckeon poll finds 20% of chicagoans blame gangs for the wave of violence, 13% attribute the bloodshed to weak parenting, 12% the economy, 8% the cops, and 6% put the onus on guns
Chicagoans Blame Gangs For Increase In Violence Not Guns | The Daily Caller
six percent...
in chicago
you'd never know it from the nets and nyt
worry
I wonder if these are the same "Chicago values" Rahm Immanuel talked about a couple weeks ago?
A L
No, they aren't.
Okay, what values are they?
I notice our boy Immanuel has nothing to say. I guess Chick is an easy target and one doesn't have to do the job of mayor attacking a business that employs people. But doing the job about killing people requires effort.
Al would have loved this.
A L
I wonder if these are the same "Chicago values" Rahm Immanuel talked about a couple weeks ago?
So when is it the fault of rabid right wing Republicans who criminalize the drug trade?
Please explain what a mayor's position on a corporate executive stance on gay marriage has to deal with drug cartels from Mexico and drug policy is decided by the federal government.
Huh? When did the majority of Democrats start supporting drug legalization?
Careful ... it might be the plank next to gay marriage in the Dim Party platform.
A L
Okay, since you don't get it ... here it is. Motor mouth (aka Emmanuel) can blabber and spout about Chick and come up with garbage like "it's not the Chicago way". Plenty of time to run his mouth on this minor, minor issue. However, people actually getting murdered in the street, which should be a major, major issue warrants silence from the otherwise motor mouth. The mayor apparently is worried about an opinion about gay marriage far more than actual human life. By the way, it seems as if you miss the point about people being killed and try to obfuscate the issue with "drug policy".
Hopefully you get the picture.
A L
Well the reason for the gang violence is because recreational drugs remain illegal. And they are illegal under federal law. Which is determined by the federal government. Which the mayor of Chicago has no control over.
Hold on there, what you call recreational drugs are illegal because of federal, state and local law. To this day I'm aware of no locality or state that has carried or had an initiative to legalize all recreational drugs. Certainly none has passed. But pot, it's been decriminalized in many places despite that the federal law hasn't changed one bit.
There's a reason drugs like cocaine and heroin were made prescription items, a good deal of our population was addicted at one time in our history - we don't need to return to that. The Chinese had to do the same with opium for the same reasons.
Yes, marijuana has, indeed, had decriminalization efforts successful in California and Oregon. And the Attorney General has threatened to prosecute state officials for not enforcing federal laws.
And people will use recreational drugs whether they are illegal or not. Just like people drank alcohol before, during, and after Prohibition whether it was legal or not.
And if an addict is such an adverse part of society, well, so are people who are mentally ill. But we aren't spending the same billions to provide the mentally ill with needed medication and therapy that we are spending to keep people from getting high every so often.
Make drugs legal...and 95+% of the drug violence ends (imo).
And there's a reason all they ever do is threaten, because it's an empty threat.
That truism is no argument for or against legalization. Historically people will committ many different actions whether legal or not. Doesn't mean we want to legalize say, murder.
And children are going hungry, and the roads need better paving. Just because other things need doing doesn't mean we can do nothing until everything can be done simulaneously. And yes, they ARE an "adverse part of society" and we do not wish to make that part grow. Addicts by their very addicition aren't "getting high every so often", and it's not recreational with them anymore, it's necessity. This is addiction we're talking about.
And once again, addicts are not recreational users and many of those drugs that are schedule 1 are physically addictive. We are not talking about pot here which was made illegal for wholly different reasons than the other schedule 1 drugs. Addicts DO have an adverse effect upon the society around them. And you can't duck the fact that when these drugs were uncontrolled they addicted a good portion of our nation.
I'm fine with talk (followed by action) of changing the sentencing and increasing availability of rehab for those who cannot afford it themselves. But legalize crack, meth? No way is that a positive change.
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