BRETT: The national media’s very busy covering the war between Israel and Hamas and of course the latest in the covid fights. They don’t want to pay attention to anything else. Well, in Chicago over this weekend, 45 people shot, five people fatally in a 48-hour period. It’s an alarmingly high number and an indication of the lawlessness and a public mentality that such crimes can occur without penalty.
It got zero coverage in any of the television or print press outside of Chicago. So, again, it falls to America’s Anchorman to highlight the atrocity of gun violence in Chicago. Here’s a portion of a call that Rush took from a Chicago resident three years ago.
RUSH: Jose in Chicago. Jose, thank you for calling, and I appreciate your patience. Hi.
JOSE: Yes. Hello. Uhh man, I’ve been listening to you for four years, and man, you’re a genius. The reason why I called was when you played the students about how they’re so fearful, but yet nobody talks about how Chicago is, how there’s so much mass killing. And mind you, this is one of the most strictest gun control city in all America.
But yet there’s more killing happening here than anywhere else. Really, what they’re doing is taking guns from good people, you know, like from people that can protect themselves. I was born and raised in Chicago my whole life, and umm it’s sad. But, you know, a lot of my friends you know I seen die since I was 9, at least 30, and uh man, I can’t believe I’m on this show.
RUSH: You have lost 30 friends?
JOSE: Yes.
RUSH: Thirty people you knew have died since you were nine years old?
JOSE: And I’m 26 right now.
RUSH: Wow. That’s more than the Clintons.
JOSE: About 30 people I grew up with and friends, you know. I mean, for me, it’s more like you get numb to it.
RUSH: You have to. Of course, but, see, Jose, here’s the thing. If anybody in this current argument were to bring up Chicago, it has been tried. They are shouted down. “You can’t compare those. Those are two different things. Those are handguns in Chicago. This was an AR-15, you can’t compare the two.” They won’t let you because of course when you start comparing the two, Chicago’s much worse, where nobody is doing a damn thing about it. Right?
JOSE: Yeah, and that’s the thing. Like, people want to talk about other places, about what’s going on around the country. Let’s talk about Chicago and let’s talk about all the killing. And mind you, these are Hispanic and black neighborhoods. I mean, I don’t know, like, to me that’s like something, is there a reason why, like, oh, we shouldn’t care because of that? It’s just unbelievable.
RUSH: Jose, thanks for the call. I appreciate it. I just have an interesting stat. I very much enjoy pointing out things to expose the phoniness of people. According to the FBI, knives kill far more people than rifles in America, and it’s not even close. Recent stats from 2016 show that knives kill five times as many people as rifles in 2016.
BRETT: Government at its core is responsible for just a few things. It really is. It’s responsible for public safety on the local level. It’s responsible for public safety. It’s responsible for the maintenance of infrastructure — you know, sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic lights. It’s responsible for an ability to enforce local ordinances and laws.
But essentially, the task of government at the local level is a public safety mission. You pay taxes, you live in these neighbors, you are not being represented effectively by the government in Chicago. They take your tax dollars. I don’t know what they do with them, but they’re not using them to keep you safe.
And then they’re pushing the narrative that is popular only at Smith or at Berkeley or at NYU that you should defund the police. The very institution that helps to keep you and your kids safe, your grandma safe when she walks to the corner, right, that institution has to be defunded, has to be destroyed.
Government at the local level, the state level and the federal level, honestly, have very basic duties that they owe the people of the community. And Lori Lightfoot in Chicago, Garcetti in Los Angeles, London Breed in San Francisco. Pick your city. Pick your city that’s chaotic. De Blasio in New York? They care nothing about those taxpayers or those citizens or those residents. It’s a disgrace.