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- From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
- Subject: NEWS:Chicago's War on Public Housing Residents/ww
- Message-ID: <1992Nov10.213824.17465@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 21:38:24 GMT
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-
- Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
-
- CHICAGO'S WAR ON PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS
-
- By L. Paulsen Chicago
-
- The tragic death of a 7-year-old boy in Chicago's Cabrini-Green
- housing project has been used as a pretext for a police offensive
- against the residents of the Chicago Housing Authority's
- buildings.
-
- Daily police sweeps have harassed the residents of Cabrini-Green.
- On only hours' notice, residents of two high-rise buildings were
- evicted and forcibly moved to other apartments in the project.
-
- The high-rises are being sealed up and slated for demolition.
- Metal detectors are being installed at the remaining buildings'
- entrances, where armed police will be permanently stationed.
- Residents must show identification to enter; visits by
- non-residents have been strictly limited or eliminated.
-
- A media blitz preceded this operation. It started after
- 7-year-old Dantrell Davis was killed by rifle fire while crossing
- the street to school. The Chicago Sun-Times, which has close ties
- to the Daley administration, published an unusual front-page
- editorial.
-
- CABRINI-GREEN RESIDENTS HAVE NO VOICE
-
- This paper wrote that something "must be done" to save the
- children of the housing projects from the effects of poverty,
- racism and gang violence. Other public figures joined the chorus,
- many even calling for the National Guard to step in. Little was
- heard from the residents of Cabrini-Green, virtually all of whom
- are African American, except published reports that "this is what
- they want."
-
- When Daley's plan was announced the Sun-Times called it a "peace
- plan" and the Chicago Tribune called it a "war plan." Both
- approved it. Of course it had no mention of any steps to wipe out
- poverty and racism.
-
- The "peacemakers" will all be Chicago police, notorious for their
- racism, their "accidental" killing of suspects and their
- court-documented use of electric shock boxes to torture
- confessions out of African American youth, including children.
- The cops killed one more suspect the week they took over
- Cabrini-Green.
-
- It was revealed today that the federal government seven weeks ago
- threatened to cut out $118 million of Chicago Housing Authority
- funds unless the city could prove there was an "adequate" city
- police presence in the projects.
-
- ACTIONS CONDEMNED
-
- Long-time Cabrini area activist Marion Stamps of the Tranquility
- Marksman Community Organization denounced the city's failure to
- get any input from the residents. At a news conference, the
- direct action group Refuse and Resist condemned the lockdown.
-
- The Movement for a Peoples Assembly organized a spirited
- demonstration under the slogan, "Jobs not Jails!" The group
- demanded that Chicago "build a community, not a police state."
- The MPA also called for the hiring of Chicago Housing Authority
- residents to repair the housing the city plans to destroy.
-
- Leaders of Chicago's major African American "gangs" publicly
- announced a truce among their organizations at a news conference
- attended by community activists Oct. 26.
-
- Marion Stamps said the peace efforts had been under way for a
- year and had intensified since the gang truce in Los Angeles
- following the rebellion there.
-
- Al-Jami Mustafa, identified as "street leader" of the Mickey
- Cobra Nation, read a statement that said in part: "It is time for
- all of us to come together for life, not death or jail, for our
- existence in this city as Black people. ... Are we descendants of
- Al Capone, or of great Black kings?"
-
- The Daley administration expressed its "skepticism" and said its
- sweeps of the CHA projects would continue.
-
- Tragedies like young Davis's death cannot be ended by police
- raids or by locking more people up. If that could work it would
- have by now, since the U.S. has more people in prison than any
- other industrial country.
-
- The only answer is to recognize the right of the people to work
- in productive jobs for decent money. And the only road there is
- unprecedented, united mass action against the system that is the
- real architect of poverty and death.
-
- -30-
-
- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
- if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
- St., New York, NY 10010; "workers" on PeaceNet; on Internet:
- "workers@mcimail.com".)
-
-
- NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
- Modem: 718-448-2358 * Internet: nytransfer@igc.apc.org
-