Despite President Donald Trump’s insistence that residents, especially Black residents, in Democrat-run cities are in favor of his deployment of National Guard troops to fight allegedly out-of-control crime in their neighborhoods, polls consistently show that most American voters — including most residents of Washington, D.C., and Chicago — oppose his weaponization of military personnel in American cities.
In fact, according to WEBZ Chicago, even the residents in one of the Windy City’s most notoriously crime-heavy neighborhoods oppose Trump’s plan to send troops into their community, especially because violent crime has declined significantly there, just as it has all over the country, including D.C., Baltimore, and other Democrat cities full of Black people where the president has promised to send troops that are unwanted and unneeded.
Reporters spoke to residents of the 6400 block of South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, known as O Block, named for 20-year-old Odee Perry, a gang member gunned down there in 2011.
From WEBZ:
Since then, the block has gained international notoriety through Perry’s friends, rappers Chief Keef and King Von, who both lived in Parkway Gardens and made frequent references in their music.
King Von, who was killed in 2020, was immortalized in a mural that loomed over the apartment complex from across the street. It was removed last year.
The block’s highest single year for shooting victims came during a spike in 2021 when 22 people were struck by gunfire. But shootings are down, and most residents say they can feel the decrease in violence. So far this year, two people have been shot on the block.
Dennis, 24, who asked to be referred to only by first name, said he lived through the ups and downs of the neighborhood and remembers the block at its worst: “Shootings every day of the week. You wake up, you hear shots, before you go to sleep, you hear shots.”
“Now, it’s, like, you can wake up, come outside, kids can be outside,” Dennis said. “They ain’t got to run from nobody, chase somebody, shoot nobody. The kids are more safe than they used to be back then.”
On a Wednesday afternoon in late August, the Parkway Gardens complex is full of life. Cars and pedestrians have to pass through a security gate to enter, which many residents think has helped with crime.
Inside the gates, teenagers walk home from school, young kids run after each other and older residents step outside to chat on benches and folding chairs.
The Trump administration, right-wing media outlets and the larger MAGA world all love to describe Chicago and other Black cities as dystopian hellscapes where criminals have taken over under democratic leadership, and non-criminals can’t walk down to the grocery store without getting shot. It’s a white nationalist fantasy presented as a nightmare, and MAGA cultists, most of whom have never set foot in any of these cities and neighborhoods, are all too willing to buy into the propaganda because, in their minds, if Black people are criminals, then their anti-Black racism is justified. In reality, the actual residents in these neighborhoods are more likely to express that having the military police on their streets makes them feel less safe, and, in D.C., there’s evidence that bars and restaurants suffered a decline in patronage because of it.
But — you know — never let facts, data or the will of the people get in the way of a perfectly good authoritarian agenda that relies on racist propaganda, amirite?
SEE ALSO:
Trump Ramps Up Threats To Send Troops To Chicago After Violent Labor Day Weekend
Trump All But Admits He’s A Dictator While Threatening Chicago With National Guard Deployment
Residents In Historically Crime-Ridden Chicago Neighborhood Oppose Trump’s National Guard Threats
was originally published on
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