In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Re. Bobby Rush (D-Ill) called Sen Mark Kirk’s plan to crack down on Chicago gang violence isĀ  an “upper-middle-class, elitist white boy solution to a problem he knows nothing about.”

Rush is referring to Kirk’s recently stated commitment to “crush” Chicago’s street gangs, asserting that his top priority is to arrest the 18,000 members of the Gangster Disciples.

Rush later fleshed-out his comments, asserting that a real solution would be to fund jobs, housing, health care, and school improvement.

“Kirk’s “current plan does not include the option to create jobs, provide affordable and safe housing, quality health care and improve schools in urban areas, BUT certainly a plan to incarcerate 18,000 black men is elitist. Why is incarceration the sole option instead of rehabilitation which is proven to work and not locking young men up.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel later weighed in on the back and forth, asserting that the solution probably lies somewhere in between Rush and Kirk’s ideas.

Read more at the Huffington Post.

 

Thoughts on Sen. Kirk’s plan to lock up 18,000 gang members?

Is Bobby Rush right?

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