EPIC FAIL: Illinois governor’s “Hire-a-Thug” program to reduce violent crime

Chicago isn’t safe.

We’ve said that over and over.

And there’s more news detailing just how unsafe Chicago is and how Illinois Democrat Governor Pat Quinn seems to be adding gasoline to the fire instead of helping to solve Chicago’s violent crime problem.

Quinn, otherwise known to many as Gov. Potatohead, found $54.5 million from this bankrupt state just a month before the gubernatorial election in 2010, to pour into Chicago to “reduce violent crime” and other inner-city projects as part of a then much-ballyhooed “Neighborhood Recovery Initiative”.

Running that through the universal translator:  Governor Quinn found money to buy inner city votes in his race for governor, in part by starting a “Rent A Thug” program where he would hire those unfit for real jobs.

Welcome to Illinois politics.

Here’s the groundwork for the story.

‘Thug’ in Quinn anti-violence program accused in teen’s murder

SPRINGFIELD (Sun-Times) — Both Jermalle Brown and Douglas Bufford were gang members hired to play a small role in helping combat violence on the South Side through a program hatched by Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration.

Paid $8.50 an hour with taxpayer funds to hand out anti-violence pamphlets in their South Shore neighborhood, the two low-income teens were part-time foot soldiers in the governor’s $54.5 million Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, a program he once described as “a comprehensive and concerted effort to keep our young people safe, off the streets and in school.”

Quinn launched that program a month before his 2010 election as an answer to gun carnage in the city — even though murders that year, Chicago Police would later disclose, dipped to a nearly 50-year low.

Happy endings ensue

But this story has at least one happy ending, as one of these fellows met a less-than-optimal fate while working as one of Governor Quinn’s Rent-A-Thugs.  So, what happened?

At the same time they were on the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative payroll, Brown, then 19, and Bufford, 16, allegedly broke into a Grand Crossing home in July 2012 with one other man and announced a robbery in what Chicago Police believe was a gang-related crime.

It’s not clear, based on court and police records, what happened next. But Bufford was fatally shot in the back of the head with a shotgun, and Brown and an associate now face murder charges tied to the shooting.

It’s not clear?

It’s plainly clear.

Outstanding Rent-A-Thug Jermalle Brown had himself a negligent discharge with his 20-gauge sawed-off shotgun while engaging in “wet operations” for Governor Patrick Quinn’s “Neighborhood Recovery Initiative” program.   In the excitement of pulling off a violent home invasion, Mr. Brown blew the back of Douglas Bufford’s head off in a very late term abortion of sorts.

How …unfortunate.

Cops a-chuckled.

We remember this one with particular amusement and it always brings a smile to our faces.

With “help” like that offered by Jermalle Brown and Douglas Bufford (before he absorbed a 20-gauge in the back of his head), it’s no wonder there is such pervasive violence in Chicago.  It’s just another anti-gun Democrat’s miserable attempt to throw money at a problem instead of offering a real solution.

It’s also no wonder that today, there are calls to launch an investigation on Quinn’s Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, as reported in the Sun-Times article above.

…The program came under fire again last week when Holland released a blistering audit that described it as “hastily implemented” and beset with “pervasive deficiencies in . . . planning, implementation and management.” Republicans called for a federal criminal investigation.

Sadly, it’s unlikely there will be a federal investigation or indictments.

It’s just business as usual in the most corrupt state in the USA.