We applaud Illinois’ new governor Bruce Rauner slashing state funding for CeaseFire, the rabidly anti-gun group that’s a darling of liberal Democrats.
The group hires gang members, child rapists, “street pharmacists” and other members of America’s criminal class, paying them to “interrupt” violent crime before it happens.
Tio Hardiman, CeaseFire Chicago’s former leader was ousted after an arrest for beating his wife. It wasn’t Hardiman’s first rodeo at beating women, as he was convicted for domestic violence in 1999. (He claims his time spent in Cook County Jail on this most recent arrest led to a “spiritual awakening”. Uh, yeah.)
Rauner is cutting their funding 60%, from $4.7 million to $1.9 million. CeaseFire leadership claims this will force them to suspend all program activities effective immediately.
If that’s the case, then let’s save Illinois an additional $1.9 million and zero out funding altogether for this dubious group.
CeaseFire SCAM castigated in 2007 IL Auditor General report
The anti-civil rights group CeaseFire is facing criticism that the City of Chicago’s payment of $1 million for its criminal thug employees to “prevent” crime is not preventing a thing.
Theotis Holcomb.There are no shortage of questions about CeaseFire and what they may actually do, aside from garnering grants from both government and some private sources.
Nobody’s exactly sure who CeaseFire’s employees are or what they do. Before this most recent report on the lack of results from CeaseFire, the only splash of publicity for the group’s name in the mainstream press since Chicago wrote them a check earlier this year was when a street pharmacist who claimed to be one of CeaseFire’s employees was arrested by Chicago police.
Theotis Holcomb had a slew of crack cocaine and some marijuana on his person in the July traffic stop before being taken to jail. A search of the Illinois Department of Corrections reveals Mr. Holcomb, despite having nearly a half-ounce of crack on his person, is not a guest of IDOC as of this time.
Second City Cop, a blog run by a Chicago Police Officer, also had rumors of a second CeaseFire employee being arrested with a serious quantity of heroin.
Not to be outdone the 010th dist tact team gabbed a ceasefire interrupter gal with about 280 blows (that’s heroin for you media trolls). Let’s see how fast ceasefire spins this one.
Unfortunately though, despite no shortage of critics of the CeaseFire program and the make-believe paradigm by which it supposedly works, Chicago’s cool million is only the latest in government monies that have flowed to CeaseFire Illinois’ organization in recent years.
CeaseFire’s scam of securing grants from local, state and federal government here in Illinois was castigated five plus years ago in a scathing 2007 Illinois Auditor General report.
Taxpayer-funding CeaseFire stickers pasted into a gang sign on a door at a Chicago housing project. Photo via Second City Cop.His findings?Not only are there a host of questionable activities by CeaseFire, but there is no metric to measure their “success”. They’ve claimed large drops (70%+ in homicides) in two police beats they’ve worked in one year, but larger drops occurred in seven of the fifteen other beats in the district where CeaseFire thugs were absent.
CeaseFire, the highly regarded but sometimes controversial anti-violence program featured in the documentary “The Interrupters,” is losing state funding, the result of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s executive order freezing spending.
The program was budgeted to receive $4.7 million from the state in fiscal 2015, which ends June 30, according to Rauner’s proposed budget for fiscal 2016. The Rauner administration has proposed slashing CeaseFire’s funding almost 60 percent, to $1.9 million, in fiscal 2016.
The freeze in funding is just one of many cuts under Rauner’s order that are likely to anger supporters of popular state initiatives, even as it pleases advocates of his austerity measures. The state is facing a $1.6 billion budget shortfall for 2015 and a $6.2 billion gap for the following fiscal year.
For CeaseFire, the move means that “all program activities must cease immediately,” according to an email sent yesterday to subcontractors by Jalon Arthur, program director for CeaseFire Illinois, the local affiliate of anti-violence organization Cure Violence.
20 thoughts on “CUT IT ALL: IL Gov. Rauner slashes anti-gun CeaseFire group’s funding”
Gov. Rauner:
Way to go!
We know you have people watching this site.
I’m confident I speak for all of us when I say, don’t let them threaten you… If they’re suspending ops, then cut the funding 100%.
Why fund such a useless org?
Just stop wasting our tax dollars, sir.
Thank you.
Another vote to cut it all!!! I have always considered it as a way to pay off the gangs to assure they will keep voting and working for the democratic machine. Jim.
I’d like to see Governor Rauner come to IGOLD on March 18, we are a voice that he should listen to. I’d like to see an overflow crowd there in order to show Rauner how many of us there are.
My question is this. If they are ceasing all programs, then why would they need the $1.9 million? Surely they don’t spend this in administrative fees? (sarcasm) and salaries. Cut it off 100% if they are not doing any programs. I say this is a step in the right direction.
Bravo, Bruce.
He really is shaking thing up in Springfield!
And yes, cut it to zero!
I dont like your new comment software.
Testing…
WOW! I vote to cut it all!
I know a program they can give 1.9 mil to and it would allowvfor them to serve the whole state.
I have been supportive and hopeful of Rauner since he has taken office. He really has shown an initiative to try to clean up the corruption that Illinois has been stricken with for WAY TOO long!
Cut it all!
cut it down to zero! then use the entire 4.7 Mil to pay down the pension shortfall the politicians in Springfield have created by stealing from my retirement to pay for these pet projects that don’t work.
Testing. 1. 2. 3. Yea Bruce. Give us a nod. And. We’ ll really get behind you !!
Right on union brethren
Rauner looks like the real deal, so far. I’m not moving back from Iowa,though.
One shovel full at a time Bruce.
Zero sounds about right, I’m sure n find a much better use for it.
* you can find a much better use for it.
Needs to go to zero funding the program is not work what so ever and is a waste of taxpayers money
Chicago’s bastardized version of “CeaseFire”, backed by Dr. Gary Slutkin, should not be confused with the previous and solid CeaseFire described in David M. Kennedy’s book, “Don’t Shoot – One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America.
Kennedy’s version works. The feel-good version of Slutkin and Tio doesn’t. Thanks to Gov. Rauner for recognizing this quickly and cutting funding.
Gov. Rauner:
Way to go!
We know you have people watching this site.
I’m confident I speak for all of us when I say, don’t let them threaten you… If they’re suspending ops, then cut the funding 100%.
Why fund such a useless org?
Just stop wasting our tax dollars, sir.
Thank you.
Another vote to cut it all!!! I have always considered it as a way to pay off the gangs to assure they will keep voting and working for the democratic machine. Jim.
I’d like to see Governor Rauner come to IGOLD on March 18, we are a voice that he should listen to. I’d like to see an overflow crowd there in order to show Rauner how many of us there are.
My question is this. If they are ceasing all programs, then why would they need the $1.9 million? Surely they don’t spend this in administrative fees? (sarcasm) and salaries. Cut it off 100% if they are not doing any programs. I say this is a step in the right direction.
Bravo, Bruce.
He really is shaking thing up in Springfield!
And yes, cut it to zero!
I dont like your new comment software.
Testing…
WOW! I vote to cut it all!
I know a program they can give 1.9 mil to and it would allowvfor them to serve the whole state.
I have been supportive and hopeful of Rauner since he has taken office. He really has shown an initiative to try to clean up the corruption that Illinois has been stricken with for WAY TOO long!
Cut it all!
cut it down to zero! then use the entire 4.7 Mil to pay down the pension shortfall the politicians in Springfield have created by stealing from my retirement to pay for these pet projects that don’t work.
Testing. 1. 2. 3. Yea Bruce. Give us a nod. And. We’ ll really get behind you !!
Right on union brethren
Rauner looks like the real deal, so far. I’m not moving back from Iowa,though.
One shovel full at a time Bruce.
Zero sounds about right, I’m sure n find a much better use for it.
* you can find a much better use for it.
Needs to go to zero funding the program is not work what so ever and is a waste of taxpayers money
Chicago’s bastardized version of “CeaseFire”, backed by Dr. Gary Slutkin, should not be confused with the previous and solid CeaseFire described in David M. Kennedy’s book, “Don’t Shoot – One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America.
Kennedy’s version works. The feel-good version of Slutkin and Tio doesn’t. Thanks to Gov. Rauner for recognizing this quickly and cutting funding.