IT TOOK GUTS: Tio Hardiman supports SROs in schools, discusses the ‘Prestige of Violence’ in Chicago’s ghettos

School resource officers save lives.  Amazingly, one of Chicago’s long-time “anti-violence” activists is actually coming out in support of SROs in Chicago’s Public Schools.  That takes guts, folks.  Because the radicals running CPS and the City of Murder very much want to defund the police and get them out of schools.  As if that’s going to solve the growing gang violence in Murder City USA.

We’ve discussed how gangs flourish among young people who are effectively illiterate and can’t do basic math.  Without an education, these young people have no hope for a career path and the potential to buy their own home (or even rent a household on their own), to get married, have kids and become a productive member of society.

Instead, the only viable path to “success” if you can call it that is professional sports and the hip hop culture.  There aren’t a lot of pro athletes, so that leaves the hip hop “ghetto” culture of drugs, cash, guns and women.

These young gang bangers can accumulate prestige among their peers by their willingness to resort to savage violence with little or no provocation.

Your values of empathy, compassion, decency and delayed gratification are antithetical to these gang members.

And Tio Hardiman, the guy who manages to hop from one “anti-violence” executive director gig to another, has actually brought this up to the mainstream media in Chicago.

Tio and I go way back to the Friday night he called me at about 11:30pm on his cell phone not too long before the Illinois primary that year.  He was running for the Democratic nomination for governor and didn’t like our story.

He ranted and raved about me mentioning his past criminal history involving domestic violence in his household.  It’s his position that because he satisfied a court’s direction that the arrest and conviction of the domestic-related charge would fall off his record, that somehow it never happened.

That didn’t work with a TV station (Tio sued them and lost), and it didn’t work with me.

Here’s a lawyer’s blog entry about the issue from the Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer blog:

When a candidate for governor sued news organization alleging defamation and libel as a result of news organization’s statements concerning candidate’s domestic violence conviction and history as gang member, summary judgment was granted for news organization. The appellate court found that the statements about the candidate’s domestic violence conviction were substantially true, and that the statement’s about the candidate’s history as a gang member, while false, were not made with actual malice.

In August 2013, Tio Hardiman declared his intention to run for Governor of Illinois. In January 2014, it was announced that Hardiman’s name would appear first on the Democratic gubernatorial primary ballot. After the announcement, Hardiman was interviewed by Mike Flannery, the political editor for Fox Chicago WFLD for a segment slated to air during WFLD’s 9 p.m. news broadcast. Ahead of the broadcast, Katie Fraser, WFLD’s web producer, wrote an article for WFLD’s website titled, “Controversial candidate remains on primary ballot for governor.” The article detailed Hardiman’s explanation to Flannery of the dismissal of a 1999 guilty plea and conviction for misdemeanor domestic violence against Hardiman’s then wife.

Hardiman lost the first round in the case and appealed in state court.  The Appellate Court (First District) affirmed the lower court decision.

That brings us to Tio today.  He and Guns Save Life actually agree on something.  I’m pretty sure Tio’s not going to embrace gun ownership for the law-abiding. But who knows, maybe we share common positions on more than just putting school resource officers into schools.

Removing cops from Chicago schools ‘not a real good decision,’ anti-violence leader says

(The Center Square) – Violence Interrupters Executive Director Tio Hardiman is speaking out about rising violence after three Chicago Public Schools students were slain just steps from their schools’ front doors over the past month.

“It’s time for a cultural shift right now,” Hardiman told The Center Square. “Violence is a normal way of thinking. There needs to be a cultural shift where all the academic people organize together to design a curriculum we can push to change the way we think about one another.”

Three Chicago Public School students have been killed and two others injured in recent shootings as they left class.

On the North Side, 16-year-old Senn High School student Daveon Gibson was killed by gunmen in the 1200 block of West Thorndale on January 31. Two other students were injured in the shooting, which police called “targeted.”

Just days earlier, 17-year-old Monterio Williams and 16-year-old Robert Boston were both gunned down as they left the Innovations High School building in the Loop.

No arrests have been announced in connection with the crimes.

“Violence has become the norm,” Hardiman said. “The more brazen and the more outrageous the crime may be, it gets them some type of brownie points in the neighborhood in which they come from. A lot of young guys are being hunted down by individuals that stalk the social networks to find out where they’re going to be at one time or another. It’s all a part of the cycle of violence.”

Rumor has it Tio might be coming to an upcoming GSL Chicagoland meeting as a speaker.  One of our people reached out to him after seeing him in public and in a shock to me, Hardiman expressed more than passing interest.  We will let you know if a visit from Hardiman comes together.