McCarthyism, Deep-Dish Chicago Style

I think the italicized parts the writers comments ......

The New McCarthyism, Deep-Dish Chicago Style

“Let’s see if we can make the connection here: slavery, segregation, black codes, Jim Crow, what do they all have in common? Anybody getting scared?"

Bratton, as he hopped from job to job, was something of a political chameleon, coming off as a tough-talking, no-nonsense bantamweight bruiser while serving under Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani in New York, then morphing into a standard-issue liberal under Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He even went so far as to endorse Barrack Obama for president in 2008, thus becoming one of the few cops in America willing both to vote for Obama and publicly admit doing so.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, formerly President Obama’s head fixer, selected McCarthy for the superintendent’s post, revealing a faith in him to toe the Democrat Party line as it is practiced, in its purest form, in the city of Chicago. And indeed, in an appearance at Saint Sabina Church earlier this month, McCarthy did not disappoint. For pure political pandering, for a display of the most barefaced, shameless groveling, McCarthy may have set the bar so high that not even someone as adept at the craft as William Bratton would dare try to surpass it.

McCarthy took the microphone from Saint Sabina’s pastor, Father Michael Pfleger, and went on a diatribe about guns and the government’s failure to keep them out of the hands of those who use them with such alarming frequency and effect in Chicago and elsewhere.

“You know,” McCarthy said, “I’m going to take a risk here, and I’m going to give you something. And this is definitely the right audience.”

This was the cue that varsity-level pandering was about to take place. And indeed it was the right audience. Recall that Father Michael Pfleger is a proud friend and vigorous defender of Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan, so it’s safe to say the congregation is inured to outrages from the pulpit.

“This is sensitive,” McCarthy said, “because everybody’s afraid of race. Have you noticed that? Everybody’s afraid of race. I’m not afraid of race.”

Yes! Afraid! But not you! Teach us, Mr. McCarthy, so that we too may lose our fear!

“Let’s see if we can make the connection here,” he continued. “Slavery, segregation, black codes, Jim Crow, what do they all have in common? Anybody getting scared?

Scared? Us? Yes, yes, but exquisitely so!

“Government sponsored racism.”

Applause, applause! Yes, yes, yes! We mustn’t blame the young men who pull the triggers on all those guns! They’re victims too! Victims of a government indifferent to — no, responsible for! — our suffering.


“I told you I wasn’t afraid.”

No! And soon, with your help, we won’t be either!

“Now I want you to connect one more dot on that chain of the African American history in this country and tell me if I’m crazy.”

Not crazy! Perfectly reasonable!

“Federal gun laws that facilitate the flow of illegal firearms into our urban centers across this country that are killing our black and brown children.”

More and more applause. Not crazy! Not the least bit!

“The NRA does not like me, and I’m okay with that.”

Yes! We’re okay with it too! NRA bad!

“We’ve got to get the gun debate back to center. And it’s got to come with the recognition of who’s paying the price for the gun manufacturers being rich and living in gated communities.”

Rich! Gated communities!

For more insight on McCarthy, I turned to an old friend, a captain on the NYPD who, for reasons that will soon be obvious, wishes to go unnamed here. His comments:

It should be noted how counterfeit and disingenuous McCarthy is. This is a man who has spent his entire professional life in an extremely aggressive, no-holds-barred crusade to put as many black men as possible in prison. He has vigorously advocated the wholesale arrests of black men for the smallest of infractions or violations with not a care as to how such actions could hamstring or effect their futures. He has publicly castigated (and humiliated in some cases) other police executives when they failed to pursue this crusade with the same zeal that he had.

This man is one of the architects of the “Stop, Question and Frisk” policy that the ACLU, the New York attorney general, newspapers, and civil rights activists have condemned as racist. For him to now climb up on stage and tell a black audience that he cares about them and that the problems in their neighborhoods are the fault of “gun laws” and some mystical governmental action is bizarre.

Garry knows what the real problem is but he is shamelessly prostituting himself in an effort to get a high approval rating and establish his liberal bona fides.