More propaganda

[hoosierdoc]

Leo, I heard the same argument from Germans who lament how Crime ridden East Berlin is now too. Not sure that's the comparison we want to use.

 

[Bill B]

And yet more:
EDITORIAL: Expand background checks to limit violence

 

[Mark 1911]

This is an assessment from a man that immigrated to Gary, IN in 1914, worked, paid taxes and lived an honest life there until he died.

The government caused the fall of Gary, Indiana, neglecting their only legitimate responsiblity, keeping the streets safe. The place was most prosperous when organized crime ran the streets. Here is how it used to work; The store keepers paid the boys a street tax. In return, the boys kept the streets safe, and any time a small time thug would commit a crime, the boys made sure that the punk was never seen again. Sure, they ran gambling and vice, but they kept it out of the way and kept the seedy element from bothering normal commerce.

The Government came in and drove out the boys and left the place unprotected. Every punk thug in the midwest set up shop there. Now the place is plywood and burned out buildings from glen park to the mill gates. My grandmother and I used to ride the bus downtown to shop and I would watch movies at the Glen while she shopped and got her hair done.

The Boys collected a street tax and gave the city some protection service, the government collected tax and gave them nothing. ok, they have the genesis center, like that helped anything. Anyone remember Horwich and Hollar furniture? Downtown Sears, the Glen Theater? Dozens of stores up and down Broadway all full of shoppers? Saturdays that were so busy that you could hardly get around because of the shoppers walking and driving? Different times.

I am not saying I endorse criminal elements running our cities, but even they understood that common people need to be safe for a city to thrive. Maybe the politicians in Gary (and Indy) could decide to take the city back.

Naw, they are making themselves rich off the taxpayers and it is easier to rally against firearms.

The major decline in the vast industrial base in NWI (and tax base it generated) since the 1960s has also played a major role in the economic demise of the area. The decline of the steel industry was expedited by corporate greed and union greed. Gary, East Chicago, and Hammond were quite prosperous in the first half of the 1900s. The steel magnates basically raped the industry, stuffing their pockets instead of updating the idustry to keep pace with technology. By the late 1960s, it was becoming increasingly difficult for the American steel mills to match the quality of Japanese steel, and the unions were pricing American steel out of the market. The Japanese took American technology and improved upon it using American money to rebuild their country after WWII.

 

[ModernGunner]

Wow, whack-job Democrats from Lake County... quelle surprise...