FBI Special Agent in Charge set to meet with Sy Smith at Chicago FBI Headquarters this week based on this letter sent over 90 days ago. Will Sy make it out of the FBI HQ? April 16, 2014 FBI Director James B. Comey 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535 (202) 324-3000 Dear Mr. Comey, My name is Syron Smith of Gary Indiana; however, I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Back in 1981, I asked God to let me grow up and do something about the killing I was surrounded by in Chicago’s Cabrini Green housing projects. Fast forward thirty three year later I was able to create a system under the Illinois based not for profit called National Block Club University. Its mission is to track, monitor, and counter acts of violence throughout 167 of America’s most dangerous neighborhoods. Yesterday, you visited Chicago and discussed the issue of violence in our community. Unfortunately, I have heard this story line over and over again during my nineteen years of activism regarding the gang culture. We are missing the mark when it comes to effectively identifying why Chicago is so deadly. You rightfully noted that we cannot arrest our way to healthier neighborhoods. What I didn’t hear was the isolation by race, exploitation, and most importantly; public corruption. Since 1973 over thirty one Chicago City Councilmen have been charged with white collar crimes. As you know, white collar crimes impact more people than the fear of violent crimes. Recently, a Black male in Chicago was convicted for being a minority front company for a white owned trucking company doing work with the City of Chicago. It was a minority front for one of Mayor Daley friends that hurt dozens of African American males that could have been gainfully employed but instead non-African American males got the jobs and contracts. The impact of that; is more Black males probably ended up getting arrested for low level drug sales trying to provide a living for their family while surviving in an increasing expensive city. It takes one hour of work ($7.75 an hour) just to pay for your round trip bus fare to and from work in Chicago. Los Angeles has less City Council members (15) than Chicago (50) so you have less potential for corruption, in New York City, they have 51 Council members but that city is vastly spread out over a much larger territory than Chicago. This makes it easier to ensure accountability. Chicago is ripe with businesses that could add “value” to the inner city instead of donating to the local alderman for zoning favors and silence of selling loose cigarettes to minors. Paying off some members of the City Council dates back even before you attended school here in the 1980’s. Even then, it was the same racial isolation making it very easy to starve those areas of much needed assistance and resources. What can a society reasonably expect when you isolate and exploit a concentrated group of people across the nation? To this day, I cannot understand the United States of America’s reluctance to call out this blatantly political and economic racism. To properly explain what is going on regarding the African American community and how the U.S. continues to justify incarcerating more people than any other nation in the world. Are these Black people born bad or is it the result of bad policies? What would happen if the U.S. exposed those benefiting (and lawmakers) from mass incarceration with these small private prisons? With kind regards, Syron Smith Cc: President Obama
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 02:15:47 +0000
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