‘Chiraq’ film name irks Chicago mayor
In the May Bullet, we note Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel has personally requested that film director Spike Lee consider changing the name of his upcoming film set in the Windy City.
“Chiraq” is the term for the city coined by citizens who live in the city’s Englewood neighborhood.
Lee’s film will reportedly focus on black-on-black violence in that crime-ridden section of the city. The mayor and the director had what Emmanuel described to the Chicago Sun-Times as an “honest, frank conversation about the film.”
The paper also reported that Alderman Anthony Beale also asked Lee to change the name.
“It’s very offensive and, hopefully, he rethinks his position on that issue. He definitely needs to change the name. That’s an insult to the city of Chicago. I don’t care what he changes it to, but not that one,” Beale said.
“People are stigmatizing Chicago unnecessarily. We have a lot of good communities. Yes, we have challenged areas, and we’re attacking those challenging areas. But we don’t need anybody coming in trying to highlight the problems that we’re having. And to stigmatize our city as Chiraq is an insult to me and, I’m sure, to the rest of the residents of Chicago.”
“The Chiraq label gained steam after a particularly bloody 2012 when the number of homicides on Chicago streets topped the 500-mark,” the paper said.
TGM would note that since concealed carry has been legalized in Illinois despite Emmanuel’s opposition, the city’s violent crime rate has dropped significantly.
Bay State antis launch new billboard campaign
The anti-gun Stop Handgun Violence organization in Massachusetts recently inaugurated a statewide billboard messaging program aimed at replacing the infamous turnpike billboard near Red Sox stadium that has displayed gun control messages for some 20 years.
Wealthy developer John Rosenthal, founder and president of Stop Handgun Violence, which funded the old billboard and is funding the new ones was given a March deadline to remove the old billboard after he sold the rights to it to the Red Sox’s parent company.
The new billboards target modern sporting rifles although the sponsors claim they are targeting “handgun” violence.
According to the Boston Globe, billboard space for the new campaign was donated by Total Outdoor, Outfront Media, Logan Communications and Clear Channel. The first billboard message that went up in late March read “We’re Not Anti-Gun. We’re Pro-Life. Massachusetts Gun Laws Save Lives.”
And at least one online observer noted, “There was no small amount of irony in the announcement, considering that Massachusetts was where the Revolutionary War was ignited by the battles of Lexington and Concord, when British troops under General Thomas Gage were dispatched to seize arms and ammunition belonging to the colonial militia, and destroy it.”
FL tax dollars used to fight campus carry
As we previously learned, Florida’s University Police are using public funds, Floridian’s tax dollars, to lobby the legislature against the right of Floridians to defend themselves from criminal attack on any property owned or controlled by state colleges and universities.
That’s something prohibited by Florida law, according to FloridaCarry.org.
Florida Carry has filed complaints with the Florida Commission on Ethics to open investigations into these apparent violations of law by ten university police chiefs.
But now, FloridaCarry has learned that other state employees may have committed the same offense, and is investigating in the expectation of filing additional official complaints.
The organization believes this is not just an important issue related to the campus carry question, but impacts all policy issues where tax dollars are used to lobby against citizen rights.
Obama confirms intent to chip away at 2A
Anyone in doubt about President Barack Obama’s devotion to his anti-gun-rights agenda during the remaining months of his second term will find confirmation in remarks he made in April on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Obama said. “And you know, we’re going to keep chipping away at this, but until you get intense public demands for this, it’s probably not going to happen because some special interests and lobbyists in Washington are really, really strong and their membership feels very intensely about the issue. Whereas the general public is concerned about it, but doesn’t make it their top priority.”
Of course, he was blaming the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun organizations for his failure to curtail gun ownership. He didn’t mention that his efforts keep driving “the general public” to buy more firearms and ammunition.
HSUS misleading donors, lying to Congress says NSSF
The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s (NSSF) Senior Vice President and General Counsel Larry Keane recently blogged about the anti-hunting Humane Society of the United States’ (HSUS) policy of misleading donors and lying in testimony before Congress .
“The average person can’t be blamed for thinking that donations to …HSUS mostly go to help fund local animal shelters,” Keane reported.
“But the HSUS 2013 tax return reveals that a mere 1 percent of its $120 million budget went toward helping animal shelters. The other 99 percent of that budget was spent on fundraising expenses or placed in offshore funds.”
