Chicago - City of Corruption

Chicago Alderman Skirts Gun Law

That the city of Chicago is corrupt should come as no surprise to anyone living near that metropolis. I first became aware of politics around the age of six, listening to my parents discussing the reports of voting "irregularities" in the 1960 Presidential election. Some seventeen years later, I would make friends with a former Chicago resident who casually informed me that his parents had paid a judge to get felony charges against his brother dismissed. "It was cheaper than paying a lawyer to do it." He said. "That's how things work in Chicago." His father was in the construction business and was "connected", as he put it, inside city hall.

So it comes as no surprise to see more corruption coming out of Chicago. This time, Alderman Richard Mell is showing how Democrats run the city. Apparently there are two classes of people in Chicago - the privileged elite, like Alderman Richard Mell and everyone else.

Here are the facts, as reported in a Chicago Sun-Times article. Chicago has mandatory annual firearms registration. If you forget to register your guns in any one year, they become unregisterable.

"You have to re-new your registration certificate annually 60 days prior to the current registration [deadline]. If you don't do that, the firearm is unregisterable," said Law Department spokesperson Jennifer Hoyle.

Mell said he first realized he was in violation of the re-registration requirement about a year ago. He claims he previously gave this task to "an aide" who, he said, apparently dropped the ball. When he tried to re-register his guns belatedly, the Chicago Police Department's Gun Registration Section refused to bend the rules. Mell appealed that ruling to the city's Department of Administrative Hearings but decided to re-write the law instead."When we looked at the law, we saw the possibility of winning [the appeal] wasn't gonna happen," he said.

Unlike other Chicago gun owners who have been prosecuted for failing to register their guns, had guns confiscated or have had to move their guns out of Chicago, Mell wants to write an exemption for himself by opening the gun registry for just one month.

And he has the backing of Mayor Richard Daley too.

Even FOP President Mark Donahue has questioned the proposed change as a "double standard".

"We have retired police officers who have a right to carry concealed weapons across the country, and they're being barred from registering their weapons in Chicago. We've taken one of these cases to Circuit Court. Dick Mell has taken his case to the City Council," the union president said.

"Whether he knows it or not, the mayor, by this agreement [to endorse a temporary gun amnesty] is establishing a double standard. One for members of the City Council, the other for everybody else."

So if you want to see a picture of Alderman Mell, just look in your dictionary next to the word hypocrite.