20 Jul 2021 Crime-Plagued Residents “Must Get Out on Those Streets”

After another bloody weekend in America’s major metropolitan cities, Project 21 member Charles Butler – a former Chicago resident – said that people in the communities most affected by crime “need to organize.”

“They must get out on those streets and defend their children and defend their property,” Charles declared on the Newsmax program “John Bachman Now.” “That’s the American way.”

In a shooting outside a Washington Nationals baseball game last weekend, a fan was hit when gunfire was exchanged between two cars. It ended up cancelling the nationally-televised game. In the wake of that high-profile crime, the police union serving the nation’s capital tweeted that “violent crime permeates everything,” adding that it’s “a tragedy that elected officials won’t let us do our jobs.”

Newsmax guest host Joe Pinion suggested there is a “suspension of reality” among politicians about the causes of the violence that “leads to pain and suffering” in predominantly black and brown areas of the city.

“The police aren’t being allowed to do their job,” Charles replied. “That’s just the fact. If we turn them loose, they’ll take care of these shootings, these criminals.”

Charles further explained:

Liberalism seems to be related to a person’s distance from a problem.

You will never hear black people in these communities, or brown people, say: We want to defund the police. These politicians will say that. And when I’ve confronted politicians about why they’re not doing more to put criminals in jail, the first thing they say is: We’d be incarcerating more black men. And I’d say: They’re criminals – put ‘em in jail!

We have a lot of issues that are going on. Black people need to look at themselves. We need to look at our own community. This is not a white man’s problem. This is a black community problem.

Referring to the violence plaguing Chicago, Pinion said black communities are in an untenable position between what he called an “effectively inept” mayor and a White House that “doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge the problem” – both of which are being driven by “blind ideology.”

Charles suggested that people “need to take a page” from the playbook of black and white South Africans to “act as vigilantes to protect our own communities.”

“I think the same thing needs to happen here,” he commented. Fellow panelist Jonathan Gilliam, a retired FBI agent, remarked, “I love what Charles said,” but suggested it be packaged as a “time for Americans to stand together and step forward.”

Charles pointed out the value of the community’s involvement at a time when law enforcement resources are stretched thin and being cut:

People in their communities need to take policing into their own hands. Because they know who these kids are who are driving through the neighborhoods shooting. They’re shooting at houses. I mean, this is not gang-related. They’re just arbitrarily shooting at people.