Poor criminalized while rich criminals get off

Latest

Town hall meeting in Chicago in 2011 at Charles Hayes Family Support Center to challenge unfair CHA mandatory drug testing of residents. Drug testing is an attempt to criminalize residents and throw them out of public housing. PHOTO/LIEZL ALCANTARA
Town hall meeting in Chicago in 2011 at Charles Hayes Family Support Center to challenge unfair CHA mandatory drug testing of residents. Drug testing is an attempt to criminalize residents and throw them out of public housing.
PHOTO/LIEZL ALCANTARA

CHICAGO—June 2 marks the two-year anniversary of the Chicago Housing Authority residents’ Town Hall meeting protest at the Charles Hayes Community Center.  That protest was strong enough to defeat unwarranted mandatory drug testing of CHA tenants, but was only partially successful.  Drug testing continues for those who live in the newer mixed income developments like the areas that were once part of Cabrini Green.
All 18-year-olds and older in the public housing parts of mixed income buildings are drug tested.  This is especially demeaning to the elderly.  If you’ve never used drugs, never had a drug problem, never been arrested or convicted of a drug related crime, you are still tested.  The powers that be argue that this is a deterrent; a crime fighting tool and a necessary condition because the poor receive the benefits of federally funded housing.  Yet, condo dwellers right under the same roof in apartments next door are not tested.
A teenage member of a public housing family in mixed income was accused of smoking pot.  The police were called, investigated, and left, saying there was no evidence.  That family had to fight tooth and nail to stop their eviction.  Around the same time, a man in a condo unit in the same building dropped dead of an overdose from hard drugs and was carried out in a body bag to the morgue.  Plenty of evidence, but no eviction was attempted on that family.  A drug test may have saved that man’s life.
Unemployed, under-employed, minimum wage, low wage workers living in public housing, still suffering from the recession, are being targeted, criminalized and made homeless, while a free pass is given to the privileged professionals, business owners and bankers in condos.
Speaking of bankers, last December, HSBC Bank was caught laundering drug money.  They admitted doing it and yet no one went to jail or even a courtroom.  They just paid a fine.  This is not surprising since two years earlier, Wachovia Bank and others were caught doing the same thing and they avoided the law buy paying a fine.  Government officials said they couldn’t prosecute them in both cases because it would threaten the world economic system.
Wasn’t it the banks that were given trillions of dollars in federal funds to put America back to work?
Unbelievably, mainstream media tried to justify this by reporting that drug money that found its way into these banks was good for the troubled economy.
Instead of getting drugs out of the community, and helping people who have drug habits recover, the CHA is selectively using drugs to get rid of the poor in order to gentrify.  If the CHA tenants continue being drug tested, then owners of the private management firms getting CHA contracts and their families, as well condo dwellers should also be tested.  Either that or drug test no one.
Whichever way it goes, there must be equality for public housing residents in the mixed income buildings.

+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

Winners and Losers in Trump’s ‘Ugly Bill’

Winners and losers: The bill represents the greatest upward transfer of wealth in U.S. history. It cut health care, food subsidies, raised cost of other necessities to give massive tax breaks to billionaires.

Resistance Against Mass Deportations Webinar Scheduled July 17

The Zooming to the Resistance Against Mass Deportations Coalition is planning the second in a series of webinars exploring how people across the country are fighting mass deportations. During the webinar, scheduled July 17 at 4 p.m. Pacific, a panel of fighters from California cities and the East Coast will share their experience resisting the cruel ICE raids.

Mamdani’s NY Campaign Electrifies Those Seeking a Better Life

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, has struck a nerve by voicing the demands of those who are struggling to survive as the cost of living continues to rise.

Another Big Beautiful Betrayal for Rural America

You slash Medicaid, you’re swinging an axe at the heart of our rural hospitals, community clinics, doctors and nurses — and every family that depends on a job for a living. It’s not too late to raise hell.

ICE Terror Campaign Threatens Us All

Several recent Facebook reels show how ICE is ramping up its campaign of terror against immigrants, citizens and protestors alike as the effort to create a police state continues and resistance grows. One creator speaks to the significance of Haitians now being targeted.

More from the People's Tribune