An environmental activist close to the Clinton campaign wondered to Hillary ally John Podesta why the National Guard could not be sent into inner cities to eradicate the gangs.
“Why can’t we call in the national guard to help cities eradicate gangs? The drugs and shootings are insane,” Wendy Abrams, founder of Know Tomorrow, wrote in an October 22, 2014 e-mail that appeared in the Wikileaks dump of Podesta’s communications Friday.
“Emily just called me saying there was just a shooting a block from campus and her friends were hiding behind cars while rivals gangs pulled out guns and shot at each other. (Maybe I should send her to Tel Aviv for the semester!),” Abrams added.
Abram’s suggestion, however, is not a new one. Robert Milan, who served as Illinois’ first assistant state’s attorney in the Cook County pushed the idea for sending in the National Guard into Chicago’s rough South and West sides.
One Chicago resident who lost a relative told The New York Times the same thing back in March and a letter to the editor in Newsday demanded Gov. Andrew Cuomo send the National Guard to troubled areas.
“Dre had just turned 16,” the message read. “I think that it’s time to call for action and solicit help, have the National Guard to take over and patrol the Chicago streets.”
Gang violence has been on the rise in the past few years and according to James Howell of the National Gang Center, there is “no sign it will let up anytime soon,” he told U.S. News and World Report in 2015.