Of
course, the locals want to believe that such substances don’t really exist in
their community. Somehow, this has to be some sort of alien presence infecting
them. Because there’s no way the locals would ever engage in such actions
(either selling narcotics, or using them).
SO
NATURALLY, THEY turn to the fallback accusation. Blame Chicago!!!
For
as the headline in the Bloomington Pantagraph (of a story originally published
by the State Journal-Register of Springfield) told us, “Lincoln man convicted of selling cocaine, heroin he bought in Chicago.”
It
seem the man, who is 38, was found guilty last week in Logan County court of
unlawful delivery of a controlled substance. Prosecutors claimed during his
two-day trial that he made several trips to Chicago (about a three-hour drive
up Interstate 55 from his hometown of Lincoln, Ill.), where he bought the drugs.
Then,
he’d bring them back to his hometown (about a half-hour’s drive north of
Springfield), where he’d sell them from his house. To add to the comical nature
of this criminal enterprise, the man lived in a house located two blocks from an
elementary school.
WHICH
UNLESS YOU believe means that six-year-olds are stopping by his house on their way
home from school to satisfy their fixes, could almost be seen as irrelevant.
Although
I don’t doubt it feeds into the need of those people who are all too eager to believe
that our beloved home city is representative of all that is wrong with and
corrupt about our society.
This
almost strikes me as being the kind of tidbit that Donald Trump himself would
link to in another of his inane, nonsense-style Tweets on Twitter when he feels
a need to get back to bashing Chicago.
Of
course, Trump would have also felt the need to document that the drugs
originated in Mexico, before going to Chicago, before being put into the hands
of people who were then providing them to “real” Americans who comprise all
that is just and proper about our society.
WHICH
IS SUCH a nonsense thought to have – even though I don’t doubt there are
situations where that very scenario could have happened.
To
me, the sad truth of narcotics use is that there are people in all walks of
society who have allowed themselves to become addicted.
Think
of it this way, if there wasn’t a need felt by certain types of people, there
wouldn’t be a market for those so-called despicable ghetto types from Chicago
to be able to sell such product.
Then
again, that image I just presented is equally as absurd as the one of so-called
real Americans not using such substances to begin with.
THIS
KIND OF story presented in such a manner merely feeds off stereotypical images
that don’t do anything to truly inform us about the “scourge” that certain
illicit substances can have upon us.
As
for this particular case, it seems the man in question faces sentencing come
February – and could get between six and 30 years for a prison term. With four
previous convictions, he is regarded as a “habitual criminal,” which could make
a sentence near the high end of the range likely.
Which
as far as I’m concerned merely means crime and illicit behavior is capable of
occurring just about everywhere.
And
for all I know, when this man eventually winds up being sent to prison, his
fellow inmates who happen to hail from Chicago will probably view this guy as
an example of the kind of riff-raff they’ll be exposed to that will be a part
of their punishment!
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