06-13-2011, 10:13 AM
Shame that it's a self-reinforcing label. One of them catch-22 deals.
People think Waukegan is bad, so they do business elsewhere. Thus revenue and jobs go elsewhere, which causes lack of opportunity for good paying legal employment. This also hurts the city with a decline in the collectable tax base. Which causes reduction in city services and the more well-to-do start heading out of town. Since remaining jobs are scarce or don't make ends meet, people turn to much less legal activity to fill the gaps. And that allows for proliferation of more violent criminal activities since nobody is going to take disputes over illegal activities to court. If policing is inadequate, then you also have the grounds for crimes that are rooted in vigilantism. And so on.
But some of the irony in this is that if you get robbed in Lake County, it's much more likely to occur in the parking lots at SixFlags or Gurnee Mills. Think about it this way: If you're going to do crime, why prey on somebody who is likely to live a block away and recognize you? So you can have the cops waiting at your front door? So the criminals here go to where the pickings are better and where people come as tourists. Also common sense would tell you that you don't rob somebody who's only slightly better off than you are, they're more likely to give you a serious whupping or shoot you than somebody who can write-off a theft.
Also most of the gang violence is gang-on-gang. If you can stay outside of the areas where they operate regularly, it's not that bad. If there is any leadership to such organizations they also know that having incidents with non-gang people during non-crime activities is the easiest way to get undesirable attention from the police. But then again, many activities are carried out by the younger and less streetwise members that are likely to do something brash and stupid like drive-bys.
So if that's true, why are gangs a problem in the high school? Basically you're holing up a sample of the entire city population, but not allowing for it to sort itself out like it does in the city proper. The elements that would normally separate and self organize into their own territories aren't allowed to. In that regard, it's much like a jail or prison. To be honest, most policies at the school such as closed campus really aren't that much better than those of a prison and lead to the same tensions and way of thinking that inmates have. (1994 grad, so I should know a little something. But I heard it only got worse.)
Of course you could have a separate school for the more violent and disruptive students, allowing for much more open and less restrictive schools for everybody else. Such matter should be kept separate from things like academic performance. (Thus you could still have failing grades and remain at the normal campus if your problems are non-violent, and non-predatory. Even if doing stuff like skipping out shouldn't affect that if you're not doing anything other than truancy by being off-campus.) Then those focused on their education wouldn't have to put up with all the B.S. Alternately anybody should have the option to drop out early (also make it easier to take a GED and/or get early employment), but those with a history of causing problems wouldn't be allowed on campus. But too much political correctness and related idiocy doesn't allow for it.
Of course it's also the 9th largest city in the state with 90,000+ residents. It's the largest city in Lake County. It's going to have its problems. Particularly when compared to much smaller and less diverse communities where people have less social and economic friction. Comparing Waukegan to most other cities in Lake County is comparing apples to oranges. It would be more fair and honest to compare it to Chicago or Milwaukee.
Now on the topic of the "Little Mexico" title? Well regarding that, you can thank former President Reagan and successors who decided to carry on with similar policy relating to immigration and border enforcement. (Both major U.S. political parties btw. When it comes to action and not words, neither has been better than the other in that regard.) Many businesses and corporations are also complicit, since this gives them leverage over everybody in the labor pool. Don't be mad at the Mexicans because they're here, you should be mad at the politicians and corporate fatcats making sure to keep the labor market disrupted and milking it for all it's worth. The most you can be mad at some Mexican for is failing to learn English because of laziness, but then again look how easy it has been made for him to remain lazy in that regard. Was it the Mexican that did that? If you're being honest with yourself, the answer doesn't point to any of the Mexicans. Most other countries (and our own country in the past) just don't start adding extra languages to everything because of immigration waves. That should be the biggest clue right there. (Of course you can choose to keep complaining. But as a non-Hispanic/Latino, learning Spanish is still useful. Not to cater to it, but rather so you can call the "no hables Ingles" bluff. I find it rather amusing. You'd be surprised how many suddenly start switching to "Spanglish" or get quickly proficient in English. Of course you can also choose to learn a lot by letting them continue with that game.)
People think Waukegan is bad, so they do business elsewhere. Thus revenue and jobs go elsewhere, which causes lack of opportunity for good paying legal employment. This also hurts the city with a decline in the collectable tax base. Which causes reduction in city services and the more well-to-do start heading out of town. Since remaining jobs are scarce or don't make ends meet, people turn to much less legal activity to fill the gaps. And that allows for proliferation of more violent criminal activities since nobody is going to take disputes over illegal activities to court. If policing is inadequate, then you also have the grounds for crimes that are rooted in vigilantism. And so on.
But some of the irony in this is that if you get robbed in Lake County, it's much more likely to occur in the parking lots at SixFlags or Gurnee Mills. Think about it this way: If you're going to do crime, why prey on somebody who is likely to live a block away and recognize you? So you can have the cops waiting at your front door? So the criminals here go to where the pickings are better and where people come as tourists. Also common sense would tell you that you don't rob somebody who's only slightly better off than you are, they're more likely to give you a serious whupping or shoot you than somebody who can write-off a theft.
Also most of the gang violence is gang-on-gang. If you can stay outside of the areas where they operate regularly, it's not that bad. If there is any leadership to such organizations they also know that having incidents with non-gang people during non-crime activities is the easiest way to get undesirable attention from the police. But then again, many activities are carried out by the younger and less streetwise members that are likely to do something brash and stupid like drive-bys.
So if that's true, why are gangs a problem in the high school? Basically you're holing up a sample of the entire city population, but not allowing for it to sort itself out like it does in the city proper. The elements that would normally separate and self organize into their own territories aren't allowed to. In that regard, it's much like a jail or prison. To be honest, most policies at the school such as closed campus really aren't that much better than those of a prison and lead to the same tensions and way of thinking that inmates have. (1994 grad, so I should know a little something. But I heard it only got worse.)
Of course you could have a separate school for the more violent and disruptive students, allowing for much more open and less restrictive schools for everybody else. Such matter should be kept separate from things like academic performance. (Thus you could still have failing grades and remain at the normal campus if your problems are non-violent, and non-predatory. Even if doing stuff like skipping out shouldn't affect that if you're not doing anything other than truancy by being off-campus.) Then those focused on their education wouldn't have to put up with all the B.S. Alternately anybody should have the option to drop out early (also make it easier to take a GED and/or get early employment), but those with a history of causing problems wouldn't be allowed on campus. But too much political correctness and related idiocy doesn't allow for it.
Of course it's also the 9th largest city in the state with 90,000+ residents. It's the largest city in Lake County. It's going to have its problems. Particularly when compared to much smaller and less diverse communities where people have less social and economic friction. Comparing Waukegan to most other cities in Lake County is comparing apples to oranges. It would be more fair and honest to compare it to Chicago or Milwaukee.
Now on the topic of the "Little Mexico" title? Well regarding that, you can thank former President Reagan and successors who decided to carry on with similar policy relating to immigration and border enforcement. (Both major U.S. political parties btw. When it comes to action and not words, neither has been better than the other in that regard.) Many businesses and corporations are also complicit, since this gives them leverage over everybody in the labor pool. Don't be mad at the Mexicans because they're here, you should be mad at the politicians and corporate fatcats making sure to keep the labor market disrupted and milking it for all it's worth. The most you can be mad at some Mexican for is failing to learn English because of laziness, but then again look how easy it has been made for him to remain lazy in that regard. Was it the Mexican that did that? If you're being honest with yourself, the answer doesn't point to any of the Mexicans. Most other countries (and our own country in the past) just don't start adding extra languages to everything because of immigration waves. That should be the biggest clue right there. (Of course you can choose to keep complaining. But as a non-Hispanic/Latino, learning Spanish is still useful. Not to cater to it, but rather so you can call the "no hables Ingles" bluff. I find it rather amusing. You'd be surprised how many suddenly start switching to "Spanglish" or get quickly proficient in English. Of course you can also choose to learn a lot by letting them continue with that game.)