Editor's note: Zach, please don't forget about the financial gangs habituating the Probate Court of Cook County. We have the "18th Floor Disciples" committing "Elder Cleansing". Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateShark.com
chicagotribune.com
Fardon targets street crime, terrorism, corruption
'We're not going to arrest our way out of the gang problem,' U.S. attorney says
By Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune reporterNovember 21, 2013
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In his first interview since assuming the powerful law enforcement post last month, Fardon, though, sought to tamp down mounting expectations over his role in tackling the city's seemingly intractable problem of gangs and guns — a crisis that he said has myriad root causes to blame.
"We're not going to arrest our way out of the gang problem that we have in the city of Chicago," Fardon said in a wide-ranging, hourlong interview with reporters assigned full time to the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.
With a current staff of about 130 full-time criminal prosecutors, the U.S. attorney's office pours about a third of its resources into gang and drug prosecutions, Fardon said. But there are other priorities as well — from public corruption to terrorism to financial crimes — and Fardon declined to name his No. 1 issue.
The U.S. attorney's office has led major investigations of Chicago's gang structures for years but has gained national attention over the decades for putting corrupt government officials behind bars. And Fardon takes the reins at a time when the city's traditional, hierarchical gangs have fragmented into factions, making it more difficult to pinpoint leaders to prosecute.
Still, for months leading up to Fardon's confirmation, he has been under growing political pressure to make an impact on violent crime, even as federal budget cuts have left fewer prosecutors handling what already was a daunting workload. Leading the chorus were Illinois' two U.S. senators, in particular Mark Kirk, who earlier this year made a controversial call for the arrest of all of the estimated 18,000 Gangster Disciples.
Fardon said Wednesday he agrees with the senators that violence must be a priority, but he cautioned that his office offers no panacea for crime woes and declared his independence from political interference.
"Sen. Durbin and Sen. Kirk are absolutely entitled to say what they think the U.S. attorney should focus on," he said. "... But I don't take my instructions from them. I've been in this game for 20 years, and they know that."
Fardon also took issue with Mayor Rahm Emanuel's recent claim that federal prosecutors had a horrible record with charging gun crimes, saying he "told him as much" in a conversation the two held after the comments were published.
"I don't think that's fair, and I respectfully disagree with the mayor," Fardon said. He said the two had a "perfectly positive, cordial conversation" about the issue.
He said federal prosecutors need to focus on going after the worst gangs and most violent offenders, making major cases that will "move the needle" on violent crime while working with Chicago police and county state's attorneys to figure out where best to bring charges.
Fardon, 47, grew up in Tennessee and has an easy charm that sometimes belies his intensity. Speaking in a conference room down the hall from his fourth-floor office, he quoted Bob Dylan and at times rapped on the wooden table to punctuate a point.
As a father of young children, he also made it clear that he has been deeply moved by the violence he sees and reads about in the news, particularly the August slaying of a 13-year-old boy just three blocks from his Evanston home.
Best known for his role in the prosecution of former Gov. George Ryan, Fardon said the focus on violent crime does not mean an end to rooting out public corruption. He declined to say, however, whether he thought a decade of high-profile corruption prosecutions brought by his predecessor, Patrick Fitzgerald, made a substantial dent in the number of public officials on the take.
"It is sad, even tragic, that we have the history that we have in this state and that we have a reputation that goes along with that history," he said.
While he said he intends to step up the visibility of his office on violence, he isn't running for political office and doesn't plan on doing any barnstorming.
"I'm not going to run out and give speeches and do grass roots politics," he said. "That is not my job."
Fardon said the key will be to strike a balance between using the tools of the federal government — from racketeering statutes to increased penalties for felons caught with guns — and stepping up other proven preventive initiatives such as Project Safe Neighborhoods, in which recent parolees are warned of long sentences if they reoffend.
But whatever law enforcement does is just one component, Fardon said, pointing to poverty, education, lack of job opportunities and failures in parenting as just some of the social issues contributing to the violence.
"We as a city have to address those root causes," he said. "The hammer of incarceration — it has its time and its place. But you also have to be creative and open to finding ways to deter crime and prevent violent crime from happening."
In addition to street crime, Fardon said terrorism prosecutions will continue to be a focus of his office as well as what he called the crime of the future — cyberterrorism.
An avid runner, Fardon had finished the Boston Marathon in April about an hour before the terrorist bombs went off, killing three and injuring scores of others just feet from where Fardon's father had been standing and cheering him near the finish line.
"We are still at war," he said. "Jihadist organizations like al-Qaida do not fight in months or years. They fight in decades. That is what we are up against."
jmeisner@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-zachary-fardon-interview-met-1121-20131121,0,5119696.story
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