Chicago: Most corrupt city in the USA

Former North Side Chicago alderman Dick Simpson, who is now a University of Illinois-Chicago political science professor, has declared the nation's third-most populous city the nation's most corrupt. He used Department of Justice data to make his point.

Illinois, Simpson says, is the nation's third most corrupt state.

Graft is expensive, $500 million worth, as CBS 2 Chicago explains:

It's essentially a corruption tax on citizens who bear the cost of bad behavior (police brutality, bogus contracts, bribes, theft and ghost pay-rolling to name a few) and the costs needed to prosecute it.

"We first of all, we have a long history," Simpson said. "The first corruption trial was in 1869 when alderman and county commissioners were convicted of rigging a contract to literally whitewash City Hall."

Corruption, he said, is intertwined with city politics.

Simpson says ridding Chicago of graft will take decades.

Hmm...maybe not. Stiffer sentences--the 14-year prison sentence for Chicago Democratic ex-governor Rod Blagojevich was a step in the right direction--but 20 or 30 year stays in the house-with-many-doors would act as a stronger deterrent to any budding Tony Rezko types. Rezko, by the way, assisted President Obama in the purchase of his South Side mansion. The influence peddler is residing in the Pekin Federal Correctional Institution, where he is probably cleaning toilets as I write this entry.

The tentacles of crime are deep here. Take it from me: The "everyone does it" and "you have to play along to get along" mantras have a reach well beyond the public-sector and its suppliers.

Some things I simply just know...

Technorati tags: Illinois Democrats Obama politics Barack Obama Chicago Tony Rezko corruption legal cronyism Rezko Blagojevich graft