Sen. Kirk: Asking Congress for $30 million to "identify gangs of national significance" hopefully the Gangster Disciples

WASHINGTON–Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday he will be asking them for $30 million to be used to “identify gangs of national significance, which I would hope would be the Gangster Disciples in Illinois.”

Before this week, Kirk had been saying that he would be asking Congress for $30 million to further his plan for mass arrests of 18,000 Gangster Disciples in Chicago. Following a Tuesday meeting with Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) Kirk softened his call for mass arrests but not his determination to take on the gang issue. Rush and Kirk mended fences after Rush accused him of being a suburban no-nothing when it came to fighting gangs.

Kirk for the first time revealed some details of his spending request during a Thursday hearing of the Senate Appropriation Committee on unrelated matters–and did not specifically call for the money to be used to help fund a massive bust.

At the hearing Kirk said, “I would announce to the group I’m going to be offering an amendment to the next markup of this bill for 30 million bucks to identify gangs of national significance, which I would hope would be the Gangster Disciples in Illinois. I’ve talked about the possible need to arrest upwards of 18,000 people who are members of that gang, and to do this especially because of my overwhelming concern for the Baltimore gang situation, which is not — which is shameless, sucking up to the chairman.”

Kirk’s reference was to Sen. Barbara Milkulski (D-Md.)