Daley Tells The Feds To Leave Sports Figures Behind

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Feb 24, 2009 11:00PM

We were really hoping one of these days Mayor Daley would get around to addressing Michael Vick and Barry Bonds. Today, Da Mayor obliged during a rant in which he questioned the priority of federal investigators. Here's the gist, courtesy of CBS 2:

"Michael Vick on dog-fighting. Think of that. There's only one case in the history of the country of a federal crime [for] dog-fighting. We get dog-fighting cases all the time. They have to go to 26th Street...They could have fined him five, 10, 15, 20 million dollars. That would have been better. And put the money into good causes. It serves a purpose [to throw him in jail]? What? One person out of a thousand cases-a-year? He's the only one..."

"There won't be any athletes today. We're after Barry Bonds for steroids. For what? You go after the distributor — the person [responsible for] that sale. Why Barry Bonds? I can't understand. We're spending millions of dollars on this...To go after Barry Bonds in this day and age with [other higher] priorities — I just wonder why..."

"If someone takes a hundred dollars — it could be a Chicago policeman or anybody else — the feds are right there knocking on your door. But they cannot find the person who's accumulating all the money. It's amazing. Only in America we can't find 'em. 'We can't find these people,' the feds tell us. 'We don't know who they are.' We can chase all the kids around the corner. But who's taking the money? The IRS can't find 'em. They can find Barry Bonds and Michael Vick. But they can't find a drug dealer. They can come right here to the Chicago Police Department and they'll give 'em the names. The public knows that. They know the federal government doesn't go after them. The IRS doesn't step up to the plate."

Okay, we're gonna leave it at that because we think, if we understand what he's saying, that we might actually agree with him. Except, does he realize if the feds did start following illegal money all over the place, they might one day end up at his doorstep? Here's hoping this rant shows up on Daley's YouTube page.