Vic Mensa continues to push his political agenda and improve the urban community’s living conditions in his native Chicago. His charity foundation SaveMoneySaveLives held a shoe giveaway on Sunday (August 26) for thousands of low-income residents in the city’s South Side section of Englewood.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the “anti-bait truck” event was organized in reaction to the Chicago Police Department and Norfolk Southern Railroad’s joint “bait truck” investigation sting. Police were exploited for attempting to lure members of the community with parked open trucks filled with sneakers near the railways in the city. An attempt to create crime if you will.
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SaveMoneySafeLife stated that said the policing action was an effort to, “lure and arrest impoverished and underprivileged men, women, and children that might stumble upon the truck and try to take them.”
The charity offered various brands of sneakers including Adidas, Converse, Nike, and Puma for people of all ages and shoe sizes.
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“Today, we gave out around 7000 pairs of shoes,” Mensa says about the event.
He adds, “The entire genesis of this event and this idea was to show that we are human beings that love one another, that appreciate one another, that respect one another, that Chicago is still alive, that Englewood is still alive. Put resources into the community and put votes of confidence and faith into the community because all they want to do it take from the community.
“They want to strip us and keep our roads full of potholes and our stop signs full of bullet holes. We have been able to come to a platform and a place where we’re able to speak, and a place to show that we’ll be able to take care of our people because the police won’t do it, and the mayor won’t do it, so we’ll do it.”
The Chicago Police Department and railroad organization have received a backlash from the ACLU and a multitude of community leaders for the sting. On Thursday (August 2), a viral video posted onto Facebook and YouTube showed a man arrested for burglary after he took sneakers from an open truck parked near a railway in Englewood. There have been a total of three arrests related to the “bait truck” sting.
The Norfolk Southern Railroad ultimately issued a formal apology for the investigation due to the “eroded trust between law enforcement and the community.” Also, the Cook County State’s Attorney dropped burglary charges filed against three people who broke into the trucks.
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