ALDERMEN: SPEND REBATE LEFTOVERS ON VIOLENCE PREVENTION

Aldermen, parents and community leaders demanded Wednesday that an estimated $ 17 million left unclaimed from a token property tax rebate be earmarked for violence prevention in neighborhoods that have “turned into war zones.”

Even before providing a full accounting of rebate spending, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has already used the unspent money to bankroll more than $ 6 million worth of programs.

That includes $ 1.3 million to create a Legal Protection Fund to assist immigrants threatened with deportation after the election of President- elect Donald Trump; $ 1.8 million to speed distribution of body cameras to Chicago Police officers by one year; $ 2 million for a “pilot program” aimed at ac- quiring and rehabilitating vacant homes in inner- city neighborhoods, and $ 1 million for cybersecurity training at Wright College.

Only the Legal Protection Fund was approved by the City Council.

On Wednesday, a half- dozen aldermen joined forces with community leaders to declare a higher priority: reducing a 60 percent surge in homicides and shootings.

Specifically, the aldermen want to convert the city’s 24,000- strong summer jobs program into a yearround program to keep kids occupied during the winter.

They want to expand to fifth- and sixth- graders school- based mentoring, counseling and case management programs that have been a particular focus for the mayor.

They want to expand “streetlevel interventions” like CeaseFire to prevent gang conflicts from “being resolved with an AK- 47,” as Ald. Ray Lopez ( 15th) put it.

And they want to use $ 2.5 million to offer $ 200 rebates to homeowners who install security cameras at their homes that Chicago Police can access during investigations.

Joining Lopez at a City Hall news conference Wednesday were Aldermen George Cardenas ( 12th), chairman of the City Council’s Hispanic Caucus; Derrick Curtis ( 18th); Walter Burnett ( 27th); Jason Ervin ( 28th) and Tom Tunney ( 44th). They were careful not to criticize the mayor’s priorities for the unspent pot of money. They simply argued that Chicago has no higher priority than crime prevention.