West Side Community Activist to Address Weis' “Secret Trick Meeting”

At 10 a.m. Thursday a group of Chicago gang members will hold a "press conference" at Columbus Park Refectory on the West Side.

The press conference is an apparent response toChicago Police

Supt. Jodi Weis'private meeting with gang leaders two weeks ago

, during which Weis reportedly told a number of gang leaders that he would use RICO statutes against gang members who shoot one another.

RICO laws allow police officers to sieze gang members' homes, cars and property.

The press conference was organized by community activist Jim Allen, a "free and accepted Almighty Minister" of the Vice Lords Nation, and announced on a gang-affiliated blog and via an e-mail blast, and referred to Weis' "secret trick meeting".

The release read, in part:

We are having a "Press Conference" concerning the Unconstitutional, Guilty before Innocent, Premeditated Arrest and Indictment by Chicago Police hearsay and propaganda tactics as it relates to the RICO experiment thwarts supposedly Top Gang Leaders as discussed by the Chicago Police in a "Secret Trick Meeting" the Chicago Police held with whom they deemed to be Top Gang Leaders.

Tha Movement believes this to be nothing more then the continuation of Commander Jon Burge style tactics of harassment!

The release then quoted excerpts from the Constitution, including Section 9, the Limits of Congress, on the rights of habeas corpus and ex post facto laws, and the Fourth Amendment, concerning illegal searches of property.

Allen, a West Side community activist, did not respond to calls for comment.

Mayor Daley has defended Weis' meeting,  saying such meetings are held in other major cities and that they're worth it if they save a life.

"First of all, let's be realistic," Daley said, speaking at a press conference on new technology initiatives in Chicago. "Other cities have done this. Boston. Cincinnati. Los Angeles. What it is a community of people getting together with police and talking to these gangbangers ... there's a lot of community involvement.

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