I live in Chicago, so I’ll start there.
The city is run by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Superintendent of Police David Brown, and District Attorney Kim Foxx.
Under their leadership, downtown areas of the city have become very dangerous. Targeted shootings, random shootings, carjackings, armed robberies, and large-scale organized retail theft are all now daily occurrences. Gangs, armed children, hardened criminals, and repeat offenders are victimizing our city and the surrounding suburbs. It feels like “the news” is simply keeping score.
The actions of our leaders are useless. There clearly is no coherent plan to address the situation. The “Three Amigos” laughably pound their fists on their podiums, talking tough when confronted with specific questions or the latest tragedy. They deny the issues overall by quoting misleading statistics and saying “crime is down”, or take turns blaming each other.
Their policies have contributed to the early retirement or resignation of thousands of police officers over the past few years. They have limited the capabilities of the police to apprehend criminals. They have failed to effectively prosecute violent criminals – even with clear evidence – releasing them to “electronic home monitoring” programs. They have failed to innovate new tactics and are systematically abdicating their responsibilities while crime is spreading throughout the city and surrounding suburbs like a disease.
We have some SPECIFIC questions we’d like to discuss
Policy And Politics
Lori, David and Kim… what are you doing to fix this? What are Lori Lightfoot’s, David Brown’s, and Kim Foxx’s actual responsibilities to our law abiding residents? Where’s the help from the State of Illinois? What’s their INTEGRATED PLAN to get these violent crimes under control?
Crime and Prevention
Where are those new tactics and strategies? Why aren’t the police allowed to pursue? Why don’t we use non-lethal tools to apprehend criminals (rubber bullets, high pressure water, etc. that are proven tools elsewhere)?
Crime and Prevention
Why aren’t we innovating new ways to arrest and charge people in large scale actions (mobile holding cells, mobile courtrooms and real-time charges, leveraging National Guard manpower to backfill our decimated police force, etc.)?
Let’s take a look at some recent related stories
This chart, published weekly by the Chicago Police Department, shows that crime is up in virtually every category.
https://home.chicagopolice.org/wp-content/uploads/1_PDFsam_CompStat-Public-2022-Week-19.pdf
After another deadly weekend, Chicago’s top cop says violence is spreading to new areas as it declines in hardest-hit neighborhoods – Chicago Sun-Times
https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2022/5/1/23051589/daily-round-up-shootings-homicide-chicago
Chicago’s top cop blames mass shooting in Back of Yards on convicted felon recently released on gun charge despite record – Chicago Sun-Times
https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2022/5/11/23066714/chicago-shootings-tuesday
Chicago’s mayor said violent crime is on a ‘downward trajectory.’ That’s not the whole story. – NBC News
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chicago-violent-crime-data-2021-n1273592
After another deadly weekend, Chicago’s top cop says violence is spreading to new areas as it declines in hardest-hit neighborhoods – Chicago Sun-Times
https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2022/5/1/23051589/daily-round-up-shootings-homicide-chicago
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx: No time for ‘blame game’ – WGN Radio
https://wgnradio.com/john-williams/cook-county-states-attorney-kim-foxx-no-time-for-blame-game/
Chicago residents warned about robbers with guns targeting people in River North – Fox32
‘Sad State of Affairs:’ Brown, Lightfoot React After 11-Year-Old ‘Prolific Carjacker’ Arrested – NBC Chicago
Downtown shootings up 220%, biggest spike in city: ‘People are fed up’ – Chicago Sun Times
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/10/29/22751518/downtown-chicago-loop-shootings-murder-river-north
Kim Foxx’s office is bragging about an 86% felony approval rate — but they don’t talk about the percentage of cases they drop
Prosecutors refuse to charge gunman in River North shooting, source says — ‘he has 33 prior arrests’
Prosecutors refuse to charge gunman in River North shooting, source says — ‘he has 33 prior arrests’
After ‘mutual combat’ drama, Foxx and Lightfoot announce charges in West Side shootout – WGN TV
Wow Seeing all those articles in one place is a sad reminder of the times we are living in and also that we should not become numb to this senseless crime and Lawless way of living!!
As Tax paying Law abiding citizens we deserve better.