- By Steve Cortes
Chicago endured yet another weekend of carnage, as 55 total people were shot and eight of them killed starting last Friday. Such violence hardly generates much attention any longer, as this type of mayhem becomes the expected course of events in the Windy City, especially on warm summer weekends.
But life will forever change for the surviving victims and for those mourning the slain. So, we cannot allow this bloodshed to become an expected, jaded normal. One leader who refuses to accept the violent status quo of Chicago is Republican nominee for governor, state Sen. Darren Bailey. He wrote an impassioned op-ed for the Chicago Tribune, bluntly describing Chicago as “a city in crisis.” Bailey noted that the emergency state of Chicago results not from “a lack of resources, but rather a lack of accountability.”
As solutions, Bailey advocates for aggressive prosecutions, a return to stiff cash bail for violent offenders, firm support for police officers, as well as longer-term reforms like funding students instead of failing government monopoly school systems.
Predictably, Mayor Lori Lightfoot dismissed these sincere proposals from a gubernatorial nominee. Nor did she offer any counter proposals to heal her wounded city. Instead, she lashed out at Bailey: “I actually read it [Bailey’s article] and I was surprised how completely uninformed he is about our city.”
Amazingly, Lightfoot also bragged about a miniscule reduction from last year’s multi-decade record murder rate in Chicago. She claimed indignation at “the fact that he doesn’t know that our homicides are down almost 16%.” After leading all of America in the ignoble category of total killings in 2021 with over 800 massacred Chicagoans, most of them young Black men, let’s not throw parades for a 16% year-to-date downtick, madame mayor.
But the blame for the meltdown of Illinois’ largest city cannot fall solely upon Lightfoot. As governor and Chicago resident, J.B. Pritzker has miserably neglected to guard the safety and prosperity of the citizens in the state’s largest city. The folly of his failed administration was mocked by the criminals themselves.
Earlier this year, as I detailed in a prior RealClear Politics article:
“Thieves broke into two northside stores and stole cash registers. They emptied the contents and then dumped the empty registers on the front lawn of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s private home in Chicago’s swankiest neighborhood.
Then, after depositing their discarded plunder at the governor’s abode as a show of criminal panache and disrespect, they proceeded to the high-end shopping district of Michigan Avenue where they robbed the Burberry luxury goods store … for a second time in three days. Police report that they stole over $100,000 in goods on the first Burberry break-in”
Such a sequence evokes scenes from The Godfather. But, it happened. In real life, in downtown Chicago.
Of course, suburbanites should not rest easy either, as city violence increasingly invades surrounding areas as well. For example, just weeks ago in upscale Naperville, a police officer was randomly attacked by an axe-wielding would-be assassin. Thankfully, the officer’s quick response neutralized the perpetrator, captured in a video that went viral. Then, only days later, three men in ski masks robbed a nearby Naperville gas station at gunpoint.
Consequently, all over the state, citizens rightly fear for their safety in Pritzker’s Illinois. J.B. and Lori Lightfoot coddle criminals and betray law enforcement. Because of this calamity, the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police just enthusiastically endorsed Darren Bailey for governor. Those brave cops yearn for a leader willing to stand for law-and-order in the Land of Lincoln, from downtown to downstate.
Steve Cortes raised a family in Chicago and was an advisor to President Trump
