If I didn’t know better, I’d say Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s primary violence-prevention plan is to hurl political blather into the city’s air and see if it somehow slows the bullets down.
She’s not the only one embracing this bold, wildly ineffective approach. Some aldermen are getting in on the fun. And now there’s even a billionaire involved!
If you’re an aficionado of useless nonsense, it’s a fabulous time to be a Chicagoan. If you’re living in one of the city’s violent neighborhoods and praying for someone to give a damn, not so much.
Lightfoot got the not-helping-anything ball rolling this week by going after Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for not filing charges against suspects involved in a Friday morning shootout that left one person dead.
“We can’t live in a world where there is no accountability,” Lightfoot said. “When there’s no accountability, meaning individuals who wreak havoc, who fire indiscriminately or fire at a target but without any regard for the sanctity of life and the health and well-being of others, if they do not feel like the criminal justice system is going to hold them accountable, we’re going to see a level of brazenness that will send the city into chaos.”
I think we’ve pretty well crossed the brazenness Rubicon when it comes to violence in Chicago, but beyond that, the mayor’s comments didn’t line up well with the facts Foxx’s prosecutors had to work with.
The shooting was captured on video, but the scene was chaotic. Police said it’s not clear from the video exactly who was shooting and the people involved on both sides refused to talk to investigators. Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan described the case as “convoluted.”
Foxx defended her office’s decision Tuesday and criticized the mayor’s comments as “inappropriate” and “wrong.”
“We will continue to work with our partners in law enforcement to ensure that the necessary work is done so that we may bring charges and ultimately secure a conviction for those that engage in the violence that we have seen across this city,” Foxx said. “That is our mission. It is not to try cases in the media nor to play politics on the deaths of children, and veterans, and people in our community.”
Ah, yes. Let’s not play politics. You know, that game everyone involved in this situation is presently playing. Let’s definitely not do that.
Do I think the people involved in a shootout that was indeed brazen should be off the streets? Of course. Am I a prosecutor who fully understands the case and the evidence and testimony needed to charge someone and secure a conviction? Nope.
So all I can do is stand back and say, quite reasonably, “How about you all blow this jibber-jabber out your saddle bags, act like marginally sensible adults and work on some solutions that might actually stop bullets from exiting guns and entering our fellow citizens?”
Because back talk and B.S. have not ever, not once, stopped a bullet. Bullets tear right through nonsense.
But surely there are other reasonable folks in power doing some good while the mayor and the state’s attorney play “You’re Mean! No, YOU’RE mean!”
Aldermen to the rescue!
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Grilling Chicago Police Supt. David Brown during a City Council meeting Monday, 19th-Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea said, “Chicago is the most dangerous city in the country.” It’s not. Not even close. That’s a dumb thing to say and the alderman should either be ashamed of himself or put in for a Fox News gig where false statements like that are appreciated.
According to a Detroit News report, based on the most recent FBI statistics on violent crime in cities with populations of at least 100,000 people, the Top 10 cities with the highest violent crime rates are in this order, leading with the highest: Memphis; Detroit; St. Louis; Little Rock, Arkansas; South Bend, Indiana; Cleveland; Milwaukee; Kansas City; Lansing, Michigan; and Springfield, Missouri.
It would be absurd to downplay the seriousness of our city’s violence problem. But it’s equally absurd to up-play the problem and spout nonsense about Chicago that is easily debunked with readily available data.
Not to be outdone, 48th Ward Ald. Harry Osterman said: “I cannot remember a time in my lifetime that it has been as violent as it is right now.”
Osterman was born in 1967. In 1974, there were a record 970 homicides, and the homicide totals in nearly 20 of the years since Osterman was born have been considerably higher than the 770 homicides recorded last year. This alderman’s memory is terrible.
Again, Chicago’s death toll is horrifying, but inaccurate statements used for political drama do not, as previously noted, stop bullets.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin on Monday told an audience at the Economic Club of Chicago: “Chicago is like Afghanistan on a good day. And that’s a problem.”
That’s a problem because it’s a load of mule muffins, and I would guess Griffin knows that, given that he’s considerably more successful than I am. He was casting out some veiled threats about moving the headquarters of his hedge fund out of Chicago because of all the Afghanistan-like violence.
I’ll say to him what I want to say to the mayor and the state’s attorney and the pair of aldermen and all the other area nonsense peddlers: Tell your story walkin’, bub.
People are dying in Chicago every day, just as they have been for years and decades, and not one snide comment, not one bit of finger-pointing, not one over-exaggeration meant to make someone sound deeply concerned has ever helped a single solitary soul.
You all have the power and money to make a real difference.
But when it comes to addressing violence in Chicago, you’re all absolutely useless.
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