The rabbits have landed Willie Wilson in hot water. I am not talking the cuddly, hopping kind.
The business owner, philanthropist and Chicago mayoral candidate recently sparked an uproar when he declared that, as mayor, he would allow the police to chase down and arrest criminal suspects.
“Somebody run, chase somebody by foot or car, that police officer should be able to chase them down, and hunt them down like a rabbit, OK?” Wilson pronounced at a Jan. 19 mayoral forum hosted by WLS-Ch. 7.
Last week, he was questioned about his “rabbit” remark at a WGN-TV forum and what “constitutional policing” means to him. Wilson defended his assertion, noting that he lost his 20-year-old son to gun violence.
“It is disgusting that we have a 70-plus-year-old man on this stage who was a sharecropper from down South who will get on TV and constantly double down on hunting people down like rabbits,” fellow candidate Ja’Mal Green responded at the forum.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot piled on. “First of all, Mr. Wilson, when you say that you’re going to hunt people down and allow the police … to hunt people down like rabbits, you’re talking about Black and brown boys in our city,” Lightfoot said. “And it’s offensive. I can’t believe you continue to say it. But that is really what you’re talking about. And you have no concern for their lives, but I do.”
“We’re losing people every day that are getting killed due to crime,” Wilson argued.
“And if this particular mayor here ain’t done nothing about it, people still continue to kill people. And nobody gets caught. If somebody comes and kills somebody in her family, then she would know how it feels. We’re trying to protect our citizens (who are) living by the law.”
In 1995, his son, Omar, was murdered in his own home in a drug-related shooting.
“I think about what I went through and what other parents have gone through. I have more of a personal problem with this crime,” Wilson explained in a recent interview with the Chicago Crusader.
As a Tribune editorial noted last week, Wilson’s “rabbit” comments deserve condemnation. Criminal suspects cannot be hunted down like animals. Police must use their training and skills to properly apprehend and hand over suspects for prosecution.
When officers fail to follow the rules and uphold a suspect’s constitutional rights, we end up with horrific cases like the police killing of Tyre Nichols and the murders of Laquan McDonald, George Floyd, and more.
Wilson, 74, is a down-to-earth, self-made millionaire who speaks his mind, at times, too frankly.
Yet, there is an uncomfortable kernel of truth within Wilson’s comments. In Chicago, Black people are killing each other and getting away with it.
Last year, there were 695 homicide victims in Chicago. Of those, more than 3 out of every 4 were African American, according to data analyzed by WTTW-Ch. 11. Nearly 87% of the victims were male. One in three victims were in their 20s.
An even greater insult to that injury: In 2021, the Chicago Police Department closed 400 out of 797 homicide cases that year, amounting to a clearance rate of a little better than 50%, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis.
“Half of those cases — 199 — were closed ‘exceptionally,’ meaning no one was charged,” the Sun-Times found. “Under departmental policy, detectives are allowed to clear a case when the suspect is dead, prosecutors refuse to make a charge or police believe they know who did it but don’t make an arrest.”
In other words, at least half of the people who committed homicide that year remained at large to shoot and kill again.
When fathers and other family members like Wilson lose a loved one to violence, the trauma is unspeakable. They are right to be angry and devastated. They look to our public safety professionals for justice.
The police are charged with protecting us, by stopping crime lawfully and humanely. They should be held accountable when they don’t.
“I think we have to get tough with the people who are doing this,” Wilson told the Chicago Crusader. “We have to lock them up, and if they get out and repeat their crimes, we have to lock them back up because there are too many people losing their lives.”
Gun-fueled street violence is crippling Black communities. Black-on-Black crime is a form of genocide.
In segregated Chicago, violent crime is geographic. People usually kill those near them. In segregated Chicago, that usually means Black people are killing each other. Much of the mayhem occurs on the South and West sides of the city.
Yes, there are racist cops who prey on Black people. Yes, African Americans have been subjected to structural and historical racism. Our challenged neighborhoods need meaningful economic development, robust anti-violence programs, jobs with a future, and recreational alternatives and mentoring for youths. We need to blast the illegal guns off the streets.
But the criminals are not rabbits. They are murderous, brazen, unrepentant aggressors who at times can even put the police on their heels.
We must get real about the violence in our communities. About who is killing who.
How much longer will African American leadership stop making excuses that obscure the self-destruction of their own communities? When will Black leadership loudly and fervently condemn the murderous criminals and gangbangers who are killing Black people and destroying Black families? And demand accountability and well-trained professional law enforcement and prosecutors who will apprehend and get the offenders off the streets? No one wants to talk about that.
In the run-up to the Feb. 28 mayoral election, that would be an overdue and powerful conversation.
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Monday. Write to her at [email protected]
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