Another blood bath in Chicago. Another officer dead. And still Mayor Lightfoot fails to understand what is happening in her city.
If Lightfoot wants to go down in history as the worst mayor ever, she’s on the right track.
Officially, the Mayor claims that she does not support defunding the police. Yet, she proposed an $80M cut to the police budget. Meanwhile, she was happy to have a personal police escort plenty of times.
As Forbes learned:
The city spent $17.3 million between 2015 and 2020 to guard “unnamed city officials.” That’s as Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she’s opposed to defunding police while – we found – 400 police officers positions were during 2020.
Security detail cost peaked in 2020 – up $700,000 over five years: $2.7 million spent on 16 officers (2015); $2.9 million for 16 officers (2016); $2.7 million for 20 officers (2017); $2.8 million for 16 officers (2018); $2.8 million for 17 officers (2019); and $3.4 million for 22 officers (2020) – an all-time high.
So, it’s no wonder the police aren’t big Lightfoot fans.
Especially considering the danger of the Chicago streets. According to crime statistics, “Chicago had the highest number of homicides in 2018 with 563; almost double that of New York, which has triple the population as Chicago.”
If the worthless mayor of Chicago had taken President Trump up on his offer to help with crime, Chicago would be as safe as Sunnyvale CA. You know. Where the richest internet wunderkinds reside. In their privately-policed, gated communities.
Yet, Mayor Lori Lightfoot declined the offer. Because she was all over the crime situation and would resolve it. But another police fatality proves Lightfoot didn’t resolve anything. So again, Trump repeated his offer in August of 2020. And he encouraged Lightfoot to use the resources at her disposal.
“Together the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois have 25,000 police officers, sheriffs and guardsmen available to quell any violence, they can do it very quickly, very easily, if allowed to do their jobs,” Trump said at a news conference. “Again, if allowed to do their jobs. Our police, our law enforcement is incredible, but they have to be allowed to do their jobs.”
But Lightfoot again failed to respond. In fact, every Monday morning I open the news and story after story details the weekend violence on Chicago streets. President Biden hasn’t stepped in. Thus, the bloodbath rages on.
Saturday night proved to be no different.
Chicago Police Officer Ella French, only 29 years old, lost her life in a routine traffic stop. Not only was French shot and killed, but her partner was also critically wounded. He was fighting for his life at the University of Chicago Medical Center when Mayor Lightfoot decided to pay a visit.
Fox News elaborates:
As Lightfoot visited the hospital about midnight Saturday, about 30 officers turned their backs to her when she approached them on the 7th floor, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday morning.
“It looked like it had been choreographed,” a source told the outlet.
The male officer’s father, who is a retired Chicago cop, also gave the mayor an earful when she tried to talk to him, sources told the Sun-Times. She reportedly remained calm and attentive while he blamed her for what happened.
The mayor’s press office provided a statement to Fox News, saying, “In a time of tragedy, emotions run high and that is to be expected.”
“The Mayor spoke to a range of officers that tragic night and sensed the overwhelming sentiment was about concern for their fallen colleagues,” the statement read. “As the Mayor stated yesterday, now is not the time for divisive and toxic rhetoric or reporting. This is a time for us to come together as a city. We have a common enemy and it is the conditions that breed the violence and the manifestations of violence, namely illegal guns, and gangs. The Mayor is focused on healing the wounds and will reject any and all that try to use this moment to drive further divisions in our city.”
Lightfoot doesn’t have time to worry about divisions in her city. Because deaths should be her priority.
Latest Stats
Officer French wasn’t the only one to take a bullet. The weekend left a trail of bodies.
Fox adds:
Dozens of shooting incidents across Chicago over the weekend left 13 people dead and 73 injured.
In the period beginning Friday at 6 p.m. and ending at midnight Sunday, the Chicago Police Department recorded 54 shooting incidents, statistics show.
Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown said Sunday that French, her partner and another officer were fired upon after approaching a vehicle with three occupants during a traffic stop in West Englewood on Saturday. Three suspects are currently in police custody.
Meanwhile, Lightfoot denied any culpability and tried to give a feel-good speech to smooth things over.
Lightfoot declared Sunday a day of mourning and called for all flags to be flown at half-staff. In an earlier statement, she told critics of her treatment of police to “just stop.”
“There are some who say we do not do enough for the police and that we are handcuffing them from doing their jobs. There are others who say we do too much for the police and that we never hold them accountable for what they do, particularly in Black and brown neighborhoods,” Lightfoot said. “All of this, I say, stop. Just stop. This constant strife is not what we need in this moment. Of course, we have to continue the journey to achieve constitutional and accountable policing. That cannot be in debate at this point.”
Lightfoot concluded her statement by calling on Chicagoans to “say thank you” when they see a police officer in public, adding, “We owe them a debt of gratitude that we will never truly be able to truly repay.”
If only Lightfoot lived by her own words, maybe Officer French would be home with her family instead of lying in a casket.
