“Preckwinkle chuckled recently when asked whether she stood by her words — which she stressed were not an endorsement for defunding police… Of course I believe what I said, Preckwinkle, who’s been county board president since 2010, said in an interview with the Tribune… She then sought to make the case that America’s latest explosion of gun violence was mostly triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic… “It isn’t just us; it’s all across the country,” Preckwinkle said. “It’s just a really, really difficult moment, not just here in this country, but across the world. And I’m just hopeful that we’ll gradually work our way out of this.” (Chicago Tribune/Emphasis mine)
Politicians, like gangsters, should have nicknames. Chicago Machine Boss Toni Preckwinkle could be called Toni Chuckles. Chuckling while believing failure is success must be a laughing matter. People are being murdered and terrorized due to her policies. Preckwinkle chuckles.
What is funnier/chuckle/worthy? Preckwinkle is blaming the increasing yearly violence in Chicago on COVID. Should the Cook County Medical Examiner change the cause of death for all the murders from gunshots to COVID related? Should all the wounded people be changed to COVID-related injuries? Should all the robberies, carjackings, smash and grabs, and other violent crimes be classified as COViD-related?
I checked the FBI’s Unified Crime Report* classifications. I could not find a COVID violence classification.
There is little evidence that the spate of rampant violence over the past almost three years is caused by COVID-19. Politicians are like our supposed “educated” journalists. They cannot conceive humans are evil, so they make stuff up to create blame on things, like “gun violence.” The lazy copy and paste journalists, taking their clue from their PR client, Toni Chuckles, will now refer to criminality as COVID violence when people are killed, wounded, robbed, carjacked, or victims of other violent crimes. For gunfights, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx will classify them as mutual COVID related instead of mutual combat. No felonies to see here, folks, just disease.
All we will hear about is COVID violence this, COVID violence that, COVID violence here, there, and everywhere. There will be mass COVID shootings and COVID smash and grabs. COVID carjackings. COVID robberies. COVID rolling shootouts.
The Chicago news media got their signal and will follow their orders. Their faux editorial boards will demand Cook County create a COVID court to divert violent COVID criminals to COVID restorative justice with peace circles instead of prosecuting them.
There is plenty of evidence that one of the drivers of violence is directly related to not holding criminals accountable for their actions. Evidence shows that low or no bail for violent crimes drives the violence. Evidence shows that the violence, terrorizing, and looting are directly related to Toni Chuckles, Kim Foxx, and Chief Judge Tim Evans. The road to violent crime, murder, bloodshed, and terrorizing leads right to their office doorsteps.
Toni Preckwinkle does not believe in her unproven criminal justice reform theories. She knows little to nothing about criminal justice or the criminal justice system. She implemented those policies to save money and keep the county budget in line.
Preckwinkle lost her bid for the punishing soda tax. She had to balance her budget without raising other taxes. She put on her sensible reformer shoes, clicked her heels, and stripped the criminal justice system of funding. She became a hero to the fringe activist community and unleashed rampant violence on the City of Chicago and some suburbs.
Incarcerating people awaiting bail or on no bail costs vast amounts of money. The answer is to clear out the County Jail and keep it as little populated as possible.
Prosecuting felons costs money. The answer is, to prosecute as few felons as possible. Trials cost money. The answer, try as few cases as possible. Toni Preckwinkle is a driver of the murder and violence in Chicago. She chuckles and denies it. The obedient news media believes her.
Are you chuckling yet, Chicago? Toni Chuckles cut her budget with blood money. Yet, she chuckles over criticism of her failures, deeming them successful.
Preckwinkle ran as a reformer against the Democratic Machine. Then she became Da Boss of the Machine. In Chicago/Cook County politics, the only things that change are the names. The Machine lives on, and there will always be a Boss. Tony Chuckles lied then, and she is lying now. She chuckles over her lies. The joke is on you, the public.
The real problem is the voters in Chicago and parts of Cook County who believe Preckwinkle’s lies. They believe she is a reformer, a goo-goo, good government type. They believe the PR weasels in the news media who endorse her and sing her praises. They hype her failures as successes.
The naïve voters elected her twice as Cook County Board President and Boss of the Machine. They will probably do it again. Toni Chuckles has a lot to be smugly happy about. She knows the voters are gullible, naive, and stupid. They will recycle her into office.
Toni Chuckles will laugh all the way to another disastrous term.
*The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program compiles official data on crime in the United States, published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Law enforcement agencies across the nation submit data to the UCR. Though designed to analyze crime trends, the data have become one of the country’s leading social indicators.