“We need to stop listening to all of these activists… where White progressives are making a whole bunch of money to tell Black people what to do in their community and telling them to stop things like car stops in order to get guns and drugs off the street.” (Ald. David Moore/Fox 32)
17th Ward Alderman David Moore camped in a tent for two days in his ward. He wanted to draw attention to open an air drug market in his ward. After gunshots rang out near his tent, the Chicago Police Department dissuaded him from camping out. Instead, they promised to work with him on a plan to remove the drug market.
Under the Johnson administration, street crimes and drug markets have increased. It is a pity a council member had to pull a political stunt, endangering his own life, to drive that point home. Moore is one of the most outspoken alders in the City Council and is not afraid to back down.
Moore is advocating for taking the handcuffs off the police and using technology, like Shot Spotter, to decrease violence in the city. Moore also lashed out at White progressive activists- whatever that means- who put the mayor in office and do not know how to make changes in Black communities. Moore accused the White progressive activists of “profiting from poverty” while pushing their supposed reform agendas.
3000 police officers are being trained to handle protests during the Democratic Convention. That is 3000 police officers who will not be on patrol. The city is still short of officers to patrol the streets. It is going to be interesting to see what happens in the city, especially the highest crime areas and downtown during the convention.
Latino alders are demanding Mayor Brandon Johnson stop evicting migrants from shelters. In a letter sent Monday, the City Council’s Latino Caucus demanded the 60 day evictions should end.
“We believe that since the City has the capacity to house new arrivals, it should do so with the budget allocations we agreed upon without subjecting them, especially families with kids, to the humiliating and traumatizing experience of repeated evictions,” the letter said. (Chicago Tribune)
Managing the migrants has been a failure, starting with former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and getting worse under Johnson. Instead of contacting organizations and NGOs with experience in handling masses of people, they relied on agencies with no experience and high price tags. Johnson commandeered substandard buildings, like the shelter in Pilsen, to house migrants. There were complaints about staff abuse, including inferior medical care. Under Johnson, the migrant crisis went from incompetent to inhumane. Now he is worsening the inhumanity through evictions.
Just some stats from HeyJackass as of June 17th, 2024:
Year To Date
Shot & Killed: 214
Shot & Wounded: 1053
Total Shot: 1267
Total Homicides: 248
June to Date
Shot & Killed: 28
Shot & Wounded: 186
Total Shot: 214
Total Homicides: 30
Last Week: 6/9 – 6/15 (vs WoW)
Shot & Killed: 10 (-9%)
Shot & Wounded: 83 (+36%)
Total Shot: 93 (+29%)
Total Homicides: 11 (-8%)
A person is shot every 3:15 minutes
A person is murdered every 16 hours:24 minutes