Weekend Slaughter in Chicago

While many democrat and progressive elected officials have resisted efforts to restore real consequences for criminals, the impact of soft-on-crime policies, particularly in large urban districts, will be hard to ignore next month when the party holds its national convention in Chicago.  Jasmine Minor, Tre Ward and Sarah Schulte of ABC 7 News report that over the recent 4th of July weekend, 109 people were shot with 19 fatalities in the windy city.  Victims included the elderly, women and children, with 19 people shot in mass shootings.  Many of the shootings appeared random including one incident where two women and an 8-year-old boy were killed as multiple shooters opened fire on a gathering at a home in Little Italy.  Last year 62 people were shot and 11 died in Chicago shootings over the 4th of July weekend.

Earlier this year Chicago democrats nominated a retired judge to replace progressive state’s attorney Kim Foxx in this November’s general election.  Foxx has presided over major increases in crime while pursuing her racial justice vision of not prosecuting or under-prosecuting the city’s black offenders. Chicago’s failed Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, was replaced earlier this year by progressive politician Brandon Johnson. Neither Lightfoot nor Johnson support increasing consequences for repeat offenders. In 2020, during the George Floyd riots, both voted to defund the Chicago police department. In the wake of last weekend’s shootings, Mayor Johnson called for more federal and state resources.

Other parts of the country have begun removing the progressive pro-criminal politicians and policies that have driven up crime and violence but Chicago is not among them.

Will democrats clean up Chicago for its August 19 convention?

In the spotlight of the national media it will be instructive to see how this plays out in one of the nation’s most progressive and crime-ridden cities.