Chicago Dumps Soft-on-Crime Mayor

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has conceded defeat, the Chicago Tribune reported at 9:00 CST Tuesday. At about that time, the New York Times listed the results as 36.4% for Paul Vallas and 20.2% for Brandon Johnson, with Mayor Lightfoot third.

Plurality winner Mr. Vallas has run on a tough-on-crime platform, the WSJ reports. He has the backing of the Chicago police union. But the windy city isn’t out of the woods yet.

The runoff will be between Mr. Vallas and Mr. Johnson. The latter has a hodge-podge plan on crime that reads like a blueprint for rearranging the deck chairs on the Titantic. See this article in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Some elements might do some good, like improving efficiency. Others will certainly do harm, such as erasing the gang database. It has to go, according to Mr. Johnson, because it is supposedly “racist.” Police must deal with the population as it really is. If the population of gangsters has a different demographic makeup than the population as a whole, that difference will be reflected in any honestly compiled database. None of the elements display an awareness of the reality that most serious crime is committed by evil people who have no intention of leading a law-abiding life and must be deterred or restrained.

Are the voters of Chicago ready to cast aside the false “woke” narrative and elect a leader who will deal with the gritty realities of crime? We will see.