Illinois’ Democratic leaders insist they don’t want President Donald Trump’s assist to struggle crime, however the information maintain proving the other.
Labor Day weekend noticed a mind-numbing 54 folks shot in Chicago, seven fatally — greater than twice final yr’s toll.
And although murders in 2025 are down a bit from the 2024 stage, they’re nonetheless 4 instances larger per capita than in New York Metropolis.
No surprise Trump calls Chicago a “hellhole” that would profit from a federal intervention, together with a Nationwide Guard deployment.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson fiercely oppose that. Johnson even ordered police to not cooperate with federal brokers, simply because the Division of Homeland Safety will get set to step up immigration enforcement in his metropolis.
Clearly, these Democratic leaders don’t need to repair the issue; higher see Chicagoans die than cooperate with Orange Man.
Is there any higher proof that crime is a selection? In any case:
* When Trump despatched Nationwide Guard items to DC, crime plunged virtually in a single day. The town truly went 12 days with out a single homicide. Even Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser admits “the surge of officers” enhanced DC’s cops’ efforts and has taken steps to make it a extra everlasting association.
* New York Metropolis’s expertise within the Nineteen Nineties and since completely proves that proactive policing can sink crime charges throughout the board — at the same time as newer state and metropolis anti-policing “reforms” despatched crime edging again up after 2019, solely to be reversed once more as NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch restores (for now, anyway) the emphasis on quality-of-life policing.
That’s: It’s not merely that Pritzker and leaders of different crime-plagued jurisdictions needs to be begging for additional, free-of-charge law-enforcement assist.
It’s that they’re actively selecting pro-crime insurance policies: For instance, Johnson final week insisted “incarceration” is “racist” and “immoral” and “not the way in which to drive violence down.”
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom is refusing to price range funds to implement tougher-on-crime measures the state’s voters final yr handed overwhelmingly (regardless of his opposition) final yr.
Nationwide Guard or not, tolerating excessive crime is a political determination — and most Democratic pols maintain making the fallacious selection.
