Over the Fourth of July weekend, more than 70 people were shot in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago, including several children. The crime resulted in 13 fatalities ranging from ages 19-40, adding to Chicago’s 2021 total crime wave. There have been over 1,892 shootings in Chicago since the beginning of the year, a 12% increase compared to the same time frame last year. So far, there have been more than 330 people killed in Chicago this year. Yet Mayor Lightfoot, Black Lives Matter, and the radical left want to blame the stats on sexism and racism.
The holiday shootings included a 6-year-old girl, a 5-year-old girl, a 12-year-old girl, and an 11-year-old boy. A 40-year-old man was shot to death after playing music too loud in his apartment and a 5-year-old was shot in the leg late Sunday afternoon. A 19-year-old active member of the National Guard was also shot and killed as a result of this past weekend’s violence. There were 32 people shot on Thursday alone, right before the holiday weekend, including a one-month-old girl.
A 21-year-old and 26-year-old were also shot over the weekend after an unidentified vehicle drove past them and fired several shots along the 6100 block of South Wabash Avenue. A 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy were also wounded with gunshot wounds. While the boy was stable, the girl was reported in critical condition.
Two Chicago cops were also shot early Monday morning trying to break up a rowdy Fourth of July crowd setting off fireworks. This would mark the 33rd time this year that a Chicago cop has been wounded or targeted in a shooting. One commander was shot in his leg and a sergeant was grazed with a shot. It was reported that both officers were in good condition after being taken to the hospital. No arrests have been made and investigators have not released a description of the suspect in the gunfire.
Businesses continue to shut down and kids are getting shot left and right, but Mayor Lightfoot says that the criticism of her record is “99%” motivated by sexism and racism, adding that the backlash is because she is a black woman. She even tried to use the “systemic racism” card. It’s a shocker that Lightfoot didn’t mention the fact that she is also the city’s first LGBT mayor.
“I believe that violence is a manifestation of systemic problems, and it’s a public health crisis. When you see, in way too many neighborhoods, a lack of jobs, a lack of investment – these are historic, decades-long problems,” Lightfoot said.
Critics pushed back on her claims and said that 100% of the criticism has to do with the “horrible travesty” that was the 2020-2021 school year and the lack of keeping the most basic campaign promises.
Chicago Alderman Anthony Napolitano called the violent Fourth of July weekend in his city a “war zone” and slammed Mayor Lightfoot for the increase in crime. He said that the city is averaging over 6,000 people shot over the last 18 months and that border towns are “nowhere near the amount of crime we do.”
Napolitano called Lightfoot’s racism argument “pure nonsense,” adding that Chicago has some of the strongest and strictest gun laws in the state (if not the country). He also criticized Cook County State Attorney Kimberly Foxx for being “the worst in the nation” and letting criminals out after a couple of hours of getting arrested. He said that they needed to take care of criminal charges on a local level, emphasizing that it’s the only way they can start curbing crime.
“As legislators, if we start changing the way our city ordinances are written, we can start hitting criminals in the pocket, on behalf of what crimes they’re committing in the city of Chicago alone,” Napolitano said.
Napolitano said he has held a special city council meeting on how the mayor is going to be held accountable and said that by the end of the meeting they realized it was “kind of a smoke and mirror tactic.” He said that there’s no real plan in place and that they need to “take crime in the pocket” by changing the dynamic of the way they go after criminals.
Chicago is already far more dangerous than the border states, which adds to the “success” that only Dem leaders could achieve. Chaos and crime are good for Democrats. That’s how they get elected.