By Ray Cardello for August 18, 2022 Season 12 / Post 33

In 2021, in the city of Chicago, there were 792 shooting homicides and 3,561 shooting victims. By far, the deadliest year for homicides in Chicago’s history. You would think this would infuriate the Mayor and the District Attorney. You would be wrong.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is much more concerned with cutting funding for the Police, her security detail, and security for the film crews of TV shows and movies being shot in Chicago than the safety and well-being of her people of the Windy City. There is no sense of urgency to solve the daily shooting spree existing within her city. For this reason, I see Mayor Lori Lightfoot as a disgusting human being.

District Attorney Kim Foxx is considered soft on crime. Foxx has been the Cook County DA since 2016. During her tenure, she has dropped over 25,000 felony cases.

In comparing Foxx versus her predecessor, Anita Alvarez, for the three years analyzed, Foxx’s office dropped 8.1% of homicide cases, compared with 5.3% under Alvarez. Under Foxx, the office dropped 9.5% of felony sex crime cases; the rate was 6.5% for Alvarez.

Foxx garnered headlines in 2019 after she dropped charges against Jussie Smollett, who purportedly staged an assault against himself and claimed supporters of President Donald Trump were the perpetrators, using homophobic slurs and placing a noose around his neck.

Foxx is a member of the soft-on-crime DAs destroying big cities like New York, SanFrancisco, and Los Angeles. These cities have all defunded much of their Police Department, are dropping cases quicker than it takes for the arresting officer to get back to his post, and are advocates of no-cash bail. It is these lax policies that are pushing crime rates to record-high levels.

Chicago was once a gem of big cities in America. Now, it is a crime-ridden area where people don’t even want to fly into O’Hare to catch a connecting flight. Chicago is not alone in its demise. San Francisco and Los Angeles are now homeless meccas with sidewalk cafes replaced with tent cities. Along with these tent encampments come drugs, filth, and crime. Many of these homeless areas are close to schools, with kids avoiding used needles on the street as they navigate their way to school.

People are fighting back. District Attorney Chesa Boudin was overwhelmingly recalled in San Francisco. In Los Angeles, DA Gascon survived the recall attempt to remove him when the petition campaign came up short of signatures. Gascon took a victory lap when the petition was rejected as if that was a call of support. The voters of LA County are not done and will continue to oust Gascon.

As for Chicago, the folks of this city in decline can look to themselves for the source of their problems. They continue to go to the polls and support the likes of Lori Lightfoot. They need to break this horrific cycle and pull a red lever. Doing so will turn the tide by refunding the Police, ending no cash bail, reclaiming the streets, and putting people first. As long as these corrupt, inept public officials are allowed tenure, then you will keep your cities in the headlines.