Chicago: Independence Day Weekend Sees Over 100 Shot, 21 Killed. Mayor Blames Nixon, Not Gangs

Murder City USA lived up to its moniker over the Independence Day weekend. Chicago accounted for between a third and half of all homicides nationwide over the extended Independence Day weekend. With all of the bodies accounted for, gang members in Chicago accounted for 21 killed  and 89 more wounded, per HeyJackass.com.

With the body count on Monday had the homicides pegged at 19, two of the wounded have since crossed the rainbow bridge.  That brings the toll to 21 dead.  Welcome to America’s Murder Capital.

Mayor Brandon Johnson has no doubt received phone calls from powerful, influential people asking him to get a handle on the violence. Yet despite the elites trying to hold his feet to the fire, the feckless leader can do nothing but hold press conferences full of empty words, finger-pointing and excuses for his failure as a leader.

On Friday, with the bodies stacking up, Johnson said the violence “has left our city in a state of grief.” Then on Monday, when the final death toll mounted – along with the scores of those wounded in gang activities – he promised “consequences” for the perps. From WTTW:

Mayor Brandon Johnson promised “consequences” for those participating in gun violence in Chicago following a holiday weekend in which more than 100 people were shot and 19 were killed across the city…

“We need to ensure that we are holding every single individual accountable for the pain and trauma and torment that they have caused in this city,” Johnson said during a press conference Monday at the Chicago Police Department’s headquarters. “There will be consequences for the violence. We will not let criminal activity ruin and harm our city.”

Consequences? That’s laughable right there.

Note how Mr. Mayor didn’t say how many suspects were in custody with felony charges pending. There’s a reason for that. The “authorities” don’t have suspects in most of those incidents, much less have police made any arrests. And even if they had, Team Soros’ Cook County State’s Attorney might not have filed felony charges unless one of them tossed a root beer on her.

There will be no consequences when suspects haven’t even been identified, much less placed under arrest and charged.

At the press conference yesterday, Brandon Johnson ticked through his usual list of culprits for the gang violence. These included law-abiding gun owners (as always), along with “disinvestment” in the black community, structural racism. But there was a new culprit on the block: President Richard M. Nixon. That’s right… Brandon Johnson blames the long-deceased Richard Nixon, president 50 years ago, for Chicago’s ills today. Even though Democrats have had a lock on the levers of power in the Windy City for almost 100 years, and the entire state of Illinois for most of a generation.

Here’s how Johnson tried to pin the woes of his dystopian city on ol’ Tricky Dick.

“Black death has unfortunately been accepted in this country for a very long time. We had a chance 60 years ago to get at the root causes. And people mocked President Johnson, and we ended up with Richard Nixon,” said Mayor Johnson, we assume no relation to the also now deceased, and super white guy President Johnson.

Despite championing civil rights, including helping secure the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Johnson’s motives may have been more political than borne from his love of all races. After the passage of the act, he reportedly said, “I’ll have those n[deleted] voting Democratic for 200 years.” You can fill in the blank.

Some liberals and historians debate whether he actually said that, but even a number of black historians admit such a statement would’ve been in line with how he spoke and thought. What is not disputed is what he actually called the bill that would become the Civil Rights Act. Johnson called it the n[deleted) bill.” And that tidbit of history is from the woke MSNBC itself.

And if Mayor Johnson is in need of a little history lesson given the increasingly poor quality of public education in the past few generations.  While Nixon may not have openly courted black voters like Johnson and the Democrats did, but he did a lot to expand economic and educational opportunity for black Americans.

This from the Richard Nixon Foundation:

When he reached the presidency, Nixon sought to expand economic opportunities for African Americans by ending discrimination in the work place, through the endowment of black colleges with federal funds, and helping them find meaningful employment through job assistance programs, and promotion of entrepreneurship — an initiative called “Black Capitalism.”

In 1970, perhaps the hall mark of the Nixon administration’s Civil Rights policies, Nixon sought to end the decades old and egregious tradition of segregated schools for black and white children throughout the nation, predominantly in the Southern states.

But Mayor Johnson isn’t worried about real history, he simply wants to throw blame wherever he can to take the attention off his own sad record.

Yesterday, after 108 people were shot citywide during the holiday weekend, Mayor Brandon Johnson blamed Richard Nixon for the city’s intractable violence.

Last night, the Richard Nixon Foundation blasted Johnson’s statement.https://t.co/selTktEzg2

— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) July 9, 2024

Who does the mayor studiously avoid mentioning?
Who didn’t the mayor blame? He didn’t blame the gangs committing the violent crime in his city.  After all, the gangs and the politicians running Chicago (and indeed the Democrats running the Illinois General Assembly) have an unholy alliance.  The gangs turn out the votes.  The politicians turn out “violence prevention” funding that makes its way back to the gang members in the form of programs like “violence interrupters” which pay $200 a day to “justice-impacted” criminals and gang bangers to supposedly stop shoot-outs before they happen.  Like that’s working so well.

But wait, it gets worse.

Not only is the mayor and his pals running Chicago (and the state of Illinois) not doing anything to make things better, they are actively working to make things worse. In Chicago, Johnson and his fellow radicals plan to do away with the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system that relays locations of gunfire to police in seconds. This allows cops, when available, to show up promptly and sometimes even make arrests. But ShotSpotter is racist, you see. Why? Because simply reporting the facts is somehow racist.

Not only that but these same radical “Criminal justice reformers” want to do away with traffic stops. If you guessed because of racism, you win a free cookie. CWB Chicago has more:

CHICAGO — With the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system soon to be removed from Chicago’s streets, so-called “reform” activists are turning their attention to another tool police find useful: traffic stops.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said in May that her office is developing a policy not to prosecute gun, theft, and drug charges stemming from certain traffic stops. Foxx said her staff would refuse to file charges in most cases if evidence was found during a traffic stop for missing license plates, expired registrations, and other minor infractions. She called the anticipated change “a public safety enhancement effort.”

“Armed with data, armed with the knowledge that these stops have not significantly or in any way reduced violence in our city, [my office] decided that it was time to look at this issue and see if we could model a best practice that we’ve seen in other jurisdictions,” Foxx told the Sun-Times.

So while Mayor Brandon Johnson and his friends say “We will not let criminal activity ruin and harm our city,” their actions speak a lot louder than their words.