Chicago’s new Mayor Brandon “Big Brain” Johnson has long advocated for defunding the police along with more gun control for law-abiding citizens. And while he has allowed almost two thousand police officer positions to go unfilled as part of cutting back law enforcement in the Windy City one area inside Chicago Police headquarters has experienced serious growth.
Johnson’s predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, became famous for the failed, feckless leadership that resulted in fewer police and more violent crime. At the same time, Lightfoot enjoyed a massive personal protection detail of ninety police officers, all of who were, of course, armed.
That was almost 1% of the entire department, dedicated to making sure violent crime didn’t touch the Mayor or her family, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Meanwhile, average Chicagoans had to make do with up to 29% fewer cops patrolling their neighborhoods (miraculously, Lightfoot’s neighborhood saw an increase of 4%). On average, though, during Lightfoot’s miserable tenure, CPD shrank by an average of 19%.
Seeing the staggering reduction in law enforcement and crime under Lightfoot, Mayor Johnson seems to be saying, “Hold my beer.”
Ninety cops apparently aren’t enough to keep the current mayor and his family feeling safe and secure, so Johnson has upped the protective detail by 65%. The guy who presided over a 38% increase in major crimes in his first thirty days in office, now has 149 sworn officers to keep him safe. He has more cops on his personal protection detail than all but 10 police department in the rest of the state.
Defund the police!
*except for my personal protection unit* https://t.co/cdgxpAtQAr
— Nathan Hoffman (@Milenatehoff) July 24, 2023
To put that into perspective, Illinois’ rotund Governor J.B. Pritzker has a little over two dozen Illinois State Troopers on his protective detail. He usually only travels with a driver and two or three specially-trained troopers. That’s about twice as many as his predecessor, Republican Bruce Rauner.
So while the Windy City devolves into a crime-ridden hell-hole of growing gang-related violent crime that average citizens have to contend with on a daily basis, Hizzoner hides behind a phalanx of 149 men and women with guns.
It’s too bad Chicago isn’t more like Florida. After all, under Ron DeSantis’ leadership, despite huge inflows of refugees from crime-ridden cities across the country, violent crime in the Sunshine state is at 50-year-lows. Cook county lost almost 100,000 residents in 2022. Look for that to accelerate.
