Chicago mayoral candidate Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson celebrates with supporters, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Chicago. Johnson and Paul Vallas will meet in a runoff to be the next mayor of Chicago after voters denied incumbent Lori Lightfoot a second term. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

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.

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.

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50 COMMENTS

  1. Surprised (and disappointed) one of his body guards hasn’t taped a Bullseye on the back of his jacket!!

  2. Those cops are not real cops… they should be treated the same as an internal affairs officer…like they don’t exist… like a human toilet..

  3. I seem to recall that Hizoner had a driver and a security detail in a single car that sat outside his house at night. When he went to city hall, he rode in a Caddy limo with a detective driving, followed by two squad cars. My how times have changed.

    • Lawsuit.

      Someone needs to sue and demand he get at most 1 cop as a ‘protective detail’….

  6. I understand how tyrants love tyranny.
    I’ll never understand why the citizens lap it up.

    “All that bullshit from the last mayor? Yes, give me 900 bazillion percent more of that from the new guy, please.”

    • It’s no different from those on this website and others like it that cheered at the election results that got rid of the last mayor. There was NOTHING to celebrate. For either side. We saw the same thing in New York.

      • Take heart, fellow tTAGers… these aren’t Secret Service Opertors operating operationally.
        They, like most cops, are in it for the pension and the 20 and out – probably with a full disability during an arrest.
        Take a bullet for Mayor Pudding pop?… not likely.

  7. They run on a platform of treating the little people like shit while enriching themselves and still they win elections.

    After a few generations of this you’d think people would catch on.

  8. For several years, I did remodeling projects for a wealthy family that owned a private trout fishing club. It was open to a small group of businessmen and politicians. I began working for them during part of Voinovich’s tenure as governor, and he always had a single Trooper as driver and security whenever he and his wife came to fish. Taft came a couple times, but I never saw his security, so it was likely minimal also. Kasich never came, and Strickland and Celeste were @&!%&* democrats so the owner never invited them, and it closed before DeWine, so I don’t know about their security.

    • As noted by me several times “let’s go Brandon” is much worse than Groot. A socialist/communist dim as it were. To be fair(lol) Brandon has an actual heterosexual marriage with children. Anywho Chiraq can’t be fixed only shunned. Me & my missus are moving along leaving Cook county…

    • I didn’t mention Rod Blagojevich. He had a large detail, as did Republican George Ryan (both men since went to prison).

      Ryan’s EPOs would get rough with you if you hollered… unkind remarks at him. One fellow in Springfield settled for a nice living room furniture set after they roughed him up.

      As for Blago, he travelled with at least two cars, sometimes three. One time he brought about six or eight guys with him for protection at a strip club. A strip club! Maybe he was worried about catching a stiletto heel in the eye socket.

      • Well Boch I had a clever comment but got moderated apparently for writing “hEtERosExuAL”. BAD bad word🙄

      • “Maybe he was worried about catching a stiletto heel in the eye socket.”

        A very big(smile)
        Wild times indeed in the windy city of Chiraq.

        • don’t laugh…it can happen…almost got nailed myself a couple of times…some things are better viewed from a distance!……

    • And UK’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s protection detail was a special branch police officer and himself, both armed with M1911s. Both would practice regularly and Winston was regarded as a superb shot even by his bodyguard.

  10. So the a$$holes that voted in her lordship Lightfoot, have apparently upped the bar by voting in this joker? And I’m supposed to, what, feel sorry for these good citizens of the Windy City? Really? Not in this life. They richly deserve the “fruits” of their choice.

  12. I have a very good friend that worked the governor’s security detail here in Florida. I’m not sure what it consists of now (Mark’s retired now), but I attended a funeral that Govenor Chiles also attended. He showed up with one FDLE agent as a security detail. He doubled as the Governor’s driver. Mark usually only got a tap on the shoulder when there was an event at the governor’s mansion. I asked Mark how many agents it took to cover an event like that. He said about a dozen on the ground. TPD and LCSO took care of things outside the gate, but that was mostly traffic control. Otherwise, there were just a couple of guys on the mansion grounds. Maybe those big city dims are just scared.

  13. I don’t care anymore. They voted for it Chiraq. And the voted for it in the entire state of California and Oregon. It’s time people learn the hard way.

    • Chris, that’s just the problem. They don’t learn. They just perpetuate the problem.

      • I’m not sure everyone can be saved? I think Chiraq “has Fallen”.
        They would prefer to blame outsiders for the problems they created for themselves.

        Btw
        San Francisco is ahead of Chiraq. It’s on it’s way to becoming the “Detroit” of the west coast.

  14. I’ve said this before. I want to go to Chicago to visit the Field Museum. I want to see the Lions of Tsavo before they pat me in the face with a shovel. I figure 48 hours is good. Then I’m gone.

    • I visited the botanical gardens there many years ago with a friend. Had a great time. All during daylight hours only.
      I’d love to visit the museum of industry. Before they burn the place to the ground. Like what happened to an aviation museum arson attack in California,
      many years ago.

  15. Wish all the real cops in chicago would have a two week flu all at once. That would be something to see.

    • The new mayor has already let it be known that the cops must pull back. They now have a police department in name only.

      And that’s just fine. We need more major cities to have police departments in name only. Let their fantasy come true of a defunded police. I look forward to it.

    • It would but unfortunately there’s still a lot of good people in Chicago. They don’t vote for these clowns, can’t afford to get out, unfortunately they would be the real victims in a scenario like this.

        • No, he did not get 100% in the vote so there’s obviously a number of people that didn’t vote for him…

  17. By adding to his security detail Mayor Brandon Johnson is shrinking the number of officers to work patrol, this is just the way to fulfill campaign promises. Johnson’s constituents should appreciate the effort.

  19. I think he’s a brave man for taking on the risk of potentially being abused and having his rights violated by those 149 police. Think of the havoc they could wreak on his constituents if he allowed them to roam free in their neighborhoods.

  20. I live in a suburb of Chicago view the museums etc on line it is not a good vacation spot right now……car theft armed robberies home, auto, bank, business all on going …..no one is fixing any problems only empty promises to get elected.

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