Chicago is the latest city to face a mayoral test over crime

The Eagle Trace Road site was shut down by the police, a story of a nurse’s car or a stranger’s house of the dragon

Traffic was at a standstill on Eagle Trace Drive, a normally quiet road with a plant-filled median, about a mile and a half from the site. Police vehicles with lights flashing nosed through as sirens wailed in the distance.

Cheryl St. James was a nurse and as she sat in her car she said she wouldn’t get home. I want to go home. I don’t believe it’s happening in my neighborhood. It’s scary.”

Ethan Garner, a project manager who has lived in the area for three years, said that he left to get something to eat when he saw the police arriving about 5:30 p.m. Hours later, he was sitting in his car, trying to return, watching “House of the Dragon.” He said he walks on the Greenway but now might think twice about it.

The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass: The Case for More Crime, Less Policing and Less Exploiting the Laws

She has tried to balance the need to hire hundreds of additional police officers with harsher punishments for abusive officers. “We must stop crimes in progress and hold people accountable,” she said in her inaugural address. To prevent crime and community violence, we should address the social, the health and the economic conditions that compromise a safe environment.

Progressives have struggled to develop a persuasive response. Some have suggested that the crime increase is mostly a right-wing talking point, but the statistics say otherwise. The voters seem to agree with the statistics.

Eric Adams won the mayor’s race in New York City by focusing his campaign on crime. In the primary, he only lost to Manhattan, the wealthiest part of the city.

In Oregon, where Portland has become a symbol of post-pandemic disorder, the Republicans did well last year. Between 2019 and 2022, murders nearly tripled, vandalism incidents nearly doubled and car thefts rose 69 percent.

The most successful progressive message on crime is the one developed by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. A former community organizer who spent 12 years in the House of Representatives, Bass defeated a more conservative candidate not by downplaying crime concerns but by talking about them frequently. Bass herself was a burglary victim last year.

The most conservative candidate, Vallas, says he will hire more police officers and the most liberal, Johnson, says he will address the root causes of crime.

Washington. And he has said that he believes that the police need more support. He said that he wanted to take the handcuffs off the police so they could be more assertive in their fight against crime. Brandon Johnson was once a strong supporter of the defund the police movement. He has backed off of that position, but he wants to move more resources into social services, into anti-violence programs. He doesn’t feel that more policing is the solution.

“No matter where you live, no matter what you look like, you deserve to have a better, stronger, safer Chicago,” Johnson said at his election night party last night.

Lili Foot: We were fierce competitors in these last few months, but I will be rooting and praying for our next mayor to deliver for the people of this city for years to come.

Lightfoot had clashed with police and teachers’ unions, while developing frosty relationships with city aldermen and Illinois’ Democratic governor – leaving her with few influential allies. Voters were uneasy, too, because violent crime spiked while Lightfoot was in charge. Chicago’s public transportation system still has service gaps and delays. And though Lightfoot’s management of the coronavirus pandemic was popular, the city’s economic rebound has been sluggish.

WASHINGTON: The top issue was public safety and crime. Chicago’s been experiencing a surge in crime, particularly violent crime, in the last several years. And the issue is not just the fact that crime is increasing, but it is spreading throughout the city – murders, shootings, carjackings. And that has become a major issue of concern for voters.

Lori Lightfoot, a Chicago Mayor with the Pervasiveness of Crime, advanced to the Covid-19 head-to-head matchup

Paul Vallas, a former schools chief who campaigned on a tough-on-crime message, and Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner with the backing of the influential teachers’ union, advanced to the head-to-head match-up in five weeks.

The city is not doing as well as it could with the economic recovery from the swine flu. McDonald’s president and chief executive officer Chris Kempczinski said at The Economic Club of Chicago last fall that the chain was struggling to convince potential employees to relocate to work in its West Loop headquarters.

He said that it shows up in many different ways. The pervasiveness of crime affects us. Ultimately it is holding all of us back.”

The results of the first round showed that more than one-quarter of Chicago voters didn’t support the first-place winner.

She’d won an office that has long been a political lightning rod without a durable base of support. And while her toughness was an asset on the campaign trail, it cost Lightfoot some of the allies she’d gained on her way to victory.

Both the police and teachers unions backed Lightfoot in the 2023 mayor’s race because of her fights with them before and during Covid-19.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/01/politics/lori-lightfoot-chicago-mayor-race-crime/index.html

The Chicago Police Department and a Democratic Candidate: Lt. Col. David N. Bass, Sgr. Jay Vallas-Jackiw, C.J. Johnson

The union endorsed Johnson because he was not well-known outside of his Cook County commission district.

The union president said that Chicago was ready to break with the politics of the past and that the needs of students, their families, and school communities were being ignored.

Last year, she incensed police by saying that they had an “enormous” amount of time off, when she said that the department had trouble recruiting and retaining officers. It was the latest ugly chapter in years-long tension between police and Lightfoot’s administration as she sought to rein in overtime spending.

On Wednesday, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown announced he will resign in March – which will allow the next mayor to install new leadership at the department.

Bass defeated Caruso by offering a plan to increase the number of police officers on the streets and declaring a state of emergency to address a crisis of homelessness.

One of the strongest areas in the city for Vallas and Johnson was in the north side which is a more White area than Black areas to the south and west.

In his speech on Tuesday night, he showed the first sign that he will try to consolidate the liberals who supported someone else. He cited each candidate by name.

The Campaign for Public Safety in the City of Chicago, or What Can Be Done to Improve Public Safety? (Varse Version)

Mayors, we are close. Adams said that public safety is a precondition to prosperity in American cities. People want to be safe and that’s why we focus on public safety.

CHANG. While there was a decrease in homicides last year, there has been an increase in crime during her tenure. Is that Lightfoot?

WASHINGTON: Well, I think it’s a very complicated issue. There are many challenges and problems in the city. There isn’t enough money for anti-violence and social service programs in the city. We just experienced a H1N1 outbreak. We went through social unrest around the city. And some of that, I think, is responsible for creating the instability. But I think voters expect her to be able to – you know, she’s the mayor. They expect her to be able to solve the problem. Crime is still a pretty serious issue. People are pointing the finger whenever there is an event or incident.

CHANG: Well, let’s talk about the candidates who beat Lightfoot to head into the runoff. We have Paul Vallas, the former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, followed by Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson. What are they trying to improve in terms of public safety?

WASHINGTON: This is a very racially diverse city. That’s a positive thing, but it’s also a different city. People of color tend to vote for other candidates of color, and whites tend to vote with white candidates. The areas of the city that were predominantly white, less conservative and more Hispanic were where Brandon Johnson got the areas of the city that were populated by more people of color. There is a debate about race. There is a debate regarding the haves and have-nots. That’s something that Brandon Johnson talked about in his acceptance speech.

Washington. Vallas says that he would like to address some of the inequalities in the city, but his biggest point is that public safety needs to come first.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. It is possible that this text will be revised or updated in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The audio record is the most authoritative of NPR’s programming.

“No separation of religion and state,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Dana Bash at a New York Times Conference on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2003

New York City Mayor Eric Adams did not agree with the idea that the reelection loss of the Chicago Mayor was a warning sign for Democratic mayors.

I was at some crime scenes. I knew what New Yorkers were saying. All over the country, I saw it. I think, if anything, it is really stating that this is what I have been talking about. Adams told Dana Bash that America needed to be safe.

Adams also addressed the scrutiny that has followed his remarks at an interfaith breakfast last week in which he said, “Don’t tell me about no separation of church and state. State is the body, church is the heart. The body dies when you take the heart out.

“What I believe,” he said Sunday, “is that you cannot separate your faith. Government should not interfere with religion, and religion should not interfere with government. I believe my faith pushes me to do things that I don’t normally do.