Unless you’re a die-hard fan of head-slapping, hypocritical inanity, you may have missed the fact that Chicago Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, is in Europe to promote:
her city’s “thriving economy” as major companies announce they are leaving the area amid skyrocketing crime and unfriendly business climate. “Chicago’s economy is thriving and our business sector has set records, keeping us competitive with top global financial cities,” Lightfoot said in a press release.
You may want to read that again. I did.
It’s entirely possible Mayor Lightfoot thinks Europeans are more gullible than Americans. Maybe they are more gullible than Americans. I’ll leave it to you to read the article hyperlinked above. It contains some quotes from some of the businesspeople who are hastily departing the Windy City to save their businesses, their lives, and the lives of their employees.
For now, I’ll tackle the violence.
Try This on For Size
Gun crime in Chicago is so prevalent — and the murder rate so high — the Chicago Sun-Times keeps a real-time, running tally of the deaths in the city. After cutting the annual police budget by $80 million but retaining her personal protective detail of more than 70 police officers, Mayor Lightfoot tried to summon help from the Fed:
We need gun trafficking multi-jurisdictional strike forces to disrupt the flow of illegal guns that are coming into our city.
Then she instituted a no-foot-pursuit policy for the Chicago PD, about which John Catanzara, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, had this to say:
I would hope the policy starts with a very clear message: Comply with police lawful orders to stop, to drop a weapon, to stop running, give up, surrender, whatever the case may be … That should be the headline of whatever foot pursuit policy is enacted, period. The reoccurring theme in all of these incidents are a clear decision by the subject to not comply with lawful orders given by the police and decide to just do what they’re going to do … By the time you rifle through in your head all the dos and don’ts of that new policy that’s going to come out, the offender would be long gone. It’s a joke, it makes no sense … All you’re doing is giving the criminals of this city more breathing room … how are you ever going to catch a criminal responsible for crime?
Fat chance.
If you’re planning to travel to Chicago, don’t. If you have to go, make it easy on the people who’ll have to get your affairs in order by calling 1-800-BODY-BAG.
Good grief.
