Today is Brandon Johnson’s first full day as mayor of Chicago. His term of offices promises to be a grand experiment in progressive governance. We’re not entirely sure what that portends for the city. We can make some inferences, however, based on the four executive orders he signed immediately after his inauguration. From the report by Jessica D’Onofrio at ABC 7 Chicago:
The first, EO 2023-15, is aimed at boosting youth employment by ordering the Office of Budget and Management to analyze the resources in the city’s 2023 budget in order to find funding for youth employment and enrichment programs. It also instructs the Deputy Mayor of Education and Health and Human Services to lead all city departments and agencies in identifying entry-level jobs that would be suitable for young people.
The second order, EO 2023-16, establishes a Deputy Mayor for Immigrant, Migrant and Refugee Rights, who will coordinate and communicate between city departments and officials to support newly arrived migrants, refugees and immigrants. This includes immediate needs and long-standing policy and goals.
The third order, EO 2023-17, establishes a Deputy Mayor for Community Safety, whose office will focus on “eradicating the root causes of crime and violence” and “advance a comprehensive, healing-centered approach to community safety.”
The final order, EO 2023-18, establishes a Deputy Mayor for Labor Relations, with the goal of allowing “coordination to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of Chicago.” This role will also work to improve working conditions, protect workers’ rights and advance new job opportunities in the city, Johnson said
I think the statistics are inescapable. The “root causes” of crime and violence in Chicago are black street gangs and the conclusion by a relative handful of people that the laws will not be enforced and violent crime is a viable way of making more money a heckuva lot more easily than they might by working at the jobs for which they might be hired with the credentials they have or are willing to attain. The street gangs in turn are a consequence of dysfunction in inner city black society. The dysfunction in turn is a consequence of evils that were remediated long ago. Once put in place social structures are difficult to erase.
The viability of violent crime for achieving prosperity is a consequence of the previous experiment in progressive governance that has been promoted by States Attorney Kim Foxx and over which long-time prosecutors are resigning. Anti-prosecution and anti-incarceration are measures that have been tried and failed not measures that have never been tried. If prosecutors won’t prosecute and judges won’t convict, why should the police arrest? That’s where we are now.
I could go on be relating low wages to the seemingly unending supply of new workers taking entry level and low wage jobs. That’s why the black youth unemployment rate is 20%.
Welcome to the Petri dish, Chicago.
Could you define long ago?
Steve
Fifty years ago.
Reading through the executive orders the thought that came to my mind was, How old is this new Mayor Johnson? 13?
Sorry, but not all criminals are poverty stricken victims.
Many are in the prime of their lives and grabbing for the money.