Let’s play a little game. The biggest issue in the Chicago mayoral race is crime—no surprise with the sharp uptick in carjackings, daylight robberies, and homicides over the last three years. I’m going to give a list of candidates (in alphabetical order) and then a list of statements about dealing with crime (in a different sequence). Can you match the candidate with the statement?
Candidates
Statements
There is substantial agreement among the candidates that crime is a serious problem, that the police superintendent should be replaced, and that Mayor Lightfoot has done a lousy job. Here are some statements from the candidates unedited other than to remove the candidates’ names and formatting in no particular order.
Statement 1
We must work together with the appropriate agencies & personnel to address the consequences exasperated by the pandemic. The uptick in carjackings, murder on the rise, crime out of control & mental health going unchecked.
Statement 2
[The Candidate] will ensure that criminals are held accountable so that the city is safe again. Residents in ALL neighborhoods will feel safe again. Suburbanites and tourists will no longer fear traveling downtown.
Statement 3
We have a framework for how we will be dealing with public safety. We are beginning a series of listening sessions.
Leadership is critical. I, too, will replace Police Superintendent Brown. Improving the morale of the Chicago Police Department is a top priority. We need to modernize our department. We need to have a plan in place for leadership that learns from experiences.
Statement 4
The safest communities in America have the best schools, jobs, parks, hospitals and libraries. [The Candidate] believes we can make Chicago the safest big city in America if we make real investments in root cause solutions, such as creating an Office of Gun Violence Prevention, reopening the city’s mental health clinics and fully funding year-round youth employment and community-based violence intervention services.
Statement 5
[The Candidate] would fire Police Superintendent David Brown and hire a new police superintendent with Chicago roots who is committed to expanding community policing in every neighborhood of the city, cordinating with local officials and communities for more accountability and specificity, and actively coordinating with intervention teams. Immediately putting more officers into the community by creating the Chicago Reserve —made up of 1,000 retired CPD officers; filling 1,600 police vacancies over the next two years; and distributing officers more equitably. Introducing a more effective, equitable, and efficient policing strategy made possible by the creation of the Chicago Reserve unit, made up of retired CPD officers, to handle crucial but nondangerous duties and creating a new recruitment pipeline to fill 1,600 police vacancies in the next two years to enable CPD to allocate more sworn personnel to work after midnight and in places where murders and shootings are more prevalent, and adding officers to community policing beats in every neighborhood.
Can you match the candidate with the statement?
Richard J. Daley:
“The police are not here to create disorder, they’re here to preserve disorder.”
Hah!