Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announced a comprehensive public safety strategy last Thursday in an effort to reduce crime and violence over the Memorial Day weekend. The plan included increased police presence, community outreach, and patrols of peace officers.
“It’s going to take all of us, not just the police, not just city government, to ensure that our communities can live and thrive in peace and safety,” said Johnson at a news conference at the 63rd Street Beach. “However you decide to spend your holiday weekend in Chicago, your safety is my top priority.”
Interim Police Superintendent Fred Waller said his department has a “comprehensive safety plan” in place for the Memorial Day weekend. This included increased police presence on public transit and in business areas, as well as bag checks at beaches and Millennium Park.
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Memorial Day weekend, often thought of as the unofficial opening of summer and fair weather activities, is also usually one of the most violent weekends of the year for Chicago and most other Midwest cities.
Chicago saw a significant increase in gun violence over Memorial Day weekend in 2022, with nine people killed and more than 50 others shot. This was a stark contrast to the previous year, which saw the fewest homicides over the holiday weekend in a decade. However, the number of shootings was higher in 2020, when nearly 50 people were shot and 10 people were killed.
There was hope that this year would be different. The city had seen a significant decrease in shootings and homicides through the first four months of 2023, according to police department data. There were 641 shootings between January and the end of April, the lowest amount in that time frame since 2020. There was also a 25% decrease in car hijackings and a 6% decrease in violence on CTA trains.
Of course, Johnson isn’t able to take any credit for the decrease in violence this year, as his inauguration occurred just a few short weeks ago. Memorial Day weekend was to be the first test of Johnson’s competency when it comes to public safety.
The Strategy
Supt. Waller announced the details of the Chicago Police Department’s safety plan for the weekend at Thursday’s press conference.
“We want everyone to be safe and enjoy the city,” said Waller. “But we will not tolerate any engaging of criminal activity or disorderly conduct.”
As in years past, CPD deployed additional officers this weekend across the city and the lakefront, with a focus on high-traffic areas. The department canceled days off to ensure there were enough officers on duty. Officers patrolled beaches on the lakefront, popular parks across the city, CTA trains and stations, and downtown. They conducted bag searches and kept an eye out for firearms and suspicious behavior.
In addition to the police officers, 30 peacekeepers sent by the state government donned yellow vests and walked around the “hotspots” in the city with the mission to de-escalate any situations that threatened to get violent. The peacekeepers are part of an ongoing anti-violence strategy from the state Office of Firearm Violence Prevention, created in 2021 by Governor J.B. Pritzker.
Mayor Johnson also met with leaders of community organizations focused on violence prevention. One of these organizations is “Mothers/Men Against Senseless Killings,” which has been peacekeeping on the corner of 75th and Stewart streets in Englewood for the last eight years. Tamar Manasseh, the group’s founder, was hopeful when she spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“I am so encouraged by this mayor and this administration,” said Manasseh. “For once in all of the years that we’ve been occupying that corner, we’ve never had an administration that we could actually work with, an administration that actually kept their promises, especially not so quickly.”
The Results
Memorial Day weekend 2023 was the deadliest Memorial Day weekend Chicago has seen in eight years. The violence wasn’t particularly outsized in comparison to previous years, with over 50 shot and 11 killed. However, it was the most homicide deaths on the weekend since 12 were killed in 2015.
At least seven of the victims were shot in the Gresham police district, the most of any district. Police temporarily closed North Avenue Beach on Friday afternoon after shots were fired. On Monday, a man was shot five blocks from Mayor Johnson’s house in Austin.
The youngest victim of the weekend was a 2-year-old girl, who accidentally shot herself with a gun she found on the street in Rogers Park. She was taken to the hospital and was in good condition. The weekend’s oldest victim was a 77-year-old man, shot in the back in Calumet Heights. He arrived at the hospital in critical condition.
Overall, this year’s Memorial Day weekend saw a similar amount of gun violence as in the past several years. Whether or not Mayor Johnson’s strategy prevented worse violence from unfolding is hard to say. However, Johnson hopes that his efforts in community building and fighting poverty will help curb the city’s violence in the future.
“This weekend, what you saw on display is that everybody recognizes that it’s going to take all of us to unite this city and build a better, stronger, safer city,” said Johnson at a community event on Monday. “Poverty didn’t go away over the weekend. We understand that when communities have been disinvested in and traumatized, that you’re seeing the manifestation of that trauma.”
Written by Seth Herlinger
Sources:
ABC News: 53 people shot, 11 fatally, during violent Memorial Day weekend in Chicago
Chicago Sun-Times: 11 killed, 48 wounded in Memorial Day weekend violence in Chicago
Chicago Sun-Times: Mayor Brandon Johnson unveils safety plan for Memorial Day weekend: ‘It’s going to take all of us’
WTTW News: Brandon Johnson Touts Collaborative Public Safety Efforts Ahead of Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago
WTTW News: Shootings, Homicides in Chicago Down 10% Through First 4 Months of Year: Police
All images courtesy of Seth Herlinger
