With Chicago mayoral elections coming up, politicians are expected more than ever to follow through with their plans. A big issue that is expected to be handled is the crime issues within the city. This is an issue that affects the youth and the elderly, it is also stunting the city’s growth as a whole.
While Mayor Lightfoot spent a lot of money investing in the police department many feel like this wasn’t enough action to help. As elections are coming up, the people want an actual plan instead of just pouring taxpayer money into CPD. It is also important to consider that more police won’t solve the problem either as we have a large police force compared to other major cities.
We also need to recognize that the crime is related to other issues that we expect mayors to address during the elections. This includes education, investments in low-income communities, and access to more jobs. The youth need to be highly considered during the elections, because this will impact their age group the most.
Consider the Youth
The pipeline from school to crime is a very large issue within Chicago. With low access to resources, the youth can feel like they have no other choice but crime. They have become desensitized to it. These youth often live in underfunded communities and end up contributing to most of the crime. The goal is to stop this from happening and to the lower current rates. In order to do this, investments need to be put into these underfunded communities. More resources have to be put in these places. In addition to this, we need to invest more in schools and the youth as a whole. The youth is the future and new policies will affect how these next few years play out.
Plans Before Elections
Knowing education, access, and crime are big issues, the candidates have already given their opinions. Some spoke more than others but here’s what they had to say.
State Rep. Kam Buckner wants the people who are on the streets daily to cooperate with police to solve the safety issue. Buckner lets the people know by saying:
“We have to find a way for CPD to coordinate with our different organizations within our community for our street vendors. But also, we change our automatic and congressional and State Representative maps every 10 years. We need to go back and look at how we can change our district map to make sure that we can be strategic and tactical. So we can put our resources in the right places, so people can not just feel safe, but actually be safe.”
This highlights the fact that although there are plenty of police, it won’t make people feel safer unless police are in unsafe places. He plans to address this more during the elections.
Mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson has been addressing public safety a lot for the up-and-coming elections. He has made it clear that he and his family have experienced this violence. He has felt strongly about this topic and said on the topic, “There’s a direct correlation between youth employment and violence, production, mental health care services, and making sure that we’re doing everything in our power to invest in communities, under my administration, we’re going to do what works, and that’s investing in people.”
This is his plan if he becomes mayor after the elections. It sounds like a good plan and addresses all the points that are holding the city back. He also focused on the youth, which is a key factor for the future of the city.
The Pro-Police POV
Dr. Willie Wilson put a big spotlight on lightening policies for police. He also pointed out that he is pro-police. When addressing the issue, Wilson states, “I think you have to add more police officers, and you must take some of these rules off the police officers and make sure they can do the job and do it the proper way. A lot of the rules, they’re afraid to arrest somebody for fear that they’re gonna get arrested themselves.”
Wilson clearly says he thinks the city should lay off on restrictions even in the midst of a lot of police violence. It’s also important to note he doesn’t address those who are harmed by police violence or how to handle this.
Lori Lightfoot, who won the last election, has been under heat. As crime has been on a rise in Chicago she is the one being questioned. She took accountability for the fall of crime in 2021, but it went back up in 2022.
She stated, “So we’ve got to keep working on the strategy that we know is making progress, taking the guns out of the hands of criminals, holding violent, dangerous people accountable, and making sure that we hire more police. 950 were hired last year. We’ve hired over 200 detectives, but progress is something that we’ve got to keep making.”
By her explanation, she is also pro-police. She didn’t really lay out a plan, except to add more police. While she has already done that people still don’t feel safe, so maybe we need a different plan.
Distribution of Police
Paul Vallas is also in support of more police during his election run. He’s highlighted the fact that having officers at transportation stops would help distribute them evenly. He said, “What we need to do is return to a community policing strategy that has beat cops on every beat, and a community policing strategy that has Chicago police officers at CTA platforms and CTA stations riding the trains intermittently.”
While this is a different approach, it could also be effective with enough effort. So far Vallas has had a strong focus on transportation leading up to the elections.
Alderwoman Sophia King addresses that public safety is a major if not the biggest issue in the elections. She says there are two sides to this problem and she plans to address both sides.
“We can have safety and justice. And that’s the type of leadership that I’ll bring to the fifth floor. We need more police. They’re not our sole solution to this issue. But we have a plan that puts police in the communities where they belong. Right now they are not equitably distributed,” said King. This shows that she is taking a more balanced approach to this problem during the elections. She wants the police and communities to feel safer and will do this by hitting the necessary areas.
Modernization
Ald. Roderick Sawyer made it clear that he supports the police force and that he wants society to be compliant. However, he also stated, “We don’t talk to children enough when we’re talking about youth-related crime. We need to listen more to our youth — engage with them, and really work on that together in order to really ramp down crime.” This highlights the importance of including the youth in the solution. Although this response didn’t carry a clear plan, it at least shows direction.
Ja’Mal Green has also taken a different approach to supporting developing communities. In his statement, he said, “We must make sure that we are investing into neighborhoods so that we create new homeowners and thriving business corridors, that we’re investing into young people where they have apprenticeships. We reopen up those mental health facilities, we make sure that we institute trade and tech hubs back into our school system, so they have a pipeline of middle-class jobs.”
He also hits a lot of important points in his plan. Green also has a plan to make our economy and community richer during the upcoming elections.
Lastly, Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia supports modernizing the police unit.
“There will be new leadership in the Chicago Police Department that will implement the consent decree. It’s the roadmap to ensuring greater tranquility in Chicago. In addition to that, there will be comprehensive community development and investment in communities. We will invest in violence prevention, I have the history and the experience in doing that,” Garcia explained.
He presents a plan and gives credibility to ensure he can make it happen. He also hit the point of investing in communities and which is important for modernization.
Last Thoughts
Overall, it seems like the candidates still have to come up with solid plans although they have good ideas for the elections. They all seem to agree that more police should be hired, but they all have different ideas of what to do with the extra police topic. Most people agree that the distribution of police is disproportionate and they are in the wrong places.
Many believe police shouldn’t be the first responders in every situation. In areas such as mental health, they are not trained to handle it. The only candidates for the elections that took the time to bring up mental health were Brandon Johnson and Ja’Mal Green.
However, the majority of the candidates need to focus on working with the community members outside of the police — most have solid plans. The only thing people are worried about during the elections, though, is who will keep their word.
The people should give their vote to who they believe is most trustworthy and not which one makes their plan sound good. A few of the candidates have been out in the community. Some of them have been present in their communities for a long time. They have already shown how dedicated they are and they’re the ones who deserve our vote on February 28!
Written By Cynthia Thomas
Chicago Tribune: Arne Duncan: Can Chicago see fewer than 400 homicides? Here are 4 things the next mayor must make happen.
NBC Chicago: How Each of Chicago’s 9 Mayoral Candidates Say They Would Address Crime, Public Safety
Truthout: Students Need Emotional and Community Support, Not Cops in Schools
WTTW: García Blasts Lightfoot on Public Safety, Vows Collaboration — Not ‘Finger Pointing, Insults’
Featured and Top Image – Courtesy of Jason Lawrence’s Flickr Page — Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Tripp‘s Flickr Page — Creative Commons License
