Chicago City Wire

 Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently lashed out at Newsmax reporter William Kelly after he pressed her on the city’s rising violent crime rate. 

Thus far this year, more than 300 people have been shot and killed while 1,500 people have been struck and wounded by gunfire overall. 

 Lightfoot seemed to have few answers for Kelly when he charged "You've lost control of the city. Chicago media look down at their toes.”

Lightfoot, who promised to curb violent crime across the city, insists this month has been less violent than last year at this time.

"We are seeing a downward trajectory, where other cities are continuing to see a climb," she said. To date, 2021 is the city’s deadliest year in more than a decade.

 Lombard Police Chief Roy Newton recently told the DuPage Policy Journal he knows what a big part of the problem is.

“There’s no secret the Cook County Court System and bail system has been more open to releasing offenders on a lower bond, or no bond,” he said in the wake of 18-year-old Marion Lewis being charged in connection with the deadly shooting of a 7-year-old Chicago girl at a McDonald’s drive-thru.

“That part is frustrating,” he said. “When a department picks up an offender for a certain crime and they have a monitoring bracelet on their ankle from being released a few days ago. People that are given bonds should have to come up with that amount to be released.”

In the McDonald’s shooting, Lewis now faces at least 19 counts, including murder, three counts of attempted murder and aggravated assault of a police officer. At the time of his apprehension, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said others were also being sought in connection to Jaslyn Adams' death. Her father, Jontae Adams, was also seriously wounded in the shooting.

President Joe Biden recently vowed to have the Department of Justice create a new strike force to help local police curb the violence that has hit the city and other major cities across the country. 

Biden said the task force would "crack down (on) illegal gun trafficking, and the (cartels) applying weapons to cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and the Bay Area. With each strike force, local and federal law enforcement and prosecutors are going to be able to better coordinate the prosecution of illegal gun trafficking across city and state lines."