Mayor Lori Lightfoot is calling out retailers for their "disappointing" response to Chicago crime.
Lightfoot said retailers need to do a better job taking care of themselves.
“I am disappointed that they are not doing more to take safety and make it a priority. We still have retailers that won’t institute plans like having a security officers in the store. Making sure cameras are actually operational,” Lightfoot said at a press conference today.
Chicago is seeing a historic crime wave. The city has experienced in 2021 more murders than 30 years.O Over 1,000 deaths have been reported in 2021 so far.
The Daily Mail recently proclaimed “Magnificent Mile no more” noting that uncontrollable shoplifting has blighted parts of the city’s famed shopping thoroughfare.
Shoplifting has become endemic to Chicago since State's Attorney Kim Foxx sought to only prosecute shoplifting over $1,000 in 2016.
The change has resulted in organized gangs brazenly sweeping into stores and stealing items and leaving.
While the crime issue has been progressing Lightfoot has increasingly been sparring with police one other items.
Her administration has sought to force all of the City of Chicago’s workforce, over 35,000, to become vaccinated.
She called the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara, who is now running for Chicago Mayor in opposition to Lightfoot, a “racist” and misogynist” who “hates immigrants and refugees” when the two became embroiled in a conflict over mandatory vaccination.
“If you own a business in downtown Chicago @chicagosmayor says you should do more to protect your store. Then why pay such high property taxes?” AM560 The Morning Answer’s Amy Jacobson asked in a tweet.
Community leaders from local businesses and business groups recently met with city leaders to decry the revolving door policy in which criminals are let out on very low bonds.
Surrounding countries, such as DuPage, have been suffering due to those policies.
“Those offenders go out and continue to commit more crimes, not just in Lombard but all adjacent suburbs to the city,” Lombard Police Chief Roy Newton told DuPage Policy Journal 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.
Lewis was located in Lombard where he led police on a chase across the metro area.
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