“Public safety is a civil right,” Paul Vallas, mayoral Democrat candidate for Chicago, wrote on Twitter. | Twitter/Paul Vallas
“Public safety is a civil right,” Paul Vallas, mayoral Democrat candidate for Chicago, wrote on Twitter. | Twitter/Paul Vallas
The Chicago Police Department reported an increase in violence in Chicago, such as seeing 425 reported cases of murder.
“Public safety is a civil right,” Paul Vallas, mayoral Democrat candidate for Chicago, wrote on Twitter. “Protecting life and property is the most important task of government, whether you live Downtown or Englewood.”
The upcoming 2023 Illinois Fiscal Budget noted support efforts to hire 300 police cadets.
Over the weekend of Aug. 19-21, 37 people were shot in Chicago, 4 of whom were killed, WTTW reported. There was a drive-by shooting in Homan Square around 6 p.m. on Friday which left a 33-year-old man dead and 4 other men in the hospital.
The budget includes $4.5 million to get motor vehicles, body cameras and cloud storage for police departments.
“There’s a lot of duties that the public expects us to fulfill,” Brendan Kelly, director for the Illinois State Police, said to WIFR. “And we want to be able to grow and get past 2,000 again, 2,000 sworn [troopers]. So that will get us there for this headcount.”
One of the weekend's victims was a 6-year-old girl who was shot in the arm around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday on the South Side, Fox News reported. The girl was hospitalized in good condition. She was the eighth child under the age of 16 to be shot in Chicago in a week.
There have been 425 murders, 1,828 shooting incidents, 1,311 criminal sexual assaults, 5,223 robberies, and 9,460 motor vehicle thefts reported in Chicago so far in 2022 as of Aug. 21, according to data from the Chicago Police Department.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported police responded to four teenagers shooting at an ice cream shop near Schurz High School in the afternoon.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx dismissed all charges against 30% of felony defendants during her first 3 years in office, including charges against people accused of murder, according to the Chicago City Wire.
Attorney General candidate Tom DeVore tweeted:
“Criminals in the City of Chicago have been emboldened to commit crimes at any time of the day or night because of Kim Foxx’s failed policies.”
Alerts Sign-up