Chicago City Wire

Delegates for the Democratic National Convention have descended upon a city whose misery index of violence and high costs of living are fueled by the very policies that would only expand if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected as President this November.     

Chicago is the murder capital of the nation for the twelfth year in a row, and, according to a recent Wirepoints crime analysis, it’s not even close to the rates in other cities. Violence and high prices are prompting Windy City residents to flee to fairer tax climates in states like Florida, Texas and Indiana.  

Yet the Democratic Party looks to expand its party platform position on criminal justice "reform" in literature that is slated for adoption this week, which “continues to move [it] away from its harmful tough-on-crime past,” the American Civil Liberties Union noted in a recent commentary.

This means an expansion of cashless bail—adopted in Illinois in 2021 under the SAFE-T act—catch-and-release programs and other soft-on-crime positions that only breed more crime on the streets and anti-police rhetoric in the press.   

It’s the approach to crime taken by two of Chicago’s leaders tasked with the greatest responsibilities to reduce crime: Mayor Brandon Johnson and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, whose policies are having disastrous results.

Johnson, elected last April, ran on defunding the police, then backpedaled, and then proposed to cut staff numbers anyway. Foxx ran on putting fewer in jail and letting more out. She has kept her promise. 

Foxx dismissed 30 percent of the felony cases presented to her during her first three years in office, according to a report by the Capital Research Center (CRC), a government watchdog group. This included 6.1% of aggravated firearm battery offenses, 8.1% of homicides, 8.1% of aggravated battery attacks on police, and 9.5% percent of felony sex crimes.

“All of these were healthy increases in leniency over what her predecessor had allowed during a similar period,” Ken Braun, the author of the CRC report wrote. “During [former prosecutor Anita] Alvarez’s time in office Chicago averaged 521 annual homicides. In the first four years under Foxx that leaped to 627 murders per year."

Foxx is also responsible for over 250 exonerations since she first took office in late 2016. Most are based not on new evidence indicating innocence, but on extraordinary claims that police tortured suspects, fabricated evidence, and colluded with prosecutors to win guilty verdicts.

In the past ten years, the city of Chicago has shelled out over $300 million in wrongful conviction settlements—pre-trial payouts stemming from civil lawsuits brought under allegations of police misconduct.

And Foxx gave shoplifters a free pass when soon after taking office in late 2016 she announced that thefts under $1,000.00. would not be prosecuted.

Reports of shoplifting in Chicago rose sharply, jumping 45% so far in 2024 alone.  

Overall, there has been a 16 percent increase in major crimes in 2023 after a 40 percent increase in the year before.

For his part, Johnson eliminated 833 police vacancies in the budget, guaranteeing the city has nearly 1700 fewer cops than when his predecessor Mayor Lori Lightfoot took office.

“This will make it difficult to improve police response times, as the percentage of “high priority’ 911 calls not having a car available has grown to over 50% in 2023 from 19% in 2019,” the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) reported. “Meanwhile, arrests rates from non-fatal shootings have plummeted to less than 5%.”

Chicago had 617 homicides in 2023, marking the twelfth year in a row leading the country in Wirepoints' survey of the country’s 75 largest cities.

“…it will be 13 years in a row if Chicago’s 2024’s homicide numbers continue at their current pace,” the report said. “The below chart shows how the top five cities nationally for total homicides may change from year to year, but what always remains true is Chicago’s position at the very top – often the extreme outlier.”

New York came in second at 391, with Philadelphia coming in third at 389.

An IPI report recently released shows Chicago has lost nearly 130,000 residents since 2014, marking nine straight years of population decline. The city’s population now stands at 2.66 million; it was 2.7 million in 1920.

Illinois has also been on a long run of losing residents.

“There were 87,311 residents moving to other states in 2022, making Illinois the third-biggest loser of population in the U.S. Only California (-307,117) and New York (-222,702), two other high-tax states, lost more residents to other states than Illinois,” the report said.

The three top destinations are Florida, Texas and Indiana, all with significantly lower tax rates.

Chicagoans are fed up. Three of four city residents want more cops on the streets, according to a Lincoln poll conducted last year. And a RealClear Opinion research survey showed 77% of Black Chicagoans want to see as many or more police in their communities.