Chicago thought they had a bad mayor with Lori Lightfoot, so they said “Hold our beers and watch this!” They then elected Mayor “Let’s Go” Brandon Johnson (pictured above). Call him Big Brain Brandon if you want. He formulated a new “public safety” strategy to keep residents safe over the opening weekend of Chicago’s Crime Season.
His plan: keep police overtime to a minimum and instead spend $2.5M on “violence prevention programs.” Oh yeah, and dispatch thirty unarmed, yellow-vested “peacekeepers” to high crime neighborhoods to try to, well, keep the peace.
That’s right! Ol’ Big Brain through last week claimed his innovative new “safety plan” wouldn’t require any extra overtime from police.
In his first newser after presiding over his first City Council meeting, Mayor Brandon Johnson indicates police officer overtime might not be required this upcoming Memorial Day weekend. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/51tiCmU3yG
— Dana Kozlov (@DanaCBS2) May 24, 2023
Don’t spend money on overtime for police. Instead, give millions to your buddies who run “violence prevention programs” that are long on anecdotal stories and short on proven results.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has announced $2.5 million for violence prevention ahead of Memorial Day weekend. https://t.co/MByYgKafIB pic.twitter.com/bX8g1LaueG
— Block Club Chicago (@BlockClubCHI) May 26, 2023
How did Mayor Brandon’s “public safety plan” work out?
Laugh out loud – it failed badly.
Windy City gang members celebrated the holiday weekend by killing a dozen people and wounding an additional 49.
It marked the worst Memorial Day weekend violence in over a decade. What’s more, the ten people who assumed room temperature Saturday thanks to criminal activities marked only the fourth day with 10 or more homicides in Chicago in the past ten years.
Side note on yesterday’s 10 homicides: In our 10+ years of daily tallying, there have been only 3 (now 4) days that have recorded 10 or more homicides:
6/27/20: 10 killed
7/4/20: 11 killed
5/31/20: 18 killed— HeyJackass.com (@w_h_thompson) May 28, 2023
There were a number of highlights during the weekend’s s***show, but one of the obvious standouts was the “peacekeeper” who helped carjack a man before savagely beating and then robbing him.
From story one at CWB Chicago . . .
A Chicago man wearing a neon yellow “peacekeepers” vest helped a group of people beat and rob a motorist in Little Village on Friday night, according to a Chicago Police Department report. The allegations come after city and state officials lauded the use of “peacekeepers” as a tool they would deploy over the Memorial Day weekend to tamp down violence across the city.
Oscar Montes, 31, was held without bail by Judge Maryam Ahmad on charges of robbery, aggravated battery, and unlawful vehicular invasion Sunday afternoon…
A 37-year-old man was pulled from his vehicle by “multiple offenders,” including one wearing a neon vest, a Chicago police spokesperson said Saturday. During Montes’ bail hearing, prosecutor Charles Golaszewski said six or seven men joined Montes in pulling the victim from the driver’s seat.
The group punched and kicked him on the ground. Montes took the victim’s phone and beat the man with it, Golaszewski alleged. Another man took the victim’s wallet before everyone scattered as Chicago cops returned to the scene.
A police surveillance camera recorded the entire attack, Golaszewski said, and officers who reviewed the footage identified a man wearing a yellow vest as one of the attackers.
Of course, the parolee peacekeeper blamed the his participation in the carjacking on the “stress of the job.” Maybe he meant to tell his lawyer “the stress of a job.”
Yeah, he hadn’t even completed his first real day at a job and he couldn’t help but help fellow criminals carjack, beat and rob an innocent man. Of course, supporters of hiring felons as peacekeepers were quick to excuse Montes’ actions.
Also from CWB Chicago . . .
After officials said a man wearing a yellow “peacekeeper” vest was among a group of offenders who severely beat and robbed a driver in Little Village on Friday, a proponent of the anti-violence programs argued that the accused man had simply “mishandled the stress” of working as a peacekeeper.
And Chicago’s holiday crime spike took place despite the police instituting unconstitutional bag searches for people entering and leaving Millenium Park and Chicago’s beaches. “Thanks guys, but I’m going to decline to allow a search of my person or my belongings. You have a great day, okay?”
In short, Windy City residents and visitors have another long, hot summer ahead of them.
They’ve only got themselves to blame. The voters in some of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods elected Brandon Johnson. Now they get to live with the consequences.
They’re getting it “gooder and harder” to quote Professor Instapundit Glenn Reynolds.
Mishandled the stress. Another euphemism of the lawless left. No, in fact, your little felon buddies reverted to type, just as water always finds the lowest point. Ghetto trash will always be ghetto trash, no matter how much taxpayer money you throw at it.
If these leftist assholes like Brandon, JB and the rest think they have my consent to govern, they are even dumber than I perceive.
Shit show is exactly right. This is what happens with all those utopian, make believe solutions to violent crime get implemented over tried and true Law and Order
Criminals don’t listen to social workers.
Glad I don’t have to be in Chicago for anything.
Sadly, black lives don’t seem to matter to Chicago politicians.
Brandon Johnson is against capitalism but funnels taxpayer money to buddies for a scam justice warrior scheme. It would appear BJ is using grubberment to create capitalism for his cronies. Misunderstood youth venting, felons stressed out by the job doing what felonious pigs do, killers running wild, illegal aliens displacing American citizens… Here is your turd peon Chicago resident you will eat it, like it, and ask for more. I can understand the motivation of certain voters but those who are educated? Forgive me, educated does not mean one is availed of common sense or is able to think rationally. Get the popcorn out for the NASCAR race and the DNC Convention. Build the wall, let these fools destroy themselves.
As of this morning I had heard it was 53 shot and 12 dead.
I keep thinking that Chicago voters are going to say “enough.”
They keep asking for more. So let them have it.