Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is set to unveil a proposed budget that bolsters funding to the crime-ridden city’s police department as viol...
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is set to unveil a proposed budget that bolsters funding to the crime-ridden city’s police department as violence and gang activity runs rampant.
Last month, Lightfoot revealed her plans to ‘refund the police’ following the shooting death of Officer Ella French.
While Lightfoot did not give an estimate of this year’s police budget, she said at a press conference last month, ‘It’s my expectation that the police department budget will increase, no question. We have to.’
She added, ‘We have to make sure we are continuing to provide resources to recruit the next generation of police officers and make sure we’re doing that recruitment in a way that reflects diversity of the city.’
This is a U-turn from Lightfoot’s proposal last year which slashed $59million from the CPD budget, or 3.3percent, and 600 vacant positions from the department, amid Black Lives Matter protests throughout the summer of 2020.
Lightfoot has since denounced the 'defund the police' movement, but Chicago's police union since issued a vote of 'no confidence' in the mayor.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's proposed budget will increase police spending
Chicago has seen an influx in violent crime throughout 2021 and this year through September 12, the most recent statistics from the CPD, most crime has spiked since last year during the same period
City aldermen voted 29-21 in support of Lightfoot’s $12.8billion budget last year, which she called her ‘pandemic budget’ and included a $94 million property tax hike and controversial debt refinancing to help close a $1.2 billion deficit.
The budget included nearly $1.7 billion for the police department - a $59 million or 3.3 per cent cut based on 2020's budget. The department also lost funding for 600 vacant positions.
Next year, the city is facing a $733million budget shortfall attributed to the 'lasting and continuing impacts' of the coronavirus pandemic, the city wrote in a press release.
The city plans to alleviate the budget gap using a portion of the roughly $2billion in one-time funding from the federal American Rescue Plan.
Chicago’s property tax levy is expected to rise by $76.5million, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, but Lightfoot will hold the line on all other taxes, fines and fees.
Chicago has seen an influx in violent crime throughout 2021 and many have said they don’t have faith in Lightfoot to stem the tide.
This year through September 12, the most recent statistics from the CPD, most crime has spiked since last year during the same period. Overall, however, crime has dropped by 6percent with 30,318 incidents this year and 32,190 last year.
Chicago police officers turned their backs as Lightfoot tried to approach them during a vigil held at the University of Chicago Medical Center following the shooting of two police officers in August
But criminal sexual assault saw the greatest rise - 27percent - with 1,449 incidents this year and 1,139 the prior year. The next highest spike is seen in theft rates, which rose by 10percent this year with 8,176 incidents as opposed to last year's 7,409.
John Catanzara, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge #7, told Fox News in August that Lightfoot's tough on cops, soft on crime approach has emboldened criminals like the killer who shot and killed Ella French, 29.
He also defended the decision by dozens of officers literally turned their backs on the mayor as she approached them at University of Chicago Medical Center following the murder.
‘She’s a flag in the wind,’ Catanzara said, suggesting that Lightfoot lacks any political backbone. ‘For two-and-a-half years that she’s been mayor, she has vilified the police. Now because the political climate says that the defund policy and the police aren’t the enemy - now she has to pivot and now she has to be our best friend? It’s too damn late.’
He added: ‘The men and women of this police department have no respect for this mayor and it was as palpable as you could possibly imagine outside that hospital at the University of Chicago.’
Catanzara said that Lightfoot was told by the grieving family of the fallen officer, Ella French, not to speak to them and the father of the surviving cop - whose name has not been released - confronted Lightfoot to tell her she had 'blood on her hands.'
Ella French died after she was shot during a traffic stop in August this year
About two weeks after the tragedy, over Labor Day weekend, Chicago was swept by another wave of violent crime that saw a four year-old boy die after he was shot twice in the head through a window of his dad's home while he slept.
WLS-TV reports that at least 47 people were shot, two fatally, in 12-hour time span across the city as Labor Day weekend kicked off, with young Mychal Moultry Jr. among those victims.
Moultry Jr. was sleeping at his father's home on the 6500 block of South Ellis around 9pm on September 3 when he was struck twice in the head by gunfire that came through the window from outside the residence, according to NBC Chicago.
The youngster was taken in critical condition to Comer Children's Hospital, and was declared deceased two days later, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman told the news outlet.
Elsewhere in the city, seven other children were among those injured in shootings over the holiday weekend, outraging residents citywide.
Among those seven children, two siblings, a 12-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl, were shot while attending a back-to-school picnic near an East Garfield Park gas station on Saturday, NBC Chicago reports.
Both teens were transported to Rush University Medical Center in stable condition, NBC Chicago reports.
Meanwhile, a 13-year-old boy was seriously injured after being shot in the basement of a South Chicago home just before 8pm on September 4, according to Chicago police.
The boy was struck in the head and was rushed to Comer Children's Hospital in serious condition.
A community activist, Andrew Holmes, expressed his frustration in the number of children who have been shot in recent days, citing the need for more parental oversight and elected official intervention.
'If you know you got some children, some teenage, some grown adults, and they’re doing wrong on the streets then it's up to you to...step to them and put them in line,' Holmes said.
Mychal Moultry Jr., 4, was was struck twice in the head by gunfire that came through the window from outside the residence on September 3. He was taken in critical condition to Comer Children's Hospital and declared dead two days later
Pictured: Michael Moultry Jr, seen with his father Mychal Moultry Sr
At least 280 children and teens have been shot in Chicago so far this year, with 35 of them suffering fatal gunshot wounds, according to ABC 7 Chicago.
And as the summer winds down, Chicago is on pace to have its highest yearly murder tally in 25 years.
According to CPD figures, there has been 524 murders this year as of September 1, which is a three percent increase compared to date last year, with 2020 still seeing massive gun violence across cities nationwide following the pandemic’s onset and protests sparked by George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police, according to WBEZ.
The city is already on track to outpace the year 1996, when murders in Chicago totaled 796.
Meanwhile, a shocking recent statistic showed that more children have been shot in Chicago this year than the number of kids who have died of COVID-19 during the pandemic.
A total of 214 children, under the age of 17, have died from the virus while a total of 261 have been shot in the liberal city this year alone, according to data from police and the Center for Disease Control. Of those 261 minors who were shot, 41 were fatally wounded.
Lightfoot recently put forth another proposal to curb violent crime by proposing a new Victims' Justice Ordinance that would allow the city to sue gang members in civil court and seize their property.
The ordinance would hold gangs accountable by suing members for the damage they inflict and allow authorities to size their property. Chicago police leaders said they supported the measure that could allow judges or court officers to impose up to $10,000 fines per offence and seize 'any property that is directly or indirectly used or intended for use in any manner to facilitate street gang-related activity,' the Chicago Tribune reported.
But while Chicago police have shown support for the ordinance, it has faced backlash from civil rights attorneys and social justice organizations who say the measure could lead to Black and Latino residents of being wrongly accused of being involved in gang activity, the Tribune reported.
'Most folks can't afford a lawyer, for example, to represent them in these cases, so they have to go it alone in trying to get their assets back.' Angela Inzano, with the ACLU told WGNTV.com
But Lightfoot is adamant the only people targeted will be those directly involved in gang activity and it would not go after 'guys on the corner' or small players, the Tribune reported.
'To be very blunt and clear, we are going after their blood money,' Lightfoot said.
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