Another Shoot-’em-Up Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago
By The Editorial Board May 30, 2023 6:39 pm ET Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press It was Memorial Day weekend as usual in Chicago, as its citizens celebrated by shooting at least 41 people, and killing 11. The country shrugged because, well, this is Chicago, and if the new mayor doesn’t care, why should anyone else? The shootings occurred all over the city, including blocks from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s home in the Austin neighborhood. No fewer than five people were shot in the affluent Lake View neighborhood on the North Side. The local ABC affiliate ran an account of the shootings that reads like an old-fashioned crime blotter: • “About 2:15 a.m. in Lake View, William Hair, 35, was found on a sidewalk with a gu
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson
Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press
It was Memorial Day weekend as usual in Chicago, as its citizens celebrated by shooting at least 41 people, and killing 11. The country shrugged because, well, this is Chicago, and if the new mayor doesn’t care, why should anyone else?
The shootings occurred all over the city, including blocks from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s home in the Austin neighborhood. No fewer than five people were shot in the affluent Lake View neighborhood on the North Side. The local ABC affiliate ran an account of the shootings that reads like an old-fashioned crime blotter:
• “About 2:15 a.m. in Lake View, William Hair, 35, was found on a sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the chest in the 500 block of West Surf Street. He died at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.”
• “Later in the day, a man was shot to death in the 1100-block of North Ridgeway Avenue in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side. The shooting happened about 11:15 a.m., according to police.”
• “Less than an hour later, a woman was killed and three men wounded in a drive-by shooting in Auburn Gresham.”
And so on.
The shootings occurred even as the mayor visited neighborhoods with a plea to keep the city safe. He favors what he calls a “holistic” approach to fighting crime, which means funding community groups. “Poverty didn’t go away over the weekend,” Mr. Johnson said. “Communities have been disinvested in and traumatized” and “you are seeing the manifestation of that trauma.”
Yes, he actually said that, which goes a long to explaining why gunmen patrol the streets with impunity. Does the mayor have a date when he thinks poverty will vanish, the “trauma” will ease, and the shootings stop? Is the July 4 weekend too soon, or will it be Labor Day?
His comments reflect the other-worldly nature of Chicago progressives, for whom Mr. Johnson is now the chief spokesman. He campaigned on hiring 200 new police detectives, but in the city’s current state he’ll need 2,000 and a revival of tough anti-crime policies to stop the carnage in the streets. Morale at the Chicago Police Department is flagging and there’s no permanent superintendent.
Then again, Chicagoans elected Mr. Johnson in April knowing all this. Crime was the biggest issue, and voters apparently opted for “holistic” crime fighting as opposed to actually fighting crime. How do you like it?
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