DON'T BLAME DA MAYOR — The Weekly Opine

Whoever is superintendent of police in Chicago (former cop boss Eddie Johnson shown here) and regardless of who occupies the mayor’s office at City Hall, neither is responsible for tamping down gun violence. (Photos credit The Weekly Opine)

It is (unfortunately) what it is

What happened in Chicago during Memorial Day Weekend was an atrocity. If officials are honest, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise but still, it was atrocious. A total of 53 people shot, including two 2-year-olds who, in separate incidents, accidentally shot themselves. When it was over 11 people died from the gun carnage. Another deadly, embarrassing weekend for Chicago. And, although last weekend was nothing new by Chicago’s grim standard it was nonetheless astounding.

Chicago’s new mayor, Brandon Johnson, barely having time to decorate his new office and find out where the restrooms are, will have a short honeymoon. Sworn in on May 15, Johnson is already under pressure to stop the epic gun violence. One wonders if the Memorial Day Weekend meltdown portends another high-volume summer of gun violence in the Windy City.

Free advice

If I was Mayor Johnson’s top advisor, in the aftermath of the weekend disaster, I would urge Johnson to immediately hold a press conference to discuss gun violence. Why? To set the record straight that last weekend proves no mayor has the power to change the will of some of the people. Clearly, some of the people thrive on inflicting gun violence. Some of the people willfully live a lifestyle that incorporates buying (or stealing), carrying and shooting guns. Johnson should refute baseless suggestions that any mayor, of any city, is somehow responsible for and therefore can stop gun violence.

Only because he’s been on the job for just two weeks, Johnson is spared blame for what took place in Chicago last weekend. Conversely, if Lori Lightfoot was still mayor, years into her tenure, she would be under intense scrutiny and catching hell, as would her Superintendent of Police David Brown.

Truthfully, the mayor, regardless of political party, is not responsible for and cannot stop gun violence. Same goes for police commanders. Chicago could add 5,000 cops and it would not stop what happened last weekend. Because the will of some of the people is to settle beefs with guns. The will of some of the people is to take what they want by brandishing a weapon. And they don’t hesitate to use their weapon while carjacking you, stealing your purse or relieving you of your iPhone.

It’s up to Congress, state legislators and local municipalities to pass restrictive, life-saving gun laws. (Photos credit The Weekly Opine)

For example, an argument ensues at a house party. Someone pulls out a gun and shoots another person. Even if the party host hired armed security, the security guard could not prevent someone carrying a concealed weapon from pulling out the weapon and shooting people. A cop on every street corner would not prevent a shooting inside a house or in the backyard at a party.

It’s fantasy to believe that mayors and chiefs-of-police can stop gun violence.

Mayor Johnson, first and foremost, should put an end to the notion that, as mayor of Chicago, he is responsible for reining in Chicago’s out-of-control gun violence. With regards to rampant gun violence, “the buck stops here” does not apply to mayors but it does apply to useless Republican legislators and too many clueless district attorneys who play patty cake with street thugs.

Skating while others suffer

The will of some of the people is to comfortably co-exist with gun violence. Lazy, greedy politicians exert their will as they enable just about anyone with a heartbeat to access guns. Republicans do nothing to support and pass strict, uncompromising gun laws. (Even while most U.S. citizens plead for strict, uncompromising gun laws, including banning assault weapons.)

As Mayor Johnson correctly pointed out during his campaign, unfair distribution of resources, i.e., disinvestment in Chicago’s South Side and West Side neighborhoods is at the root of Chicago’s gun violence problem. Rich folks of all political persuasions exercise their will when it comes to distribution of resources. Wealthy neighborhoods continue to see growth-fueling investment and reinvestment while poor neighborhoods scramble for crumbs.

(Left photo) Poor folks on Chicago’s West Side can see the 110-story Willis Tower just miles away. (Right photo) Meanwhile, corporate occupants of gleaming office towers get unnecessary tax breaks and live the high life. (Photos credit The Weekly Opine)

Nationwide, wealthy tax evaders owe the government $600 billion in unpaid taxes. If rich folks paid their fair share of taxes there would be more money available to invest in poor neighborhoods, turning blight into opportunity which turns hopelessness into hope. A future filled with hope reduces the urge to carjack and steal and sell drugs and murder people.

Corporations avoid paying their share of taxes, too, because of loopholes and sweet deals from municipalities desperate to attract new businesses. Millions (billions?) of tax dollars are missing from government coffers due to capable-of-paying-taxes corporations being allowed to skate by, paying a tax rate far below the highest individual tax rate.

You’ll recall in 2017 the Trump administration reduced the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. You don’t need a math PhD to understand the corrosive impact Trump’s corporate tax rate reduction has had on revenues that support things like healthcare, job opportunities, and investment in marginalized communities.

Furthermore, in 2019 there was a report that the City of Chicago, just since 2004, paid out $757 million related to police misconduct including settlements, losses at trial and other payouts. Additionally, there have been tens of millions of dollars paid out the last few years.

The Fraternal Order of Police blindly defends bad cops, even as taxpayers in the City of Chicago pay hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Chicago’s budget tightrope would be much easier to cross if corporations and the rich paid their fair share of taxes, and if the city wasn’t burdened by using tax dollars to pay million-dollar settlements because of police misconduct. Marginalized neighborhoods would be the beneficiary of a more level playing field by virtue of capturing tax funds owed by corporations and rich folks, and revenue freed up from having to compensate for bad cop behavior.

He’s on the right track

Mayor Johnson understands that gun violence is directly tied to poor neighborhoods being ignored. None of us knows what we might resort to if we lived a life devoid of real hope, on the wrong side of the demarcation between a beautiful, world-class city and third-world poverty.

Not to justify crime, gun violence and/or selling drugs, but when your community has been shunned for centuries all the storefront churches in the world will not dissuade some people from doing bad things, i.e., whatever they believe they must do to obtain some of the finer things in life. And when the education system is set up to deliver mediocrity in certain neighborhoods, leaving students unprepared to go on to college, well, all bets are off.

America, we must do better. If not, then brace yourself for a continuation of our downward-spiraling, addicted to violence culture.