In nasty exchange over Chicago Police vaccine mandates, Mayor Lightfoot argues with reporter William Kelly, and the Mayor appears to misrepresent Chicago’s murder solve rate

In nasty exchange over Chicago Police vaccine mandates, Mayor Lightfoot argues with reporter William Kelly, and the Mayor appears to misrepresent Chicago’s murder solve rate Chicago, IL (October 17, 2021) – At Thursday’s press conference, Mayor Lori Lightfoot drew a line in the sand on mandatory vaccination for Chicago police and reporter William J. Kelly was there to question her about it – and once again – the press conference took a nasty turn. A link to the unedited video is here.

According to the press release, before Kelly asked a question, Mayor Lightfoot warned him that he needed to “behave” and her staffer refused to let go of the microphone – to which Kelly replied “excuse me?!” Kelly then asked about the Chicago Police vaccine mandates and if the Mayor would have “blood on her hands” if officers refused to show-up this weekend for duty. The Mayor lashed out at Kelly, claiming he was using hyperbolic and extremist rhetoric and that Chicago’s murder solve rate was actually up.

But, according to Chicago Tribune and other sources, that is factually untrue.

Kelly also asked Lightfoot if she was at-war with the Chicago police and what she meant when she said “bring it” in response to the FOP’s possible lawsuit. Mayor Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against the police union on Friday.

This isn’t the first time Kelly’s encounters with Mayor Lightfoot have gone viral. At her press conference in June, Kelly asked Mayor Lightfoot if she had lost control of the city. She angrily dismissed his comments and said that crime was down. The video of the heated encounter has since received more than 1.5 million views and more than 35,000 comments – most of them critical of Mayor Lightfoot. Kelly’s second video with Mayor Lightfoot also went viral when she denied that the George Floyd riots had anything to do with race. The video has also received more than 734K views and 19,000 comments.