Lightfoot Needs to Support CPD Instead of Groveling to the Feds Says Steve Boulton
Lightfoot Needs to Support CPD (Chicago, IL) – Mayor Lightfoot’s plea for more federal law enforcement resources is only a minor, symbolic band-aid on the open sore of current law enforcement in Chicago.
“Properly supporting the men and women in the ranks of the Chicago Police Department and fully enforcing state law at the County level is a far better answer than groveling for a few more federal agents,” said Chairman Steve Boulton.
Instead of casting blame everywhere but at her own administration, the Mayor also should demand the immediate resignation of State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and the end of the lenient bail policies installed by Chief Circuit Court Judge Timothy Evans.
Jussie Smollett Case
The new report of the Special Prosecutor in the Smollett case documents falsehoods by Foxx in that matter. The bail policies have created a revolving door at the Cook County criminal courthouse. Just this year some 60 criminals engaged in shootings or killings while out on bail for felony charges. That blood is on the government’s hands.
In a November 2021 Op-Ed in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago GOP laid out fundamental structural changes that are vital to returning professional policing to Chicago streets, instead of the “political policing” now in effect. The Mayor and City Council would do well to read it.
In the meantime, a tough hand is required to stop the current crime wave. Plainly, Mayor Lightfoot, Superintendent Brown and State’s Attorney Foxx have neither the capability nor the political will to do it, and so have turned to the federal government hoping that the gesture will allow a bit of political cover. It will not work, for the buck stops with them.
Crucial Change
Another crucial change would be to create a fully staffed police inspector general office that reports directly to the commission, thereby eliminating COPA’s bureaucratic explosion to close to 150 employees and an annual budget of $13 million while achieving only limited results.
Lightfoot Needs to Support CPD
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