Chicago’s Top Cop To Trump: Fight Violence By Fighting Poverty
By Chip MitchellChicago’s Top Cop To Trump: Fight Violence By Fighting Poverty
By Chip MitchellPresident Donald Trump talked about Chicago violence again on Wednesday as the city’s top cop listed ways the president could help.
At a White House meeting for African-American History Month, Trump called Chicago “totally out of control” and said that, if city officials don’t solve the problem, “we’re going to solve the problem for them.”
In a tweet last week, Trump wrote: “If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on … I will send in the Feds!”
If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible “carnage” going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
Police Supt. Eddie Johnson on Wednesday said he is glad the president “recognizes Chicago has some challenges.”
“The next step is, What do you do to help us resolve some of these issues?” Johnson said.
The superintendent said what he would like to see first from Trump is “better financial support to these impoverished neighborhoods — better jobs, better mental health care, better education.”
Johnson also asked Trump for more federal prosecutions of gun offenses and more federal law-enforcement agents.
A police spokeswoman on Wednesday said Chicago in January had 51 murders and 299 shooting victims. Both numbers were up slightly from the first month of 2016, the city’s most violent year in nearly two decades.
Chip Mitchell reports out of WBEZ’s West Side studio. Follow him @ChipMitchell1.