Chicago voters face tough choices on crime and policing in runoff mayoral election

The spike in crime was a top issue for Chicago voters in Tuesday’s mayoral election, and the two Democrats who made it to the April 4 runoff have very different approaches to public safety.

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Wallas, who won the most votes in the first round, and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson will go head-to-head after incumbent Lori Lightfoot becomes the first Windy City mayor in four decades to miss a second term – overall kind of due to the high crime rate in recent decades.

Under Lightfoot, Chicago had 695 homicides at the end of 2022 and 804 in 2021, a level not seen in the Windy City in a quarter of a century.

In addition, according to the Chicago Police Department’s year-end report, there were more than 20,000 theft incidents in the city in 2022, almost double the number in 2021.

In the first three weeks of 2023, the city’s crime rate soared by 61% compared to last year, according to CPD.


Chicago Police
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her re-election bid Tuesday night.
AP

Wallas, the only white candidate of the nine who sought to unseat Lightfoot, is considered a crime fighter, earning the approval of the city’s Fraternal Police Order.

“Public safety is a basic right for every American,” Wallas told supporters Tuesday night. “This is a civil right, and this is the main duty of the government. We will have a safe Chicago, and we will make Chicago the safest city in America.”

Wallas campaigned vigorously on a platform of increased police funding and denounced what he called “a complete breakdown of law and order” under Lightfoot.

The 69-year-old’s public safety plan called for the dismissal of Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown. who announced on Wednesday that he was retiring March 16, and for filling over 1,600 existing vacancies with the Chicago Police Department.

Wallas also promised to use city funds to hire additional police officers instead of the current practice of hiring private security guards to patrol Chicago’s trains and buses.

Most controversially, Wallas advocated a relaxation of the CPD’s harassment policy adopted last year, which forbids police officers from pursuing people suspected of petty offenses or simply running away.

“What I would do is let them pursue and set reasonable rules,” Wallas said, arguing that if he stopped “punishing the police for their activity and responsiveness” it would help counteract the “exodus of officers” from Second City. .


Paul Wallas
Paul Wallas was known to be a tough outlaw candidate.
AP

Lightfoot called Wallas too conservative for Chicago, accusing him of using the “perfect dog whistle”, saying his campaign is about “reclaiming our city”.

Brandon Johnson never had to worry about being called too conservative.

In a 2020 radio interview, Johnson said “don’t fund the police” is not just a slogan but “a real real political goal”, and as commissioner, he sponsored a non-binding resolution to divert money from police and prisons to social services.

This opened him up to criticism from campaign competitors, including Lightfoot. However, it likely won him approval from the Chicago Union of Teachers and other progressive organizations, including the United Working Families, the Illinois equivalent of New York’s left-wing Working Families Party.

Johnson’s plan to fight crime requires a federal consent decree governing the Chicago Police Department that was enacted in 2019 following the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald and requires reform of training, policy and practice in a number of areas, including the use of force. .

Despite Johnson’s past statements, he is outraged by the characterization of his platform, which also calls for increased spending on jobs, education, housing and transportation, as extreme or radical.


Brandon Johnson
Brandon Johnson has been open about his support for the police liberation movement.
AP

“What I know for sure is that the city of Chicago needs a better, stronger and safer city. And that means our schools are fully supported and funded, we have reliable transportation, well-paying jobs, affordable housing, a path to home ownership,” Johnson said in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times after finishing second on Tuesday.

“I mean, these are things that are not extreme or radical ideas. This is what families in the city of Chicago want,” he added.

Johnson also called for the promotion of 200 officers to detective positions and the opening of mental health centers in the city.

“My plan is working. Paul Wallas was dishonest as always,” Johnson said on Tuesday. “America’s safest cities invest in people. He made promises he can’t keep. What Paul Wallas has put forward is the same as it is now, which continues to leave communities behind and makes us less safe.”

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