Mayor Brandon Johnson’s pro-criminal worldview continues to make Chicago worse for everyone but the criminals his policies and rhetoric protect and enable.
Shootings in Chicago this past February were up 13% compared to February of 2025, and March saw a 15% rise compared to March 2025. The increase in homicides is even greater, with an 18% increase this February compared to last, and a 16% increase this March. Over the first 90 days this year, there have been 99 homicides in Chicago.
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More notable is how Chicago has somehow made shootings more lethal. Chicago discontinued use of the ShotSpotter system, which alerts police to instances of gunfire throughout the city to allow them to respond to potential shootings more quickly and with more precision. Johnson, of course, thought this was racist because it led to increased police responses in minority neighborhoods. Johnson apparently did not care that the people shot in these shootings were also more likely to be minorities.
According to CWB Chicago, since the cancellation of ShotSpotter, there have been “80 shooting victims who received significantly delayed emergency responses because nobody reported the gunfire, or the gunfire reports were too vague for emergency personnel to locate the victims.” The fatality rate for gunshot victims in Chicago is 25%, but for these 80 delayed-response victims, the fatality rate jumps to 58%. Of those 80 victims, CWB Chicago lists 73 of them as being black or Hispanic.
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Meanwhile, Chicago continues to allow “teen takeovers,” where hordes of criminal teenagers swarm parts of the city in what amounts to flash mob riots, damaging cars and assaulting people. Johnson, meanwhile, keeps making this an issue of the city needing to “provide safe spaces for our young people.” Johnson said these violent rioters were just being a little “silly,” and that “demonizing children is wrong,” emboldening teenage criminals to riot whenever they wish.
Chicago is a dying city, metaphorically and literally, and Johnson’s pro-criminal attitude is a major reason why. Johnson is running Chicago into the ground, giving criminals rhetorical and policy cover while giving law-abiding Chicago residents and the rest of the country lectures about racism.