Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson did not directly answer whether he would support an increase of the city’s police force Tuesday, despite MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough asking multiple times.
President Donald Trump hinted that he could send the National Guard to Chicago to address crime, similar to the federal takeover he enacted in the District of Columbia this month. Johnson, along with Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL), is pushing back against this, claiming Tuesday the president is declaring war “on poor people.”
Scarborough said Johnson is pushing “great programs” to address the city’s crime but asked if he would support 5,000 more police officers to aid in this endeavor. Johnson started saying that policing is “not the full strategy” before Scarborough pressed him again on the question.
“Look, here’s the best way I can put it, Joe, is that in the ’90s, when I was in high school, we had 3,000 more police officers, and we had 900 people being murdered every single year in Chicago,” Johnson said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “It’s just not policing alone.”
Scarborough again cut into Johnson’s response and tried to get a direct answer on whether he would welcome an increase in law enforcement.
The mayor said he believes cities would be safer if they had “affordable housing,” but Scarborough said “that’s not the question I asked,” saying he only needed “a yes or a no” to his law enforcement question.
“Look, we are working hard to make sure that our police department is fully supported,” Johnson said. “I don’t believe that just simply putting out an arbitrary number around police officers is the answer. What I’m saying is policing and affordable housing. It’s policing and mental and behavioral healthcare services. It’s policing and youth employment. It’s a full package.”
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Scarborough expressed frustration with Democrats criticizing the crime crackdown this month in the District of Columbia, saying “so many people” told him how “dangerous” it is. He also said people need to share their concerns that Trump could go “too far” with his cleanup but insisted crime in Washington is a serious problem.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said Monday that the House Oversight Committee, of which he is the chairman, is launching an investigation into the alleged manipulation of crime data in the district. The committee is requesting documents, information, and transcribed interviews with Metropolitan Police Department Commander Michael Pulliam and the commanders of all seven patrol districts.