Chicago Mayor Worries That We’re Being Too Mean To The Thugs Terrorizing His City

Two years ago, a 20-year-old student at the University of Chicago named Max Lewis boarded a subway car on the city’s Green Line. Lewis had just finished another day interning at an investment bank in downtown Chicago, and he was on his way back to his apartment. Then, without warning, a stray bullet tore through the subway car’s window and hit Lewis in the neck. Doctors quickly determined that Max Lewis had been paralyzed from the neck down. He’d never be able to eat or walk again. He’d need a ventilator, forever. But Lewis could communicate with his eyes. By blinking, and using a letter board, he sent this message to his family: “If I have to live like this, pull the plug. Please, seriously.” Doctors took Max Lewis off of life support, and he died in the hospital shortly afterwards.

It’s a horrifying story. But it’s not particularly unusual in Chicago. The same weekend that Max Lewis was shot in the neck, at least 100 other residents of Chicago were hit by gunfire, and 18 died. A few days later, Chicago’s mayor at the time, Lori Lightfoot, gave an extended interview with CNN in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood. She was surrounded by bodyguards for the whole thing. Lori Lightfoot did not offer any sympathy to the family of Max Lewis, nor did she propose any solution to the city’s rampant crime problem. Instead, in the interview, Lori Lightfoot made it clear who the real victim was in Chicago. It was Lori Lightfoot. “I’m a Black woman and I’m a member of the LGBTQ community,” she said. “It’s not okay that systemic racism, homophobia, and sexism still exist but I’m going to play the cards that I’m dealt.”

This pattern repeated in Chicago, over and over again, for years, until finally the residents of Chicago had enough of Lori Lightfoot’s malevolence and incompetence. Earlier this year, Lightfoot became the first mayor of Chicago to lose re-election in 40 years. Lori Lightfoot’s replacement was a former social studies teacher named Brandon Johnson. Like every other mayor elected in Chicago since 1927, Brandon Johnson is a Democrat. During the campaign, Johnson did not propose any serious solutions to the rampant crime in Chicago. Instead, he ran on a platform of anti-white racism and defunding the police department.

Brandon Johnson took office just over two months ago. One of the first major tests of his new administration came on Sunday night, when a mob began looting stores, fighting in public, and destroying property in the South Loop. This is considered one of the nicer areas of the city, for what that’s worth. The bar is pretty low, admittedly. Here’s what it looked like this weekend:

Chicago’s latest “teen takeover”
pic.twitter.com/YBK8t2gwZe

— Jack Elbaum (@Jack_Elbaum) August 3, 2023

Notice the media calls this a “teen takeover,” which is maybe the most innocuous possible term they could use. It sounds like a birthday party at the local swimming pool. In reality, as anyone can see, it was rioting. And by the way, not all of the criminals were “teens.” Many of them were, but certainly not all of them. At least one journalist didn’t want to whitewash this complete breakdown of public safety in one of America’s major cities. The reporter asked Brandon Johnson what he was going to do about the mob violence in the South Loop. Brandon Johnson responded by attacking the reporter’s choice of language. Watch:

It’s the Lori Lightfoot approach. Don’t blame the criminals. Blame the people who notice the criminals. They’re the problem, because they use the wrong language. We see this a lot now on the left. It’s one of the hallmarks of leftism, in fact: This preoccupation with language is everywhere. And every time they fixate on language, it’s always to obfuscate the issue.  They’re not trying to be precise. In fact, it’s the opposite of being precise. They’re trying to confuse as many people as possible.

According to Johnson, the preferred term for what you just saw in Chicago is not “mob violence” or “riot,” but instead, “large gathering.” Yes, a large gathering — you know, like a concert or a Chick-fil-A drive thru. Is there a single person alive who thinks that’s the most accurate, useful terminology in this situation? “Large gathering” implies that nothing criminal occurred at all. A Thanksgiving dinner with 20 people could be described as a “large gathering.”

But Johnson insists that’s the “appropriate” way to talk about what happened. Then he says, with no hint of irony whatsoever, quote, “This is not to obfuscate what has actually taken place.” But of course that’s the entire point of what he’s doing. That’s why people like Brandon Johnson claim they’re “redirecting” funds from the police, instead of defunding them. It’s why they use terms like “gender-affirming care” instead of talking about double mastectomies and sterilizing hormones. That’s why they call the victims of abortion “Fetuses” instead of “babies.” The objective of Johnson’s movement, at every turn, is to obfuscate what’s actually taking place — which is the destruction of the foundational elements of western civilization. That includes the nuclear family, and it includes law and order.

WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show

What’s actually taking place, although you’re not supposed to talk about it, is that major cities in this country are careening so quickly towards total disorder that we’ll probably be seeing Koreans on the rooftops soon. These are not isolated incidents that we’re talking about. This is a pattern. Here’s what Chicago looked like back in April, just a few months ago:

?#BREAKING: Chaotic Scene Unfolds in Downtown Chicago as Teenagers Vandalize Cars and Gunfire Erupts

?#Chicago | #Illinois ⁰
There is currently a significant police response taking place in downtown Chicago due to a large group of teenagers causing chaos. They have been… pic.twitter.com/n7xhBpsTKs

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) April 16, 2023

Another large gathering for you. That’s all it is, remember. A large gathering, like a church picnic. Now, Brandon Johnson, who was the mayor-elect at the time, responded to this violence with a written statement, saying it was “not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.” Of course he gets this exactly backwards. The job opportunities are leaving these communities because these people are making the communities unlivable. They aren’t starved of opportunities. They are chasing the opportunities away. Any one of these people could walk into the local convenience store and ask for a job. Instead they’d rather loot the place. That’s their choice.

At any rate, it’s fair to conclude that this is the prepared talking point of Johnson’s administration, in response to mob violence. Every time his city is besieged by rioters, he’s going to lecture you for noticing. He’s going to police your language. Back in April, Johnson was asked about his written statement. Here’s how he defended it:

It’s hard to believe any elected politician would say something like that. “They’re young! They make silly decisions!” Like setting cars on fire, robbing stores, and beating people up. You wouldn’t understand. You’re not a former middle school teacher like Brandon Johnson.

It’s clear that, like so many other Democrats, Johnson is totally unequipped to handle rampant crime in his city. Leftist ideology has at this point left reality, and all of reality’s concerns, completely behind. These people aren’t living in the same universe as normal taxpaying Americans, let alone the same city. They hear about hundreds of shooting victims and they start talking about homophobia. They see a mob of hundreds of people robbing stores and setting cars on fire, and they say it’s just “silly.” It’s a fun prank. Like putting a whoopee cushion on someone’s chair. You know, that sort of thing.

That’s not to confine the problem to Johnson, or Lori Lightfoot. This is now the default position of the Democratic Party in response to mob violence everywhere. We see it anywhere Democrats are in charge, in an entrenched position of power. And it’s leading to predictable results. This was Compton a few months ago:

A “sideshow erupts into looting!” A huge crowd “taking part in a sideshow” suddenly got out of control, according to FOX 11. It sounds so innocuous. Who could have anticipated that the “side show” would “erupt into looting!” It’s as unpredictable as your neighbor’s backyard barbecue “erupting into a mass shooting!” What are you going to do?

As it happens, not much. As the anchor said, just one arrest was made….