“Chicago and New York City crime numbers are way up,” he wrote on Twitter. “Federal Government ready, willing and able to help, if asked!”

Chicago isn’t alone. Before the coronavirus hit, homicides were escalating nationwide in early 2020, and although the lockdown brought a pause, they began rising again as the stay-at-home measures were lifted.

said David Stovall, a professor of African American Studies, Law and Criminology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, “When you talk about uprisings, protests, law enforcement likes to use the rhetoric of ‘outside agitators’ to deflect from the issue at home.”

If Lightfoot’s plan passed, elected officials from outside Chicago could again lobby aldermen, the mayor’s office and other city government offices, as long as the public body they represent doesn’t have pending or recurring legislative or contractual matters involving the city of Chicago.

Nine of the weekend’s victims were minors, and two of the children died from their injuries.

Chicago has drawn attention for becoming the biggest U.S. city that hasn’t promised to reallocate money from its Police Department, with city officials reluctant to shrink law enforcement amid a continuing stream of shootings and murders.