Gov. Pritzker echoes Mayor Johnson’s vacuous comments on Chicago crime – Wirepoints QuickPoint

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was widely ridiculed for his comments this week about the city’s violent Memorial Day weekend.  “We understand that when communities have been disinvested in and traumatized, that you are seeing the manifestation of that trauma,” Johnson said. He talked about his “holistic” approach to fighting crime, which means funding community groups. “Poverty didn’t go away over the weekend,” Johnson said.

“Yes, he actually said that, which goes a long way to explaining why gunmen patrol the streets with impunity,” a Wall Street Journal editorial said about those comments. The Journal went on, “Does the mayor have a date when he thinks poverty will vanish, the ‘trauma’ will ease, and the shootings stop? Is the July 4 weekend too soon, or will it be Labor Day?”

Unreported except by Center Square were Pritzker’s comments Wednesday that were to the same effect as Johnson’s. Asked if there’s more that should be done to reduce violence, he said, “When there is more poverty in a community, there is more likely to be criminal activity that arises in that community,” Pritzker said. “The more we can lift people up, and we are doing that in a number of ways, one of which is providing more education funding, early childhood education and alleviating some of the burdens on young families.”

That’s just “one of the ways” he is making public safety a priority, he said at the outset, and he did say that supporting the police is number one. But what are those other ways? He offered none except, like Johnson, spending on social programs and the “peacekeepers” who were ineffective over the weekend. How is he supporting police? The state has done nothing significant to help them. Instead, Pritzker and Johnson support the highly controversial Safe-T Act that will hamstring prosecutors and police if it survives current court challenges. Video of Pritzker’s full answer is here.

Yes, poverty contributes to crime and some social programs are part of a long-term solution. But, as with Johnson’s comments, Pritzker said nothing about lax prosecution by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, personal responsibility, bad parenting, unwed births and other factors behind Chicago’s violence.

Also like Johnson, none of Pritzker’s comments were directed to those who need to hear a stern message, criminals themselves, to whom Johnson and Pritzker apparently ascribe no individual agency.

-Mark Glennon

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Freddy
9 months ago

9 dead-34 shot so far this weekend and it’s only Sunday morning.
At this rate Brandon’s death toll on his watch should exceed Lori’s by leaps and bounds. Peacekeepers are doing a bang up job.

Dan M
9 months ago

Two people. One brain.

Hale DeMar
9 months ago

Poverty is nothing new. Every migrant that’s found a home in the USA has dealt with poverty, discrimination and hardship. Perhaps the difference is the absence of a father in lieu the The State. Is there no politician who will speak truth to power ?

debtsor
9 months ago
Reply to  Hale DeMar

You’re right, but how do you fix that problem now? How can you overnight make dads return to their estranged baby mommas and raise their own children? Most of these mothers and fathers have multiple children with multiple partners. 12 years ago, 60% of black women had children with more than one man, which likely means that most black men have multiple baby mommas? How do you fix this? One solution I’ve proposed is turn schools into almost boarding school style institutions where children spend nearly all of their waking hours studying, exercising, learning and socializing within the confines of… Read more »

Riverbender
9 months ago
Reply to  debtsor

Repeal LBJs great society programs

debtsor
9 months ago
Reply to  Riverbender

Yes, probably, but one step at a time. Cut off millions of people from their EBT cards and there will be great hoards looting the Wal-Mart in your quiet leafy suburb within hours. The Republican House in DC just reinstated a part-time work requirement to receive Medicaid, which is a step that Democrats fought tooth and nail.

SadStateofAffairs
9 months ago
Reply to  debtsor

Love your idea but that would be called racist as dumb kids serve as perfect pawns by the race hustler politicians which means the problem will never truly be solved as the only way to break the cycle is to think for yourself. Marxists can’t have people with independent thought and knowledge as the answers always lie with the state. They will continue to be useful idiots until they stop listening and start thinking and doing things for themselves.

Eugene from a payphone
9 months ago
Reply to  debtsor

Fathers/ sires are often involved with their “family”. Think: 2020 Kenosha WI, Jacob Blake (say the name!) already wanted on an outstanding warrant was reported to police by the mother of his child for trying to kidnap the boy until momma came across with a portion of the monthly aid check. This nonsense caused serious problems ending with a guy driving through a parade in Waukesha WI. This is learned behavior used often by deadbeat dads.

Eugene from a payphone
9 months ago

Pareto principle in action, 20% of the people cause 80% of the problems.

Freddy
9 months ago
SadStateofAffairs
9 months ago
Reply to  Freddy

Tio Hardiman is the beneficiary of large city and county contracts. Does anyone think he has the interest of the black community front and center? These are payments to current and active gang members, this is honestly one big fraud. “Peacekeepers” are complicit in gang activities and the line is very blurry between the good guys and the bad guys. Just another Marxist who wants police to have no authority and remove them completely from the equation. You voted for it Chicago! You will reap what you sow. Only thing left will be many more dead once those that rob,… Read more »

Old Joe
9 months ago

JB & BJ are the Illinois bookends of wokster governance. Congrats….

Dave Hardy
9 months ago

In traditional communism, you work to support the party and society.

Johnson and Pritzker swing the hammer and sickle for you in their version of communism.

Riverbender
9 months ago

Johnson’s “communities have been” is to be expected as he will blame others instead of his new policies. It is going to be a hot summer in Chicago this year.

DanR
9 months ago

I am currently visiting in a very impoverished country right now. There is virtually no crime. I’m calling bullshit on America.

Dave Hardy
9 months ago
Reply to  DanR

Crime is incentivized here. That’s the difference. Big tech companies, Hollywood, video games, and the music industry are the biggest proponents of violence and criminal behavior. There are also several other factors at play, like the Safe – T act, poor schools, etc.

Last edited 9 months ago by Dave Hardy
Dave Hardy
9 months ago
Reply to  Dave Hardy

To anyone that thinks I’m an old conservative party killing grouch, crime, degeneracy, and toxic behavior is very much incentivized. I do respect free speech, but somebody needs to talk to the people behind this stuff or at least confront them. It’s truly shocking! Here’s a music video that has been nominated for several awards, including a Grammy. It’s packed full of profanity, twerking, drinking, smoking marijuana, underage kids, single pregnant mothers, and more. I can’t think of a worse video or song to steer kids in the wrong direction. This has 77 Million views!! Interestingly, it’s got about 1/3… Read more »

Last edited 9 months ago by Dave Hardy
debtsor
9 months ago
Reply to  Dave Hardy

GTA 6 looks completely insane. There’s been a lot of disconcerting chatter about Rockstar Games going ‘woke’ with GTA6 but doesn’t look like that from the those game play videos.

Dave Hardy
9 months ago
Reply to  debtsor

It is! Deception could be a part of their marketing campaign. That’s just one violent game. There are more than I can count. There’s another one called Rust, too. It’s a dystopian future environment where you have to make your own armor, make your own gunpowder, and beat people over the head with rocks, stab them with spears, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5-4Hqq2SlI I like to focus on Grand Theft Auto. There are a couple of things that make it exceptionally dangerous. First and foremost, as graphics get better, scenarios get more realistic and follow real life narratives, and violence gets more graphic,… Read more »

mqyl
9 months ago
Reply to  Dave Hardy

Many people of all races, income levels, etc. are exposed to the sources of violence and criminal behavior you mentioned. The ethical and responsible people choose not to go the criminal route. Aka, there are good and bad people in society.

Dave Hardy
9 months ago
Reply to  mqyl

Everybody is susceptible to social influences. You cut and style your hair in a way that conforms to social pressures, and that’s just one example. Kids are no different and often don’t understand the difference between right or wrong. Some of these kids start criminal behavior at a very young age. I’ve witnessed 10-year-olds working as drug mules in some unfortunate Chicago neighborhoods. Americans, in general, are exposed to more violence. Lots of this violence is marketed towards children! There is an overwhelming consensus that media violence is an important contributing factor to social aggression and violence. https://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/violence-media-entertainment.html https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/124/5/1495/72111/Media-Violence?autologincheck=redirected A… Read more »

Streeterville
9 months ago

Lazy Man response. To translate, political strategy viewpoint is: “we don’t wanna do anything about it, ‘cuz it works for us”.

That “disinvestment” enablist rhetoric serves purposes of progressive democrats to virtue-signal their supposed “support of oppressed folks”. They fail to realize that violent crime affects low-income POC folks the most.

Dave Hardy
9 months ago

This is hilarious!! I’m going to absolutely tear them apart from here on!!!! I can’t believe they’re saying this! I think it’s prudent to coin a new political ideology for these goofballs: Social Determinism – the political ideology that all events and beliefs, including human decisions and action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. It most often asserts that decision and action is causally determined by prior environmental occurrences. Some politicians have taken social determinism to imply that individuals cannot be held morally responsible for actions attributed to adversity and trauma. Social determinists believe that government has… Read more »

Last edited 9 months ago by Dave Hardy
debtsor
9 months ago
Reply to  Dave Hardy

The social determinists will claim their beliefs are based in science, but they’re actually rooted in metaphysics, because it’s a philosophical belief system that human decisions and action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will.

Dave Hardy
9 months ago
Reply to  debtsor

If you want to take that side, go ahead. I’ll debate you. I still don’t understand why you consistently posture this way. I don’t care what social determinists claim. The entire socialism argument has completely fallen apart since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and we don’t even need to get into the details or abstractions. Social determinism is even worse than socialism, for obvious reasons! Socialism lacks incentive and drive. The ideologies of social determinism place incentives on a communist state! That’s exponential damage! I’ve been watching travel bloggers on YouTube lately. Some intrepid folks have discovered a really… Read more »

Last edited 9 months ago by Dave Hardy
debtsor
9 months ago
Reply to  Dave Hardy

I’m on your side here Dave.

Dave Hardy
9 months ago
Reply to  debtsor

Very low crime in Cuba, North Kora, etc. and way more adversity than Chicago.

Marie
9 months ago

It’s easier to just take it than it is to earn it. Many of us who grew up in poverty learned the difference and we thrived and survived. The more you give these people the more they will take. Help them learn how to support themselves or every weekend will be Memorial Day weekend

Poor Taxpayer
9 months ago

For years the CPS just passed the kids through the system without giving them any education or job skills (other than criminal). So now the Chitty will have to deal with the crime and huge pension costs. Great return on their investment.

Streeterville
9 months ago
Reply to  Poor Taxpayer

Fair number of CPS HS grads are functionally illiterate.

Goodgulf Greyteeth
9 months ago

What did we read about in the news just today. 14 year old murdered in a gang/thug fight where 5 others were shot and 3 police officers were sent to the hospital. Students robbed at gunpoint and beaten at DePaul.

Yesterday is was someone robbed at gunpoint on his family’s front porch by a gang that’s done this at least 50 times since April.

I’d say Brandon and JB can count on lot’s of opportunities to practice being vacuous in response to Chicago crime.

Where's Mine ???
9 months ago

Make no mistake, the machines whole “community disinvestment” equity hustle/ scam has little to do with low income black folks in Englewood or else where and everything to do with duping dullard taxpayers into feeling guilty that by some wild stretch of reality they are not being taxed enough to pay for continued absolutely abysmal public services at astronomical prices from CPS to FOP. Make no mistake, your city, cc & state gov/ public sec hero class are the the COMMUNITY DIS-INVESTORS for us all. How many $100 of billions over the decades have been spent on guaranteed salaries &… Read more »

Last edited 9 months ago by Where's Mine ???
debtsor
9 months ago

It’s got very little to do with poverty and trauma and everything to do with the fact that criminality will fill every void, from the cartels in Mexico to the gangs controlling the favelas to warlords controlling territory various 3rd world countries.

In Chicago, the police, by design, have very little control over many black and hispanic neighborhoods. The residents refuse to cooperate with the police, there’s a culture of criminality that flourishes and the police tacitly pull back, as they say, and let these morons kill each other, and show up 10 minutes later to clean up the mess.

Marie
9 months ago
Reply to  debtsor

Who is responsible for this problem?

ToughLove
9 months ago
Reply to  Marie

Anyone that pays taxes to Chicago and Illinois. They fund this garbage of a city and state.

Wolf Larsen
9 months ago
Reply to  Marie

Democratic mayors have run Chicago since 1931. I’d say they have a hand in this mess.

Jay
9 months ago

Man! I would like to know–and we never will–what the shooting/death totals would be had Vallas won. Would he have been able to mobilize extra cops (and maybe the National Guard too?) in time for this last weekend? Probably not. This is the big boulder chasing Harrison Ford in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, unfortunately. But ‘impunity’ is the right word with Johnson coming very, very close to absolving the thugs. And that’s been his line since the 2020 riots–blaming the system instead of the individuals. I still will never understand why…when the criminals drove SUVs into River North to… Read more »

Old Joe
9 months ago
Reply to  Jay

And neither will those former merchants….

Brian Marron
9 months ago
Reply to  Jay

All true, but the CPD was not told to stand down by the mayor, but by CPD and union leadership. They have been on an informal strike ever since their feelings were hurt during the BLM protests. Many other major cities have similar restrictions on police behavior, including prohibiting dangerous chases, but only the CPD interprets these restrictions to do absolutely nothing. Their 4% shooting solve rate is worse than any other major city.

Mrs Crabtree
9 months ago

Chumbsie Wabsie so wants to be like Brendumb Johnson. One big problem
Chumbsie got a whole bunch on money
Brendumb does not. How about splitting it
With Brendumb, bet the next day Brendumb
Would be gone like a f… in the wind.
The city is FUBAR

Robert Golant
9 months ago

It is like twely dee meet twelly dum

John Proud MAGA
9 months ago

They’re both lying, and they think you’re stupid. Those areas have been in poverty for decades, long before BLM Brandon and Fat Fredo were born. Yet the deadly crime is a relatively new phenomenon. That’s because there’s no law enforcement keeping the scumbags in check. That is 100% the fault of Democrat rule in Chicago/Illinois.

Hello, Indiana
9 months ago

Two Marxicrats cut from the same cloth on a mission to ruin Illinois in general and Chicago in particular.

Streeterville
9 months ago
Reply to  Hello, Indiana

Lazy men, not marxists.

Hello, Indiana!
9 months ago
Reply to  Streeterville

The Marxicrat is a fairly recent aberration that appeared about time people such as aoc, Omar, Pressley and yes, Comrade Pritzger assumed office. It desires to subjugate working class people by squeezing every tax dollar possible out of them and denying their right to protect themselves from the perpetually aggrieved tax dollar recipients that have a propensity to get violent when denied any whim they may have. The Marxicrat, when it sets up it’s nest in public office, is extremely destructive and hard to get rid of. It is loud, lazy and blue to it’s very core.

sue
9 months ago

WISH I HAD LISTENED TO PEOPLE 10 YEARS AGO WHEN THEY SAID GET OUT OF CHICAGO….WOW!!!!

Donna S
9 months ago

Well said.

state_pension_millionaires
9 months ago

Sick. Just what you would expect. Watch what happens when there is chaos and citizens are unsafe (ie all taxes go to public sector pensions) . Jobs (inlcuding ie Walmart super centers) will not be created and many jobs (and walmart supercenters) will go away-quickly. If you think general public well-being can be sacrificed today, to to achieve some sort of accelerated nervana and to satisfy the new IL/CHI political machine, you are mistaken.

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