Aldermen and State Elected Officials Who Condemned Police for Saturday (Chicago: schools, income)

[BRU67]

Several of your elected officials made the following statement in response to Saturday's events downtown:

Chicagoans have been told that it is necessary to spend 40% of the Chicago budget on police in order to prevent violence and promote public safety. Yet this weekend, just 24 hours after a 12-year-old boy was shot and at the same time as another shooting was taking place on the south side, Mayor Lightfoot and Superintendent Brown stationed thousands of officers downtown, where they kettled, pepper sprayed, and beat demonstrators - some of them as young as 17 years old.

We once again condemn Mayor Lightfoot and Superintendent Brown for their use of police force against these demonstrators on Saturday night, and for the continued escalation of surveillance, violance and detention of protesters. We question the logic of spending police dollars on social media surveillance, pepper spray, and riot gear to beat teenagers while the directives of the federal consent decree go unmet and the murder clearance rate remains abysmally low.

We are wholeheartedly with the protesters who have taken to the streets to demand a future free of violence. Many of these young people are themselves anti-violence activists who, like too many other Black and Latinx Chicagoans, have lost friends and family to gun violence. It is their right to protest, and it is our responsibility to listen. We encourage Mayor Lightfoot and Superintendent Brown to do the same.

State Senator Robert Peters
State Senator Celina Villanueva
State Representative Theresa Mah
20th Ward Ald. Jeanette Taylor
25th Ward Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez
33rd Ward Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (who also added on Twitter that "Chicago’s Black and Brown youth show up and fight like hell for the lives they need and deserve. Our duty is to protect them, to listen to them and to transform this city so we can all have dignified healthy lives. Invest in jobs, housing, mental health, RJ, and #DefundThePolice")
35th Ward Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa
40th Ward Ald. Andre Vasquez
Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...cme-story.html

I'm not going to offer any commentary, except to say that the statement that we spend "40% of the Chicago budget on police" is incorrect. The CPD's current budget is $1.68 billion excluding grants. It is mostly funded by the City's corporate fund and it does get about 37% of that fund. However, that is just one fund for City activities. When you measure police spending across all City funds, the CPD actually takes up about 15% of the City's total budget, and that includes the grants the CPD receives from sources outside the City.

https://www.civicfed.org/civic-feder...1.68%20billion.

The City spends $233 million on community services. See the link above. The CPS is budgeted at $7.7 billion for 2020 (up from 5.46 billion in 2016, an increase which, standing alone, is greater than the entire CPD budget). A major component of the CPS budget of course goes to providing social services to its students, such as special education, corrective discipline, counseling, and social work. We also spend $6.2 billion on the Cook County government, which includes 2.8 billion to the health fund, which includes social services and health care. And on top of that, there are many charitable organizations throughout the City administer State and Federal grants and charitable donations to provide a myriad of social services to lower income residents.

https://www.npr.org/local/309/2019/0...schools-budget

https://www.civicfed.org/civic-feder...impacted-covid

For all the fashionable talk about defunding the police, I have yet to hear anyone explain how adding some or even all of the $1.68 billion police budget to the nearly $11 billion we already spend on CPS and other government social and health related services is going to solve the violence issues we have in our most troubled communities. This is a big question that no one seems to be asking. Even if you are receptive to the general idea, I think this is a discussion you'd want to have, given that even if we took every dime out of the CPD and diverted it into "social services and health care," we'd only be increasing our local government social service and health care outlay by about 18%, and much less overall given the existence of federal and state grants and charitable donations, while drastically decreasing public safety in at least the short term.

Anyway, the elected officials' comment speaks for itself. Just thought this should be in its own thread, as I think it's a pretty bold statement for elected officials to make in light of the looting last week and the violent behavior of some of the protesters, using that term neutrally, on Saturday.

As far as I could tell, none of these elected officials commented on the 64 people shot in the City over the weekend, beyond implying in their statement that this was because there were a lot of police downtown responding to the protest, which is ridiculous given we've seen similar violence in past weekends this summer.

[Robert9]

Many people are pissed off at these elected officials for these remarks. And made it clear they will remember these comments

[Robert9]

Hopefully the Chicago police union will loudly endorse Trump like the NYPD has!

[Vlajos]

The socialist aldermen never comment on hundreds of black on black homicides. They can't, it would be racist. But if one criminal of color is shot by the police, riots are justified.

[Robert9]

I am seeing more people bash those officials on FB. In fact I see on Brandon Johnsons page people saying he made a fool out of himself with wgn

[Bitey]

Originally Posted by Robert9

Many people are pissed off at these elected officials for these remarks. And made it clear they will remember these comments

The problem is their own constituents AREN'T pissed off. They are speaking for the people who voted them into office. And that's why many sane people are packing up and leaving cities, including some who never envisioned themselves leaving their urban playgrounds. They're reluctantly starting to understand playtime is over.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Bitey

The problem is their own constituents AREN'T pissed off. They are speaking for the people who voted them into office. And that's why many sane people are packing up and leaving cities, including some who never envisioned themselves leaving their urban playgrounds. They're reluctantly starting to understand playtime is over.

Sad but very true. Things may have to hit rock bottom before sanity returns. Fools like Ramirez and Rodriguez will destroy Chicago.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Sad but very true. Things may have to hit rock bottom before sanity returns. Fools like Ramirez and Rodriguez will destroy Chicago.

Right now, they make up a small minority of city council. And I am really hopeful that they will be voted out next term. But voters need to wake up and pay attention to what the people they're electing stand for.

[Robert9]

Originally Posted by BRU67

Right now, they make up a small minority of city council. And I am really hopeful that they will be voted out next term. But voters need to wake up and pay attention to what the people they're electing stand for.

I have no faith at all in the voters around here!

[wase4711]

hopefully, those sheet stains remain the tiny minority they are now, and smarter people remain in the majority...otherwise, 3rd world status for the great city is inevitable