“Jails and incarceration and regulation enforcement is a illness that has not led to secure communities,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declared throughout a fiery press convention Tuesday, including that he intends to “eradicate” that illness.
Johnson made the remarks after a reporter requested him about his administration’s public security plan. Throughout his diatribe, the mayor cited 4 years of Chicago homicide knowledge, starting with town’s record-setting 970 killings in 1974. He famous there have been 828 murders in 1995, 778 in 2016, and 805 in 2021.
“This has been an issue on this metropolis for a really very long time,” Johnson stated, claiming town is seeing enchancment as a result of his initiatives. Now, the mayor claimed, President Donald Trump “desires to place his title on our paper” and take credit score for the most recent downtrend.
However Johnson selected outlier years to bolster his level, together with town’s worst yr on document, whereas overlooking the longer development of regular decline. Between 2004 and 2013, Chicago by no means recorded greater than 513 killings in a yr, and most years stayed beneath 450, in keeping with official information. In 2015, town had 493 murders, nicely beneath the 778 he cited for 2016. And the 2021 complete occurred in the course of the pandemic crime surge.
To make sure, 2025’s homicide depend is on tempo to indicate marked enchancment. However the metropolis’s long-term decline got here in the course of the very interval Johnson described as suffering from a “illness” of arrests and incarceration.
“We’re providing a greater pathway so we don’t have 970 folks murdered in our metropolis each single yr,” Johnson stated, even though Chicago has not approached that determine in many years and has by no means tied or exceeded it.
“I get so sick and bored with folks believing that the one factor that Black and Brown and poor folks get to get on this metropolis are badges,” he continued. “No. It’s a illness and we’re gonna eradicate it.”
Ald. Brendan Reilly (forty second), who lately introduced a marketing campaign to unseat Cook dinner County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, pounced on the remarks.
“Each infrequently, President Preckwinkle & her protégé Mayor Johnson can’t assist however let slip their indifference towards crime victims & their outright animosity towards native regulation enforcement,” Reilly wrote on Twitter. “Placing violent criminals in jail doesn’t defend communities?!? I’ll at all times stand with the victims of crime and again our brave ladies & males in Blue, whereas selling constitutional policing. Violent criminals should at all times be held accountable for his or her crimes.”
The mayor’s remarks start across the 34:45 mark within the video beneath.
WATCH LIVE: Mayor Brandon Johnson hosts press availability. https://t.co/VUNqHndOUi
— Mayor Brandon Johnson (@ChicagosMayor) September 16, 2025
