As crime remains a shockingly bad problem in Chicago under the new mayor, Brandon Johnson, who is somehow even worse on the crime question than Lori Lightfoot (for example, he blamed businesses for violent crime) Chicagoans have little hope for relief from crime in sight unless they leave or choose to defend themselves.
Choosing to have the necessary tools to legally defend himself is what one man decided to do, and it came in very useful when two men allegedly attempted to carjack him at Chicago’s Ford City Mall.
The two men, 21-year-old Anton Cheeks and 18-year-old Travell Quadir Deal, allegedly approached the man and tried to take his car from him but, unbeknownst to them, he had on his person a pistol for which he had the proper Firearm Owner’s Identification Card (FOIC) and concealed carry license.
So, instead of being a victim of crime he was a defender of his property and life: when one of the two suspects allegedly drew and fired a pistol, the 24-year-old with the legally carried pistol drew it and returned fire.
That fire proved effective but not deadly. Deal, uninjured, was arrested by the local police officers just minutes after the attempted carjacking and shooting. Cheeks was hit in the thigh and taken to the hospital, where he was arrested as well.
Both Cheeks and Deal were charged with a felony count of attempted vehicular hijacking with a firearm. According to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Cheeks is being held on a $200,000 bond. His first court date is scheduled for Tuesday, June 6th.
Other than what relief they can themselves provide, Chicagoans have little hope in sight for relief from the crime wave sweeping the city. The mayor’s attitude toward crime and law abiding citizens in Chicago was shown when, in early April, he blamed businesses for the crime wave, claiming that they don’t pay enough in taxes for Chicago to deal with its crime problem.
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“70 percent of large corporations in the state of Illinois don’t pay a corporate tax,” Mayor Johnson claimed. “It’s that type of restraint on our budget that has caused the type if disinvestment that has led to poverty, of course that has led to violence,” he continued.
The alleged carjacking, which occurred on Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, came amidst one of the city’s bloodiest Memorial Day Weekends on record. During the holiday weekend, there were 53 shooting victims and 12 murders.
Meanwhile, many have decided to leave rather than stay. Billionaire Ken Griffin, head of the infamous Citadel hedge fund, fled California and moved to Ron DeSantis’ Florida. Though he did not name crime as the reason why he decided to move his family and his businesses in the memo, many executives within Citadel and Citadel Securities, his trading firm, said that crime was likely one of the top reasons for the move, as was Florida’s lack of an income tax.
Featured image credit: Chicago Police Department