Speaking in a bonkers and fiery press conference on Tuesday, September 16, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declared that “law enforcement” and “incarceration” are a “sickness” that he plans to “eradicate,” an absolutely crazy statement that would mean even greater levels of anarchy in the already crime-wracked city.
Mayor Johnson’s comment came when a reporter asked the mayor about his administration’s public safety plan, given the extremely high ongoing level of crime within the city. Responding, he said that the real problem is the criminal justice apparatus is too much law enforcement putting too many people in jail, an absurd assertion.
Beginning, Johnson commented on the immense number of murders in Chicago, saying, “This is the topic and the work every single day to drive violence down in the city of Chicago. So when you talk about what we’re offering, we’re offering a better pathway so that we don’t have 970 people murdered in our city every single year.”
Continuing, he bizarrely insisted that the solution isn’t law enforcement, saying, “Now one is one too many, but you’re not going to convince me that the people of Chicago only deserve law enforcement. I get so sick and tired of people believing that the only thing that black and brown and poor people get to get in this city are badges.”
He then declared that what people really need isn’t law enforcement taking criminals off the streets, but care for “mental health.” He said, “People want jobs. That’s why we’ve increased the ability for young people to have jobs in this city. People want health care and behavioral mental health care. That’s what they asked me. That’s why we’ve expanded it. People want to be able to afford to live in this city. That’s why I’m building more affordable units.”
Returning to the matter of law enforcement, Mayor Johnson seemed to indicate he thought it was racist, saying, “People want justice. If they do get wrapped up into this spiral of despair in this city, it’s why we’re actually solving cases, whether it’s CBI workers making sure that we’re avoiding retaliation in this city, I get so sick and tired of people in this country and in this city that believes that the only thing that you can offer black people and poor people is jails, incarcerations, incarceration and police officers.”
Then, after a long ramble about “militarism,” during which Mayor Johnson said he wants to “eradicate the sickness from this city,” he went on to declare law enforcement a “sickness,” saying, “The fact of the matter is, we are driving violence down on this city, and we’re using every single resource that’s available to us, jails and incarceration and law enforcement is a sickness that has not led to safe communities.”
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Yet more bizarrely, he then insisted that the only reason he cares about people in his city is that most of them look like him, saying, “I’m going to work hard every single day to protect the people who are caught up in violence in this city. Guess why? You want to know why? Because the vast majority of them look like me.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video