Forget Trump. Chicago Mayor Blames City's Violence on... Nixon?

AP Photo/Erin Hooley

While many of you were hopefully enjoying your 4th of July weekend with some good food, family, and friends, the residents of Chicago were unfortunately celebrating it once again with a very different slate of activities. More than 100 people were shot over the holiday, with nearly 20 of them dying. Other assaults were commonplace and additional storefronts were looted. In other words, it was just another weekend in the Windy City. But Mayor Brandon Johnson ran for office on a pledge to get all of this violence under control. He's been in office for more than a year now. Why is this still happening? According to Hizonner, there's one person to blame and it's not him. You probably thought he was going to say Trump, but that wouldn't be correct either. Johnson decided to blame Richard Nixon, a person who died thirty years ago. (Townhall)

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This week, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) blamed late President Richard Nixon (R) for rampant violence in his city. Nixon died in 1994.

Over Independence Day weekend, over 100 people were shot in the Windy City. Nineteen of these shootings were fatal, according to multiple reports. Johnson’s response to that was to blame a former president instead of acknowledging that the city’s soft-on-crime policies, among other things, contributed to the fatal shootings. 

“Black death has been unfortunately accepted in this country for a very long time. We had a chance 60 years ago to get at the root causes and people mocked President Johnson. And we ended up with Richard Nixon. I’m going to work hard everyday to transform this city,” Johnson said in remarks. 

If you read through the coverage by Townhall at the link above, you will see that the Nixon Foundation decided to respond to Johnson's comments with a bit of a history lesson. But that's not really the point here. What was Johnson talking about? He's the mayor of a major American city and has the responsibility to keep his citizens as safe as possible. Has he been spending too much time hanging out with Joe Biden?

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Let's toss Johnson a lifeline here and see if we can't figure out what he was attempting to say. He starts off by lamenting the claim that “Black death has been unfortunately accepted in this country for a very long time." This is a preposterous statement. Nobody simply accepts violent crime. They are stuck with violent crime because of the failed policies of liberal governments, particularly in our larger urban areas. And that violence is disproportionately experienced by residents of lower-income communities of color, something that Democrats of color should begin keeping in mind when they go to the polls.

Johnson then pivots and claims that "we had a chance 60 years ago" to address the "root causes" of this violence, making a reference to President Lyndon Johnson. (It's been a bit more than 69 years since LBJ left office, but we can cut him some slack here.) He then declares that "we ended up with Richard Nixon." So is he somehow concluding that violent crime against Black Chicagoans in 2024 is somehow unavoidable and is caused by the policies of Richard Nixon in the early 70s? We are now nearing the end of the sixth presidential term since then when the White House has been controlled by Democrats. His party has also controlled majorities in Congress multiple times over that period. Couldn't one of them have fixed whatever this underlying problem is?

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Brandon Johnson wanted the job as the leader of Chicago and the voters gave it to him. The responsibility to protect the citizens from all of these maniacs and gang members rests on his shoulders. He needs to get off the stick and start doing his job or get the heck out of the way and make room for someone who will. Chicago is still a disaster zone and Brandon Johnson owns that mess.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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