The wealthy residents of Chicago’s North Side may vote overwhelmingly Democratic, but even they have had enough of the carjackings, muggings, and property crimes that have surged in their city since billionaire George Soros helped elect progressive Kim Foxx to become the state’s attorney for Cook County.
No, they aren’t going to start voting for Republicans yet, but they are going to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to pay private police to patrol their neighborhoods.
“It’s a force multiplier,” Alderman Brian Hopkins told the Wall Street Journal. “You actually do have police officers on the street. They just happen to be in security vehicles as opposed to police cars, but their experience comes with them.”
Not every resident is happy with the enhanced police presence. Josh Lane was knocked to the ground and robbed last summer while he was out walking his dog. But Lane is worried that the two young men that robbed and assaulted him might get shot by police.
“It’s a little like a dystopian sci-fi movie when you see the flashing green lights go by,” said Lane. “The guys who attacked me were stupid kids, but they don’t deserve to get shot.
Not everyone experiencing Chicago’s crime wave is as willing to be victimized as Lane. In some neighborhoods, it is one or two wealthy people footing the bill for the private police. In others, residents are being asked to pony up $100 a month.
Business owners seem particularly pleased. “I think people’s comfort has been raised,” neighborhood restaurant owner Jim Higgins said. “It’s a pretty small area they patrol, so you’ll be walking your dog or your baby or going to the store, and within a half-hour, you’ll see them at least once — maybe every 20 minutes.”
That does sound comforting. If only less fortunate neighborhoods could afford to buy the same safety … or maybe it would just be cheaper, and more equitable, to elect a prosecutor committed to keeping violent criminals behind bars.
