Chicago needs a crime-fighting candidate to run against incumbent Rahm Emanuel in next year’s mayoral election.
To be clear, that candidate cannot be Garry McCarthy. A former Chicago police chief running against Emanuel, McCarthy is too close to the Chicago police department’s orthodoxy, and he presided over manipulated crime data.
Still, considering Emanuel’s utter failure to address his city’s war-zone-like shooting rates, the need for change is real. According to ABC’s local Chicago station, 66 people were shot — 12 fatally — over the weekend. Think about that, 66 different people. And what has Mayor Rahmbo’s response to the melee been? To issue emotional platitudes like this one on Monday: “All of us who love this city and call it home have a responsibility to heal our neighborhoods.”
Where’s the urgency against criminality and the openness to reforming the police department?
Just like the positive budget track that Chicago needs to be able to hire more police officers, it’s nowhere to be seen. After all, Chicago’s budgetary forecast is an unmitigated disaster. As the Chicago Sun Times reported last November, “By the city’s own estimate, police and fire pension costs will rise by $297.3 million — or 36 percent — in 2020. The Municipal and Laborers plan costs will grow by $330.4 million, or 50 percent, in fiscal 2022.” The Sun Times continued, “Chicago taxpayers already have been hit with nearly $1.1 billion in property tax increases, primarily for police, fire and teacher pensions and school construction; a 29.5 percent tax on water and sewer bills to save the Municipal Employees pension fund; and a 56 percent telephone tax hike in 2014 and another 28.2 percent next year for the Laborers pension fund.”
While those statistics point to Chicago’s obvious need for conservative leadership, in the short term, a crime-focused mayor would be a big step in the right direction. Moreover, a courageous candidate could easily outline specific reforms. I can think of three immediate ones.
First off, Chicago needs to increase its rewards for justice and witness protection programs. Unless residents feel they can submit evidence with confidence of their own security, most will avoid doing so.
Second, federal prosecutors need to bring more Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, prosecutions against identified gang leaders. That course of action would deter violence at the margin by introducing far more significant costs on gang leaders for their underlings criminal conduct.
Third, Chicago should dramatically ramp up its already significant use of remote video cameras to monitor crime hot spots. As an extension, the mayoral candidate should run on a pledge to have the police increase their stop-and-search activity against young men in violent neighborhoods. Community tensions are now the secondary concern to imminent risk of violence.
Fourth, recognizing the need to do more in an exceptionally stretched budgetary environment, as in Camden, N.J., in 2012, the Chicago Police Department should face a choice. A choice, that is, between disbandment and a new deal that reduces their per-officer operating costs and allows the city to hire hundreds of new officers at present budget levels. It is ludicrous that as the shootings continue, the Chicago Police Department remains notoriously inefficient.
Ultimately though, Chicago needs a mayor who is willing to rip up the playbook. Ramhbo has failed and his blood-drenched streets are the proof of it.
