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The False Choice of Totalitarian "Crime Fighting" [1]
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Date: 2025-09-02
MAGAs are in a good mood these days. They feel like they’re riding high and taking control of the culture. They think they have Democrats cornered in a trap — “How could you be against fighting crime?”
Riding high on his use of the National Guard in LA and DC, Trump is raring to expand his efforts into Chicago.
President Donald Trump ramped up his threats to enact a federal takeover of Chicago Tuesday, declaring Illinois’ largest city to be the “worst and most dangerous city in the world, by far” — and claiming he could “solve the crime problem fast.” “At least 54 people were shot in Chicago over the weekend, [eight] people were killed,” Trump wrote in an online post Tuesday on his social media platform Truth Social. “The last two weekends were similar. Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the world, by far.” Trump has made repeated threats to enact a federal takeover in Chicago, as well as other Democrat-led cities such as Baltimore, Maryland, following the ongoing federal takeover of Washington, D.C., where thousands of federal officers and National Guard members are currently patrolling the city’s streets, sometimes picking up garbage . Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who’s considered among the leading frontrunners for a 2028 presidential bid, has often been the target of Trump’s criticisms. Trump has called Pritzker “ probably the worst [governor] in the country .” Pritzker has labelled Trump as a “ wannabe dictator .” “Pritzker needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet,” Trump wrote. “I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in D.C. Chicago will be safe again, and soon. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
54 people were shot. 8 died. That’s the “most dangerous city in the world?”
Let’s first note that Trump’s attempt to use the National Guard for law enforcement in LA has been struck down by a Federal Judge.
President Donald Trump’s administration violated federal law in the use of National Guard troops during Southern California immigration enforcement operations and accompanying protests, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco did not require the remaining troops to be withdrawn, however. He set his order to go into effect on Friday. The order comes after California sued, saying the troops sent to Los Angeles over the summer were violating a law that prohibits military enforcement of domestic laws. Lawyers for Trump’s Republican administration have argued the Posse Comitatus Act doesn’t apply because the troops were protecting federal officers, not enforcing laws. They say the troops were mobilized under an authority that allows the president to deploy them.
The National Guard is not a police force. They have no legal role in law enforcement unless there is a rebellion or an insurrection. Trump argues that “only the Military” can bring down crime, but neither of these is the case.
So this ruling could potentially impact anything Trump tries to do with Chicago.
We’ll see.
Even if you accept this view, is simply filling the streets with armed troops, or armed police — intimidating everyone into submission through fear — the only possible way to bring down crime in our cities? Is Peace through Totalitarianism our only option?
Getting back to his logical rationale that “Chicago is the most dangerous city in the world” — If you go by Real Estate rankings, the most dangerous cities in the US are as follows: #1 Memphis, #2 Oakland, #3 St. Louis, #4 Baltimore, #5 Detroit, #6 Alexandria, LA, #7 Cleveland, OH, #8 New Orleans, LA, #9 Monroe, LA and #10 Pueblo, CO.
So Chicago isn’t even in the Top 10. For the record, Chicago isn’t in the Top 25.
If you want to compare to the entire world, it only gets worse. You get this list:
Most Dangerous Cities in the World
As you can see, Chicago doesn’t make the cut, but Memphis does.
But the MAGA’s laugh this off. Facts, Shmacks.
It’s all about how people Feel, not what is actual reality. You see that 50 people got shot so how can you feel safe?
Does anyone ask who those 50 people were? Does anyone ask where they were? Does anyone ask why they were shot? Are any of these cases going to be solved? Is anyone going to be arrested?
Generally, the answer to all those questions is “No!”
The first truth is that most of the people being shot in Chicago, are Black — but the lasting truth is that practically no one gives a shit or does anything about it.
You think I’m exaggerating and overstating the case? Read this:
The Chicago Police Department's clearance rates for crimes against Black citizens are significantly lower than for other racial groups. For example, a 2023 report found the clearance rate for homicides in predominantly Black neighborhoods was 21.7%, compared to 45.6% in predominantly White neighborhoods, as reported by WTTW News. This disparity is also evident in fatal shootings, where arrests in cases with Black victims are substantially lower than those with White victims, according to a May 2025 report from The Trace.
The rate of identifying and capturing those who kill black people is less than half the rate for those who kill white people. Let me put this another way, if your chances of getting away with killing a white person in Chicago are basically 50/50, the chances of you getting away from killing someone black is basically 4 to 1 in favor.
Some of this is based on the nature and circumstances of the crime. White killings are generally done by someone who knows the victim, and may even be a member of the family. If the wife dies, the first suspect is the husband.
Black people, quite often, are not killed by acquaintances. These shootings are happening between strangers. Many of these shootings are retaliation against the 80% of killers who have been getting away for decades — some of them are self-defense against a potential-perceived killer.
The police aren’t doing their jobs. The bad guys are getting away. The people are taking the “law” and their own self-protection in their own hands.
If 80% of the killers in your community were getting away with it, what would you do? Can you imagine how desperate that would make you? How much would that destroy your faith in law enforcement when you’ve gone through generations of your friends and family being killed without any consequence whatsoever?
No one is ever caught. No one is ever punished. No one is held accountable. And the killers are still out there — somewhere. Ready to do it again. And again.
How could you not try to defend yourself, your family, your neighborhood? And maybe you’ll get the right guy — and then again, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll become yet another killer yourself. Maybe you’ll end up hitting and injuring a complete bystander. It’s a dog-eat-dog kill-or-be-killed world out there.
This is exactly the world that the NRA says we need to have. They say if everybody has a gun, no one will have the nerve to use a gun.
I grew up in South Central LA. It’s not Chicago, but trust me, everyone had a gun, everyone knew everyone else probably had a gun — and they still used them.
Why do you think people did “drive-by” shootings? It’s because they knew the people they were about to shoot at were probably also armed. Knowing that doesn’t stop them; it just makes them adjust their tactics.
Results this low helps build mistrust in the police. Why cooperate and act as a witness when the cops probably aren’t going to do anything to protect you from retaliation?
“Snitches get stitches,” don’t they?
But, to be fair 21% is actually a massive improvement. When I last looked up this stat, it was barely in the double-digits. Some analyses going back years say that the rate has been below 10%.
Shooters, who have fired almost 11,000 gunshots in 30 Black Chicago neighborhoods since 2018, have rarely been arrested, according to a report that examined clearance rates statistics in non-fatal shootings recorded by the Chicago Police Department. The report, published in the Chicago Sun-Times, said the overall clearance rate for shootings in Chicago is 6 percent. The report said last year alone, there were about 2,300 non-fatal shootings, but only 141 people in those cases were arrested. The report said more than 19,000 people were wounded in shootings in Chicago since 2018. The Chicago Police Department has made arrests in 1,200 of those cases. According to data in the report, the majority of those shootings occurred in Chicago’s 30 Black neighborhoods on the South and West Sides, where there have been 10,758 shootings since 2018. Only 663 people have been arrested, which is a 6.2 percent clearance rate. Overall, 17 neighborhoods had clearance rates lower than the city average of 6 percent, according to figures in the report.
6.2%.
That’s just the number of people who were arrested. It’s not even the number of people who went on trial or were convicted. So, going all the way back to 2018, the chance of getting away with murder in a black Chicago neighborhood was 94%!!
Part of the reason things have improved to 21% has been the efforts of Chicago’s current mayor, Brandon Johnson who was confronted by Joe Scarborough on why he doesn’t think 5,000 more police would help bring down crime.
Scarborough: Do you belive that the streets of Chicago would be safer if there were more uniformed police officers on the streets of Chicago. Johnson: I believe the city Chicago and cities around America would be safer If we had affordable housing. Scarborough: That’s not the question I asked...
Now, some have scoffed at this answer. The MAGAs think this is rich. But Johnson went on and held his ground with more specifics and details.
Here’s a version of the discussion with Johnson that hasn’t been edited by Right-leaning media:
At 7:11 in the discussion, Brandon says this as Scarborough repeats the question:
Scarborough: Would an additional 5,000 cops on the streets of Chicago help compliment those programs to make Chicago safer? Johnson: Look, we are working hard to make sure our police dept. is fully supported. I don’t believe that just simply putting out an arbitrary number around police officers is the answer. What I’m saying is that (we need) policing and affordable housing. It’s policing and mental and behavioral healthcare services. it’s policing and youth employment. It’s a full package. Of course, we want to make sure that our police dept is fully supported. That’s why I’ve invested in our detectives bureau.
Which is why the clearance rates has recently improved by a factor 3.5 times greater from 6% to 21%.
Johnson: Because what we’ve seen in the city of Chicago is that when we solve crime, it acts as a deterrent. It’s policing and all of the other efforts that we’re doing. Here’s the last thing that I’ll say to that. The Federal Government could work stronger to coordinate with my police department to get guns off the streets of Chicago. We’ve seen these coordinate efforts work. Just a couple of weeks ago the ATF worked with my police department. We removed over 150 guns of the streets of Chicago that were trafficked in through Mississippi and Indiana. No one is saying that police officers don’t play an incredible role in driving safety. They play an absolute pivotal role in that. But we have asked law enforcement to do too much. Police officers are being asked to be social workers. Counselors. What I’m simply saying is, if we’re going to build safe cities across America, the one thing safe communities all have in common: they invest in people. We have a poverty issue in the city of Chicago and cities across America. Police officers alone will not put food on the table. Police officers alone with not guarantee a high education. Police officers alone won’t drive down unemployment. We need all of it. The President could restore Medicaid, they could restore SNAP. They could stop defunding out public education system. Here’s the most important point here: Justice Brandeis over a 100 years ago, the first Jewish American to sit on the Supreme Court, said we could either have a Democracy or Wealth in the hands of the concentrated few, but we can not have both. We are fighting for our Democracy and our Humanity right now. This president nescience of the Constitution will leave irrevocable harm on posterity. That’s why as mayor of the city of Chicago, we are standing up to tyranny and American cities around the nation are doing the same.
That’s an answer. That’s the answer to the false argument that “More Cops=Less Crime.” What are you expecting them to do, catch the bullets as they fly through the air with their bare hands? Crime has been coming down in Chicago because they’ve been addressing it in the right way, at the source. They’ve been attacking poverty.
Many studies have documented the direct connection between poverty, crime and violence. Many parts of many American cities have large swaths of poverty, including Chicago, that were deliberately built and entrenched by racism and Jim Crow, Red-Lining and Racial Covenants, enforced by entrenched, biased employment, housing, loans, and law enforcement. All that didn’t just happen in the South; it happened in the North, also.
Sure, we need to support the police. But they didn’t start all the problems; they can’t solve them on their own.
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