In the face of nationwide calls for withdrawal from the police department and the surge in criminal activity in major cities, the number of Chicago police retiring this year has exceeded the total number of retiring in 2018 and is expected to be the highest number ever. department.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, these figures come from the Police Pension Committee. Statistics show that between January and June, about 363 police officers retired, and another 56 police officers are expected to retire this month.
“We are on track, I believe to have one of the highest retirement numbers in the city’s history,” Ald. Ray Lopez told the newspaper.
Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera quoted Superintendent David Brown and Mayor Lori Lightfoot as saying that the city has about 117,000 gang members, The ratio to the number of 13,000 police officers in the city is approximately 10:1.
11 more murdered in #Chicago. #MayorLoriLightfoot says there are 117,000 gang members vs 12-13,000 cops, Gangsters outnumber cops 10 to 1.
A joint federal, state and local effort urgently needed. Constitutional implementation of stop & frisk, massive use of Rico. #GhettoCivilWar— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) July 12, 2021
“To me, the miracle in Chicago isn’t that 11 were killed this weekend and 19 the weekend before, it’s that it was not worse than that,” Rivera later said to Fox News Digital, elaborating on his earlier comments.
He accused the efforts to prevent police enforcement from allowing an environment like Chicago to drive 117,000 gang members.
“All you can do with this defund the police nonsense is ignore the fact that you are essentially assigning a third-world existence to a huge segment of the population all in the name of anti-racism,” Rivera said.
At the same time, Chicago native and Fox News’ Gianno Caldwell said that residents have lost confidence in the leadership of Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the ability of city officials to protect residents.
“Considering that we have had two weekends this year with over 100 people shot in Chicago, I would say the city is in war zone status,” Caldwell said in a statement.
Law enforcement leaders across the country say they are fighting an increase in shootings and homicides. They are dealing with retirement and staff reduction, and it is difficult to hire officials to help roll back.
President Joe Biden met with city leaders at the White House on Monday, including Eric Adams, who is most likely to become the next mayor of New York City, to address the increase in shootings as Democrats are cautiously focusing on shootings across the country. event.
Although limited to what can be done at the federal level, Biden vowed to support field efforts to combat crime.
“We know when we utilize trusted community members and encourage more community policing, we can intervene before the violence erupts,” the president said.
After the meeting, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown tweeted, “we need a sense of urgency right now so we can save lives and serious consequences for those driving gun violence in our cities.”
In my meeting with other leaders from across the country and @POTUS today, we discussed both short-term and long-term solutions to gun violence. We need a sense of urgency right now so we can save lives and serious consequences for those driving gun violence in our cities. https://t.co/2LVWwLypCs
— Chicago Police Superintendent David O. Brown (@ChiefDavidBrown) July 12, 2021
This meeting is the second meeting in just three weeks. Mayors and legislators in large cities have issued warnings about rising crime rates, believed to be partly due to the destabilizing forces of the pandemic. Opinion polls show that this is a growing concern for many Americans. Criminal activities are common in the summer. The federal government has been working hard to intensify its efforts, launching strikes in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, DC to help combat the illegal arms trade.
