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CBS News
3 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Around 1,000 motorcyclists take part in Chicago Police Memorial Foundation Ride to Remember
Around 1,000 motorcyclists took to Chicago roads Sunday to remember police officers who went above and beyond the call of duty for Chicago. The 21st Annual Chicago Police Memorial Foundation's Area Four Ride to Remember took off from the United Center Sunday morning. The ride honored officers who were killed or catastrophically injured on the job. It ended at the Gold Star Families Memorial in Burnham Park, east of Soldier Field. There were ceremonies and tributes to the fallen and the loved ones they left behind. Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling spoke at the event at the memorial, as did Chicago Police Memorial Foundation Executive Director Phil Cline — himself a former police superintendent. All proceeds from the Ride to Remember are donated to the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation.
CBS News
22-05-2025
- CBS News
Mayor Brandon Johnson announces Chicago's summer safety plan ahead of busy Memorial Day weekend
Several Chicago festivals, events, and concerts are happening this Memorial Day weekend to kick off the unofficial start to summer, but the warmer months also typically bring a rise in violent crime. With that in mind, Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling outlined their summer safety plans on Thursday. City leaders said it will be a collaborative effort with community leaders. "City government alone cannot bring that healing that our communities need. We need everyone to rally together in this moment," Johnson said. From packed street festivals like Sueños to Chicago's beaches officially opening for the swimming season, Memorial Day weekend starts a fun-filled summer for Chicago, but it can also bring safety concerns. Data shows last Memorial Day weekend, 41 people were shot in Chicago, 12 of them fatally. As the mayor outlined the city's summer safety plan, Johnson said shootings overall this year are down 36% compared to the same time last year; homicides and other violent crimes are down 21%. In order to keep violence down, the mayor called on help from community groups, like Brilliance and Excellence, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting safe and peaceful communities. Two years ago, the group created a proposal called Operation Trend. They would work with churches, businesses, and other youth organizations from their community to bring kids downtown and supervise them. They brought their plan to the mayor's team, but never heard back. "The Operation Trend, that still needs to be a conversation that we took to City Hall. You were there. You followed us all the way through. We still haven't had a chance to really share our 13-page plan about Operation Trend," said Vondale Singleton, founder and CEO of CHAMPS Mentoring. Singleton said they have real solutions, but it will take resources and a concerted effort from everyone, something they hope they can accomplish this summer season. "We're talking about decades of disinvestments. It's going to take all of us as a collective to respond to decades-old problems," Johnson said. The CTA said, beginning June 23, they're going to give 250 students and young adults a 7-week paid summer internship. To help keep violence down, the Chicago Park District said they're bringing back late-night basketball and soccer games to provide a safe nighttime activity for youths.
CBS News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Chicago City Council committee to resume debate of controversial "snap curfew" ordinance
A Chicago City Council committee may vote Tuesday on a highly-debated proposal to allow police officials to impose temporary curfews anywhere in the city on as little as 30 minutes' notice in an effort to curb teen takeovers. Tuesday's meeting comes after the Public Safety Committee last month delayed a planned vote on the proposal backed by the panel's chairman, Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), following several hours of intense debate. The ordinance would allow Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling, with the consent of Mayor Brandon Johnson's deputy mayor for community safety, to activate "snap curfews" anywhere in the city with at least 30 minutes' notice in order to curb teen takeovers. The goal would be to impose targeted curfews in specific areas when mass gatherings are expected or underway, and there is reason to believe they could result in criminal activity or otherwise pose a risk to public safety. Civil rights lawyers and other opponents of the measure have warned that the proposal is unconstitutional because the reasons for imposing targeted curfews are too vague, and the measure would invite costly lawsuits. Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) argued such targeted curfews "could potentially lead to profiling and lead to limitations of people just exercising their freedoms of speech." Hopkins and the ordinance's supporters disagree, but co-sponsors Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) and Jason Ervin (28th) – who chair the influential Finance Committee and Budget Committee, respectively – said last month that they wanted to give more time for critics of the measure to review the latest version of the ordinance before any vote. Hopkins agreed to put off a vote on his proposal last month in hopes of bringing alders back to hear from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights advocates before voting on the ordinance in May. If the committee passes the ordinance on Tuesday, it would still have to go to the full council to be approved. Mayor Brandon Johnson has repeatedly said he is concerned about the constitutionality of Hopkins' proposal. "If the City Council moves forward with an ordinance that gives my administration and the Police Department the ability to implement a curfew, look, I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm not concerned about the constitutionality around it," Johnson said on Tuesday. The mayor said he wants to do more than simply prevent large teen gatherings from turning violent, "but that we're working together collectively to provide safe spaces for people to have an experience in Chicago that they should be able to enjoy. It's their right." "If we don't give young people real activity, if we don't help them find their purpose, we're just going to find ourselves in a tailspin. This is about not just prevention, but this is also about the investments, and that's why I'm very much focused on giving youth voices' power, but also that we're responding with resources as well," he said.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Editorial: It's not the messaging, Mr. Mayor. Your policies and governance are the problems.
We're halfway through Mayor Brandon Johnson's term, and the city the mayor described in a series of recent interviews to mark the milestone hardly resembles what we see. We agree with the mayor that Chicago is a great American city, made so by the people who live, work, play and love here. But in many other respects — a transit system that continues to perform unacceptably, public schools that cost too much and do a poor job of teaching our children, violent crime levels well above peer American cities and a local economy needlessly deprived of the dynamism that produced our uniquely beautiful skyline — Chicago is ailing. For all the unfair shots ideologically motivated critics take at the city, Chicagoans who've grown up here and made adult lives here know something has gone wrong these last two years. They've seen what this city looks and feels like when things are going well. And, judging from Johnson's rock-bottom public-approval numbers, many of them have concluded he's a big part of the current problem. The job of mayor is tough no matter who's in the office, but Chicago could be doing so much better with a different brand of leadership — and, really, a wholly different philosophy — than Johnson has brought to the fifth floor. Before we discuss what we think is wrong, let's recognize what Johnson has done well. Topping that list is appointing Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling, who has helped restore some measure of morale to the force, overseen a noteworthy reduction in violent crime and led a smooth Democratic National Convention in which protesters were allowed to have their say without sparking chaos. Likewise, Johnson's recent choice of Michael McMurray in the crucial post of aviation commissioner was solid. On the policy front, his Cut the Tape initiative, aimed at reducing the inexcusably long time it takes to win city approval for development projects, is laudable. The execution, however, has been too slow. And, more generally, no one doubts Johnson's love for Chicago and his honest desire to lift up neighborhoods that long have been neglected. But the losses and setbacks have far outnumbered the wins despite the City Council being populated with record numbers of self-described progressives, who (on paper at least) are allies of the mayor. Leave aside more moderate aldermen who from the start were unlikely to back Johnson's agenda; the mayor has struggled time and again to win support even from fellow progressives for high-priority initiatives. Many of those progressives have openly feuded with his administration. Likewise, when they've had the chance, voters have clearly expressed their displeasure with the mayor. The most striking example was the March 2024 rejection of his Bring Chicago Home referendum, which would have allowed the city to dramatically hike taxes on the sale of higher-priced residential and most all commercial property to fund homelessness programs. The school board elections last November were another warning sign. Improbably, candidates not endorsed by the mayor's most important political ally, the Chicago Teachers Union, won six of nine contested elections — a clear rebuke of the mayor. In interviews, Johnson's message at the halfway mark has consisted largely of the time-honored political tradition of acknowledging mistakes in the same way a job applicant responds to the question of describing their biggest flaw by saying they work too hard at times. In the mayor's telling, it's not any of the policies or their execution that explain his unpopularity; it's that he hasn't done enough to communicate all the wonderful things that are happening on his watch. He points to city initiatives like the so-called green social housing ordinance — one of his few victories in the City Council — which will have the city financing and for the first time taking direct ownership of affordable housing projects. He mentions early-term policy changes like eliminating the subminimum wage for tipped employees and imposing paid-leave mandates on businesses — initiatives that raise costs for existing businesses and discourage the creation of new ones. While the intentions behind these policies were mostly good, they don't make up for the lack of confidence private investors and job creators feel in the city under Johnson's leadership. It's not even close. The oft-cited dearth of cranes in Chicago's sky represents tangible evidence. More generally, the numbers confirm what Chicagoans see and feel as they move about the city. With the exception of a few retail strips in affluent neighborhoods, Chicago isn't thriving. It's not growing. It's lacking energy. And it's losing ground to competitors. Every year, on behalf of state government, Moody's produces a detailed and illuminating report on Illinois' economy. Those reports tell a damning tale of Johnson's term so far. In February 2023, three months before Johnson took office, Moody's pointed to Chicago employment growth of 3.5% over the previous year and observed that the performance 'outpaced' the Midwest and the U.S. as a whole. A year later, in February 2024, nine months into Johnson's term, Moody's said, 'Chicago's economy is showing signs of fatigue.' Job growth had slowed to just 0.8%, with most private-sector industries other than health care lagging. Wage gains also were worse in Chicago than in the country as a whole. The most recent report, from February 2025, was sadder still. 'Chicago's economy is trailing its large peers and the U.S. overall,' Moody's said. Employment was 'relatively flat for the past year and a half.' Throughout Johnson's tenure, the city's unemployment rate consistently has been about a percentage point above the national rate. Johnson describes himself as 'pro-business' and told Crain's Chicago Business he will 'put his record up against' any past mayor with a business-friendly reputation. Very few people actually doing business in Chicago would agree with the mayor's self-assessment. Johnson still doesn't seem to understand that economic development doesn't emanate mainly from City Hall and its programs — or shouldn't, anyway, in a healthy commercial ecosystem. Far more jobs and economic opportunity, including for people living on the South and West sides, are created when the city provides essential services at a reasonable cost and engenders confidence in those considering establishing new businesses or expanding existing ones that stability along those lines can be expected in the future. Thus far, the Johnson administration has failed in that basic task. On his watch, the city's debt rating has been downgraded for the first time in a decade. Unlike in past years, the administration last week barred journalists from attending any part of a two-day gathering with investors in which Johnson's finance team attempted to persuade them to buy hundreds of millions in new bonds the city wants to issue this year. Hardly inspires confidence. Facing a daunting budget deficit last year, the mayor proposed a $300 million property tax hike, summarily rejected by the City Council, thereby breaking a categorical campaign promise while refusing to consider layoffs or even furloughs to make ends meet. He's piling more debt on a city awash in IOUs and even pushed hard — again, failing so far, thankfully — for Chicago Public Schools to take on hundreds of millions in more debt despite being the largest issuer of junk-rated municipal bonds in the country. The mayor could be considered the epitome of a tax-and-spend Democrat, only he's typically unable to persuade fellow officeholders with similarly progressive views to green-light the taxes. So he's become a borrow-and-spend Democrat. For any mayor, the job entails two primary tasks before all else: public safety and financial stewardship. On the latter count, this mayor has been deeply disappointing so far. In our view, that's a major reason why Chicago's economy is stuck in the mud. It's not that Chicagoans haven't understood what you're selling, Mr. Mayor. The problem is what has been on offer. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@
Chicago Tribune
09-05-2025
- Chicago Tribune
David Greising: Gun buybacks in Chicago can do some good — but CPD owes us transparency
For close to 30 years, gun buybacks have been a high-profile part of the Chicago Police Department's attempts to stem the tide of violent crime — especially in under-resourced communities on Chicago's South and West sides. More than 30,000 weapons have been turned in citywide, usually in exchange for a $100 gift card. Nationwide, the federal government announced an allocation of $15 million in 1999 to support gun buybacks in 85 communities. As a symbolic gesture and as part of a more integrated approach to improving public safety, buybacks can do some good. But they need to be effectively run — and that includes ensuring that surrendered guns don't wind up back on the streets. All too often, that's not the case. According to a 2023 New York Times report, there is a mini-industry of companies that police departments hire to dispose of the guns. Some melt or shred them, but some of the vendors destroy only the part of each gun that contains a serial number. These companies then bundle and sell the rest of the parts in an aftermarket where the pieces are used to assemble new weapons — many of them untraceable 'ghost guns.' That wasn't part of anybody's gun-buyback master plan. Guns also sometimes just disappear after they're turned in, as the Illinois Answers Project, part of my organization the Better Government Association, reported last month. Working in partnership with the Sun-Times, Illinois Answers found that a Glock pistol wound up in the possession of a 16-year-old who later was arrested by Chicago police — roughly a year after the Glock was surrendered at a buyback in late 2023 at St. Sabina church. During that year, the .45-caliber pistol, which went missing from the Gresham District police station, was used in at least three crimes, Illinois Answers and the Sun-Times found. In one of them, a South Side woman was shot in the leg. The Chicago Police Department's response has been casual at best. The sergeant in charge when the gun disappeared was suspended from active duty — for a single day. Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling, at a news conference called to discuss something else, said the case of the missing Glock would be investigated but has said nothing since. A department spokesman said steps have been taken to prevent more surrendered guns from disappearing but did not provide details. CPD owes a full report to the city about what those remedial measures are. And we need to know, too, if the Glock's disappearance was part of a larger problem. After all, guns have value on the streets. If the CPD chain of custody is not secure between buyback and destruction, there is plenty of incentive for someone to snatch a surrendered gun and sell it for profit. Illinois Answers previously reported one other case in which a buyback gun reemerged. CPD needs to tell the public whether there have been more such cases. The idea of buybacks is to remove and destroy guns so they can do no more harm. The events garner media attention, with their photo-ready displays of firearms taken out of circulation. Police believe many surrenders are made by people who have no license to carry the guns or might have obtained them illegally. Usually, they're allowed to surrender the guns anonymously. And whether people turn in the guns out of a sense of public duty or for a $100 reward doesn't matter — so long as the guns are gone for good. But it's important to be real about an undeniable truth: Academic studies over years have found no way to prove that gun buybacks in U.S. cities are effective in reducing violence. The Rand Corp. surveyed the academic literature and found no proof that buybacks lead to fewer shootings, according to a 2023 report. The number of guns recovered at buybacks pales in comparison with the flood of firearms that makes the supply of guns seem bottomless. In fact, most of those who turned in guns at buybacks studied by one researcher had another gun back at home, available for use. A separate paper found large numbers of surrendered guns either were not functional or were far older than the models typically used in street crimes. Chicago's mayors and police have been fairly realistic about the limitations. They have used buybacks mainly as a minor tactic in citywide violence-reduction strategies. When used this way — as mayors have done since the first buyback in 2006 — buybacks can help, as a communication tool if little else. Serving as a public relations tool, a way of building awareness and community support for other, more effective public safety measures, they can do some good. For nearly two decades now, St. Sabina in Chicago's Auburn Gresham neighborhood has been a key partner in the city's gun buyback initiatives. More than 5,000 guns have been turned in at St. Sabina, Illinois Answers and the Sun-Times reported. That's more than 15% of the city's total. The Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina, who has made crime reduction a signature of his decadeslong tenure at his parish, has used the buybacks for messaging, too. Over the years, he has paid for billboards and staged marches through violence-prone neighborhoods. For Pfleger and his partners in crime reduction, as for the city, the buybacks fit into a strategy of opening a conversation about addressing violent crime, informing people about how they can be part of the solution. Buybacks alone won't do much good. Year by year, more guns flow into Chicago from Indiana, or the suburban towns of Riverdale and Lyons, than are recovered in gun buybacks, according to federal data and news reports. Straw purchasers, in Illinois and Indiana, buy weapons, then flip them to people who cannot legally own guns — people more likely to commit gun crimes. Street guns will always be with us, no matter how ambitious the buyback effort, and letting a gun go missing — as the Chicago police have done — risks undermining confidence in buybacks, dulling their usefulness as a part of efforts that include community policing, investment in neighborhoods, the building of support for community violence intervention and more. Throwing the whole weight of government and community toward violence reduction is Chicago's best bet in efforts to reduce the frequency and tragic costs of gun violence. For gun buybacks to contribute meaningfully, CPD needs to build confidence that surrendered guns will stay off the streets for good.
