Reading another story about the violence in Chicago is like watching the movie “Groundhog Day,” where every day feels much like the previous.
Each year, the people in power promise that they have the secret formula to make the city safer for the innocent people who are dodging chaos on a daily basis — but inevitably nothing changes.
With every passing year, their mayors become increasingly ideological by projecting a fantasy world where singularly expressing compassion for the people who show none for the rest of us will suddenly decrease the frequency of bullets entering the bodies of the innocent.
Chicago’s new mayor, Brandon Johnson, faced his first real test by attempting to manage the historically violent weekend.
On Thursday, Johnson announced his comprehensive safety plan, which aims to invest $2.5 million from the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities Chicago fund to support the more than 200 grassroots violence-prevention and youth-outreach organizations throughout the city.
“With Memorial Day marking the start of summer in Chicago, it’s crucial that our city puts forward a comprehensive public safety strategy, including vital investments in our city’s young people,” stated Mayor Johnson.
“My administration’s top priority is building a city where every single resident feels safe, and in order to do that, we need everyone at the table.”
Despite Johnson’s plan, this Memorial Day weekend would result in the deadliest one since 2015, with 11 people killed and 46 wounded.
Amongst the weekend’s havoc, five people were shot in Lakeview, the city’s northside neighborhood, including 35-year-old William Hair, whose friend attempted to save his life.
“He was there with his best friend,” stated the victim’s father, Bill.
“They . . . didn’t have a chance to do anything. His best friend, thank God, was with him and valiantly tried to save his life, and performed CPR, helped him breathe. My son fought for his life, but he was gone.”
While there may have been an effort to curb the violence and begin marking his mayoral tenure with an impression to lead Chicago in a more peaceful direction, the methodology and money thrown at local organizations ultimately resulted in much of what we’ve already seen before.
But here is the 2.5-million-dollar question: Who pays for the consequences of another failed strategy?
The innocent do, not those in power.
The mayor of Chicago can afford to gamble on implementing progressive “holistic” measures to deter the most violent people who roam throughout the city because he now lives comfortably under police protection.
But the people of Chicago will always pay the gambling debts created by the most powerful.
Chicago is a politically demoralized century-long one-party-rule city, as exemplified by its incredibly low 30% registered voter turnout in the previous mayoral election.
There is no end in sight for the repetitious nature of its abject failure to protect its citizens.
It’s why many Chicagoans are choosing exodus over hoping for change.
In 2022, 94,344 residents moved out of Cook County, the second-highest population loss of any county in the nation (Los Angeles County being first).
Instead of living life constantly looking over their shoulders or having to normalize remaining in a city where tragedy is acceptably commonplace, many are choosing U-Haul over voting ballots.
They don’t believe Chicago will change — and why should they?
They’ve seen this movie before.
Adam B. Coleman is the author of “Black Victim to Black Victor” and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. Follow him on Substack: adambcoleman.substack.com.