Chicago's Lightfoot light on crime and under fire

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot allowed two of her top aides to take time off over the deadly July 4th weekend after promising an "all hands on deck" strategy to deal with the huge spike in shootings across the city.

Sybil Madison, the Mayor's chief of staff emailed city workers that she would be out of the office on Thursday and Friday ahead of the Fourth of July, according to the Chicago Tribune, and deputy mayor John O'Malley was also going to be out most of the same weekend. While they were enjoying time away from their jobs, over 100 people were shot and 18 died of their wounds. Of the wounded, 11 were children, some as young as 5 and 6.

Sybil Madison

Light on crime Lightfoot and Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown, bemoaned the fact that the July 2nd City Council emergency meeting would distract from efforts to confront street crime during the anticipated most violent weekend of the year that came to be as called. One strategy Brown called for was to cancel time-off for officers while Lightfoot's top aides were able to escape and not have to dodge bullets.

Chicago cops worked 12-hour shifts during the Fourth of July weekend to increase street presence, but guns went off and people were hit with hot lead. Lightfoot and her Party blame the guns, not the shooters.

"We were told the meeting we had last week was a waste of time but your people are out of the office," South Side Alderman Anthony Beale told the Tribune, criticizing Lightfoot’s "poor leadership" in allowing her top deputies to take time out of the office "when we need them the most."

"She allowed her staff to go on vacation days the week before what is traditionally the most dangerous weekend in the city of Chicago – is outrageous," Alderman Ray Lopez, who represents the 15th Ward, told local news outlet Fox 32. "It shows there's a complete lack of commitment toward addressing the violence."

"We’ve heard about the ‘whole of government’ approach for weeks now," he echoed in separate remarks to the Tribune. "But I guess that doesn’t apply to the people responsible for actually creating the policies."

Lightfoot's office responded Friday while she was returning from a crime-free fundraising trip in California, which is not part of Chicago nor even part of Illinois.

"Working in the mayor's office is a 24/7, 365 job, and members of the mayor's senior staff are constantly connected," a spokesman falsely claimed. "Those responsible for on-the-ground operations continued to execute over the holiday weekend, and the Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff were fully engaged every day."

Back in May 2019, after Lightfoot assumed office, she banned top leadership at the police department from doing what she and her top aides were doing, which was taking time off during the summer months. She said that the police, not her and those in her leadership positions, set the example for the rank-and-file officers. 

So presumably it's okay for Lightfoot and her staff to lay out on a beach somewhere, a martini between their toes, sunscreen on their bodies, and enjoy time away from the fray.

At the aforementioned press conference Brown attended, he blasted the court system for its "out of control" principle that allows allegedly violent offenders to be released back onto the streets to finish their own definition of justice.

"There are too many violent offenders and too little consequence in our courts. There are too many illegal guns in our city and too little consequences in the courts," Supt. Brown said. "The courts have created an unsafe environment for large crowd gatherings because you've released people charged with murder back into these same communities where they committed this heinous crime."

It seems as if Lori Lightfoot believes that #AllThugLivesMatter

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