City’s most violent Memorial Day weekend in 7 years ‘intolerable,’ Mayor Brandon Johnson says
Reducing crime wave will take time, says City Hall source.
By Fran Spielman and David Struett
May 30, 2023, 6:05pm
https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/...Y_052623_5.jpgMayor Brandon Johnson (left) listens to interim Chicago Police Supt. Fred Waller at a news conference last week.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
When Memorial Day weekend of 2020 ended with 39 people shot and 10 of them dead, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot called it a “bloodbath” and a “fail” by
her newly hired Police Supt. David Brown.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s approach after this year’s long holiday weekend was markedly different.
The weekend ended with 59 people shot, 11 of them killed. And while Johnson said the level of violence — the most shooting victims since 2016 — was “intolerable,” he didn’t undercut interim Chicago Police Supt. Fred Waller.
“It produced pain and trauma that devastated communities across Chicago, and my heart breaks for everyone affected,” Johnson said in a statement issued late Tuesday afternoon. “That’s why as mayor, I am committed to leveraging every single resource at our disposal to protect every single life in our city.”
A City Hall source, who asked to remain anonymous, said Johnson is well aware that reducing the violent crime wave that dominated the mayoral campaign will take time.
Memorial Day weekend is a “complicated ecosystem” that involves “multiple public safety challenges,” the City Hall source said.
This year, his administration distributed $2.5 million to 253 grassroots organizations so they could hold barbecues, sporting events and other constructive activities for young people and families over the long holiday weekend.
Another part of the challenge is securing “public congregate spaces” like lakefront beaches, downtown and neighborhood commercial corridors and street festivals. That requires a “significant presence” of police officers, the source said.
“There was a lot of activity going on, and that activity was safe, by and large. We had additional activity going on because of these community organizations all over the city, and they had many successful events engaging families and young people in particular. We didn’t see the significant incidents that we’ve had downtown for the most part, by and large,” the City Hall source said, without mentioning the shooting that closed North Avenue beach for a few hours on Friday afternoon.
Thank goodness our suburb's parade and parade goers in May didn't get shot up. I didn't go, and kept listening for pop pop pop.
