Shooting incidents at Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony should convince city to adopt revised curfew measure
Alderman Brian Hopkins (2) has moved to give more power to the Chicago Police to deal with violent and dangerous teen takeovers of the city in the wake of the many crimes — including murder — that have occurred during these chaotic mob scenes which have wracked the city for years. Hopkins, though, continues to toil at this task in the face of stiff resistance from Mayor Brandon Johnson who doesn’t want to do anything to prevent these crimes.
Hopkins, who chairs the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety, has advanced yet another proposal for curfews and wants to enlarge the window for the Chicago Police Department to call for a curfew to not less than 12 hours to give law enforcement time to make plans and officer deployments to head off troubles. The alderman also wants to require CPD officials to announce an official expiration time for a curfew of no more than four hours from the start time of the prohibition. This provision would force police to limit the length of any curfew — in other words, preventing the police from trying to extend curfews indefinitely.
Superintendent of Police Larry Snelling had sought the capability to almost immediately impose a three-hour-long curfew with only a 30-minute notice, termed a "snap curfew." But the move was stalled in City Hall by Johnson's confederates. And Johnson vetoed such a curfew measure back in July.
Coddling left-wingers opposed the snap curfew claiming that it gave police too much power. The Cook County Public Defender's Office, for instance, insisted that the quick, 30-minute timeline offered "little or no opportunity for young people and their caregivers to respond appropriately." The group further claimed, "Its passage would set the stage for arbitrary sweeps and increase unnecessary and dangerous police interactions with youth."
But it is instructive that all this opposition never seems to include much by way of counter proposals on what to do to stop these teen takeovers and to keep the public and their property safe. Instead, it was all deemed "racist" and waved off.
Meanwhile, these criminal mobs are killing people. In November, Armani Floyd, who was only 14, ended up shot down and killed outside the Chicago Theatre during one of these mob attacks on the Loop area. Eight others were wounded during the same weekend, the Sun-Times reported at the time.
Oh, but Mayor Johnson was full of finger wagging afterward, puffing himself up as somehow caring about stopping violence. "The holiday season is a time when we come together as a city. This is the opposite type of behavior that anybody wants to see. We have too many guns and too many young people who don’t value their own lives or the lives of others," he said piously.
"When we have a setback like this, it just reminds us of the long road that we have to build a city that we all want to live in," Johnson added. One is hard pressed to cite anything other than "setbacks" in this mayor's blighted term.
Alderman Hopkins, though, is hoping he has finally found the right balance between public safety and satisfying Mayor Johnson's constant race baiting excuses to shoot down the attempts to protect it.
Hopkins says that his newest effort "solves all of the concerns the mayor had. His justification for the veto is no longer valid." He added, "I hope he will not veto it. I don’t think he will."
Unfortunately, even Hopkins knows the 12-hour notice provision could give criminal organizers of these mob takeovers time to adjust their own plans and shift to new locations. But he also knows something has to be done to put an end to Johnson's dangerous recalcitrance and to get at least some plan into effect.
"This is not perfect. But there’s already some talk about New Year’s Eve. It’s no longer only in the summer months. It’s happening year-round. We have to do everything we can to stop it," Hopkins said.
"The event that happened after the Christmas tree-lighting where the 14-year-old was shot and killed, we started enforcing the curfew at 10 p.m. Police moved in and immediately made 18 curfew apprehensions. That had an immediate effect on the crowd. Had we been able to enforce curfew earlier that day, it could have prevented a fatal shooting," the alderman insisted.
For his part, Mayor Johnson has spent far more energy running interference for these teenaged terrors and none working to protect the people of Chicago. All he offers is objections to plans to give the CPD tools to fight crimes that are planned at the speed of the Internet.
Police already start from behind due to the very nature of these teen takeovers, and yet, Johnson stands there currying publicity and screaming "racism" at every opportunity instead of trying to be part of a solution.
It is hoped that Hopkins will succeed, at last. Some kind of plan is better than the nothing Johnson offers. Johnson should sign onto the alderman's efforts. The mayor's office has turned a blind eye to this chaos long enough.
