With Chicago’s Streets Awash with Crime, Brandon Johnson Launches Meaningless Gun Violence Office

Brandon Johnson expanding bureaucracy and rewarding cronies after bloody Father's Day weekend

Instead of dealing with his blood-soaked streets, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is pretending he's "doing something" by launching another do-nothing, bureaucratic office, this one called the "Office of Gun Violence Reduction," staffed with cronies making big salaries.

Every weekend, Chicago suffers dozens of its citizens shot and often as many as eight to 12 killed. Over the full Father's Day weekend, for instance, 56 were shot and 13 killed. That weekend marked the city's 300th fatality this year, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The high death toll is not new for Johnson. It has been happening since he was elected to the mayor's office. So, what is he doing to address the embarrassing weekly blood-letting? Why, he is throwing more tax dollars at yet another meaningless government bureaucracy, of course!

Days after the disastrous Father’s Day death toll, Johnson sprang into action to save the city by announcing the formation of another government office. On June 25, Johnson signed an executive order creating the "Office of Gun Violence Reduction," a new division of the mayor’s office that is supposed to focus on violence prevention, analyzing crime data, and suggest and monitor new programs to address Chicago's endemic gang violence.

Johnson appointed Emmanuel Andre to head the new venture. Andre is the city's $184,000 a year Deputy Mayor for Community Safety who was appointed to the office in April after Johnson fired the former deputy mayor, Garien Gatewood.

Along with Andre's big salary, this new office will have an even greater budget of a whopping $100 million annually. That sure seems like money that could be invested in Chicago's neighborhoods to improve people's lives, instead of being put into yet another pointless government office.

It's all just more blather from Johnson about how he is working so hard to end violence in Chicago, even as he creates another opportunity to give more high-paying jobs to his cronies.

Instead of doing something substantive, like bringing back ShotSpotter or something similar — something even community activists support — he's looking to create more government busywork.

Still, some of Johnson's supporters praised the new office claiming that having a single entity in City Hall to coordinate violence prevention efforts will help bring real solutions and give community activists one place to go to plead for more city funding and other things activists want, instead of trying to deal with a bewildering array of offices, departments, and bureaucrats.

If Johnson really wants to fix Chicago's violence problem, there is already a perfect roadmap to follow. But Johnson has not merely ignored the solution, but he has outright denounced it.

After the Father's Day bloodletting, President Donald Trump renewed his call to Chicago to partner with him to help reduce crime like he did in Washington D.C.

"Lots of Killing going on in Chicago. 22 people shot, at least 4 Dead. Why isn’t Governor Pritzker calling me for help. I could make Chicago a safe City in ONE MONTH, in ONE YEAR, it would be one of the safest!!! D.C. went from one of the worst, to one of the safest cities in the U.S.," the president wrote on his Truth Social.

Indeed, the president is correct. Crime rates have plummeted in Washington, D.C., since the president brought in his forces to help clean up the capitol city. Statistics show homicides are down by 39 percent, robberies by 21 percent, property crime 25 percent, and total crime is down 22 percent, year-to-date.

Of course, Johnson has spurned the president's offer and instead called Trump a dictator and racist. This may factor into why seven in 10 Chicagoans say they are not all that interested in re-electing Johnson to the mayor's office.

As Crain's Chicago Business recently reported: "According to the survey conducted for One Future Illinois, a business backed group that has been critical of the mayor, 71 percent of poll respondents said they are not inclined to vote to re-elect him for a second term in the February 2027 city election."

The same poll found that 66 percent do not approve of Johnson's job performance and 46 percent strongly disapprove. Only 34 percent gave him a passing grade.

Instead of rearranging the deck chairs on his own private titanic and creating more busywork “offices” at City Hall, Johnson should seize on Trump’s offer of help and bring some real change to the Windy City.