...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
's law enforcement community are taking offense with a comment made by Mayor Brandon Johnson
...Hizzonner da Mare of Chicago. He was elected in April 2023 to replace the disastrous Lori Lightfoot and immediately set about out-Richtering her. A member of the Democratic Party (naturally), Johnson previously worked as a social studies teacher in the city's stellar public schools system. He helped organize the 2012 teachers strike. Prior to becoming Da Mare, he served on the Cook County Board of Boodling Commissioners from 2018 to 2023..., after he said this week, in part, "jails and incarceration and law enforcement is a sickness."
The comment sparked outrage online and in the Cook County State's Attorney's office.
Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke said she was deeply offended by the statement.
Some argued that Johnson's words were taken out of context.
"It's different in English"
During a presser on Tuesday, Johnson was responding to a question about how to make Chicagoans feel safe in their communities:
"The fact of the matter is, we are driving violence down in this city, and we're using every single resource that's available to us. Jails and incarceration and law enforcement is a sickness that has not led to safe communities" Johnson said.
The "law enforcement is a sickness" comment drew outrage in some conservative and pro-police circles on social media — even prompting O'Neill Burke to voice her own outrage during an interview on a different topic.
"The statement was disappointing and disheartening. We are part of law enforcement. The State's Attorney's office is the prosecution arm, and that is clearly law enforcement," she said. "I have 1,300 people who work in this office, who are dedicated public servants, who get up every single day to make sure that they keep women safe from domestic violence, to make sure that we are doing our jobs in protecting children from being sex trafficked, to make sure that we are prosecuting murder cases. What we do every day does not call for our eradication."