Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told CNN that funding for reparations in his new budget would help get to the root of the city’s noted violent crime epidemic.
Speaking to network anchor Poppy Harlow on Wednesday’s “CNN This Morning,” Johnson acknowledged Chicago’s high crime rate and declared that the “full power of government” is needed to solve it, including the city throwing $500,000 at a reparations program.
Harlow prompted his answer by citing Chicago Police Department statistics that revealed that while “homicide rates are down from 2022,” “all other forms of violent crime, Mr. Mayor, are up from a year ago, up 17% overall.”
“Will Chicagoans be safer in 2024?” the anchor asked.
Johnson, who has been mayor of the Democratic-run city for about seven months, claims the solution to the problem lies in the government’s primary response, and “a complete community safety plan,” he claims, “not just getting to the grassroots. causing violence in the city of Chicago,” but making “critical investments.”
He listed the investments: “A quarter of a billion dollars to address homelessness, $100 million for terrorism prevention. We added another 80 million dollars to our youth employment program where we hired 25,000 young people this summer. That is a 20% increase from the previous year.”
Johnson also touted his proposal “to hire 4,000 additional young people this summer,” adding, “We’ve established an entire office dedicated to reentry. So individuals returning to our communities who have been incarcerated because of failed policies will have a space which is welcome for them.”
He then talked about city funds being diverted to provide reparations for his African American community. “I’ve added half a million dollars for rehabilitation and repairs to address, again, the cycle of violence, which looks like closing schools, closing mental health facilities, which I’ve invested in now. We will open two mental health clinics that have been closed from the previous two administrations.”
Johnson claims the solution to the problem lies in a big government response, and a “comprehensive community safety plan.” CBS News Chicago
“So, for us to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago, it takes investment,” he reiterated, “and that’s what this budget has done – a $16.77 billion budget without raising property taxes, and we’re just getting started in the city. Chicago.”
Johnson also described being personally affected by the city’s struggles, telling Harlow, “Look, my wife and I, we raised our three kids on the West Side of Chicago. It’s a beautiful part of town. We love it. But it’s also been a side of Chicago. who have suffered gross disinvestment, from school closings, from lack of transportation, from lack of investment; So I wake up every day in one of the toughest parts of the city.”
“So, nobody in this city thinks about public safety more than someone like me, who raised a family on the West Side of Chicago,” the mayor added.
Chicago police work at the scene of a shooting near a baseball field in Washington Park on September 13, 2022. AP
Johnson’s reparations plan is the latest in a string of Democratic Party leaders rejecting the controversial policy. Gov. Kathy Hochul, DN.Y., signed a bill this month creating a state commission “to study the history of slavery in the state of New York” and examine its impact on African Americans throughout the state’s history.
Earlier this year, the California Reparations Task Force proposed that Black Californians receive up to $1 million in payment for the state’s treatment of their ancestors.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
