Gun violence surged in Chicago over Labor Day weekend as local Democrats continue to resist President Trump’s proposal to deploy the National Guard to the Windy City.
At least 54 people were shot over the weekend, seven fatally, police said, marking a significant uptick from Labor Day weekend last year and doubling the number of shootings that occurred in the city the previous weekend.
At the end of August, Trump said that Chicago is next on his list of cities that he wants to send the National Guard to, but the Democratic Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, insists he will not work with the guard.
Johnson signed an executive order Saturday, declaring that local police officers will not work with or collaborate with any federal officers or National Guard troops if Trump deploys them to Chicago.
“This executive order makes it emphatically clear that this president is not going to come in and deputize our police department,” Johnson said at a press conference.
Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker also adamantly disagrees with the president’s desire to send the National Guard.
Pritzker told CBS News the alleged plan is an “invasion” and that “It’s clear that, in secret, they’re planning this — well, it’s an invasion with U.S. troops, if they, in fact, do that.”
With gun violence on the rise, Johnson opted to discontinue the city’s contract with ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection technology that helps police respond quickly to shootings in neighborhoods where gunshots often go unreported. During the first eight months of 2024, Chicago police arrested hundreds of people and recovered hundreds of guns and nearly 30,000 shell casings in part because of alerts from their ShotSpotter gun-shot detection system, NR previously reported.
This Labor Day weekend saw an uptick in crime from the same weekend last year, when 42 people were shot, according to local news.
Trump’s push to send the National Guard comes after his deployment of troops in Washington D.C., which appear to have decreased crime dramatically in the city.
The White House reported last week that crime has decreased radically in the city, with “robbery down 46% carjacking down 83%, and violent crime down 22%.”
“We’ll straighten that one out, probably next, that will be our next one after this,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York.”
Pritzker plans to hold a press conference Tuesday, right after the violent holiday weekend, to discuss the potential deployment of National Guard troops in his state’s biggest city.