


The city of Chicago will do anything to stop crime other than supporting police officers and putting criminals in jail. Unsurprisingly, that leads to several dumb, ineffective proposals that are making the crime issue worse.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) was excited to launch the new Citywide Crisis Prevention and Response Unit for Memorial Day weekend, which is typically a violent weekend in Chicago. Mayor Brandon Johnson offered some vague promises about focusing on safety ahead of the weekend. So, what did this all look like in reality?
This weekend, Chicagoans should expect to see yellow-vested Peacekeepers on the streets.
— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) May 25, 2023
As part of the state's anti-violence strategy with a community-focused approach, these outreach workers will help de-escalate and keep our neighborhoods safe. https://t.co/Qu1cquGaHB
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For starters, the state of Illinois would use “30+ peacekeepers” to provide “essential assistance in deescalation, conflict resolution, and crisis support.” Yes, 30 or so people in a city of 2.7 million, enough to cover maybe four blocks. Surely that small army would be able to help “deescalate” shootings and walk would-be killers through some “conflict resolution.”
In the end, 57 people were shot and 11 were killed over the holiday weekend, the deadliest one since 2015. As it turns out, 30 people wearing yellow vests trained in “conflict resolution” are not going to solve the crime issue in one of the country’s most violent cities.
In fact, to add insult to fatal injuries, it would seem that Chicago’s peacekeeper plan more likely contributed to one more crime than it prevented. Oscar Montes, wearing one of those yellow peacekeeper vests, is accused of helping a group of thugs beat and rob a motorist on Friday night. He was charged with robbery, aggravated battery, and unlawful vehicular invasion.
What’s worse, Montes was on parole after pleading down from attempted murder to aggravated discharge of a firearm into an occupied vehicle in 2012. He was let out of jail last year with two years remaining on his sentence. At best, it is so easy to imitate a peacekeeper that criminals can do it with a simple vest. At worst, Chicago used a convicted criminal as one of its 30-plus deescalation volunteers.
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In other words, Chicago would rather allow the inmates to run the asylum than allow the police to do their jobs. Are we supposed to be surprised that this didn’t make people safer?
If you are looking for a silver lining, you will have to look elsewhere. Johnson supported defunding police departments and has openly defended criminals as just being “silly.” Pritzker has supported much of the same soft-on-crime policies that have put Chicago in this position, including signing into law the elimination of cash bail. Chicago’s problems are going to get much worse before they get better, because no one in charge wants to treat criminals like criminals.