CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Mayor Brandon Johnson said he’s not shying away from his responsibility for trying to control the violence that still plagues the city each weekend, but he also gave critics a reality check.
Mayor Johnson was not avoiding the topic of gun violence that saw so many victims last weekend.
“I knew what I was inheriting when I became the mayor of the City of Chicago. I knew it,” Johnson said.
While he said efficient policing is vital to reducing violent crime in Chicago, so is addressing the decades of disinvestment in Chicago’s Black and Brown neighborhoods that have left some who live there in despair.
“I understand my responsibility, but if anyone tells you that they can single handedly shift the political mindset that has led to the type of disinvestment that is causing the outbreak of the violence we all are experiencing, if any one person says that they can do that, they’re not being honest,” said Johnson.
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As he now says regularly, ”it’s going to take all of us,”: police, corporations, communities and government.
“We have a layered, multi-tiered approach, and, so yes, it requires some policing strategies that are more strategic and smart. But, everybody knows that, if your only strategy is policing, that is the old way of doing things, guess what…that has not worked,” Johnson said.
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