Chicago’s top cop in hot spot blames escalating violence

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“This is madness. Our courts are out of control,” Brown said. “These decisions hurt our city, hurt our children, our babies, and it’s personal to us.”

Brown said the man responsible for a murder-suicide in June in Woodlawn was under electronic surveillance, as was one of the men charged with the murder of Jaslyn Adams in a McDonald’s drive-by, and another man charged with shootout and carjacking in Lawndale.

“This is happening because there is too much advocacy for violent offenders and too few consequences for their behavior in court,” he continued. “There is an explosion of violent offenders being released in our communities. “

Mayor Lori Lightfoot concurred with Brown at a press conference after the meeting, saying that while the Cook County Jail should not serve as a “debtors prison” for those who cannot post bail, far too many dangerous people have been released under electronic surveillance, with too few monitoring their activities. The mayor cited data provided by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart as of April 19, 2021, saying those under electrical surveillance included 573 people charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, 269 regular armed criminals, 167 accused of criminal theft, 164 accused. of robbery, 104 charged with criminal sexual assault and 91 charged with murder.

“There has to be some accountability,” Lightfoot said. “We have to think of it as the whole ecosystem that it is.”

This is far from the first time he and the mayor have named Chief Justice Evans and State Attorney Kim Foxx as contributors to the city’s crime rate in recent years. Evans and Foxx both backed down, arguing that pre-trial liberation reforms did not make the city more dangerous.

Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, who led the charge of holding Friday’s meeting to pressure Brown over plans for the murderous weekend, said Brown was full of contradictions, suggesting CPD needed to work more closely with partners county, then criticized them in his opening remarks. “We can’t control the state prosecutor or the courts, we can control the department,” he said.

Other aldermen pointed to a Loyola study analyzing data between 2013 and 2019 which found that interim release reforms – which took effect in 2017 – did not cause an increase in violence in 2018 or 2019 and did not increase the likelihood of defendants committing new crimes. pending trial.

Brown said he was not familiar with the study, but said “Chicago police are advocates for victims.” He also said he was also not familiar with a series of emails involving former deputy mayor for public safety Susan Lee warning the mayor’s office against using the narrative that the revolving door of the criminals released before trial led to violence.

The superintendent also targeted Council members, saying Friday’s special meeting took “a critical time scheduled for our management team to discuss deployment decisions” before July 4, which is “our most weekend. difficult of the year “.

Lightfoot said his administration was “in regular conversation with our county partners,” including Chairman of the Board Toni Preckwinkle, State Attorney Kim Foxx, Chief Justice Timothy Evans and Dart “all over the place. about two weeks, “and the group searches for” common ground. “

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