President Trump issued a public letter to
the Governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, and the Mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, posted on the White House website on Friday. He began: “I write to you today to call your attention to and urge action on the devastating violence in Chicago. While I have been heartened to see crime reductions nationally the last few years, I have been horrified by the continued violence in this great American city.”
The President quoted from recent Chicago press accounts on the horror in Chicago: 18 murders in 24 hours on May 8, the most violent day in 60 years in Chicago, while 85 people were shot and 24 killed the previous weekend, the most in modern history in Chicago. “Your lack of leadership on this important issue continues to fail the people you have sworn to protect. I am concerned it is another example of your lack of commitment to the vulnerable citizens who are victims of this violence and a lack of respect for the men and women in law enforcement.”
“Violence and death,” he says, “which are disproportionately harming young African Americans, are tragic and unacceptable, particularly on such a shocking scale.” He notes another local newspaper that shootings across the City increased by 71 percent in May.
