CHICAGO (WLS) — There’s more pushback to President Donald Trump’s plan to possibly deploy National Guard troops to Chicago.
Wednesday morning, lawmakers and leaders from Chicago’s Latino community will share their concerns.
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It comes as the president again calls on Governor JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson to request his help to deal with crime in the city.
In a social media post, the president mentioned, “A really DEADLY weekend in Chicago. 6 DEAD, 27 INJURED IN CRIMINAL INCIDENTS ACROSS THE CITY. Panic-stricken Governor Pritzker claims that crime is under control, though the reality is quite the opposite. He is an incompetent Governor who should reach out to me for HELP.”
Police data shows three people were, in fact, killed this past weekend.
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In reaction, Mayor Brandon Johnson stated that if the president truly aimed to tackle violence, he would not have withdrawn hundreds of millions of dollars designated for violence prevention.
“They don’t want our communities to be safer for all of us,” Mayor Johnson noted. “They just seek to exploit people’s fears and anxieties to gain more power for themselves.”
There are still a lot of questions over what a potential deployment would look like.
Current and retired guardsmen tell us, the National Guard is trained like active duty military personnel to fight in wars, not to fight crime.
They cannot be dispatched by 9-1-1 to crime scenes or interact with local first responders.
The guard would only have arresting powers if they were mobilized under the Insurrection Act.
Latino lawmakers plan to hold a news conference, condemning Trump’s plan, later Wednesday morning at Federal Plaza.
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