During Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Chicago Alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez commented on the city’s shootings, asserting that “We also have had many, many instances where the administration has really escalated, exacerbated the violence in our country, in our inner cities.” He emphasized that “what we have not seen is really a systemic investment that will actually address the core issues.”
Host Boris Sanchez inquired, “And how do you respond, Alderman — I heard you sort of allude to it there that there’s more work to be done — how do you respond to the argument that there were something like 50-plus shootings — 53 people — 52 people, I should say, were shot in Chicago, 30 different shootings over the holiday weekend, seven people killed, aren’t numbers like that still a problem that your city needs to address? What more can be done to address that?”
Sigcho Lopez responded, “Well, I think that what we need to do, is that, we also had a mass shooting in a Catholic school. We also have had many, many instances where the administration has really escalated, exacerbated the violence in our country, in our inner cities. Trump is a dictator. I think we’ve got to be very clear. He’s trying to normalize violence. He is trying to normalize military deployment in American cities like L.A., D.C., Chicago, and many others to come. But what we have not seen is really a systemic investment that will actually address the core issues. I have shootings in my ward. One of them was a tragic shooting of an unhoused neighbor. So, the Trump administration is saying that they’re going to address the issue of unhoused residents by putting them in jails and concentration camps. Are they going to address the issue of violence by withholding $800 million that [has] gone to cities like Chicago for violence prevention programs? $200 million that the Trump administration is withholding for substance abuse programs. I think that this has to do a lot with distracting the public and to create distractions in a time when the American public needs solutions.”
