(NewsNation) — In about 4 weeks, Chicago residents will determine who will lead their metropolis — the nation’s third-largest — as a mayoral election looms.
At a discussion board on Tuesday evening, incumbent mayor Lori Lightfoot fought off repeated criticism from rival candidates over her dealing with of crime and policing from different candidates. She has a complete of eight challengers in a crowded race that features different metropolis council members, a Congressman, the founding father of a medical provides firm and a former Chicago Public Colleges government.
You are reading: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot defends her handling of crime
The Chicago Tribune reported that homicides spiked dramatically to 776 and 804 in 2020 and 2021, respectively, in comparison with 500 in 2019. The murders, in keeping with the newspaper, had been principally from gun violence. Shootings and carjackings, the Tribune identified, additionally went up.
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Lightfoot mentioned her administration is “always evaluating choices to do the whole lot that we will to make Chicago the most secure large metropolis within the nation.”
“We’re hiring extra, we’re holding violent, harmful folks accountable. We’re ensuring that we’re going into communities and serving to uplift them,” Lightfoot mentioned. “You possibly can’t simply arrest your method out of the issue, so the opposite factor that we’re doing is making concrete investments to cease the pipeline of younger boys to the streets, which can also be a considerable problem.”
Whereas a lot of Lightfoot’s opponents are utilizing crime charges to assault the mayor, Lightfoot stood agency, saying the opposite candidates haven’t any options of their very own.
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“It’s straightforward to come back up right here and say sound bites,” Lightfoot mentioned Tuesday. “However what I didn’t hear is any precise concrete options — and most of the issues that we did hear had been issues that we’re already doing.”
A ballot performed for Crain’s Chicago Enterprise and The Every day Line confirmed simply 9% of those that participated say town is headed in the best course — a drop of 12 proportion factors from a earlier survey. In relation to security, a complete of 76% of survey contributors mentioned town is considerably or very unsafe, and 81% say the state of affairs is worse in comparison with earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic.
A complete of eight in 10 of those that accomplished the survey, which was revealed earlier this month, mentioned town is much less secure than it was. Nonetheless, as Crain’s famous, “it’s not completely clear” how a lot of that is due to precise shifts in public notion, and the way a lot could be as a result of the ballot attracted people who find themselves notably upset. Polco, which ready and performed the survey, mentioned it might be a mixture of each.
