Chicago’s progressive mayor Brandon Johnson claims REPARATIONS will help tackle ‘the cycle of violence’ amid a 17 per cent surge in crime

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson believes reparations for descendants of slaves will help improve the rising crime rate in his city.

Murders are down 13 percent this year and 20 percent in three years, but all crimes are up 17 percent, particularly burglary and vehicle theft.

Johnson’s 2024 budget includes $100 million for violence prevention, but also $500,000 to form a Restoration and Reparations Commission.

The commission will study the issue and provide recommendations on whether and how to compensate Chicago’s descendants of slaves.

“These are the first dollars spent in this city to begin the process of studying both restoration and repairs,” Johnson said last month.

“When residents who have experienced neglect and disinvestment for generations speak of their pain and trauma, this administration and the Black Caucus, we listen.”

Johnson claimed Wednesday that reparations would also help reduce violent crime, although he had not yet directly explained how.

“I’ve added half a million dollars for restoration and reparations to address, again, the cycle of violence,” he said on CNN.

At the same time, the mayor moved on to other parts of his budget, linking “cycles of violence” to “the closure of schools and the closure of mental health facilities, which I have now invested in.”

Johnson argued that fighting crime required investment to address its root causes, and that was the primary goal of the public safety portion of his budget.

“My comprehensive community safety plan not only gets to the root causes of violence in the city of Chicago, but we are also making critical investments,” he said.

“Those investments look like what I presented in my last budget: $250 million to address homelessness, $100 million for violence prevention.”

Johnson also spoke about his plan to increase youth employment so they are less likely to turn to a life of crime.

“We added $80 million more to our youth employment program, of which we hired 25,000 youth this summer alone, which is a 20 percent increase over the previous year,” he said.

“This summer I am going to hire 4,000 more young people.”

The mayor also wanted to “welcome” the former prisoners into society once their sentence was over, so that they would not commit any more crimes.

“We’ve created an entire office dedicated to reentry, so that people returning to our communities who have been incarcerated due to failed policies, we will have a welcoming space for them,” he said.

Johnson was asked about the latest crime statistics in Chicago, which showed a 17 percent increase in crime this year.

Crime skyrocketed across Chicago last year under predecessor Lori Lightfoot, going from 46,572 total complaints to 65,421, although this was driven almost entirely by massive increases in auto theft, robberies and robberies.

This year did not reverse the city’s fortunes, as crime increased 64 percent compared to two years ago, 68 percent compared to three years ago and 55 percent compared to four years ago.

Murders and shootings are falling over three years — both fell 13 percent this year and 20 percent from 2020 — and shootings are down 25 percent in that time.

However, both have increased compared to before the Covid pandemic: Murders are up 24 percent from 2019 and shootings are up 15 percent.

Theft increased 23 percent from last year and 39 percent from 2019, while theft remained stable this year but increased 41 percent from 2019 and 94 percent from 2020.

By far the biggest increase in crime was vehicle-related thefts, which increased 38 percent this year and a staggering 227 percent in 2019.

Johnson noted that murders and shootings had decreased and noted that rising crime was something all major American cities were dealing with.

“And as you’ve indicated, homicides are down, shootings are down, but yes, what we’ve experienced in the city of Chicago, cities across the country are experiencing,” he said.