Last November we posted an editorial on how the City of Chicago, under the administration of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, closed its only Juvenile Intervention and Support Center (JISC). In December, Secure 1776 followed up with an analysis of carjackings and the connections to juvenile crime. Carjackings have spiked across the country since 2020. An escalating carjacking problem has been particularly noteworthy in urban areas. Many cities have experienced a continuing surge. But the problem is particularly evident in Chicago. Yesterday, 7 February 2022, Mayor Lightfoot held a press conference with Chicago Police Department (CPD) Superintendent David Brown, a representative from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and other officials. In the press conference, Mayor Lightfoot indicated that half of those arrested in connection to Chicago’s carjackings are juveniles. She also made an interesting statement on the cause of the rising juvenile crime connection – “remote learning.” [Click the link below to read more.]
Journalism and politics are supposed to be two professions comprised of smart people. Smart people that have the ability to correctly connect the dots. However, a divided political landscape has encouraged a deliberate blindness. The result, some of the smart people do connect the dots, but they don’t want you to do so. Instead they rely on the old magician’s trick of distractions. For example, their most recent go to: “it’s the pandemic.” An answer big enough to cover nearly every failure. Failing schools. The pandemic. A crashed economy. The pandemic. But, even with these issues it would be more accurate to say the failures were the response to the pandemic, not the pandemic. Covid didn’t, month after month, close schools or lockdown the economy for most Americans (lest we forget, big pharma and Amazon did great). Politicians, unelected bureaucrats (one in government for 50-plus years), and a complicit media led that charge. To say Covid is the cause for the rise in gun violence AND reckless driving? Please. Even a magician would be embarrassed by that sleight of hand. No, the dots to be connected there do not end at “the pandemic.” The “connect the dots” answer is that our political elites and the media have sought to blame a virus for their increasing acceptance of lawlessness. [Click the link below to read more.]
Covid-19 pandemic response lockdowns and mandates have come at tremendous cost. In urban areas across America, the pandemic has been blamed for a long list of problems – including rising violence. Some of that blame is a convenient political cover for misguided justice “reform” initiatives, non-prosecutor prosecutors, and unrealistic demands for “tragedy-free” policing. Constitutional rights to speech, assembly, religion and bodily autonomy have been trampled, and science has been corrupted. Among the biggest casualties during the pandemic has been the truth. Secure 1776 hopes to further the cause of truth with a recommendation to view a 26 January 2022 presentation by Dr. Scott Atlas. Quoting Dr. Atlas: “There is no public benefit” to the Covid-19 vaccines (ref. 54:50 in the below video presentation). The benefit is only to the person taking the vaccine – specifically with respect to those individuals with several co-morbidities and who are at high risk of severe illness or death from Covid. Given the risks the vaccines themselves pose – vaccine mandates for otherwise healthy people are not supported by the data. Firing employees (public or otherwise) for not taking the (still experimental) vaccines is beyond unreasonable. Worse, firing unvaccinated police officers, and using the police as the face and muscle of pandemic restrictions enforcement, weakens overall public safety. [Click the link below to read more.]
Most often, the Chicago City Council is an unremarkable legislative body that does as it is instructed to do by the reigning mayor. On Friday, the council’s Public Safety Committee was expected to rubber stamp the mayor’s selection of Andrea Kersten, as the permanent head of the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA). However, in a rare Chicago moment, the council is poised to say “no” to the mayor on a key city appointment. Ms. Kersten is currently the interim head of COPA, a low-regarded oversight agency, and she was previously its chief investigator. She is most notorious for her November 2021 release of an investigation that included a recommendation to suspend slain Chicago Police Officer Ella French. [Click the link below to read more.]
In our New Year’s Day editorial, we made clear that 2021 was not a “happy new year” relative to public safety. Our founder also made clear that for 2022 to be a “happy new year,” resolve would be required. On 29 December 2021, Bradley Police Sergeant Rittmanic’s last known words were to her attacker, as her own gun was pointed at her head. “Just leave, you don’t have to do this. Please just go. Please don’t. Please don’t.” Yet, her attacker was determined to kill her anyway and did. Yesterday, Illinois buried Sergeant Marlene Rittmanic. Today, we ask whether our community is fully resolved to say: “Enough!” In 2022, will we demand our elected officials and the media stop demonizing the police? Will our courts be the place where consequences occur, or will the streets continue to be the place where the truth about consequences are most visible? [Click the link below to read more.]
“Good morning” is a greeting that is commonly shared early in the day. The expression acknowledges the start of a new day, as well as a statement of hope. Yet we have also heard the greeting shortened to just “morning.” The shortened expression makes no claim beyond a statement of time. Fatigue and a discouraged sense of what the new day has in store can often explain why the shortened greeting is used. The greeting “Happy New Year” is similar to “good morning,” and it too seeks to express hope for the time ahead. As a nation we lived through 2020, the year like no other. The year 2020 was one with many issues, including significant public safety disappointments. Sadly, relative to violence, 2021 was also a disappointing year. A “happy” new year in 2022 will require resolve beyond the mere use of an optimistic greeting. [Click the link below to read more.]
It is Christmas Day, a day of reflection, hope, redemption. We remember the many gifts we have received from our own loved ones – and we cherish the fond memories they created for us. With many blessings, I am grateful for the precious gift of more time with family and friends, and with colleagues who have always helped share the work of the mission. At this time of year, the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” comes to mind. It is a story of the consequences that flow from the choices one makes, and most importantly – it is a story about the possibility for redemption. [Click the link below to read more.]
For more than 30 years, Bob Welsh was an Ohio State Trooper. Welsh retired at the rank of captain, but has continued to advance the goals of the law enforcement profession. Welsh has taken pride in being an inspirational speaker and storyteller. We are living in a time where the need for inspiration is great. For several years Welsh has inspired others with his poem “My Christmas Eve.” We are proud to share it with you this Christmas Eve. [Click the link below to read more.]
As we noted in our 13 December post, “The Chicago 800, a Deadly Race,” murders in Chicago continue to climb. We highlighted that the city would likely reach 800 murders this year. Baby-boomers, and many Gen-Xers, remember family car trips as children. At some point mom or dad would inevitably be asked: “Are we there yet.” Is Chicago “there yet?” Well, it depends on how you count. Yesterday, 16 December 2021, the Chicago Sun-Times declared, the city had experienced its 800th murder. The official Chicago Police Department (CPD) count says “no.” The official count as of midnight was 778. That number is bad enough. 778 is also more murders than the city’s full-year 2020 updated count of 772. Secure 1776 provides some clarity on the murder counts. [Click the link below to read more.]
In auto racing, Indianapolis is legendary for the Indy 500. Indianapolis and many other cities continue to struggle with a race of a different kind – murders. It should be noted that Indianapolis has had a bad year. Already, as of 12 December, 258 people have been murdered in that city. This year’s Indy murder count is 13 more than 2020’s full-year total, and 25 more than a year ago on this date. Here in Chicago, this city is a day or so away from topping its 2020 full-year total. In fact, the Chicago 800 is underway. Such is a deadly race to see whether this year’s Chicago murder count stays under, hits, or exceeds 800. [Click the link below to read more.]
Last week, several news sites made reference to an internal email sent from a former commander with the Chicago Police Department (CPD). The email was sent to several CPD members by Captain Melvin Roman on his last day before retiring. The email was a “within the family” message. It was subsequently released publicly by someone other than Captain Roman. The coverage of the email – not the email itself – was a spectacle Chicago moment. Anyone who actually knows Mel Roman knows that he is not one to seek the personal spotlight. He has always been the type of leader to focus on the needs of those he was responsible to lead. He delighted in turning the spotlight toward their accomplishments. That fact alone should help us move past the spectacle and seek the leadership lessons that were offered. [Click the link below to read more.]
In September, following the release of the final 2020 national crime statistics by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Secure 1776 published our post, “Truth and Consequences, 2020 Murders.” In 2020, America’s murder rate increased about 30 percent from 2019. Even though four weeks remain in 2021, as of 30 November, and compared to all of last year, the nation has already passed three key “truth and consequences” thresholds. First, more police officers have been ambushed. Second, more police officers have been hit by gunfire. Third, more police officers have been murdered. The truth, the nation, particularly in its urban areas continues to suffer from increased lawlessness. The nation’s police officers are among those suffering the consequences. [Click the link below to read more.]
A week ago in our “Editorial: Spectacle Chicago and the Death of the JISC,” our readers were provided several key insights regarding juvenile delinquency. First, the connection between early delinquency and the risks of future violence are clear. Second, the closing of the Juvenile Intervention and Support Center (JISC), without any alternative, weakened the city’s response to juvenile delinquency. It remains another spectacle Chicago moment. Yes, large social forces lay a complex macro-level foundation for crime – particularly juvenile crime. But, we should not be fooled, even in areas where crime and violence are the worst, most youth do not become gang members, and most do not engage in violence. Chicago loses children to gang activity, delinquency, and violence one young person at a time. The explosion of carjackings in Chicago provides us with an opportunity for some clarity relative to juvenile crime. [Click the link below to read more.]
Without question, more than any other single individual, Abraham Lincoln saved our union of states. Had it not been for his leadership, including his moral clarity, our nation, “one nation under God,” would have ceased to exist in the 1860s. In the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln reminded the nation that there was much of which to be grateful. In October 1863, President Lincoln issued a thanksgiving proclamation to his countrymen. In November 1863, the words of President Lincoln in the fields of Gettysburg would again stir his nation. There he would remind the nation of the cost of liberty and justice for all. It remains to us, the living, to carry on the work that comes with living in, as Lincoln described, “the last best hope of Earth.” [Click the link below to read more.]
