The connection between poverty and lawlessness is complicated, but Trump gets a basic point right.
The Democratic reaction to President Trump’s federal crackdown on crime was as predictable as the dozens of shootings in Chicago over the holiday weekend, which left at least seven dead.
Chicago’s violent-crime spikes during the warmer months have become too commonplace to shock us as they should. CBS News reported that during Independence Day weekend five people were killed and 36 were injured. Over Labor Day weekend in 2023 and 2024, a total of 13 were killed and 67 wounded in shootings around the city.
When Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was asked repeatedly in a television interview last week whether putting more police officers on the street would help curb crime, he called that approach “antiquated” and tried to change the subject: “I believe the city of Chicago and cities across America would be safer if we actually had, you know, affordable housing.”
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (paywall)
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
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