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At least seven people have been killed and 37 others injured in shootings in Chicago this Labor Day weekend, even as the city’s mayor vows to block President Donald Trump’s efforts to combat crime.
This weekend’s shootings took place in a series of unrelated incidents across Chicago, with the majority of instances resulting in no one being taken into custody, police say. Trump has suggested he may deploy the National Guard and other federal law enforcement to combat crime in the city.
The victims of fatal shootings so far this weekend include at least two women and three men, as well as two others police have not specified. Authorities have not released the names of the deceased.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order on Saturday prohibiting local police from working with their federal counterparts.
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“This executive order makes it emphatically clear that this president is not going to come in and deputize our police department,” Johnson said at a news conference with other city leaders.
The mayor’s order affirms that Chicago police officers will continue to enforce state and local laws, but will not work with the National Guard or federal agents on patrols, arrests, immigration enforcement or other law enforcement actions.
CHICAGO MAYOR CALLS TRUMP’S NATIONAL GUARD PLAN ‘MOST FLAGRANT VIOLATION OF OUR CONSTITUTION’
“We will protect our Constitution, we will protect our city, and we will protect our people,” he said. “We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans. We don’t want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents.”
The White House dismissed Johnson’s order on Saturday, claiming that Democrats were attempting to make efforts to reduce crime a partisan issue.
“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement to Reuters.
Chicago has struggled with gun violence for decades. The city suffered another bloody weekend on July 4 this year, when 55 people were shot, six of whom were killed.
Over Memorial Day weekend at the end of May, 22 people were shot, two fatally, in the city.
According to city data, there have been 272 homicides in Chicago this year, including 225 fatal shootings.
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