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President Donald Trump’s focus on crime across America is timely and necessary. It’s epidemic in many blue cities in our country, and something must, and can, be done about it. His crackdown in Washington, D.C., proves that dramatic reductions in crime in cities acclimatized to perpetual lawlessness and violence are possible, but only if you have the political courage to do so.
Next up is Chicago, another city plagued by non-stop violent crime. Trump’s focus there has forced local leaders to defend their lax policies and deny the reality of rampant crime in their cities – claims that ring hollow to terrorized local residents.
Before exposing the crime rates in Chicago and the lax policies that have caused them, let’s look at the results of the D.C. crime crackdown.
In Washington, D.C., since the operation began on Aug. 7, arrests are up, homicides are down nearly 60%, and violent crime has decreased by 17%. In one two-week stretch, there wasn’t one homicide, which is, sadly, remarkable.
TRUMP PRANKS DEMOCRATS INTO OPPOSING SOMETHING THEY’VE ALWAYS CLAIMED TO SUPPORT
Despite this impressive decline, more effort is needed. There have been 106 homicides, 984 reported robberies and 3,157 car thefts this year alone. Those numbers are unacceptable in any city, especially the nation’s capital.
Lax local laws passed by the D.C. City Council and local judges who give criminals a pass every day are major contributors to the city’s culture of violence. To fix these gaps, Congress is considering several proposals to fix the criminal justice system in D.C. permanently.
As a developer who owns property in Chicago, Trump is quite familiar with the chronic crime carnage in the Windy City. The numbers speak for themselves, despite what Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson declare.
To put this carnage into perspective, between 2003 and 2010, 3,481 Americans were killed in action in Iraq, an average of 435 a year. In the war in Afghanistan, between 2001 and 2014, 1,833 Americans were killed in action, an average of 141 per year. In Chicago, between 2017 and 2024, there were 5,220 homicides, an average of 652 per year! Chicago is a war zone, pure and simple.
PROGRESSIVE CITIES FACE BILLIONS IN ECONOMIC LOSSES AS RETAIL CRIME SURGES 93% SINCE 2019
Like in most big blue cities across America, there is a stark difference in crime rates between the richest and poorest parts of town. White liberal elites in the safest parts of town are oblivious to, or at least immune from, the constant drumbeat of violent crime in their own city. Chicago is a perfect example.
District 3, which includes Hyde Park and Washington Park, had a homicide rate of 80.68 per 100,000 residents, according to 2024 Chicago Police Department data. District 6 (Englewood, Roseland, Woodlawn) had a rate of 73.43 per 100,000 residents. And District 11 (Humbolt Park, West Garfield Park, Near West Side), had a homicide rate of 72.86 per 100,000 residents.
Compare those killing fields to Jefferson Park (1.97), Lincoln Square (2.29), and Uptown (3.27) – home to doctors, lawyers, venture capitalists and other professionals. Not surprisingly, liberal elites who live in those areas tend to be the ones who complain the loudest when Trump engages in increased federal enforcement, including offering much-needed assistance to state and local officials.
TRUMP IS TRYING TO SAVE 100,000 AMERICAN LIVES WHILE DEMOCRATS LET CITIES SPIRAL OUT OF CONTROL
It’s also no coincidence that the first George Soros-backed “progressive” prosecutor, Kim Foxx, was in Chicago. As I detailed in my book, Foxx was hoisted from obscurity into office in 2017 with almost $700,000 of Soros-connected financial support. Foxx unleashed a tsunami of pro-criminal, anti-victim, anti-business policies on the city as its top prosecutor, causing a dramatic increase in violent crime.
In the six years prior to that, there was an average of 510 homicides per year (2011–2016). In the three years before Foxx was elected, 4,460 rapes were reported to the police, an average of 1,486 per year. During Foxx’s tenure (2017–2022), 10,789 rapes were reported to the police, an average of 1,804 per year.
Two weeks into the job, Foxx announced that she had raised the bar for prosecuting felony shoplifting from $300 per incident to $1,000 per incident, even though the law in Illinois was clear: felony shoplifting starts at $300.
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When she made that announcement, there were 101 people in Cook County Jail on felony retail theft charges. Ali Abid, a staff attorney at the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice, said, “I think this is a really positive step.” Abid’s boss, Malcolm Rich, was on Foxx’s transition team with then-Sen. Kamala Harris.
But Rob Karr, the president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said he was “extraordinarily shocked and disappointed,” adding Foxx’s rewriting of the laws “sends a message that retail theft is victimless and not serious… this is tantamount to declaring open season on retail stores.”
By 2019, three years into Foxx’s social experiment, Karr was proved right. Retail theft reports had skyrocketed across the city. In the ritzy Rush Street shopping district, reported incidents had more than doubled. And on State Street, retail theft cases were up 32%.
President Trump’s use of the bully pulpit to highlight the high crime rates of Chicago and other blue cities is welcome news. Gone are the days of feel-good slogans about “reimagining” reform and “mass incarceration.” The Soros rogue prosecutor movement has failed, as has the “defund the police” and cashless bail experiment.
Americans of all stripes want and deserve to live in safe neighborhoods. Thankfully, the national mood has shifted in the right direction on crime.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM CHARLES “CULLY” STIMSON
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