Chicago Mayor Blames Murder Rate on COVID-19
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot cited the coronavirus pandemic as a contributing factor to a recent spike in shootings in her city.
When asked by CNN’s Omar Jimenez why shootings were up 40 percent over last year and homicides up more than 30 percent, Lighfoot said: “All of these forces are coming together at the same time and making it very difficult. The ecosystem of public safety that isn’t just law enforcement but is local, community-based, they, too, have really been hit hard by COVID and are now just kind of coming back online and getting their footing.”
Shootings killed 18 people in Chicago in the last weekend in June, including two children and a teenager. Over the July Fourth weekend, more than 67 people were shot and at least 13 killed, including a 7-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy.
Lightfoot’s remarks echoed those of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who blamed an uptick in violence over the weekend on the coronavirus pandemic while defending the city’s police reforms and vowing to keep New York City “the safest big city in America.”
Shootings over the holiday weekend left at least eight dead and more than 44 people injured in the country’s largest city. (Read more from “Chicago Mayor Blames Murder Rate on COVID-19” HERE)
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