By John Ruberry
While he hasn’t yet devolved to the level of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, Brandon Johnson, the new leftist mayor of Chicago, certainly says some stupid things.
Worse, for Johnson that is, his moronic statements add arrows to the quivers of his critics, particularly snarky ones like the writers a the Hey Jackass site, and yes, people like me.
Last week, 300-400 youths attacked a South Loop 7-Eleven in Chicago and looted it. Sadly, the thugs were beaten with clubs by employees–that was in Stockton, California.
Maybe next time for Chicago.
But 40 of the creeps were arrested, they were aged from 12 to 20. Yep, 12-years-old. Well, as it’s still summer vacation time in Chicago, at least Sunday wasn’t what my parents called a school night.
Speaking of schools, Johnson was the mayoral candidate of the far-left Chicago Teachers Union. He went from being a CTU teacher, to a CTU organizer, then on to being elected a Cook County commissioner. In that last post, Johnson still collected a $100,000 annual salary from the CTU.
The Chicago Teachers Union is a longtime apologist for the failures of Chicago’s youths, partly because they bear some responsibility for those failures, because Chicago’s schools educate children quite poorly.
Chicago is in for a bumpy ride.
Last week, while being questioned about the convenience store riot, oops, make that “large gathering,” Johnson scolded a reporter for calling the mayhem “mob action,” even though it is a legal term in state law.
“Respectfully, these large gatherings — these large gatherings — hang on a second. I promise you we have time to talk,” Johnson replied. He added, “It’s important that we speak of these dynamics in an appropriate way. This is not to obfuscate what has actually taken place. We have to be very careful when we use language to describe certain behavior. There’s history in this city. I mean, to refer to children as, like, ‘baby Al Capones’ is not appropriate.”
After the next youth riot, which the rioters call “teen takeovers,” I will probably use a headline here, or on my own blog, along the lines of “Baby Al Capones involved in yet another Chicago mob action.” Thanks for the material, Mr. Mayor! Keep ’em coming!
I’ve lived my whole life in the Chicago area, and the term “baby Al Capones” is a new one for me. As it is for Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara, who said in a YouTube video:
Nobody is renaming anybody little mini-Al Capones. But they certainly, in many cases, had the same, terrorizing effect that Al Capone had 100 years ago with these teen takeovers, where they think they can do whatever they want with no repercussions, no parental supervision and no accountability — specifically apparent by the mayor’s office in City Hall, who wants to excuse all of this bad behavior because Chicago has a past. So that means: Do whatever the hell you want apparently.
Indeed, it does.
Johnson has also called the teen takeovers “trends.” You know, a trend, like a new style of clothing.
Do you have your “riot chic” duds yet? Don’t toss out your COVID masks! They’re back in style!
In the last Chicago riot, a much larger one which happened in April, two weeks after Johnson’s victory over a law-and-order moderate Democrat in a runoff election, Johnson said, “It is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”
Hey teens! If you don’t want to be demonized, don’t act demonically.
Johnson dismissed the riot, where at least two people were brutally beaten, by saying that sometimes kids make “silly decisions.”
The mayor, who is expected to name a new police commissioner this week, campaigned on a “holistic” approach to fighting crime.
The first attempt at holistic crimefighting in Chicago was tried over Memorial Day weekend with the introduction of yellow-donned civilian “peacekeepers.” But one of them, an ex-con, joined in as a mob, uh, make that “large gathering,” beat and robbed a man.
After the violent attack, the accused removed his yellow peacekeeper vest, his version, I guess, of giving two weeks’ notice.
Let’s go Brandon!
John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.
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