"If President Trump had listened to the city's leaders, he would recognize that Chicago just experienced record-low homicide numbers, making this the safest summer since the 1960s, a result of effective collaboration between communities and law enforcement," wrote the mayor, who signed an executive order ahead of the federal operation and is raising a family in Austin on the West Side, "one of the parts of our city where gun violence is most pervasive." In a Monday statement, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates acknowledged "the successful efforts of our mayor in reducing crime and investing in our community," and similarly stressed that whatever Trump is "spending on his raids is better spent on building affordable housing, reopening school libraries, and funding social workers to support children through the trauma this administration is inflicting on an entire generation who are worried every day if they will ever see their parents again." While the Trump administration hasn't yet provided any update on the involvement of the National Guard, after the president moved to rename the US Department of Defense, he took to his Truth Social platform on Saturday morning with an image referencing the 1979 film Apocalypse Now and said, "Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR."
Author: Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams
Published at: 2025-09-08 21:26:30
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