On his first day as Chicago’s mayor-elect, Brandon Johnson echoed his winning promise to rethink the city’s approach to public safety, while his lame-duck predecessor Mayor Lori Lightfoot warned him to show humility to first responders upon the heels of another firefighter death in the city.
In the morning, Johnson went on MSNBC where he was largely asked questions about crime. Noting his West Side roots as an Austin resident, Johnson said he “might be the first mayor ever elected in the city of Chicago that will wake up every single morning in the most violent neighborhood in the city of Chicago.” Then he dug into his overarching philosophy on restoring public safety.
Johnson stressed that the most effective solutions are less about more law enforcement and more about investments that include economic development, affordable housing and mental health services.
“We tend to limit our conversations around toughness and more police officers, and what has been proven over and over again, that is not a recipe for absolute success,” Johnson said. “And so our mission and my platform has been very clear. We get at the immediate dynamic of public safety, but we also set up long term solutions.”
Johnson did not discuss the policing specifics he had touted on the campaign trail beyond hiring 200 more detectives via promotion from beat cops and ensuring less churn of officer supervisors. But he rebutted a question about Fraternal Order of Police local President John Catanzara’s previous warning there would be “blood in the streets” as the result of a mass Chicago police exodus under Johnson’s administration.
“Well, first of all, I don’t believe there’s a difference between me and the police department,” Johnson said. “Now, what the Fraternal Order of Police leader has said, that doesn’t necessarily reflect the values of the city of Chicago. … We’re not going to base our administration off of what, you know, the police union leader has said.”
Later in the day, Lightfoot broke weeks of silence since losing her bid for re-election to address a question about what advice she’d give Johnson when it comes to handling the all-too-frequent call of a first responder death. This time, it was Chicago Fire Department Lt. Jan Tchoryk, 55.
“Be humble. Be grateful,” Lightfoot said she would tell her successor. “Our first responders literally give their lives. There’s a lot of rhetoric that’s out there about first responders, particularly on the police side. When you’ve seen what I’ve seen, when you have to make the calls that I’ve had to make, you better be humble, and you better be grateful.”
Though she did not elaborate more on the police-related “rhetoric” in question, Lightfoot spent much of the final days of her campaign digging into Johnson’s record of supporting the “defund the police” movement, warning Black residents in particular that he would make their streets less safe.
The outgoing mayor in her Wednesday advice to Johnson also addressed the importance of maintaining trust between her office and the rank-and-file cops, a relationship she struggled with mightily.
“It’s hard to motivate people when they don’t think that their leader has their back, and it’s absolutely essential,” Lightfoot said. “It’s why I go to roll calls. That’s why I reach out, and we may not agree on every issue, but I thank the Lord every single day for the first responders.”
