Can you guess the politician behind the following quotes?
Interviewer: “As mayor would you carry a firearm on you even with a security detail?”
Politician: “Yes I will, number one, and number two, I won’t have a security detail. If the city’s safe, the mayor shouldn’t have a security detail with him. He should be walking the street by himself.”
“From now on, I will bring my handgun every time I enter a church or synagogue.”
“Mother and baby held at gun point during a recent robbery. And a small group of people in this city are asking why we put an anti-gun unit in place.“
“It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city come to an end. And it comes to an end when we take the steps to more aggressive with law enforcement: more aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant of all the bullshit that has destroyed our city.”
“We don’t want to turn Cook County jail into a debtor’s prison. Nobody thinks that’s a good idea. We shouldn’t be locking up non-violent individuals just because they can’t afford to pay a bail.
“But, given the exacting standards that the state’s attorney has for charging a case — which is proof beyond a reasonable doubt — when those charges are brought, these people are guilty. Of course they’re entitled to a presumption of innocence. Of course they’re entitled to their day in court. But, residents in our community are also entitled to safety from dangerous people.”
“No one is gonna feel safe as long as those folks are back out on the street 24 or 48 hours later after they go through bond court. It’s madness.”
“The chaos we saw last November in Union Square, the organized drug dealing we see in the Tenderloin and South of Market areas on a daily basis, the robberies that have plagued neighborhood commercial corridors in Chinatown, Hayes Valley, the Marina and Sunset — these are just a few examples where live video could provide a significant tool for our police to be able to conduct investigations and make arrests.”
“I support this policy because not only will it serve a practical purpose of helping us to deter crime and hold those who commit crimes in our city accountable, but will also send a message to those scheming to prey on our city that there will be consequences for their actions.”
Answers:
It’s Eric Adams, the gun toting mayor of Dodge City, Kansas. Whoops, I mean New York City, home to Wall Street and the Yankees. Adams is apparently not carrying a firearm on his person as mayor however, so chalk that up as yet another broken campaign promise.
It’s Dylann Roof. Whoops, that’s wrong. It’s actually Eric Adams again, speaking out in the aftermath of the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
It’s Eric Adams again. Surprised? This time it’s from a tweet that included video footage of a mother and her child being robbed at gun point.
It’s London “Potty Mouth” Breed, mayor of San Francisco, California. Her statement stands as a testament to the damage that Trump caused to the standards and norms of deportment that the country expects from politicians. What’s even more insidious is how Trump’s influence has corrupted Breed’s regard for marginalized communities. It’s pretty clear who’s responsible for the “bullshit” that Breed references and it’s not tech millionaires. Talk about scapegoating.
It’s Lori “Friend to the ACLU” Lightfoot, mayor of Chicago, Illinois.
It’s Big Brother. No, it really is Big Brother as channeled through San Francisco mayor London Breed who wants to give police the ability to live-monitor private security cameras in an effort to crack down on crime.
It’s San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins, backing up the mayor’s proposal to give SF cops live access to private video feeds. Scheming predators should beware.
How did you do? Did you guess that these quotes came from the Democratic mayors of some of the most liberal cities in the country as compared to law and order Republicans from deep in rural Texas or Mississippi? What to make of this surprising turn of events?
First, where is the media? I would have thought that when the mayor of a big city like Chicago makes the argument that people accused of violent crimes are guilty and everybody knows it that would be newsworthy. The chattering classes are arguing over whether Chesa Boudin’s ouster is really evidence of a shifting tide in criminal justice reform. Maybe the rhetoric here could provide a clue?
Second, party affiliation is probably not as significant as many people would assume when it comes to actual policy. Numerous observers have made the observation that the liberal denizens of big cities are far less likely to walk the walk when it comes to living up to progressive priorities, failing to build affordable housing for example. But when push really comes to shove any pretense of laboring in the cause of social justice or civil liberties goes out the window in a hurry. Eric Adams is returning to a de facto policy of stop and frisk in New York City. Lori Lightfoot wants to automatically revoke bail for anyone accused of a violent crime. London Breed wants to give the police live access to private security cameras. When faced with sky rocketing rates of violent crime the first impulse of both the political class and embattled civilians is to empower the police.
Lastly, the summer of love is over. A few years ago the mayor of Seattle may have been able to blow off questions about CHAZ/CHOP with facile comparisons to hippy dippiness. That is no longer the case. There is resistance in some quarters to the idea that the US is undergoing a massive surge in crime. The primary tool that should be mustered in response are simple statistics such as homicide rates. Sampling the rhetoric of elected officials in formerly progressive locales such as San Francisco is far less rigorous. But reading through these quotes I cannot help but feel that they provide some insight into the severity of the crisis facing these cities, and it is very bad indeed.