Following a violent Fourth of July weekend, Chicago Alderman Anthony Napolitano called the city a “war zone” and blasted local leaders for the crime spike.
“We are averaging over 6,000 people shot over the last 18 months,” Napolitano, a former Chicago police officer, said on Fox News Monday.
According to a CBS Chicago report on Monday morning, at least 82 people were shot since 5 p.m. Friday, and 14 of them were killed.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blamed the hysteria on factors, including loose gun laws.
“I believe that violence is a manifestation of systemic problems, and it’s a public health crisis,” she said. “When you see, in way too many neighborhoods, a lack of jobs, a lack of investment - these are historic, decades-long problems.”
The city is “surrounded by” suburbs and states “that have very lax gun laws,” she noted.
“We know that federally licensed gun dealers are selling to criminals and straw purchasers,” she said. “We know that because of our proximity to states like Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan that...you can go across the border into these states, and if you’ve got the cash, you can buy literally military-grade weapons of any quantity and bring them back to Chicago.”
Napolitano blasted Lightfoot, calling her claims “pure nonsense.”
“We have the strongest and the strictest gun laws in the state,” he said. He also noted that border towns have “nowhere near the amount of crime” seen in Chicago.
Napolitano also slammed Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx, who he called “by far the worst in the nation.”
When criminals get arrested, he said, “they’re out within a couple hours because we have the worst state’s attorney in the country [who] wants to prosecute nobody.”
“As legislators, if we start changing the way our city ordinances are written, we can start hitting criminals in the pocket, on behalf of what crimes they’re committing in the city of Chicago alone,” he said. “[The] state’s attorney can drop all of her charges every day of the week like she’s been doing, but we should take care of it more at the local level and that’s a way that we can start curbing crime here.”
