(CHICAGO) — Illinois Democrat leaders are again rejecting President Donald Trump’s call for federal help to combat crime in Chicago following a violent weekend that left more than 40 people shot.
Trump took aim at the sanctuary city in a Truth Social post early Tuesday, calling the violence “unchecked” and “out of control” after a mass shooting Saturday night left one person dead and 14 wounded. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson dismissed the president, telling reporters, “It’s difficult to take anything that he says seriously… I find him to be a sorry individual.”
Gov. JB Pritzker also pushed back, writing on X, “We need to keep reducing violence, but this President does not make it easier.” But former Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy blames the state’s criminal justice system, including the elimination of cash bail, for helping fuel the violence. “Police go out and arrest dangerous, violent criminals. And they’re back out on the street, 24 hours after they have a preliminary hearing before, a bond hearing before a judge. That’s crazy. You’re putting the sharks back in the pool,” Roy told Fox News.
Both Pritzker and Johnson have dismissed offers of federal help in the past.
