After an “awful” year that was Chicago’s most violent in a quarter century, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday she’s looking for “accountability” from everyone, but that doesn’t mean Police Superintendent David Brown is “on the clock.”
Seven weeks ago, Lightfoot condemned members of the Chicago Police Department’s command staff who claimed to have lost faith in Brown as a bunch of “cowards” who want to perpetuate a status quo that served police brass, but not the public.
On Thursday, the mayor doubled down on those remarks while defending Brown — again.
“He’s not on the clock. … I have total confidence in David Brown. He is implementing levels of accountability that, frankly, we haven’t seen in the Police Department in a long time,” Lightfoot told the Sun-Times editorial board.
“A lot of the things that have been written about David Brown — the piece of the story that gets left out is [the fact that he’s] telling people, ‘You cannot be the police and be on the sidelines when we have this huge surge in violence.’”
Lightfoot pointed to what she called the wrong-headed spin on stories about the tactical teams Brown dumped a few weeks ago.
“The story was, ‘Oh my God. David Brown is lurching from one plan to another.’ The truth is, those teams produced nothing over the course of 2021 in areas of the city that were awash in violence,” the mayor said.
“I don’t know anybody who thinks we should be paying police officers who are sitting it out or collecting a paycheck in neighborhoods where our residents are under siege with violence. That is unacceptable. It’s never gonna be happening again on my watch. That’s why I say accountability is the word. And I think we’ve gotten the message across. We’re seeing a turnaround in the people who are willing to do the work. And if they’re not, we don’t need them.”
The same goes for the teams of police officers dispatched to the CTA this week to ride the rails while focusing on gangs and drug crimes, the mayor said.
“We’re gonna hold these folks accountable. … You’re not gonna be part of this effort to bring peace to our transit authority and go on a train or a bus and hide,” Lightfoot said.
“GPS. Regular check-ins. And holding the supervisors accountable to make sure that the plans are being executed with fidelity. ... And the proof is gonna be in the pudding. We’ve got to see those numbers start to go down. We’ve got to hold people accountable when they breach civility and decorum.”
In a wide-ranging discussion that focused heavily on violent crime, Lightfoot was encouraged to “sue the hell out of” the gun manufacturers.
She hinted strongly she plans to oblige, though the odds are long and the legal paths narrow.
“I don’t want to tip my hand here. [But] we are looking at every possibility to make sure these manufacturers understand the magnitude of the damage that is being done in cities like Chicago,” she said.
“It’s gonna be very difficult because, unfortunately, the gun lobby locked up Congress and there’s very narrow exceptions in which a gun manufacturer can be sued. But I’m not leaving anything on the table. We’ve got to look at every option. … If we can’t control the number of guns that are coming across our border — if there is no accountability for gun manufacturers — we are gonna be constantly fighting a losing battle.”
As the mother of a 14-year-old daughter, Lightfoot said she “knows what hormones are” and “what impulse control or lack thereof” is all about.
“These kids with access to guns is the worst thing ever because they’re juveniles. … Putting a gun into a volatile situation with a juvenile with a brain that isn’t fully matured, you’re asking for trouble,” she said.
Lightfoot said she is also targeting what she called the “new frontier” — the role social media plays in fanning the flames of insults and feuds between young people that start with an online put-down and end up settled in the streets with a gun.
“We’re looking very, very closely at ways in which we can craft strategy around intervening on social media, but also leading campaigns on social media around not allowing petty beefs to escalate into something more,” she said.
“We’ve got to bring the social media platform companies into this conversation as well. There are too many things that are playing out on social media where, with the sophisticated algorithms that they have, they can see it. If they can see it, they also need to work with us to do something about it. So stay tuned.”
