An Unhappy New Year

In Chicago. And elsewhere. On Chicago: Merry Christmas and an Unhappy New Year | Chicago Contrarian

Second City Cop is posting at Chicago Contrarian these days. Its a good thing, but his message about the prospects for 2022 sound bleak. And while he understandably focuses on Chicago, I doubt that most other large cities are in better shape.

Mayor Lightfoot said that merchants in Chicago should hire more security. And then she blew a gasket when a north-side neighborhood did exactly that. And the situation is not going to get better anytime soon.

Districts across the city are going to see a 10-to-15 percent manpower reduction next year, 20-to-25 percent on the day shift alone. Most Districts are experiencing it right now. Lightfoot cut 600 unfilled positions, 800 cops hit the retirement door in 2021, another 200 lateraled away to other departments and 900 more are scheduled to leave in 2022. When the retro-checks hit bank accounts in January, would anyone be surprised if another few hundred cops said, “See ya!” and left overnight?

As for recruiting to make up the numbers, click thru for the dismal statistics. I will only quote one incident.

The first week of December, the Academy was slated to start a class....of fourteen cadets. Eight showed up. Class was canceled until they could get it over twenty-five, which might have happened this past Monday. So yeah, Lightfoot is going to hire her way out of this disaster, especially after two years of demonizing the entire profession, removing every tool that has been proven to work in policing and failing to hold anyone responsible for criminal behavior....unless you’re an officer making a minor procedural error. Then it’s the gallows for you!

The police are going to decide - if they haven't already - that actually policing in Chicago is a losing proposition. Some will stick it out for the next few years until they retire. The newbies, if there are any left, will head elsewhere. The cops with 10 to 15 years on the job will probably keep their heads down and disengage. Or leave if things are bad enough, and they sound like they are bad enough. Though maybe in another few years things will start to get better again.

The problem is I don't think the voters in Chicago will stop voting for people like Groot (Mayor Lightfoot) or Crimesha (State's Attorney Kim Foxx). And as long as they do, law and order will deteriorate, because the Rule of Law is not as important as Social Justice.