BY BILL JUNEAU
May 15, 2023, was a very satisfying day for a great number of Chicagoans and former Chicagoans like this writer, who want only the best for the Windy City and Land of Lincoln.
It was exit-day for Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the five-foot, one inch lady with sagging blue jeans and a droopy cowboy hat, who was in charge of Chicago, the nation's third largest city, for the past 48 months. And she indeed left a legacy. No elected woman ever had as dirty a mouth as Lightfoot exhibited, and no mayor was ever so absorbed in tracking down racial politics in every corner of the city. She had no time for budgets or deficits or stopping crime while alleged white supremacists were lurking anywhere in the Windy City.
. Lightfoot, 60, had the distinction of being the city's first black, lesbian chief executive. She is family oriented and has a wife and an adopted daughter. Lightfoot was feisty and wielded a fist at anyone who challenged her assertions. If you argued and resisted, she got angry and often accused the critic of being a racist.
She scrambled about City Hall during her first 24 months in office with virtually no accomplishments to point to. She watched as crime spiraled upward with street shootings and killings breaking Chicago records. On the anniversary of her first two years as mayor in 2021, she was given a cake with two candles to mark the occasion. But she added more than a gracious "thank you" for the occasion.
In the future, she announced, she would only grant one-on-one interviews to reporters who are "people of color." Chicago City Hall, she said, has way too many white journalists compared to the number of reporters "of color,"and that situation is intolerable and must change. Her comments drew national attention, but no one was heard endorsing her new program. One TV anchor from Fox News described her as a "lunatic racist" who should not hold a public office. Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman and a Democrat who had run for President in 2020, called for her resignation, and importuned President Biden and Vice President Harris to join her in the demand.
Before President Trump left office in January of 2021, he contacted Lightfoot and offered to send armed troops to Chicago to help in the fight against street crime. Lightfoot refused and said she considered the President a "racist" and that she would have nothing to do with him. The Chicago Tribune upbraided Lightfoot for her attitude and advised her to be more "collaborative" with the President of the United States.
Lightfoot came aboard as Chicago's mayor in 2019 after a tough primary fight and a run-off election against County Board President Toni Preckwinkle which she won in a landslide. Lightfoot succeeded Rahm Emanuel who had been mayor for eight years, but declined to seek a third four-year term. Lightfoot took office as a popular new mayor, receiving broad support from the Teachers union and others in the city, Republicans as well as Democrats.
Most members of the Chicago city council applauded her election and predicted great things to come under the diminutive and feisty new mayor who had been a federal prosecutor and had served as the President of the Chicago Police Board. But four years later, hardly anyone in the council wanted her for a second term. One council member, a democrat, described her as a mayor who"played the race card" whenever there was a challenge to one of her loony proposals.
Democratic Ald. Sue Sadowski Garza was a strong Lightfoot supporter, but when time for her second term arrived, she did a backflip on her support of the mayor, and didn't hold back. "She will never again get my support," she announced. "In four years, the mayor has managed to piss off everyone with whom she comes into contact....police, fire, teachers, aldermen, businesses, and manufacturing," said Garza.
Mayor Lightfoot failed to focus on gun crime even though participants were African Americans shooting their black brothers and sisters. Instead, she became a critic of Chicago policemen trying to do their jobs. She saw "racism" anytime a white policeman acted against a black citizen even when officers saw their targets breaking the law. She instigated policies that set limits on when a police officer could pursue a suspect who had committed a crime or appeared to be preparing to commit a crime. Uniformed officers voted a "no confidence" in her and considered her foot pursuit policy as impossible and ridiculous. Rank and file Chicago officers voted a "no confidence" in Lightfoot and in the new police chief she had appointed.
In in the aftermath of the George Floyd death, Lightfoot ordered the removal of statues of Christopher Columbus from two Chicago Parks on grounds that the Italian icon, Columbus, mistreated blacks. Later, efforts were made by park district lawyers, at the request of Italian lawyers, to have a statue in a Columbus day parade. Lightfoot objected and engaged in an argument with lawyers in which she said she would make the decisions and that she had the biggest "dick" around. She questioned one lawyer's credentials as an attorney, and he subsequently filed a lawsuit against her for defamation.
At one point, Chicago police, acting upon a warrant signed by a Cook county judge, accidently barged into the home of a woman undressed and preparing for bed --in search of a drug dealer. Officers quickly apologized and the naked occupant was given a blanket by police and was without cover for merely seconds. Mark Flessner, City lawyer, apologized on behalf of the police and the City of Chicago and prepared a check for $50,000 as damages for the woman's embarrassment.
Lightfoot didn't think that was enough and upped the amount to $2.9 million. After all, the woman was African American and the policemen were white. Corporation counsel argued that the multi million dollar settlement for damages was excessive and that the policemen had actually done nothing wrong since they acted pursuant to a warrant. Lightfoot then fired city attorney Flessner, and the city council subsequently approved the $2.9 million as reparations for the horror of being viewed momentarily by white men.
Lightfoot also directed her cries of "systemic racism" against the Chicago Department of Health. Statistics show, said Lightfoot, that life expectancy for blacks is some ten years less than that for whites and Latinos, and that a major reason was the abbreviated care given to Black citizens. Also, there is an overwhelming number of African American residents dying from Covid 19, apparently for want of a vaccination. The Chicago Commissioner of Health has promised to improve care to black residents and to defeat the existing health care crisis.
With Lightfoot's exit from the mayor's office after four years, the gavel has been turned over to Brandon Johnson, 47, an African American who had at one time favored the defunding of police. However, later Johnson said that he wanted money that had been earmarked for police, to be redirected to police social programs which would work hand in hand with police officers in bringing down crime; and would enable policemen to resolve some situations and problems without violence and shootings.
Johnson, Chicago's 57th mayor, was elected last April in a run-off election against Paul Valas, a former CEO of the Chicago schools. Valas, who is white, had promised to restore law and order to the streets of Chicago and to support and return respect to Chicago policemen. Johnson accused Valas of being a "closet republican," who could not be trusted.
Chicagoans are rooting for and hoping for the best and a safer city under Mayor Johnson in its fight against spiraling gun violence and crime and hijackings. In Lightfoot's final weekend as the city's mayor, there were five persons killed and 29 others wounded by gunfire. The youngest victim was a 16 -year-old boy gunned down near "The Bean" in Millennium Park.
Chicagoans look forward to new safety and less violence under the new mayor who officially took office on May 16. Nevertheless, while hoping and praying for better days, citizens are bracing for the possibility that the new mayor has only more of the past to offer.
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