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Chicago Killing Fields

By Joe Guzzardi

Years ago, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band released a popular song titled ‘Born in Chicago.‘ Butterfield’s song talked about a group of young friends that, while politicians debated gun control, are shot to death on Chicago’s tough streets. Over the issue of safe Chicago streets, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have painted themselves into a tight corner. They cannot intelligently deny that crime is a huge problem in Chicago. Yet Pritzker and Johnson rail against the possibility that President Trump may send in the National Guard to stem citywide violence. Illinois Policy (IP) analysts found that Chicago residents reported 25,000 or more violent crimes since 2004. The 2025 summer was particularly deadly—June 22, summer’s first weekend, saw 23 people shot, 2 fatally; Independence Day weekend, 44 shot, 6 killed; Labor Day weekend at least 55 shot, 8 dead. IPI also found that black and Hispanic Chicagoans made up 95% of the city’s homicide victims during the past 12 months. Blacks were 20 times more likely to be homicide victims than white residents, while Hispanics were 4.7 times more likely. Chicago’s FBI head Doug de Podesta said that the agency had just wrapped up Operation Summer Heat, in which 25 murderers, gun runners, and fentanyl dealers were arrested. As IP summarized, crimes were up; arrests down.

Yet despite the carnage, resistance to federal intercession is fierce. Johnson, whose favorability rating recently bottomed out at 7%, signed an executive order establishing the Protecting Chicago Initiative and launching a Family Preparedness Campaign in multiple languages to educate families on how to prepare for potential detention by federal agents. Chicago, Johnson emphasized, “will be ready for anything and everything,” and he suggested that innocent grandmothers could be thrown into the back of unmarked vans and hauled away. Pritzker, a probable presidential candidate, said about President Trump’s commitment to send in the National Guard: “Let’s be clear, the terror and cruelty is the point, not the safety of anyone living here.” He insisted that there’s “no emergency” in Chicago that warrants federal intervention and argued that any federal action was not about fighting crime or making Chicago safer but instead about targeting blue and Democratic-led cities.

An alternative that neither Johnson nor Pritzker has considered could protect Chicago’s citizens, enhance their political futures, and save face. Accept the president’s offer to help. The mayor and the governor both know that National Guard intervention has not only made Washington, D.C., a safer place but has converted Mayor Muriel Bowser from skeptic to a true believer. On September 1, just before President Trump’s emergency order that tackled D.C. crime was set to expire, Bowser signed an order requiring local law enforcement to cooperate with their federal peers “to the maximum extent allowable by law within the District.” Bowser’s order extends through December. Last month, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith issued a similar order allowing her officers to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify and detain illegal immigrants.  A baseless law suit that activist D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed on September 4 against the Trump administration doesn’t change the fact that Washington is a safer place and that the president, who presides over a federal enclave, has the authority to send in the troops.

Chicago minorities, located mostly on the city’s west and south sides where much of the violence occurs, want law and order. They want illegal aliens deported from their communities, where their unlawful presence has disturbed local lifestyles, disrupted schools and helped create a $1.15 billion Chicago budget deficit. In San Francisco, however, Judge Charles Breyer ruled that when President Trump sent in 300 National Guard troops to restore order during the ICE protests—which saw criminals throw rocks and Molotov cocktails at agents—he broke the law. While Breyer wrote that the National Guard members still in Los Angeles can remain and “continue to protect federal property in a manner consistent with the Posse Comitatus Act,” he stayed his ruling until the following week, giving Trump a chance to appeal. Breyer’s ruling presents a moment for the White House to reflect before moving on to Chicago or anywhere else.

But Johnson and Pritzker have a path out: call President Trump to request that he send in the troops. If the National Guard fails, the mayor and governor can claim victory—federal involvement changed nothing. But if crime decreases, they can still declare a win—they recognized that strong steps had to be taken, and they took them. Back in the White House, President Trump can also take a bow. Winners all around are the best way to dampen hostility.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org