Feb. 28, 2023 was the day all of Chicago let Lori Lightfoot know how inept, incompetent, and most of all imbecilic her reign over our city had become. I was once a supporter. Not to go through her entire history, but she was in a runoff herself the last go-round. The newcomer, it was Lori Lightfoot versus the machine candidate, Toni Preckwinkle.
Lightfoot came to the Austin debate in 2019 and Preckwinkle didn’t. When the results of the runoff were over, Lightfoot had won every ward.
Yes, Lori did have to battle the COVID-19 outbreak. I remember when she was a popular meme, standing there telling people to stay in the house. And many appreciated that. But then she came to the West Side — she, the police and the cameras. Those young preteen-to-early-teen kids playing basketball were all excited.
In the background, the kids were asking if they were going to be on TV. But she didn’t introduce herself. Instead she put on her commander-in-chief mindset and ordered them off the playlot. It was not a good look and it was not a good feel. She could have used those young children to be her COVID ambassadors, urging the other youth to wear masks and practice proper safety precautions. My personal scorecard for her dropped several percentage points after that.
I liked Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. So when Lori replaced him with the dark-glasses-wearing, mumbling, not even from within the Chicago Police ranks David Brown, I was totally unimpressed.
If you have a police superintendent, he has to be visible. And most of all, the messages he sends out have to resonate with the criminal element — because they know only the headlines. They’ll never know the details. So if one announces for example, a “no-chase policy,” they’ll immediately think that anything they do, nobody will chase them. And given the opportunity to test the rule, they’ll do it in droves. My last straw with David Brown was when he called murdered police officer Ella French, Ella Fitzgerald. Lori brought in that idiot and her scorecard was now even lower.
Lori didn’t attend the forum that we had here in Austin this go-round for the mayoral candidates. Instead she went to Chinatown, along with Chuy Garcia and Willie Wilson. None of the three made it to the runoff after having ignored this community.
Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas did come to Austin. One of those two will become the next mayor. I don’t know how many debates they will have before the runoff election is held, but I will be paying attention to their plans for this city — and especially what they have in mind for our young people. Also their plans to deal with the archaic property tax calculation system as well as the theft of people’s property simply by filing false deed transfer paperwork,
The runoff election is on April 4. I hope every Chicagoan gets out, votes, and chooses the better of those two to become the next person to run this city.
