Free Republic

CHICAGO, IL — City officials were relieved to get some unexpectedly positive news following the holiday weekend, as Chicago shootings were reportedly down, as the guy who keeps track of all the shootings got shot. The numbers came as a pleasant surprise after what was feared to be a record-breaking Labor Day weekend in the Windy City, with the shooting of the guy who is responsible for tabulating all the shootings providing much-needed relief from the onslaught of violent statistics. "After that guy caught a bullet, our shooting numbers suddenly got a lot better," said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. "We...

A surge in Chicago gun violence led two Illinois state representatives to request that the National Guard help fight violent crime in the city. Critics call the plea misguided, but others argue that the Guard could help control the stem the wave of killings. Host Michel Martin talks with John Fritchey, one of the two representatives who made the request, and with Bill Bratton, former chief of police for New York and Los Angeles.

Chicago's far-left leadership just made its priorities crystal clear—criminal illegal aliens first, federal law second. Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) has signed an executive order aimed at blocking federal immigration authorities from doing their jobs in the city, even as Chicago grapples with out-of-control crime, an illegal immigration crisis, and mounting public frustration. The order openly declares that city police will not assist federal agents in arresting or removing illegal immigrants, even those with criminal records. Instead, the city’s law department has been instructed to use “any and every legal mechanism” to target the federal government for trying to enforce immigration...

President Trump on Monday bashed Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) as “incompetent” amid threats from Trump to send National Guard troops into the Illinois city. “The incompetent Mayor of Chicago just stated that, in DC, where crime has been brought down to almost nothing, there have been no murders in 9 days, something which hasn’t happened in years, and people are safe again, only nine people have been arrested,” Trump said on Truth Social. “That is wrong, hundreds of criminals have been held, captured, and arrested, and their guns have been taken away. DC IS SAFE AND BOOMING!!!” As of...

NRA has often reported on failed “gun buyback” programs in cities across the country as being worse than useless. Unfortunately, for some, these programs have led to even more dangerous and life-threatening consequences. While the Chicago Police “gun turn-in program” website states that “all guns are destroyed and never returned to the streets,” that was not the case for Twanda Willingham. Ms. Willingham recently filed suit against the City of Chicago and others after she was shot with a Glock 21 .45 caliber handgun that had been relinquished to Chicago police at a gun turn-in event in December 2023. The...

Mayor Brandon Johnson has an important public service announcement: VIDEO AT LINK...................... https://x.com/i/status/1955680709580038199 He's a genius! This takes real skill:

Despite President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize the Washington D.C. police force and deploy the National Guard to fight violent crime in the nation’s capital, he cannot deliver on his threat to do the same in Chicago, state and local officials said Monday. “If we need to, we’re going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster. We have a man there who’s totally incompetent. He’s an incompetent man,” Trump said, referring to Mayor Brandon Johnson. “And we have an incompetent governor there. Pritzker is an incompetent,” Trump added, referring to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. And now...

Newly appointed Chicago Park District Supt. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa issued a statement saying the temporary art would “celebrate Chicago’s diverse communities” in a proposed “Peoples’ Plaza.” The new plaza is expected to open in late summer or early fall after pavement restoration. Ron Onesti, president of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, viewed the move as a betrayal of the innovative agreement he cut with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration nearly three months ago. The deal called for the Columbus statue in Arrigo Park to be “loaned” to the civic committee for display in a new Chicago Museum of Italian Immigration...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he will seek progressive revenue solutions to address a budget deficit without raising property taxes.

Chicago activists welcomed word of a “complete and total ceasefire” in the war between Israel and Iran at a downtown protest Monday evening but said they were cautiously optimistic and urged continued agitation. The protest at Federal Plaza attracted about 200 people despite Monday’s extreme heat. Demonstrators called for the United States to stop bombing Iranian nuclear sites, among other demands. Many condemned U.S. military aid to Israel, supporting its war in Iran and also in Gaza, which has lasted nearly two years. President Donald Trump said on social media Monday that Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) said Monday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that President Donald Trump was “trying to eliminate black existence from this country. Johnson said, “Governor Abbott spent over $220 million to ship people across America. Instead of working with Congress to actually pass substantive immigration reform policy. They wanted to create division, but we’re not going to allow that to happen in the city of Chicago. Much like we fought for civil rights 60 years ago, we’re going to continue to make sure that whether you are black, brown, Asian, white, young, old, working people deserve to...

Chicago’s radical and deeply unpopular Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson is urging his residents to “rise up” and take to the streets to oppose the legal enforcement of federal immigration laws even as the nation braces for a series of protests in big cities across the nation this weekend. With the threat of mass riots during the so-called “No Kings” protests, Johnson is dangerously egging the protests on in his cash-strapped city. On Wednesday, when asked about the coming protests, Johnson praised the “No Kings” plans and said he hoped his constituents would join the demonstrations.

Mayor Brandon Johnson urged Chicagoans to “rise up in this moment” against President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort, even as he acknowledged Wednesday that the deployment of the military to help carry out immigration raids in Los Angeles could happen here. Johnson refused to say precisely what he would do if mass demonstrations in Chicago — perhaps as soon as Saturday’s “No Kings Day of Defiance” protests — provoke an L.A.-style federal response. The mayor would only say that he is concerned enough to have spoken directly with Gov. JB Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle about the...

Chicago’s radical, progressive, Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson told the media on Wednesday that the Trump administration is “what our country would look like had the Confederacy won.” The race-obsessed, left-wing mayor railed against the Trump administration after hundreds of protesters flooded the streets of the Windy City in opposition to the president’s lawful immigration enforcement policies. Johnson by turns called Trump a “terrorist” and a “racist” in his comments to the press. The mayor with the single worst approval rating in the entire country also reminded the media that he recently said that Trump’s immigration policy is “what terrorism looks...

Chicago’s Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson, the least popular mayor in the country, went on a rant Thursday and called President Donald Trump a racist “monster” for investigating the mayor’s city hiring practices. Johnson, a self-professed “progressive,” raised eyebrows last weekend when he told a congregation of churchgoers that he is proud to have filled all his top posts with black people. His comment spurred a federal probe into his hiring practices under the suspicion that his discriminatory, race-based hiring might violate civil rights and equal opportunity laws. In response to the investigation, Johnson lashed out, and, as he typically does,...

Nothing's wrong with a black mayor boasting of hiring blacks for senior positions in his administration in order to look out for the interests of "our people." After all, civil rights laws are on the books only to protect "minority groups." Non-minorities being the victims of discrimination? Meh. That is the apparent position of New York Times podcaster Lulu Garcia-Navarro. She was part of Tuesday's CNN This Morning panel reacting to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's comments on his hires, and the ensuing DOJ investigation into them. Panelist Michael Warren of The Dispatch said: "I think the mayor shouldn't be talking...

The reaction of the American left and its adjacent black political class to the arrival of 59 white refugees fleeing de facto genocide in South Africa, combined with ever-accelerating racist rhetoric and demands from America’s black population has further exposed the depth of anti-white racism in the United States and accelerated race fatigue among the vast majority of the American population. ... These openly racist comments are not surprising, given that there is among the black political class a constant and endless drumbeat of anti-white rhetoric from virtually every black member of Congress, state legislators, mayors, and many of those...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) made some controversial statements on Sunday while speaking about why he hires so many black citizens to work for the city. While speaking to the congregation at the Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn, Johnson made statements that brought criticism online, MRC-TV reported on Monday. “Some detractors that will push back on me and say, ‘The only thing the mayor talks about is the hiring of black people.’ No, what I’m saying is when you hire our people we always look out for everybody else. We are the most generous people on the planet,” Johnson...

CHICAGO, IL — Following a deluge of allegations of racist hiring practices to fill city official jobs, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson issued a statement insisting that he had never once discriminated against white-boy honky crackers. Mayor Johnson's statement came on the heels of a tumultuous few days in which he seemed to publicly acknowledge favoring minority candidates over whites for prominent public jobs, accusations he now denies while voicing support for pasty peckerwoods everywhere. "I've never made judgements based the skin color of redneck whiteys," Johnson said in the statement. "Yes, I made the statement that I look to black...

The terrifying face of an alleged Tren de Aragua gangster was revealed on Friday after he was arrested by ICE officers in Denver, Colorado - a sanctuary city. Joel Matos-Nieto, a 23-year-old illegal Venezuelan migrant with a face full of tattoos, has been accused by ICE of being a member of TdA, a gang whose members often have very specific ink. According to pictures shared by ICE's Denver Field Office, Matos-Nieto was arrested on a street in Denver and was seen handcuffed next to an agent with the DEA, which often participates in ICE raids. Since its founding in a...