Pritzker: No plan to deploy National Guard in Chicago

[August 03, 2023]  By Andrew Hensel | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – As Gov. J.B. Pritzker weighs whether to use the National Guard in Chicago to help officers deal with crime, some city officials are speaking out against the possibility.

According to Chicago Police statistics, overall crime in the city is up 36% compared to last year.

During a recent discussion on how to prevent violent crime in the city, Pritzker answered questions regarding using the National Guard. Pritzker praised state police officers but said due to numbers, they could use extra help.

"They're tremendous, but like I said, we only have 1,900 of them available to use, and we still have the rest of the state to patrol when talking about the city of Rockford and the city of Chicago," Pritzker said. "We can do some things, but not everything with state police."

Pritzker said he doesn't plan to use the National Guard to combat crime.

"National Guardsman and women are trained to kill people on a battle field. That is what they are trained to do. They are not police. They don't know how to do crowd control," Pritzker said.

The topic has led to different opinions by state and city officials.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, told The Center Square that all things should be considered when looking at stopping crime.

"I think that if the top cop of Chicago has the ability to actually put together a plan with the National Guard, then I think that is something that should not be off the table," Ford said. "I think that the need to save lives should be the priority. I am concerned that with nine women being shot recently in one situation, I think that we need to pull out unusual resources."

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker during a recent discussion
Illinois.gov

Chicago Alderman Chris Taliaferro, D-29th, said unless there is a national emergency, he will not support the idea or any discussions that involve the use of the National Guard.

"Absent a state declaration that Chicago is under an emergency, I would not welcome the thought or the idea of having the National Guard deployed throughout the city," Taliaferro said.

Taliaferro warned using the guard to combat crime could negatively impact specific communities.

"Let me be blunt. They are speaking about deploying the National Guard into the Black communities," Taliaferro said. "I wonder if they would say that about deploying the National Guard into Jefferson Park, Portage Park or the Sauganash Village. They are talking about deploying them into the Black community, and it is absolutely wrong."

The state used the National Guard in 2020 during civil unrest.

"What we did with the National Guard is what we should do with the National Guard in those situations which is we use them to block off-ramps from the highway coming into Chicago if you wanted to make sure that we don't have more people joining the fray and causing violence," Pritzker said.