|
The
poll also finds that 7 of 10 Cook County residents think the
city should be investing in more public safety initiatives.
State Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland, said the poll almost read
his mind.
“I know I had the opportunity to go to some meetings in Chicago
… and I didn’t want to go because you don’t feel safe,” Miller
told The Center Square. “A lot of these crimes are happening in
broad daylight. It’s not like they’re doing it under the cover
of darkness. The Magnificent Mile and different places like that
are shown to be unsafe just because of the crime being committed
there in broad daylight.”
With robberies and vehicle thefts up in recent times, Miller
left no doubt about what he sees as the root of much of the
trouble.
“To me the biggest problem is when you think about Mayor
[Brandon] Johnson, Kim Foxx, Jim Durkin and people like that,
none of them want to take ownership for any of this stuff and
all they want to do is blame others for their failures,” he
added. "Also, J.B. Pritzker needs to be thrown into the mix with
the SAFE-T Act and the thousands of illegals and all the things
that they’ve done to perpetrate the crime problem in Chicago.”
Making the situation all the more maddening, Miller said he
doesn’t see anyone in Springfield taking the lead in making the
kind of changes he feels need to be made.
“I don’t think hardly anything is being done when you look at
some of the bad public policies,” he added. “The first plank is
to establish justice and when there is no justice there’s
lawlessness and what we see happening in the city of Chicago is
lawlessness because crime is not being punished. The criminal is
the victim. It’s very true people don’t feel safe in the city of
Chicago.”
In the end, Miller said what’s happening in downtown Chicago is
to be expected given what those in elected office are allowing.
“If people don’t feel like they’re going to be safe … it’s like
don’t go there, it’s dangerous. It’s common sense,” he said.
“There’s just a real lack of any justice. They’re changing the
rules where things that used to be criminal are no longer
associated with criminality.”
|
|
