Finding Solutions For Crime – Without Politics Getting In The Way
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 4 March 2023
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
But crime is not just a Chicago issue. Nationally, murders, shootings, and thefts are up. Communities that feel under siege are looking to hold elected leaders accountable for their failure to address the problem. But when agreements on how to solve crime break down along party lines -and even within parties- are politics hindering potential solutions?
Host Michel Martin talks to Thomas Abt, senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, about non-partisan, research-based solutions. We also hear from Ja'Ron Smith, a fellow with Right on Crime, a conservative criminal justice reform coalition.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Earlier this week, Chicago voters decided that Mayor Laurie Lightfoot would not have a second term. |
| 0:05.6 | Back in 2019, Lightfoot made history as the city's first black woman mayor and first openly gay mayor. |
| 0:12.2 | This week, however, she also became the first mayor in Chicago to lose a re-election bid in decades. |
| 0:17.9 | She not only didn't win a majority, she didn't get enough votes to make it to a runoff between the top two. |
| 0:23.4 | We were fierce competitors in these last few months, but I will be rooting and praying for our next mayor to deliver |
| 0:31.9 | for the people of the city for years to come. |
| 0:34.4 | Like other mayors elsewhere, Lightfoot faced some once-in-a-generation challenges like guiding a |
| 0:39.2 | city through the worldwide COVID pandemic, as well as some typical ones like fights with the police |
| 0:44.3 | and teachers unions and frosty relations with some of her fellow elected officials. |
| 0:48.7 | But Chicago Tribune columnist Laura Washington told NPR that one problem seemed to stand out. |
| 0:54.5 | The top issue was public safety and crime. |
| 0:57.6 | Chicago has been experiencing a surge in crime, particularly violent crime in the last several years. |
| 1:02.6 | Lightfoot said her administration was responsible for the 20% drop in shootings and a 14% drop in |
| 1:09.2 | homicides from 2021 to 2022. But for voters, that didn't change the fact that there were still 695 |
| 1:17.3 | homicides last year, among the city's highest tally since 1999. While a lot of the blame for the |
| 1:24.0 | city's ongoing crime problem fell on Lightfoot, Washington says the situation is more complicated. |
| 1:29.6 | The city is dealing with many social and economic problems and challenges. There's not enough |
| 1:34.3 | of city money being devoted to antivirus programs, social service programs. We just went through |
| 1:39.5 | a pandemic, we went through a social unrest around the city, and some of that I think is responsible |
| 1:45.9 | for creating the instability. But I think voters expect her to be able to, you know, she's the |
| 1:52.1 | mayor, they expect her to be able to solve the problem. The reasons for crime may be complex, |
| 1:56.6 | but it's a good bet that Chicago voters will look to their next mayor to do the job they felt |
... |
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