Calls for Chicago’s leftist mayor to resign after spike in gun violence

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, an Obama-era liberal, was out showing his black dance moves while the carnage was happening, Fox News reported. The violence disproportionately affects African American neighbourhoods on the city’s West and South Sides.

“There is a shortage of values about what is right, what is wrong,” Emanuel said in response. “We as a city, in every corner, have an accountability and responsibility. If you know who did this, be a neighbour. Speak up.”

But protesters last week shut down busy Lake Shore Drive during rush-hour traffic, to express their anger over Chicago’s endemic gun violence and called for Emanuel’s resignation.

The latest shootings, stretching over a 60-hour period from Friday evening until early Monday morning, came after city officials expressed optimism that Chicago would beat gun violence.

Twelve people — ages 11 to 63 — were killed and more than 70 were wounded. One of the victims was a teenage boy who was out riding his bike on Sunday afternoon.

The murder clearance rate for the city is also appallingly low, with only 20 percent of killings solved last year. So far this year, police have solved or made arrests in few of the killings, USA Today reported.

Thirty-nine people were shot, including five fatally, in a roughly seven-hour span late Saturday and early Sunday, according to police reports.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at a news conference on Tuesday that after the increased violence in the city, that additional officers would be deployed to the West and South Sides, where most of the shootings occurred.

Johnson announced that 400 additional officers have already been deployed, and that another 200 officers would join them this coming weekend. Some officers will have their regular shifts extended, while others will have their days off cancelled.

“They hold me accountable, they hold the mayor accountable, they hold the City Council accountable,” Johnson complained. “You know what I never hear? I never hear people saying these individuals out on the street need to stop pulling the trigger. I never hear that. They get a pass from everybody.”