By Jeffrey Blehar
Thursday,
February 15, 2025
Yesterday
afternoon, I wrote about Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson’s
mindlessly progressivist folly in canceling ShotSpotter, a technology used by
police and emergency medical services to pinpoint the location of gunfire in
high-crime areas of the city. I pointed out how deeply cynical an act it was,
as well: You couldn’t even credit Johnson for having the courage of his
convictions, however benighted, because he announced he was actually renewing
ShotSpotter’s contract for six months — to get the city through the summer
months and the Democratic National Convention — before canceling it in
September. It betrayed progressive doublethink: “This technology is ineffective
and racist and must be ended immediately . . . but not right now during a
politically perilous moment, because in reality we all know it works.” I ended
with this cheerful thought:
So we in the city have been granted a
temporary reprieve. But that won’t stop him from toying with the lives and
well-being of Chicagoans for the sake of testing nonsensical progressive ideas
that will get people killed; no, it will only delay the date.
I
spoke too soon. The date may not be delayed at all. You see, as bad as I
thought it already was, it has now somehow gotten even worse. You
might want to take a seat before reading the rest of this column, because some
civic stupidity from elected officials — even at this late date of 2024 — is so
inconceivably staggering that it will blow you right off your feet like a gust
of wind rolling off of Upper Wacker Drive.
For
when Brandon Johnson in his infinite wisdom strolled out to announce on Tuesday
that he was temporarily renewing ShotSpotter to take the city past the summer
months, he neglected to get ShotSpotter’s signature on the contract
renewal before doing so. And now ShotSpotter’s position is,
in so many words: Go to hell. No deal. Instead of being publicly insulted and
told what they will do by Mayor Johnson, they will simply leave now if they are
so obviously unwanted. So ShotSpotter is now set to turn off its Chicago
operation permanently on Friday, the day of the current contract’s expiration.
For those with calendar-management issues, I will emphasize: That is tomorrow.
Not September, after the long hot summer (Chicago street crime historically spikes
between June and August) and a Democratic National Convention sure to be
attended by every pro-Hamas and antifa goon within a 300-mile radius. Tomorrow. Good
luck, residents! You’re even more screwed than you thought you were, and
sooner!
The
best-case scenario here is that ShotSpotter, having been publicly attacked and
insulted, knows it has immense leverage and is planning to squeeze the city as
the price of their stupidity — either for more money or for the public
humiliation of forcing the Chicago city council to override Brandon Johnson.
(This would be a remarkable coup, given how much more doctrinaire in its woke
progressivism the council has become with the election that brought Johnson to
power.) The worst-case scenario is they follow through on their announced plans
and simply turn ShotSpotter off, leaving Chicagoans to enjoy their hot-town
summer in the city in a new and exciting way.
I’m
out of words for this level of near-criminal incompetence. However, Alderman
Chris Taliaferro, of the West Side’s 29th Ward, didn’t lack for them: “It is a
great loss for the city of Chicago as we prepare to go into the summer months
and as we go into a Democratic National Convention, already with a police
department that is undersized by at least 2,000 officers.” Down on the South
Side, Alderman Anthony Beale (9th Ward) was shaking his head as well: “The city
has lost all its leverage. When you make an announcement that you’re cancelling
ShotSpotter, and ‘extending it until September’ without having a signed
contract,” you’re as good as dead at the negotiating table when it comes time
to actually signing the contract. (Note that these are aldermen who
represent the neighborhoods hardest hit by gun crime and gang violence. As I
mentioned in my earlier piece, the political constituency for this sort of woke
anti-police mentality is the rich white progressive enclaves in northern
Chicago, not the people who actually live in the affected communities.)
There’s
nothing left to say — although I suppose we’ll know by Friday afternoon whether
ShotSpotter has come to terms with the Johnson administration. The cheap jabs
have all already been made: Chicago is getting what it voted for,
true-believing progressives would walk into a wind turbine if enough activists
said they must, etc. For those of us who live here, however, those of us who
still — against all reason and odds — love this town, it’s yet another low in
incompetent governance in a city that (for all its infamous endemic corruption)
used to know how to run itself. Now, we are lost.
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