Lori Lightfoot, the embattled Chicago mayor, on Monday told a local reporter not to try and “bait” city officials after faced with a legitimate question on whether the city’s soft response to lootings weeks ago led to the chaos on Sunday night.
The reporter, Craig Wall from ABC-7, asked Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown if city officials were implying that the looting late Sunday night were the result of “courts and the prosecutors” not doing their job.
Lightfoot interjected, “No, no, don’t… do not bait us.”
“Do not bait us. This is a serious situation. People are concerned about their safety. Officers are concerned about their safety. So don’t bait us,” she said.
Lightfoot tried to put the question itself on the spot in order to divert attention, but the technique by big-city mayors to shift blame during violent protests has become industry standard.
Buck Sexton, the host of "The Buck Sexton Show," said it has become a favorite Democrat talking point to blame courts and prosecutors for upticks in crimes. Many courts are operating at less capacity and mayors like New York’s Bill de Blasio have been known to blame the courts for the spike in violent crimes.
“It’s really that the courts are preventing police from being able to do their jobs effectively in these cities,” Sexton said. “No. What prevents police from doing their jobs in New York, in Chicago, is that Democrat politicians have promised the mob that the cops are on a short leash now.”
Sexton said law enforcement officers have received the message loud and clear: If they are caught, even making a good-faith error in dealing with a violent suspect, their career will be over and their lives will be ruined by the angry mob.
Sexton pointed to how the looting in Chicago stemmed from a police-involved shooting on Sunday after police said the suspect fired shots at the responding officers.
He said the Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, famous for her handling of the Jussie Smollett case, is an unlikely official who will come down on these violent protesters.
“Do you think that they’re really willing to drop the hammer down, so to speak—that they’re really willing [to prosecute rioters]?” Sexton asked. “To put away a looter at this point in time. Mmmhmmm. No, not in Chicago.”
Sexton said if Foxx has any political ambitions to be the city’s mayor, she would likely have second thoughts about these prosecutions.
“Will we hold the Democrat Party responsible this fall?” Sexton asked. “Will the Americans listening to this in Ohio, Florida, in Nevada, in Wisconsin…Will they recognize what the stakes are and what the Democrat Party has become and rebuke it at the ballot box? That is the question that I leave for you right now.”