Heading into the midterm elections, media outlets and political party leaders insisted that “tough-on-crime” policies would be on every voter’s mind; if elected officials wanted to win, they must back off reforms or face losses and the wrath of police unions.
In Cook County, primary election results told a very different story. Progressives who talked about non-carceral solutions to violence won big.
Movement-grown state Rep. Delia Ramirez beat a powerful sitting alderman in her bid for Congress. Toni Preckwinkle held onto her role as Cook County board president while supporting jail decarceration and bail reform. Organizer Anthony Quezada defeated a long- time incumbent for Cook County commissioner on a platform that included a civilian first responder program.
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Meanwhile, the Fraternal Order of Police failed to convince the public that reforming the criminal legal system will undermine public safety. The clearest test was on Chicago’s Northwest Side, home to many police officers and assumed to be conservative.
Each election cycle, the FOP uses manipulative fear-mongering in an attempt to convince residents to vote for their right-wing candidates. They thought this tactic would be more successful than ever after Northwest Side legislators state Sen. Robert Martwick and state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe voted to end money bond. Their theory was that they could oust incumbents claiming that ending money bond was anti-police and dangerous.
While the FOP poured $100,000 into trying to scare voters, concerned community members with the People’s Lobby had actual conversations with people in those same neighborhoods. We knocked on the doors of over 8,000 people and spoke directly with thousands of them. What we heard may surprise the FOP and the pundits.
We brought up ending money bond at every door, and voters understood that denying people the presumption of innocence does not keep us safe. What does is school funding, racial justice, health care, bike lanes, reforming our regressive tax system, and much more.
On election day, LaPointe and Martwick crushed their opponents.
Illinois’s primary proved that legislators don’t need to be afraid of their shadows — they just have to do the work. Illinoisans from every walk of life want legislators to address safety and combat structural racism with proven solutions. Progressives showed that when legislators do the hard work of engaging with constituents and volunteers have real conversations at the doors, voters will support transformative change.
Allie Lichterman, pretrial fairness act defense lead, The People’s Lobby
Are we numb to the violence around us?
Last year, WBEZ published a report by Odette Yousef, “Chicago leads the nation in mass shootings, averaging about one per week.” The report stated that from January 2019 to June 21, 2021, Chicago had 124 mass shootings. Since then, there have been dozens more.
There is no doubt that we will not forget the massacre on the 4th of July in Highland Park. The outcry was immediate. The president weighed in with his condolences and ordered flags flown at half-mast, the vice president flew in the next day to hold a press conference and the governor of Illinois was everywhere a camera and a reporter could be found.
Imagine over 150 mass shootings in Chicago, and I cannot recall one other presidential phone call or a vice president flying in to offer condolences. No flags ever flew at half-mast for the victims of Chicago’s mass shootings. Not once in recent years and over 2,000 murders has anyone ever mentioned holding the shooter’s parents responsible. There never has been a major initiative to find out how the shooters obtained their weapons, like the Highland Park suspect.
Has the stunning level of violence, murders, and mass shootings in Chicago caused an entire city and maybe even a country, to lose the ability to be shocked?
Bob Angone, retired Chicago Police lieutenant, Austin, Texas
