Mayor Lightfoot's Glaring Double Standard On Personal Safety

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s not apologizing for the massive police presence stationed around her home in the city’s Logan Square neighborhood, even though the dozens of officers standing guard to prevent protests around her house could be patrolling high-crime neighborhoods instead of watching over her residence. From the Chicago Tribune:

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“I think that residents of this city, understanding the nature of the threats that we are receiving on a daily basis, on a daily basis, understand I have a right to make sure that my home is secure,” Lightfoot said.

Whatever you say, Madam Mayor. The only thing is, what about those good people living in bad neighborhoods, who are also facing daily threats to their safety and security thanks to your failure to turn the rising tide of shootings and homicides across Chicago?

Lightfoot and Chicago police Superintendent David Brown were asked at an unrelated news conference about a Tribune report noting police have banned protesters from demonstrating on her block in the Logan Square neighborhood, ordering officers to arrest anyone who refuses to leave.

The directive surfaced in a July email from then-Shakespeare District Cmdr. Melvin Roman to officers under his command. It did not distinguish between the peaceful protesters Lightfoot regularly says she supports and those who might intend to be destructive, but ordered that after a warning is given to demonstrators, “It should be locked down.”

I’m not a huge fan of protesting outside of people’s homes, but as long as they’re engaged in a peaceful protest they have a First Amendment right to do so. It seems as if Lightfoot has as much respect for the First Amendment as she does the Second: not much at all.

“I’m not going to make any excuses for the fact that, given the threats I have personally received, given the threats to my home and my family, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure they’re protected,” Lightfoot said. “I make no apologies whatsoever for that.”

I know plenty of gun owners who feel the same way, but Lori Lightfoot’s treated them with contempt. In fact, the only difference between Lightfoot and many Chicagoans is that she’s privileged enough to have around-the-clock police protection, while the peasants have to protect themselves. Make no mistake, her personal Praetorian Guard is absolutely having an impact on the safety and security of the average Chicagoan.

Aside from the expanded police presence to block protesters from reaching her home, Lightfoot already receives 24/7 protection from cops including officers stationed at the residence. The aggressive policing has sometimes siphoned away resources from the area’s police district, some sources with knowledge of the situation said, leading to quiet grumbling.

In other words, cops that would normally be patrolling high-crime neighborhoods are instead parked outside of the mayor’s house to make sure she’s not disturbed by any protests.

“We have seen very peaceful First Amendment protests for the most part but embedded in each of those protests have been very violent people. And they’re embedded. They put up umbrellas. And they come for a fight,” Brown said. “So we have to prepare for what we’ve seen.”

Of course police in Chicago should be prepared for what they’ve seen, but that still doesn’t mean that the mayor needs a phalanx of armed police surrounding her house 24/7, especially if resources are being diverted from other areas to ensure that she gets her beauty rest.

The mayor’s double standard on personal safety is glaringly obvious. Lori Lightfoot is special, so why shouldn’t she be able to turn her home into a fortress with dozens of police officers equipped with “battlefield weapons of war” and “large capacity magazines”? If Larry Lightfoot, on the other hand, wants an AR-15 and a couple of 20-round magazines to protect himself and his family from the disorder plaguing his neighborhood, he’s out of luck.

Mayor Lightfoot’s already demonstrated her inability to protect the city from violent criminals, and turning her home into a heavily fortified compound while preaching the need for gun control for everyone else is just another piece of evidence that Lightfoot’s concern about the safety and security of Chicagoans ends at her front door.

 

 

 

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