Chicago’s Labor Day Shootings!
Miami, US, Sep 1 (EFE).-
At least 54 people were shot, seven fatally, in shootings in Chicago over Labor Day weekend, police reported Monday, at a time when the federal government has threatened to militarize the city to reduce crime, despite opposition from local authorities.
The figures released by the Chicago Police Department reveal that 7 people were killed and 47 wounded in the shootings over the holiday weekend.
Such a high death toll is not uncommon in Chicago, a city with a high crime rate that recorded 43 shootings and the murder of nine people during the week of Aug. 18-24.
However, these figures come as the Trump administration has threatened to soon deploy the National Guard to the city.
The possible militarization has received strong criticism from Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, both Democrats, who question whether the deployment is part of Trump’s plan to arrest undocumented migrants and deport them.
The mayor signed an executive order last week preventing local officials from collaborating with the federal government if the deployment were to go ahead.
Furthermore, during the Labor Day protests on Monday, thousands of people took to the streets of Chicago with signs against Trump’s measure, urging him to halt his plans.
However, Trump took advantage of the violence figures in Chicago and asserted, on his Truth Social platform, that “crime is totally out of control.”
His threats are already a reality in Washington, D.C., where he recently ordered the deployment of troops to combat crime, also despite the Democratic mayor’s opposition.
The deployment in the capital followed the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops in Los Angeles, California, a city and state with strong Democratic roots, in the context of protests against immigration raids in June. EFE hbc/tw
