Lightfoot on Crime Increase: ‘All Roads Lead to COVID’

During an interview with The New York Times‘ “Sway” podcast released on Monday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) stated that with the recent crime surge in Chicago, “all roads lead to COVID.”

Lightfoot stated, [relevant remarks begin around 16:00] “Why do I think that this is happening in this moment here in Chicago and perhaps also across the country? To me, all roads lead to COVID. When you think about public safety, public safety is really an ecosystem. Public safety isn’t just cops on dots, meaning police officers occupying spaces in high crime areas across the city. Every part of that public safety ecosystem was crushed by COVID. Our county partners, the prosecutor, the courts, the jails similarly retreated. Our Cook County court system for criminal trials still hasn’t fully reopened 16 months later.”

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