This Labor Day weekend in Chicago, at least 52 people were shot, and seven were killed. Three separate mass shootings took place in Humboldt Park and Bronzeville. Parents buried children, teenagers fought for their lives in hospital beds, and families feared stepping outside. Yet the response from City Hall sounded more like a campaign rally than a plan for public safety.
Mayor Brandon Johnson took the stage and declared, “No troops in Chicago. No militarized force in Chicago.” He spoke at length about the labor movement, wages, paid leave, and resisting Trump. What he did not do was squarely address the blood on Chicago’s streets. The truth is that these problems were here long before Trump. They are not the creation of any one administration in Washington. They are the predictable outcome of failed leadership, year after year, decade after decade, in city after city.
Too many leaders replace results with rhetoric. Instead of facing the harsh truth—that violent crime is tearing apart Black communities—they shift to safer political topics. Wages, democracy, labor rights, and Washington are the focus. But good intentions don’t stop bullets. What truly matters are outcomes. If a child can’t ride a bike without dodging gunfire, no speech about democracy or wages counts.
Having sat with families who lost loved ones to crime and violence, I have witnessed the cycle repeat every summer. Another young life lost. Another mother’s tears. Another march. Another rally. Black politicians appear in dashiki shirts and Black Lives Matter gear, but once the cameras leave, nothing changes. Thomas Sowell warned us long ago: “There are no solutions, only trade-offs.” The trade-off here is clear. Cities can either keep focusing on ideology while crime worsens, or they can face tough decisions about policing, accountability, and community standards that can save lives.
For decades, the promise was that electing Black officials would bring change. Yet, in city after city, the results tell a different story. Baltimore has had decades of Black mayors and still ranks among the nation’s highest in murder rates. New Orleans had the highest per-capita murder rate in 2022, while leadership downplayed violent crime. St. Louis has been hollowed out by violence while leaders argued about defunding police. In Chicago, the National Guard is rejected, while residents in Bronzeville beg for safety. It’s not the race of the mayor that matters. It’s whether the mayor delivers results. Too often, Black leaders have adopted the same failing playbook: dependency policies, vague promises, and distraction from the very crises their people face.
You can even see this on the African American Mayors Association’s own website. Their Public Safety and Police Accountability Committee says it is responsible for developing “policy positions on crime prevention, gun control, corrections, reentry, substance abuse, juvenile justice, and police oversight and accountability.” Sounds impressive. But notice what’s missing. Nowhere does it mention restoring police presence in neighborhoods plagued by daily shootings. Nowhere does it mention ensuring that enough officers are on the ground to keep families safe. Instead, it reads like a press release designed for panels and conferences, not for the streets of Bronzeville, Baltimore, or New Orleans. While families bury their children, committees draft talking points. While bullets fly, they debate “reentry.” While mothers weep, they issue statements on “accountability.” But accountability without results is just another slogan.
For decades, we were told that electing Black officials would bring change. However, in city after city, the results tell a different story. Consider homicide rates per 100,000 residents in major Black-led cities (as of mid-2025 projections):
- St. Louis: 69.4
- Baltimore: 51.1
- New Orleans: 40.6
- Detroit: 39.7
- Chicago: 24.0
Baltimore, for all its recent progress, still recorded 201 homicides in 2024, down from previous years—but still a staggering number. New Orleans’s homicide rate remains among the highest in the nation. Chicago is far from out of crisis, despite recent reductions: in 2024, there were 581 homicides (21.4 per 100,000), down from 805 in 2021, but these numbers still represent hundreds of grieving families.
Just as with Section 8 housing or welfare dependency, crime policy in Black cities too often manages failure instead of solving it. More programs, more slogans, more marches—all while criminals operate unchecked. Residents are told to “be patient” while leaders blame outside forces. But patience provides no comfort to the grandmother who lost her grandson to crossfire. No comfort to the mother whose teenager was gunned down walking home.
The truth isn’t complicated. Law enforcement presence needs to be restored. Too many city police departments are short-staffed, and officers are spread thin, working excessive overtime. Communities require enough officers on the ground—well-trained, well-supported, and fully staffed—to prevent crime and respond quickly. Accountability is also important. Leaders must answer for results, not just words. If crime increases under their watch, they must step down.
And let me share this from personal experience. As someone who has lobbied in many city, county, and state positions in New York for law enforcement leadership candidates, it has become painfully clear that too many decision-makers do not want someone who will change the culture. They do not want someone who will work with communities, hold officers accountable for training and performance, and actually reduce crime. What they prefer instead is leadership that manages the problem, not fixes it. Or worse—political appointees with no experience at all, chosen because they fit an ethnic profile or because they’re connected to an organization that can deliver political brownie points come election time. That is not public safety leadership. That is politics. And people die while politicians play these games.
If leaders cannot protect their people from being shot, then what exactly are they protecting? Democracy is meaningless if the people themselves are not safe. Livable wages mean little if workers can’t get home alive. We are told that rejecting federal troops is about defending Chicago’s humanity. But humanity is already under attack—not from Washington, but from the shooters terrorizing Black neighborhoods night after night.
The crisis in Chicago is not isolated. It reflects failures across the nation in Black-led cities. Until leaders are judged not by the color of their skin or the passion of their speeches, but by the safety and prosperity of their communities, nothing will change. Black America deserves better than endless injustice, vigils, and empty slogans. We need leaders who prioritize outcomes over ideology, results over rhetoric, and safety over political theater. Until then, the cycle will persist: more speeches, more funerals, and more promises left unfulfilled.
Black elected officials can’t cry racism from the White House when crime and violence have existed in their communities long before Trump was president. It shouldn’t take the President to point this out. But it was never a secret—the funeral homes testify to the dysfunction. Instead of facing it and making changes, it’s always been easier to blame the white man, racism, or a Republican. But now the emperor has no clothes, and they’re all naked, trying to defend high crime in their districts.
References
- Chicago Labor Day shootings (2024–2025):
“Chicago shootings: At least 53 shot, 7 killed over Labor Day weekend.” ABC 7 Chicago, September 2025.
Link - Chicago homicides:
“Crime in Chicago.” Wikipedia, updated 2025. Data from Chicago Police Department and city records.
Link - Baltimore homicides:
“Crime in Baltimore.” Wikipedia, updated 2025. Data from Baltimore Police Department and city records.
Link - National homicide rate comparisons (per 100,000 residents):
“The good news about murder.” Washington Post, July 31, 2025 (citing FBI Uniform Crime Reports and city-level data).
Link - Most dangerous cities list (including New Orleans, St. Louis, Detroit):
“Most Dangerous Cities in America.” Security.org, 2024. Based on FBI and CDC data.
Link - African American Mayors Association – Public Safety Committee description:
African American Mayors Association, “Public Safety and Police Accountability Committee.”
AAMA Website
