This Monday, President Donald Trump stopped in Chicago to deliver a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Although his own city hosted the president, Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson skipped the event, and when Trump spoke this Monday, he promptly launched into an angry tirade against Johnson. In other words, even when confronted with a chance to speak in favor of something like protecting Americans or literally anything else, Trump again resorted to defending his ego on the national (and really global) stage.
His laundry list of complaints about Johnson included the fact that local leaders had decided to keep their law enforcement efforts separate from federal immigration enforcement. To be clear, in absolutely no case of these so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions has a single crime gone unpunished in some capacity, but Trump railed anyway:
‘Eddie Johnson wants to talk about values. No, people like Johnson put criminals and illegal aliens before the citizens of Chicago and those are his values and frankly, those values to me are a disgrace… It is embarrassing to us as a nation. All over the world they’re talking about Chicago. Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison. It’s true.’
False. Again — when local authorities decide to establish “sanctuary” jurisdictions, they do not let criminals roam freely. They simply demand that local cops don’t get turned into de facto arms of the federal immigration enforcement squad.
Trump also noted the high rate of gun violence in Chicago, but he left out a key fact — the majority of the guns that police recover in the city originated outside the state. How are tough gun laws supposed to work to their fullest extent if local gun-happy leaders refuse to support them?
Trump railed anyway:
‘Chicago has the toughest gun laws in the United States. That doesn’t seem to be working too well, does it? A lot of you people know exactly what I mean. But under Johnson’s leadership, they certainly don’t protect people.’
Besides — is Johnson supposed to be held personally responsible for every incident of gun violence in the city of Chicago? In the United States throughout the time since January 1, there have been a full 12,336 and counting deaths from gun violence. Trump is himself the president of — wait for it — the entire United States of America. Under his leadership or lack thereof, these incidents have unfolded. Are we supposed to hold him personally responsible for each of those deaths too? Chicago officials have actually worked to curb the violence. What’s Trump done besides give these rambling speeches?
He went on from the above into complaints about the infamous Jussie Smolett case in which the actor has been accused of staging a hate crime against himself that he blamed on Trump supporters. The president juxtaposing this case right alongside the one of the gun violence indicates how centered his perception really is on himself and his public image. There are so many other things the president of the United States could focus on in an address to police officers! Trump chose to focus on himself.
