The city alderman who was heard telling Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to get tough with looters, said Tuesday that “it’s easy to call for defunding police when you live in a safe neighborhood.”
“Many neighborhoods throughout the city of Chicago get along with their police … and if you were to leave them to the wolves you’d be putting them already into a greater disadvantage than they are now,” Democratic Ward 15 Alderman Raymond Lopez told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on“The Ingraham Angle.”
“If you’re going to dismantle the police department, you are putting lives even more in danger.”
Lopez was heard arguing with Lightfoot in a leaked May 31 conference call with the mayor and other Chicago aldermen and women. During the conversation, Lightfoot dismissed Lopez’s concerns that looters were out of control and would move from businesses to homes if more police or the National Guard did not intervene.(RELATED: ‘Begins With F And Ends With U’: Chicago Mayor’s ‘Code’ For Trump Leaves Little To The Imagination)
“Unfortunately that’s not the first time that the mayor and I have engaged in this kind of discussion,” Lopez told Ingraham. “It’s really unfortunate for the people that we both represented to not be able to work together … especially during one of the most horrific times in our city’s history when quite literally people were, as you said, creating organized chaos in our neighborhood.”
“I was basically pleading for help, pleading for her to take seriously the concerns that we’ve seen in the neighborhood and it was not only falling on deaf ears, it was outright dismissed.”
Lopez said the lack of police presence in some parts of the city “has led to almost a state of lawlessness and we’ve seen our attempts to ask for more resources, more police, more security in our neighborhoods again being rebuffed,” adding that he and other aldermen have “asked for the National Guard to come and assist our police officers in maintaining the safety and security of our city.” (RELATED: Lockdowns And Gun Control Fail Chicago Again)
Lightfoot has rejected any assistance from the National Guard, prompting the alderman to suggest that all politicians should “check our egos, check our political point making and actually focus on the task at hand which is to help all our neighborhoods.”
Graffiti is seen on a burned out 7Eleven after riots and looting overnight on June 2, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. Four police officers were reportedly shot in St. Louis overnight during violent clashes with protesters leading to looting and damage to local businesses. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)
Lopez recounted how mobs ransacked “our communities, our pharmacies, our grocery stores and not able to get the resources from the police department because they were busy playing ‘whack a mole,’ trying to chase looters who came to our city to cause havoc.”
Lightfoot has blamed President Donald Trump for the violence in the city that accompanied protests over the the death of George Floyd after his arrest by Minneapolis police.
Trump has dismissed calls to abolish or defund the police has promised a vote for his reelection will mean more funding for law enforcement.