News/Commentary

Clueless? Lightfoot says ‘unloved youth’ to blame for latest Chi crime surge, days after appointee beaten

April 3, 2022 | | Print Article

After police revealed that more than half — 57 percent —  of all carjackings are perpetrated by juvenile suspects, Mayor Lori Lightfoot claimed Chicago youths feel “unloved.”

The liberal Lightfoot spoke Saturday at a town hall held at the Harold Washington Library with Chicago youths in attendance and said the city cannot “arrest ourselves” out of a surging crime wave, Fox News reported.

“There are too many young people in this room that feel unloved, and we need to change that if we are going to change the trajectory of their lives,” Lightfoot said.

One wonders if Lightfoot appointee, Kwame Amoaku, the director of the Chicago Film Office, would agree with the mayor’s assessment.

He is currently recovering after being beaten by three men who stole his car.

In a post Wednesday to Facebook, Amoaku stated, “This [morning] I was attacked, beaten, and my car stolen by three kids. Thanks to all who have reached out. I’m in the ICU. I’m going to be ok.”

“The victim confronted the offenders, who then began battering the victim with various objects,” according to an incident report from the Chicago Police Department.

After racing away in a Dodge Caravan, the attackers sped back to the scene, beat Amoaku again, and took off.

As of this writing, no one has been arrested and detectives are continuing their investigation.

Prior to his appointment by Lightfoot in 2019 to head up Chicago’s film office, Amoaku served as location manager for “Chicago Fire” and for “Beats,” a Netflix movie based on the city’s hip-hop scene.

While shootings and homicides are, for now, down in the Windy City, carjackings are on the rise.

As of the end of March, there have been 508 shootings in Chicago, down from 582 shootings during the same period last year,  and 128 homicides, down 7 percent from last year. By comparison, there have been 433 carjackings this year, leading to 72 vehicular hijacking arrests — up from 425 carjackings during the same period in 2021.

In February, Mayor Lightfoot suggested the spike was not due to a lack of love, but a lack of in-person learning at school.

“We started seeing this rise in cases in 2020,” Lightfoot said at the time. “And I’ll be frank and say in Chicago there was a correlation we believe between remote learning and the rise in carjackings.”

On Twitter, however, many users feel Lightfoot needs to look no farther than her own failed policies for the reason behind the crime surge.

“NO,” exclaimed one user. “It is HATEFUL LEADERS LIKE LIGHTFOOT and DEFUNDING the police! FUND THE POLICE!”

“So now she’s blaming parents, not the poverty and hopelessness perpetuated by Dems,” tweeted another.

“How many of these ‘unloved were born from an unwed ‘birthing parent’? Start there!” advised a third.

And a fourth stated, “No, the gangs figured out if they get juveniles to steal cars and do various other crimes they get deferred sentences and can be put back to work quicker.”

“This isn’t hard to follow,” the user added.

 

Melissa Fine
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