As part of Governor Pritzker’s defense in denying Trump’s crime push in his state, both Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have claimed a significant drop in violent crime.
This weekend, however, reports surfaced that the stats may have been juked.
The DOJ now says it has evidence that Dems are playing with the numbers.
In September, Mayor Johnson claimed that crime was way down in his city, rejecting Trump’s calls to federalize the city. Johnson stated, "We will not have our police officers who are working hard every single day to drive down crime, deputize to do traffic stops and checkpoints for the president.”
At the same time, Johnson was claiming crime was down, Trump had stated, "Six people were killed and 24 people were shot in Chicago last weekend, straighten it out fast or we're coming."
I have never bought into the idea that crime was on the decline in Chicago.
I have also stated that if you look at the weekly numbers, if these thugs could shoot straighter, there would literally be thousands murdered in Chicago every year. Any decline in murder is sheer luck.
Pritzker tried to tell much the same story as Chicago’s mayor, touting a massive decline in crime rates.
Pritzker recently announced, "Shootings and homicides on our highways are down 60, 70, 80% depending on where you look — but certainly in the Chicago area — and that's a result of more officers, investment in technology, making sure that we have summer jobs for kids, and making sure that we're investing in areas that have high poverty rates.
“All of that works, I think, to reduce crime rate in the city of Chicago, and well as across the state of Illinois."
As it turns out, the Department of Justice started to dig into those numbers.
The Trump DOJ did not hold back on calling out Illinois officials for having allegedly manipulated the data.
One official stated, “If these public officials were CEOs who purposely manipulated losses into earnings, they would face serious criminal fraud charges.”
There is also the issue that even “down” stats being reported by Democrats are actually not “good” stats.
When you look at the overall numbers, they are still well above the norm, as far too many people in these blue cities refusing help from Trump are being held hostage by nefarious characters, all so they can try to score political points against Trump and win the 2026 election cycle.
