Chicago was once again the nation’s homicide capital in 2024.
Now a city lawmaker is coming forward saying that city officials still want to divert funding away from the police department, despite the less-than-dubious honor.
“I said this for the last two mayors too,” said 41st Ward Alderman Anthony Napolitano.
“It’s not even so much so that these last two administrations are turning a blind eye. They’re ignoring the crime rate because their objective … is to demonize the police department, make it seem like there’s not there’s not as much of a crime issue as there is, because their goal is to steal the police budget.”
In 2024, Chicago had 573 homicides, leading the nation in that category for the 13th year in a row.
The homicide rate per 100,000 residents in the city was five times higher than New York City’s 377, and three times higher than Los Angeles’ 280, according to an analysis by Wirepoints.
“They want to take that police budget because it’s an extremely high budget and allocated to other resources or projects that they want to accomplish in their tenure in office,” said Napolitano.
“It’s destroying our city. It’s evident what’s going on.”
One of those projects, INVEST South/West, was an “epic fail,” according to Napolitano.
According to the city, $250 million in taxpayer funds were allocated for that project, which began in 2019, in an attempt to revitalize southwest Chicago in the hopes of luring businesses to the area.
“INVEST South/West is one of the biggest epic fails that they’ve had,” Napolitano said.
“Instead of investing in just one neighborhood, in one area, why don’t we make the entire city safe by investing in our police force and the safety of our city, so that investors on a larger scale want to come to all of Chicago, not just specific neighborhoods? They refuse to do that.”
Napolitano also noted that the city’s leadership has used immense resources to support illegal migrants for political purposes, thinking they would get more aid from the federal government if former Vice President Kamala Harris had won the November election.
“The federal government didn’t give us anything when [Democrats] were in office,” he said.
“Now when the administration changed, we’re getting absolutely nothing at all because we’re remaining a sanctuary city, which I was adamantly against in my 10 years in office. So this is just one failure after the next.”
He also said that his constituents are furious because in his ward, there is not a lot of violent criminal activity, meaning that police resources are directed away from the district to deal with violent crime elsewhere.
That means when a burglary or other minor crime takes place in the 41st Ward, residents have a more difficult time getting the help they need.
“So it’s an evolution of just pure bull—- by these people,” he said. “The last two administrations are the worst this city has ever seen.”