Brandon Johnson to be sworn in as Chicago mayor
Political analyst Gianno Caldwell had 'Breakfast with Friends' at Rosie's Home Cookin' in Naperville, Illinois, to discuss residents' sentiment surrounding Johnson's leadership.
Chicago residents are set to welcome their incoming mayor, Brandon Johnson, as he is sworn into office on Monday officially taking over control from Lori Lightfoot.
But not all residents are excited about the ultra-progressive transition as the city continues to battle rampant crime and drug problems.
Fox News political analyst Gianno Caldwell spoke with Chicago-area residents at Rosie's Home Cookin' in Naperville, Illinois, just outside the Windy City, about their sentiments regarding Johnson's leadership.
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One woman's father was a police officer in the city, and she told Caldwell he would be "rolling in his grave" over how the city's surge in violence has spiraled under Lightfoot's leadership.
"He'd be very disappointed," she said.
"He's rolling in his grave right now. This is not the city that he was sworn to protect, and the politics involved and the level of crime against innocent people and hardworking Americans. It's just shameful."
As Chicago voters flocked to ballot boxes earlier this year, they reported crime was at the top of their lists of concerns.
Chicago was rocked in 2021 by more than 800 homicides, the most the city had recorded since 1996, while simultaneously dealing with other crimes such as smash-and-grab robberies, carjackings and illegal street racing.
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Another resident told Caldwell he lost his son to a drug overdose - he urged the Biden administration and city leaders to cease the push to decriminalize drug use, even calling the push to do so "soft euthanasia."
"I think they should switch gears from trying to take away firearms from honest and innocent people to… stop decriminalizing drugs because it's just soft euthanasia," he said. "This is just free needles, free programs, and these addicts are dead just like my son. You want to know what the pain of losing a child is? Sit down with me for 10 minutes. I know it."
"They need to focus on all these deaths from drugs and the pouring across the border. It's just going to take more sons and more daughters away from families and that the pain is indescribable," he continued. "So I do understand what's going on when it comes to gun control, pain and suffering. But there's a heck of a lot more pain and suffering on the drug side, too."
Under outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s tenure, Chicago recorded 2,784 homicides and a total of 14,681 shooting incidents, according to police data from 2019 to this month.
Caldwell also spoke with a former FBI official who worked with the bureau for more than two decades. He cited the lack of "consequences" criminals face as the culprit to blame for the surge in violence.
"I've been gone for eight years, but it's to the point now that there's no respect for law enforcement," he said. "I'd be real worried about knocking on a door now because they're actually shooting through doors. They're not they don't care if you're FBI or CPD, if you're Cook County."
"They'll just shoot and ask questions later and then not worry about the consequences because there are no consequences, and I think that's the biggest problem."
The number of homicides and shooting incidents during Lightfoot’s administration notched a 9% increase from the 2,546 homicides and 13,421 shootings that took place during her predecessor, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s, final term in office.
Fox News' Emma Colton contributed to this report.