Chicago 911 coordinator resigns amid raging crime, speaks out about Mayor’s ‘Lies and Corruption’

While many cities across America are grappling with rising crime rates over the past two years, Chicago stands out in particular. The crisis facing Chicago was made clear once again when one of the city’s 911 coordinators resigned and spoke out about Mayor Lori Lightfoot and city officials not receiving the support that the agency had received. received by law enforcement.

Keith Thornton Jr was a dispatcher but decided to step down to “advocate and get my voice out there” to better speak about the crime crisis facing Chicago, he told Fox. News.

“No transparency from city hall in Chicago and just a very sloppy regulator. It’s just time. I’m tired of it,” he said.

Thornton also offers revolving door guarantees.

“Every week, every day, they say the statistics are going down with violent crime and people getting shot and killed. Look, I’m on the other side of the radio as a dispatcher in Chicago, which is bullshit. … I don’t support that. This is wrong,” he said.

Thornton wasn’t the only one unhappy with Lightfoot and city officials.

Lightfoot has been heavily criticized for her handling of Chicago over the past two years, and the New York Times even noted that she has “an uncanny ability to make political enemies.”

Even other Chicago city officials weren’t happy with Lightfoot.

Byron Sigcho-Lopez, of the 25th Alderman ward, called the mayor a “fake reformer” who acted contrary to her campaign promise to “bring to light,” the Chicago Sun Times reported.

The police force is also fed up with Chicago officials.

The president of the Chicago police union has also blamed Lightfoot, along with the city’s school system, for high crime and murder rates.

John Catanzara, Jr., president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police spoke to Fox News in late July about the issues facing the city.

“Chicago recovers more guns than New York and LA combined, but we have more homicides than New York and LA combined,” Catanzarza said. “I firmly believe it goes back to… the school system and no accountability for lost children. Many of them have no parental guidance at home and their grandparents are raising them, and they put them in a school system where they misbehave.”

“Unfortunately, schools continue to vilify police officers because we are the problem, and the mayor is not doing anything to help,” he added.

Chicago is currently conducting more than 600 murders by 2022, WTTW News reports.

Although this is down slightly from the extremely high crime statistics of 2020 and 2021, Chicago is still struggling with its police force.

In the past six months alone, there have been about 300 resignations from the police department. Fox News reports that many officers have even given up their pensions.

Now, Chicago is facing a police shortage. At the end of June, the department said it was short of 1,300 employees compared to needs, CBS News reported.

Thornton spoke about his personal experience as a dispatcher because of police shortages and high crime.

“We had to tell these citizens we had the resources and the police were coming and it was hours before we could get an officer to multiple locations in the city,” Thornton said. .

But as Catanzara noted, “Everybody is numb to it at this point.”

This article originally appeared in Western Magazine.

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