The mayor of Chicago believes his city does not need President Donald Trump’s help in curbing crime.
Instead, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is looking for other ways to handle the issue.
In what some have called political outreach, Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C. On Friday, he said Chicago and New York was next on his list.
“The guard is not needed,” Johnson told NBC News. “This is not the role of our military. The brave men and women who signed up to serve our country did not sign up to occupy American cities.”
The Windy City’s mayor said there has been a decrease in murders, shootings and car thefts.
Earlier this month, the Chicago police crime data revealed murders are down 31% from the same time last year. Shootings have gone down by 36% and vehicle thefts are down 26%.
“The things that we’re doing in Chicago by investing in people, youth employment, mental health care, services, building more affordable homes, making sure that our detectives bureau has all the resources that it needs … that’s why we’re seeing the results that we are experiencing right now,” Johnson said.
“Occupying our cities with the military — that’s not how we build safe and affordable communities,” he added.
Johnson questioned why Trump cut federal investments in violence prevention and reduced the budget for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid if his goal was to lower violence big cities.
“The National Guard is not going to put food on people’s table. The National Guard is not going to reduce unemployment,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s office revealed Saturday that it was working with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Cook County in “evaluating all of our legal options to protect the people of Chicago from unconstitutional federal overreach.”
On Saturday, Pritzker posted on social media and said Trump was “attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicize Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he’s causing families.”
Trump said Friday there were no plans involving Chicago. He also has not spoken to Johnson about any troop deployment.
Trump said people in the city “are screaming for us to come.”
“When we’re ready, and we’ll go in and we’ll straighten out Chicago, just like we did D.C. Chicago is very dangerous,” he said.
