Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot emphatically told the city’s gun owners during a Monday press conference to rely on law enforcement should they be confronted by looters, vandals, or other criminals during the ongoing riots.
“Obviously we’re aware of the fact that Illinois is a concealed carry state,” Lightfoot said. “Do not take matters into your own hands. Call the police.
“We’ve seen tragedy happen in this country, and recently, when people felt like they could take matters into their own hands. … Let me remind you of the killing of Mr. [Ahamud] Arbery. Do not pick up arms and try to be the police. If there’s a problem, call 911. We will respond. But I urge people to show restraint and do not take matters into your own hands,” she continued.
Problem with that advice is that even under normal circumstances when seconds count, police are minutes away — but these are exigent circumstances and the reality is that Chicago’s finest may be hours away, if they can make it at all.
Lightfoot admitted that over the weekend law enforcement was overwhelmed with the volume of service calls it received. On Sunday alone 911 dispatchers received 65,000 calls, about 1,000-2,000 calls every 30 minutes.
SEE ALSO: St. Louis Police Ask For Help Finding Looters Who Murdered Retired Capt. David Dorn
“The Police Department was responding to these calls as best they could with a significant amount of additional resources on the South and the West sides,” the mayor explained. “The challenge was it was everywhere. Everywhere.
“So if we had a police department four times the size it would have been difficult to keep up with the calls for service yesterday. Now, I know that’s cold comfort, but I want to be clear that we didn’t stand by and let the South and the West Side burn as, unfortunately, some people are propagating. That’s just not true.”
Mayor Lightfoot is essentially instructing the law-abiding people of Chicago to be victims — as opposed to armed self-defenders. It’s crazy to think but she freely admits that the nanny state cannot protect its citizens during all this chaos, yet she is imploring citizens to put the safety of themselves and their family in the hands of the nanny state.
If ever there was a recipe to get good people killed or injured that is it. Don’t defend yourself, we will come to your defense even though we can almost guarantee that will not be there when you actually need to be defended. Crazy!
Hopefully this is yet another wake-up call to the anti-gun moonbats about the fallibility of government when it comes to one’s personal protection. Recognize, your safety is ultimately your responsibility. Those who trust in government do so at their own peril.
I have followed the situation in Chicago for years–it has fantastic museums and attractions. So i recall an article from back before i retired where they found a direct correlation between police response time and possession of weapons.
Also my son who reads the reports and is a gang investigator/trainer tells me stats indicate certain ares that could be targeted by police to take care of most of the shootings.
This know-nothing mayor has round the clock armed police protection, but she does not want the citizens of Chicago to protect themselves. She wants them to call the police and wait for the cops to show up, assuming they will. (They don’t in Seattle any more.) My advice to her: Take a hike, lady! If someone attacks me, I’ll fight back. The police can pick up the pieces, assuming they show at all.
Chicago is a shining example of how voting democrap is like injecting ebola into your chest
My God, Chicago must really miss a really good Mayor, Richard Daley, the last Democrat mayor with any stones. The present mayor only wishes she had a pair.
BIG difference from the Sheriff David Clarke from Wisconsin. He encouraged people to be armed. Typical democRAT logic. Anyone who lives in Chicago gets what they deserve. They voted in that idiot and they get what they paid for.
Yeah. They all share one brain.
I have called the police dammit. Four times during my lifetime of 70 years. Not once did they show up in a timely manner where they could of helped me. And everyone I talked to basically say the same thing. They showed up almost an hour later. But Democrats don’t care about your safety. They will never get the right amount of police to make sure people are safe.
Chicago has 13,000 police to cover Chicago with a population of 8,675,982 and 213,358 businesses. And you wonder why we need a 2nd amendment. These protests with criminals being able to run free is that much more reason to protect yourself for the worst type of invasion on your property you could expect.
That stupid advice didn’t work well for rooftop Koreans during the L.A. Riots. There’s even footage of LAPD driving away from situations where looters should have been stopped. Most or all Korean business owners in Koreatown know that LAPD failed them.
But wait.. Call the POLICE..??? You want to DE-FUND the police. So hmmmm… maybe they should dial in to #311 and the response will go like this…
Response : ! 800 Prayer Line: Can I say a pray for you??? Goodbye!
Here is the ONLY problem the way the mayor sees it: If you shoot all the rioters, there will be no one left to vote for her. Update: A majority of the Mineapolis city council supports abolishing the police department, but admit they have no idea what people will do when attacked by criminals. Maybe they think all the criminals will move to Mineapolis and wipe each other out.
Let me summarize all the comments. F U mayor lighthead
She is about smarter then a pile of rocks.
That’s an insult to rock piles everywhere
What a dunce this “mayor” turned out to be. No guns allowed, let’s cut the police, don’t take the law into your own hands. WTF!!?? The same chimp that it’s a coin flip for the uninformed to determine its gender. The same “mayor” directing a light touch the burns Walmart store to the ground and then she pleads with them to rebuild. Walmart, demand they pay for the rebuild or leave it the slum it made itself into.
Don’t take matters into your own hands, call the police.
If you call the police, in Chicago, while there is a life or death situation evolving, you ate taking matters into your own hands. Kind of like jumping off of a very high bridge.
Most people don’t know how to respond to a serious threat. You only pull a weapon when absolutely necessary, not because you’re angry. If someone is in danger pull it, but only if you know you CAN use it — if necessary. Most often just the sight of a gun being pulled is enough to ward off a looter — who usually is not an attacker. I understand the mayor’s (all of them) concerns, but advising CAUTION where using a gun is concerned is better than saying “don’t”. I believe that was really the intent, but they should have just said “please don’t shoot unless you absolutely have to”. And call the police, yes. Before if possible, after if you had to defend yourself. Even if you hit someone and they ran away, they could die or end up in a hospital with a totally different story than you! “Man, I was just running from the crowd and went across that dude’s yard and they just shot me!!” With 2-3 thugs to back the story up — “we weren’t doing nothin’ wrong… that dude must’a kicked his own door in…”
Candice Owens presented the rap sheet of Mr. Floyd. She also posit’s the question as to WHY only one culture Martyr’s their thugs and low-lifes. Holding up the bottom of the barrel as worth defending. WOW! Utube
Mayor of a town where BLM, said the 10 people killed over the weekend
What the Mayor said is unconstitutional! We don’t need any politician’s permission to protect ourselves and our family nor can they tell us not to defend ourselves. It would be wonderful if politicians would learn the law before taking office instead of making stuff up as they go along.
The mayor’s advice would only work if the perps called the police in advance to inform them of their plans.
A follow-on question should have been: “Therefore, do you denounce the plans of BLM to have armed “peace officers” in their neighborhoods to provide protection against the Police?”
Now hold on… Are they not the ones who want to defund the police force and take matters int heir own hands? Now it looks like America has had enough of these idiots rioting and standing up against them and this mayor wants what??? For you to call the police? Pfft. good luck there and I will not blame them if they never show up!!
What good are the police if they are not allowed to do their job because of the policies and regulations of idiotic liberal mayors like LIGHTFOOT?
When every second counts, police are only minutes away.
In Chicago, the SOP is to cordon off the crime scene, draw chalk lines around your and your family’s bodies, collect evidence in plastic bags, take lots and lots of pictures, and write a report.
Rinse and repeat.
Police carry white chalk to draw lines around people who couldn’t defend themselves.
(I don’t remember who wrote this. I saw it years ago in a comment to a story about anit-gun legislation and the futility of relying on the police.)
All of these mayors ordering private citizens not to defend themselves are demonstrating their lack of concern for anyone but the looters. Have they also disarmed their security teams as well? All democratic politicians continue to say to hell with your rights. We will not allow you to harm innocent protestors or looters who may be exercising their rights to demonstrate, steal, assault, or destroy anything or anyone they believe is not supportive of their views. If my family, business, or my own life was placed in danger this is one order I would aggressively refuse to obey. These mayors should be the ones locked up.
Mayor. How many will die in your city before you tell them to start defending themselves. A person that has spent his life developing a business should not have it destroyed by CRIMINALS. Don’t say they are hurting. Morals are the first requirement to a good future.
If I had a business, don’t you dare come in my door intent on destroying it.
Gun Owners to Chicago Mayor: Then you come down here and be my human shield…
Ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaa. She really is something to make an asinine statement like that. She likes to prove how stupid democrats are. Every time they open their vile biased mouths they prove their stupidity.
Some years ago–back when guns were illegal there was a study that police response time was a factor in the use of those weapons.
My son managed a fast food restaurant in an area of Kansas City where police response was nil. He allow the local families to use his dining room as neutral ground and for discussions an even provided coffee refills. They patrolled his parking lot at intervals. When police do not respond people find other options.
I believe the U.S. Supreme Court did not agree with that particular statement by the Mayor.
Just chant Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice and she will magically appear to help…
What a clueless dumbycrat..
Yea, we’ll just tell the armed criminal to wait 15-20 minutes for the cops to show up…
orrrrrrrrrr
BANG ! ! *CCW holder*
“Due to the unexpected call volume, your emergency will be answered in the order it was received. If you feel a need immediate attention, hang up and dial 911”.
Too funny, and sadly, too true.
So we’re supposed to call the people who are currently under scrutiny for murdering the people they’re supposed to protect? No thanks, I’ll continue relying on myself for my own personal security.
Growing up as a kid in the ‘burbs of Chicago 50some years ago, my Mom always told me to call the police if they were absolutely necessary because they were here to protect us, but never trust them. My Dad, who happily considered himself to right of Genghis Khan, never contradicted her on that bit of teaching despite both of them having cops as lifetime friends and a 2 generation military family on one side.
I also know of a CHP officer who teaches his kids how to respond in a non threatening manner so that the officer can clearly read what is going on in the cabin of the car that has been pulled over, and I’m deducing that he is not the only LEO looking out for his family and teaching the same thing. It seems like good advice to me, and meanwhile our fellow black citizens are having more critically applicable but similar talks with their kids, which also seems potentially life saving.
At this rate, the next logical progression would be for the lower rich class to be teaching this to their kids and so on…
I’m guessing that our rioting, gun running, alcohol and cannabis producing, tax evading, insurrectionist forefathers taught their kids similarly, as I’m guessing they probably taught them like now about dealing with bullies. And if I remember my history correctly those that sided with the unfair application of power weren’t seen to kindly by society at at large when the SHTF. Nor does it seem like we have changed much as a country other than refining how we justify actions legally.
LEOs, you are our first contacts with the law, keep standing up up for what’s human, if you see something say something, or live with the bullies in your ranks and our distrust and help perpetuate our distrust of the judicial system as a whole.
Until then, with heavy hearts we will stand our ground against our neighbors.
Well said.
Looters in Chicago got creative. They would call in a looting report at a strip mall and while police were responding in force to that report they would target a different strip mall 4-5 miles away while the police were tied up. It’s a shame that the courts have made it harder and harder to defend your property and livelihood.
Democratic mindset for sure.
The police are too busy with rioters these liberals are allowing to happen. That is when they finally let the police do their jobs.
One local radio morning host in Chicago has taken to calling her Mayor Beetlejuice. I hope the name catches on. There is a striking resemblance.
Maybe it is time to spray paint “BLM” on every city vehicle and every surface of the politicians cars and homes with “BLM”. If they attempt to call police, take a video warning them for being “raaaaaaacist” for trying to hide BLM. Never allow them to remove it. All Chicago officials MUST get “BLM” tattoos also!
Your stupid
I thought ALL Lives Mattered! or is it just certain ones? A certain color perhaps? or ethnicity? Who decides? You?
Chicago’s dung beetle says, “While they are killing you and your family, do not protect yourself” “Just call a nonexistent police department so they can come investigate the murders”
I feel bad for the good people of Chicago, having such a racist moron for their mayor. If they don’t get rid of that dung beetle they deserve what they’ve got coming.
Chicago residents voted her in,
What? Wait for the police? These chickenshit police do not want to get involved. They just want their paycheck and retirement. Lightfoot is as blind as a bat. Wake up you idiot.
They are told to stand down. Let the protesters do their thing. Chicago stop voting in these liberal hacks. The democrats that have ruined the state and are trying to ruin the country
Call the local Democrat precinct delegate to come over with grandpa’s old shotgun and give them “two blasts”
But in the air or in the leg? Undecided. Joe has given us conflicting guidance.
Chicago residents can take comfort knowing that as their own homes and businesses are plundered and burned, the mayor’s house is surrounded by CPD officers, dozens standing shoulder to shoulder. 24/7.
Mayor is a idiot. Home invaders could massacre a family in a minute and the police can ID the bodies.
Defend their homes with deadly force and worry about consequences later.