The Patriot Post® · Crazy in Chicago

Chicago is so off the rails it’s hard to describe just how bad it is. The last mayor of the Windy City was a total disaster. So much so that the voters fired her. She finished third in the primary.

There was a chance for the city’s residents to do a course correction by supporting a relatively moderate, pro-business, pro-police Democrat. Unfortunately, they choose a far-left Marxist candidate, Brandon Johnson, who is now making people yearn for the previous failed mayor.

Here’s the latest in left-wing lunacy courtesy of Chicago. In response to the skyrocketing number of carjackings in his city, Mayor Johnson is suing carmakers Kia and Hyundai for making it too easy for the city’s feral youth to steal their cars.

This is how the left handles, or more accurately mishandles, crime. It doesn’t blame the criminals. It blames businesses and innocent people.

In order to combat a rash of thefts, Illinois progressives recently proposed legislation requiring banks, grocery stores, gas stations and pawn shops to hire armed security guards.

Think about that for a moment. Leftist politicians refuse to put armed guards in schools to protect our children, but they will require certain businesses to have armed guards.

And the first time one of those armed guards shoots a violent criminal, we know exactly what’s going to happen: Leftists will blame the guard and the business, not the criminal.

This is the equivalent of victim shaming. It’s not the thief’s fault, it’s the car’s fault or the store owner’s fault.

Speaking on “Fox & Friends” Monday, Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez (D) mocked Johnson, saying his lawsuit is a “play from a socialist playbook.”

“Clearly, we don’t have a crime problem,” Lopez said sarcastically. “We have a Kia problem in the city of Chicago, according to Mayor Johnson. The numbers speak for themselves… A 234% increase in vehicle thefts from two years ago, but yet it’s the car’s fault.”

“We have yet to hear our mayor say anything, one word, about the criminals running rampant in our streets,” he continued. “All he does is lambast those who try to hold criminals accountable by playing word games.”

Lopez is absolutely right about Mayor Johnson’s word games. After one particularly violent weekend, Johnson lashed out at a reporter who asked the mayor what he was going to do about the out-of-control “mob actions.”

But in Johnson’s fevered mind, the problem wasn’t the rioters, it was calling them a “mob.”

Prior to that, Johnson scolded city residents for allegedly “demonizing youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities.”

This kind of leftist lunacy is destroying America’s cities, whether it’s Chicago, New York City, Austin, Portland or San Francisco.