We can provide opportunity and accountability. Johnson is set to speak at a press conference about the city’s security arrangements for the convention and accompanying protests on Monday morning. “This is a party that can handle protests and protecting the First Amendment right, which is fundamental to our democracy,” Johnson on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday.
Convention security aside, the progressive mayor has, at the very least, already defied predictions of doom from Chicagoans who feared Johnson would govern as a “defund the police”-style radical. As a candidate, Johnson disavowed his past support for reducing police funding, and has sought to marry his commitment to addressing the root causes of crime with a clear-eyed acknowledgment that traditional policing is essential to stopping crime in the near term. He has allowed the Chicago Police Department’s budget to , even as he has invested more resources in non-police violence prevention programs.
Johnson also negotiated a two-year extension of the Chicago Police Department’s in October that doubled cops’ scheduled raises for this year and next, winning praise from the police union’s conservative leader. “We can provide opportunity and accountability,” Gatewood said. “That accountability is important because there are folks who have caused harm in the city of Chicago.
” Tom Bowen, a Chicago-based Democratic consultant who advised Johnson’s more moderate predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, and i.