Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s comments rejecting federal assistance to prevent crime, during a press conference on September 16, received new attention after another high-profile violent crime committed by someone with more than 70 prior arrests. “Jails and incarceration and law enforcement is a sickness that has not led to safe communities,” Mayor Johnson said. “I’m going to work hard every single day to protect the people who are caught up in violence in this city. Guess why? You want to know why? Because the vast majority of them look like me.” “This president has never asked a very simple question to me,” Johnson said. “He doesn’t talk to Black mayors about what it’s like to live in communities that have been disinvested in. So no, we’re not going to succumb to the sickness and the evil that Dr. King warned us about a generation ago.” “It’s a sickness, and we’re going to eradicate it.”

Recently, I asked Chicago Mayor Johnson at a City Hall press conference about the vicious unprovoked murder of Iryna Zarutzka on a subway train and whether it could happen here. I ask him if he had anything to say to the thousands of women who have been viciously attacked in our… https://t.co/EwfLl8ow22 pic.twitter.com/oAKnEpdFEb

– Reporter William J. Kelly #thatreporter (@Williamjkelly) November 20, 2025

“I get so sick and tired of people in this country and in this city believing that the only thing you can offer Black people and poor people is jails, incarceration, and police officers,” Johnson said. “Dr. King said… militarism is a sickness. I am trying to eradicate the sickness from this city and from this country.” Here are Johnson’s full comments without cuts and edits:

REPORTER: What do you, the Illinois Attorney General, and the Governor have to offer, in lieu of sending in the National Guard, the 101st Airborne, or what have you, to make Chicagoans feel safe in their communities in real time-outside of reported statistics and so on? CHICAGO MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON: I think I understand your question. OK, let me just start with this. How about this? In 1974, there were 970 murders. In 1995, there were 828 murders. In 2016, 778 murders. In 2021, 805 murders. This has been a problem in this city for a very long time. Now, my Deputy Mayor, Gatewood-this is the topic and the work every single day: to drive violence down in the city of Chicago. So when you talk about what we’re offering, we’re offering a better pathway so that we don’t have 970 people murdered in our city every single year. Now, one is one too many. But you’re not going to convince me that the people of Chicago only deserve law enforcement. I get so sick and tired of people believing that the only thing Black and brown and poor people get to get in this city are badges. People want jobs. It’s why we’ve increased the ability for young people to have jobs in this city. People want healthcare and behavioral mental healthcare. That’s what they ask me. That’s why we’ve expanded it. People want to be able to afford to live in this city. That’s why I’m building more affordable units. People want justice if they do get wrapped up into this spiral of despair in this city. It’s why we’re actually solving cases-whether it’s CVI workers making sure we’re avoiding retaliation in the city. I get so sick and tired of people in this country and in this city believing that the only thing you can offer Black people and poor people is jails, incarceration, and police officers. Dr. King said this right here in Chicago at the National Conference on New Politics. What did he say? He said militarism is a sickness. I am trying to eradicate the sickness from this city and from this country. … The fact of the matter is: no one has asked me to send federal troops into this city to make it safe. It has never come up. It never came up during the campaign. It’s never come up in the first two years. The fact of the matter is, we are driving violence down in this city, and we’re using every single resource that’s available to us. Jails and incarceration and law enforcement is a sickness that has not led to safe communities. I’m going to work hard every single day to protect the people who are caught up in violence in this city. Guess why? You want to know why? Because the vast majority of them look like me. This president has never asked a very simple question to me, Brandon Scott, Barbara Lee, Randall Woodman. He doesn’t talk to Black mayors about what it’s like to live in communities that have been disinvested in. So no, we’re not going to succumb to the sickness and the evil that Dr. King warned us about a generation ago. It didn’t work in 1974, when 970 people were being killed. It didn’t work in the ’90s, when no one said a mumbling word about how many people were losing their lives because of violence in this city. And now we’re actually doing the work that’s working. Now all of a sudden everybody has these ideas. This is a group project. But we’re not going to allow the President of the United States of America-or any of his ilk-to look at the work that we’re doing across this country, and now that we’re experiencing some level of reprieve, he wants to put his name on our paper. No. Not going to tolerate it. It’s a sickness, and we’re going to eradicate it.

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